Veganism is trending these days, and while most people don’t choose a vegan lifestyle for its cool factor, that popularity has made it easier to opt for a solely plant-based diet.

Whether you’ve decided to switch to a vegan diet to help prevent the exploitation of animals, to improve your health, to promote a green planet, or all of the above, you’ll find many resources and products to smooth the way.

Tips for Starting a Vegan Diet

Here are some strategies to start you down a vegan path.

• Build on What You Know

  You likely already have some vegan meals in your repertoire, along with vegetarian meals that can be “veganized.” Think bean-based chili, pasta and veggies, lentil stew, and stir fry. Start with those so you don’t need to come up with something new for every meal.

• Try Jackfruit

  With a texture similar to meat, this fruit can replace pork, beef, and chicken in recipes and has 3 grams of protein per serving.

• Ease Into It

  • Start with One Meal

    Committing to one plant-based meal per day is a great start. You might try breakfast—hot or cold cereal with fruit, nuts, and nondairy milk will fuel your morning. For a weekend brunch, make an egg-substitute veggie omelet, “bacon” made from tempeh or soy, and plant-based yogurt on the side.

  • Think in Proportion

    Ease into vegan living by gradually upping the amount of plant-based foods on your plate and decreasing the amount of meat, eggs, and dairy.

• Do Your Homework

  Read about veganism, join online forums, talk with longtime vegans and newbies (new-vees?), and watch documentaries on living the plant-based life.

• Read Labels

  Find local shops and restaurants that offer vegan products and entrées. When you shop for groceries, examine the ingredients. Not all vegan products are labeled “vegan,” and some items you think will pass the test don’t—some pasta has egg in it, for instance, and some cornbread mixes contain animal fat.

• Make a Supplement Plan

  Vegans need to be sure to get enough of the following nutrients

  • vitamin B12
  • vitamin D
  • omega 3s
  • iodine
  • iron
  • calcium
  • zinc

  You can address each of these separately through diet, supplementation, exposure to sun, etc., but while you’re still feeling your way into a new way of eating, consider researching multivitamin-mineral supplements designed for vegans.

• Be Steadfast

  Finally, don’t be daunted! You can go as fast or slow as you want in arriving at “full veganhood.”

Grocery shelves are filling up with products claiming to be “clean.” But what does clean really mean?

Is it just another marketing gimmick, a new trend or something important we should know about food?

Helena Lumme on "Clean Food"

Helena Lumme founded her company, Hälsa Foods, on the core principle of making 100% clean, plant-based foods. She spent four years developing her product line of organic oatmilk yogurts and figuring out what it takes to make a completely clean plant-based product.

Here, Taste for Life catches up with Helena to explore the journey!

What does “clean food” mean?

“Clean food” refers to whole, unprocessed food that is as close as possible to its natural state, like fruits and veggies, whole grains, and meals made at home from scratch.

In packaged foods the term “clean label” describes foods made without artificial ingredients. It means that when you read the label you should be able to recognize every ingredient.

With Hälsa, my goal is to establish standards of what kind of products can be called clean, so that consumers would have more confidence in the promise of “clean.”

All Hälsa 100% clean products must meet the following criteria:

1. Made with organically grown ingredients free of pesticide residue
2. Manufactured in a way that doesn’t use any chemicals or enzymes at any point
3. The final product doesn’t contain a single artificial or processed ingredient

Is “clean label” enough?

Clean label doesn’t tell the full story because the ingredients themselves, if not organically grown, can contain pesticide residue. Secondly, with plant-based products, the process of making alternative milks or meats can itself be chemical-heavy, yet those chemicals are not disclosed on the label.

For example, many oatmilks are made in a process called enzymatic hydrolysis in which oats are put in an enzyme bath to break down starch to high-glycemic index sugar. This process involves chemicals, but FDA guidelines do not require those chemicals to be disclosed on the label.

So far consumers have been buying plant-based foods regardless of how heavily processed they are. I believe this will change in the future as consumers start to demand more transparency and cleaner plant-based options.

Why are food chemicals harmful?

Our bodies are not designed to digest chemicals. Food additives destroy the good bacteria in the gut, weaken our immune response, and put our bodies at greater risk of inflammation. As the use of food chemicals has multiplied in the U.S., the rates of obesity, allergies, gastrointestinal ailments such as IBS, Crohn’s disease, and other ailments have soared. Even colorectal cancer among younger people is on the rise.

Why do food companies use so many additives?

To save time and money. Artificial ingredients are cheaper than real ingredients, and much cheaper than organically grown ingredients. Secondly, creating a nutritious and delicious plant-based product takes time and requires months of testing to get the taste, texture, and nutritional content right. Food additives provide a convenient shortcut.

The plant-based boom has increased the use of food additives because to get products to mimic dairy or meat, manufacturers rely more heavily on artificial ingredients that bind and emulsify ingredients.

How do I recognize a food additive?

This is the tricky part because FDA allows food chemicals to be described in several different ways. For example, a widely used emulsifier carrageenan is sometimes called “Irish moss” or “red seaweed,” terms that sound natural to consumers. However, there’s so much processing involved that the final ingredient bears little resemblance to its original form and may even be carcinogenic. The consumer is left to do the detective work.

