As a “health food blogger” I find it almost embarrassing to say that there were times in my life that I did not care about health. In the beginning, my reasoning for a vegetarian diet was because I could no longer hurt animals, I just didn’t feel right eating meat. It wasn’t hard to give up, I never liked the taste of any meat.
Favorite childhood accidentally vegan foods:
- Beef stew, with the beef picked out
- Thanksgiving dinner, minus turkey, add masted potatoes x3
- Ramen noodles, oriental flavored with just a pinch of the seasoning (not vegan, but whatev.)
- French fries
Even though it wasn’t until later in my young life that I discovered chicken = chicken, I still choose not to eat meat. This lead to eating more “bad” carbs and processed food. As I became more aware of health and nutrition, I realised that I was doing this all wrong.
If I wanted to go vegan things were going to have to change!
This is why I am dedicating this post to all of my noob vegan readers out there! I don’t want you to make the same mistakes as I did, it’s not fun. Eating a healthy balanced vegan diet is very beneficial.
Just because you are vegan DOES NOT mean you are eating healthy.
The Bad:
The Good:
The Bad:
The Good:
Tofu & Tempeh
The Bad:
Soy Ice-cream
The Good:
Banana Soft Serve
The Bad:
The Good:
Adding nuts, grains, cool in season raw veggies, and homemade dressing to your salad.
The Bad:
The Good:
Green smoothies!
So true! If you’re gonna change your diet its so important to do it in a healthy way!
I don’t know what the good to this would be, but aren’t cookies vegan? So bad would be processed cookies and the good would be some homemade ones
Yes! Oreo’s vs. Homemade cookies
I don’t what else to add to this list since I’m not vegan butttt I’m loving the list anyway! haha that vegan lunch meat looks so grossss. Tofu > vegan lunch meat for sure.
I definitely ate a lot of bad-for-me packaged food and carbs when I went vegetarian. I would eat entire packs of crackers in one sitting! haha not good!
I totally did the same thing, I would pick out the beef of my mom’s beef stew
haha even before I was a full on vegetarian, I rarely ate meat!
I think whole foods no matter what are better for you, but like all things moderation! And if you are vegan I think part of it should be for health reasons so you can stay educated!
Vegan lunch meat tastes like rubber, tofu and tempeh are delish though
I like all of your upgrades, but once in a while the “bad” foods are a little fun to indulge in too
Oreos are one of the crappiest accidentally vegan foods ever, but once in a while I’ll grab a pack from the vending machine for giggles!
Agreed!
I think that this is a helpful post! When you’re new to vegetarianism (or veganism, as the case may be), it’s easy to fall into the “too many carbs” trap. Also, the rest of the world seems to think that vegetarian food is health food and that therefore all veg*ns are skinny. I’m living proof that YES – veg*ns can be chubby.
I think it would be better to say ‘sometimes’ foods and ‘anytime’ foods – just like my son is learning about healthy and unhealthy things. I happen to love TJ’s soy creamy ice cream, but just don’t have it very often. It’s a ‘sometimes’ food. I think saying Bad and Good is too black and white…and might make people feel “bad” if they eat things you’ve put on your list. I know I got a little defensive when I saw the ice cream on there.
Like Ma Ma Megan said – moderation. Just about anything can be enjoyed guilt free that way!
I’m not vegan, but I believe that healthy food, animal or not, has to come from real, natural, whole sources. too many people fall into the trap of soy protein powders etc. great list that shows the difference! and what a coincidence, i just posted on a soft serve banana ice cream (served with caramelised bananas and walnuts!) that can be made without dairy and refined sugar and everything (: i’m sharing the link here if you want to check it out!
http://mummyicancook.blogspot.com/2011/08/instant-banana-ice-cream-with-warm.html
Banana Soft Serve! YUMM!!! I agree. Even though something maybe “vegan” or “gluten free” or “dairy free” doesn’t mean that it is good for you, like those Ramon Noodles, French Fries, etc. But, like you showed, Vegan can be both healthy AND delicious! I love this post Whitney!