The reasoning behind going vegan is tenfold.
Everyone will have their own thoughts on why they decided to change their dietary choices and overall lifestyle.
Disregardless of that, there’s no doubt that ,in spite of the many pieces of misinformation on how detrimental adopting such a lifestyle is, it truly brings about an abundance of benefits!
Here’s everything you need to know about becoming vegan!
Firstly, it’s very important to differentiate between veganism and vegetarianism, because they’re 2 very separate terms. The first refers to a dietary lifestyle which is a “type of vegetarian diet that excludes meat, eggs, dairy products, and all other animal-derived ingredients.”
Whereas the latter is “the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat.”
A few things to keep in mind as you transition your daily practises, is your why ,because it’s very likely especially given middle eastern culture in which meat is a keystone of their diet, so that you’re able to fully transition into consuming non-animal derived products.
This can be fueled by watching a documentary about the harms of the meat industry for example, such as cowspiracy, to help open your eyes to what you’re contributing to, or simply find other ways to motivate yourself, as fully changing your food style can be quite demanding and at times demotivating|!
Your patience will likely be tested plenty, as you learn to find all of the vegan substitutes and find recipes that appeal to you!
Keep track of the foods you find joy in indulging and those you don’t seem to like as much and see how you can best fit said meals into your day, in a way that isn’t time consuming and that’s fun to you, being a new experience and all!
It’s also super important to know that there isn’t a strict guideline on how to best go about your best vegan life, instead learn to embrace it and honour your cravings, if they shall arise for meat every now and again! There’s no perfecting it.
With those few pointers in mind, be wary of your consumption or rather lack thereof of certain food groups and see how you can manage to incorporate the entire food pyramid into your day-to-day life in an animal-friendly way; a blood test would be recommended to see if any supplements would be necessary.
Remember that for many people bloating is quite common as they become vegan, because of the high fibre consumption available in a vegan diet, therefore it’s best to slowly integrate and immerse yourself into the lifestyle. For example, you can start by having a vegan breakfast for a week and then only vegan breakfast and lunch for the following week and so on and so forth.
The point being is that you find a pace that you’re comfortable with and which you can easily uphold!
Some pages to follow on instagram that may be a helping hand:
@egyptianvegan
@thevegankitchen -Egypt’s first fully vegan restaurant