That’s why Hälsa adheres to European standards. According to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), all food additives must be labeled as E-code ingredients (the letter “E” followed by either three or four numbers) so that consumers can spot artificial ingredients right away.

How did your own journey to clean food start?

Ten years ago my husband and I imported the first oatmilks to the United States. While the product tasted great, we weren’t happy about how processed it was. So we went to work to develop a completely clean oatmilk that had all the health benefits of intact whole grain oats.

This was five years before the first oatmilks showed up on U.S. shelves, so you can imagine how difficult it was to find investors who would support our vision.

What is “cleanwashing”?

Clean is not the same as organic or GMO-free. Many certified organic and certified non-GMO products contain artificial ingredients.

Is “natural flavor” a food chemical?

The phrase “natural flavors” is misleading because it refers to a combination of natural and synthetic flavors. For some reason FDA allows the use of this phrase. Unfortunately, these days “natural flavors” are in just about every packaged food and drink, even herbal teas.

On the other hand, “organic flavors” cannot contain anything synthetic as every ingredient has to be certified organic. Consumers may also not be aware that vitamins and minerals added to foods are synthetic.

What about the various food gums that appear on the label?

Thickening agents and stabilizers such as xanthan gum and gellan gum are found in many food products, especially those designed to be gluten-free. They were invented by chemical companies and were later adopted by the food industry. Xanthan gum for example, called E415 in Europe, was invented in the 1960s as a binder to make toilet bowl cleaners stick to the surface.

Food gums are useful to food manufacturers because they bind, thicken, and create an artificially supple texture. But they are also highly processed, and can irritate the stomach.

How can people start eating cleaner?

Choose real foods that support good health by looking for ingredients you recognize and use in your own kitchen.

There is power in voting with your dollars. I founded Hälsa to give people, myself included, a delicious, nutritious, clean alternative to the over-processed, excessively sweetened foods we see everywhere. As more people demand and buy clean foods, more companies will produce them.

Humans who lived during the Paleolithic era were hunters and gatherers with a diet of meat, seafood, fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts. This ancient way of eating comprises today’s Paleo diet. Grass-fed varieties of meat, wild rather than farm-raised fish, eggs, and monounsaturated and polyunsatured fats like avocado and olive oils are encouraged. Cereal grains (including whole grains), dairy products, legumes, white potatoes, refined sugars and oils, and processed foods are avoided.

Dispelling Paleo Diet Myths 

One misconception of the Paleo diet is that you can eat as much meat as you want. Ancient Paleolithic diets would have differed significantly depending on where the hunter-gatherer tribes lived. In modern times, those eating Paleo can benefit from individualizing the diet to their own needs. Eating large quantities of animal protein is not in most people’s best interest.

The Paleo diet is actually plant centered. Those who switch to the plan will most likely see an increase in their fiber and vegetable intakes. This benefits overall inflammation levels and gastrointestinal health.

Lower Cholesterol Levels with a Paleo Diet

Preliminary studies show positive results on cholesterol levels with the Paleo diet. Twenty study volunteers with hypercholesterolemia followed four months of a traditionally heart-healthy diet followed by four months of a Paleolithic diet. The volunteers, aged 40 to 62, significantly lowered their mean total cholesterol and LDL (bad) levels. The study suggests that Paleolithic nutrition offers promising potential for nutritional management of hyperlipidemia in adults whose lipid profiles did not improve after following more traditional heart-healthy dietary recommendations.

The Paleo Diet & Diabetes

The Paleo diet also shows promise in positively affecting blood glucose levels. Study participants with Type 2 diabetes followed a Paleolithic diet and either standard care exercise recommendations or supervised exercise sessions three times a week. After 12 weeks, their fat mass and metabolic balances (insulin sensitivity, glycemic control, and leptin) improved. It was noted that the supervised exercise training may not have enhanced the outcomes, but it did preserve lean mass and increased cardiovascular fitness.

Nutritional Balance & The Paleo Diet

Since the Paleo diet contains no sugar and no flour, eating Paleo can help control obesity. Some experts, however, feel a strictly followed Paleo diet lacks nutritional balance. Nutrients like calcium and vitamin D can be missing, as some food groups are eliminated.

Those following the Paleo diet may find it hard to stick to for long periods of time, and the diet’s restrictions can feel daunting. Since legumes are an important source of protein for vegans and vegetarians, these people may find the Paleo eating plan nearly impossible to follow. Discuss with your doctor if the Paleo diet is right for you.

The plant-based Portfolio Diet has been shown to lower cholesterol levels and blood pressure while improving other markers of cardiovascular health. The diet emphasizes inclusion of a “portfolio” of four foods:  

• 42 grams (g) of nuts (tree nuts or peanuts) per day. That’s about an ounce and a half.
• 50 g of plant protein per day from soy products or dietary pulses (beans, peas, chickpeas, or lentils). That’s about an ounce and three quarters.
• 20 g of viscous soluble fiber per day from oats, psyllium, eggplant, okra, apples, oranges, or berries.
  • A bowl of oatmeal offers about 3 g of soluble fiber; an orange contains about 2 g.
• 2 g of plant sterols per day from supplements or sterol-enriched products.

    A new study published in Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases found significant reductions in LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, triglycerides, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and C-reactive protein in participants who followed the diet.

You are what you eat, from your head down to your feet. And your feet might be standing near a plant that could end up on your plate.

Plant protein, the hot dietary option, has consumers rushing to buy legumes, quinoa, and soy products in a quest to be healthy and possibly live longer. Nearly 30 percent of Americans are, according to market research, trying to eat more plant protein because they believe it’s an affordable and sustainable food choice.

Reduce Disease Risks with Plant-Based Protein

Harvard Medical School researchers found that substituting 3 percent of calories from animal protein with plant protein was linked to a 12 percent reduced risk of dying from heart disease and a 10 percent reduced risk of dying from any cause during a 32-year study period.

“A well-planned plant-based diet... when you do it in a balanced way, it lowers your risk for heart disease and obesity,” said Andy De Santis, a registered dietitian in Toronto. “Switching to a plant-based diet is better in the long term.”  

By “balanced,” De Santis and other health experts mean eating a wide array of plant-based foods—fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds, and milk alternatives such as soy—rather than relying mostly on animal-based foods for protein.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics states that “appropriately planned vegetarian, including vegan, diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits for the prevention and treatment of certain diseases” including Type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, and hypertension.

Vegetarianism and veganism, while healthy, aren’t for everyone, De Santis said, so people who won’t forsake animal-based foods should consider the halfway point found in the Mediterranean diet. This emphasizes plant foods with sprinklings of dairy, meat, seafood, and poultry.

Plant Proteins & Amino Acids

Plant proteins alone can provide enough essential and nonessential amino acids for the human diet. But, as the American Heart Association suggests, those who rely solely on plant protein need to vary plant sources and ensure the caloric intake from those foods meets energy needs.

“Even foods we don’t traditionally think of as high protein—whole grains... and some vegetables—they’ll have good amounts of amino acids,” said Cara Harbstreet, a registered dietitian in Kansas City.  

Soy protein has been shown to be equal to proteins of animal origin, and can be a sole protein source if you choose. “Soy is always a good fallback,” Harbstreet said. “It’s now at a level where it’s real reachable to consumers, with soy milk, yogurt, and tofu.”  

Other Plant Protein Sources

The plant protein movement is expanding, with consumers looking beyond old favorites such as soy, nuts, and seeds to try new sources of protein. Vegan protein powder products are flying off the shelves. As a base for smoothie drinks, they offer busy professionals a chance to hit their daily protein targets without having to stop for meals. Pea protein powder offers as many as 15 grams of protein per scoop.

Thomas Jefferson, who grew hemp at his Monticello plantation, primarily for clothes, would be intrigued by the health benefits of the plant. Hemp protein powder contains healthy omega 3s, although the downside is it also has a higher fat content than other vegan powder offerings.

Not only is chia protein powder ideal for smoothies, but it is tasty as a baking flavor.

“There is the convenience factor with vegan protein powders,” Harbstreet said. “I would caution with foods from hemp and chia powders that they have a fatty acid component so they might need refrigeration or they’ll have shorter shelf lives.”  

Plant-Based Pasta

One more offshoot of the plant protein movement is pasta made from beans and lentils. Harbstreet said these pastas taste similar to traditional pasta, but their texture is different. “They can be a little gummier, like the texture of al dente,” she said.  

A plant-based protein diet isn’t as exotic or as expensive as some might think. “It’s cheaper to buy lentil and tofu than it is cuts of meat,” De Santis said. “It’s affordable, ethical, and it produces better health outcomes. Plant protein is not going to go away.”

"Where’s the beef?"

Well, if it’s a meat alternative, there is no beef, and that’s the point.

Meat substitutes are nothing new (think seitan and veggie burgers). But new technology is being used to transform plant ingredients such as peas, non-GMO soy, and grains into products that seem more like real meat.

Meat-alternative companies hope to win over carnivorous consumers, who someday might be without a traditional meat burger because of demand’s outpacing supply.

Big-moneyed investors such as Bill Gates and Google Ventures are hoping that if it smells like, tastes like, and sizzles like meat, people won’t care if they’re not really eating meat.

The Impossible Burger

If this doesn’t seem possible, consider the story of Impossible Foods.

The Redwood City, California-based company’s CEO and founder, Patrick Brown, has a biochemistry degree from Stanford. His lab created an alternative that aims to deliver the taste of real beef but without the environmental degradation caused by industrial meat production.

According to the United Nations, livestock accounts for almost 15 percent of all greenhouse gases.

Made from wheat and potato (with flecks of coconut oil to simulate fat) the Impossible Burger feels and tastes like ground beef, according to taste testers who recently landed tables at a few high-end New York restaurants, the only places that currently sell the alternative patties.

The ingredient that makes the product seem more like beef than a traditional veggie burger is “the addition of heme, an iron-rich molecule contained in blood (which the company produces in bulk using fermented yeast),” reports The New York Times.

The plant-based, cholesterol-free burger offers more protein, less fat, and fewer calories than a burger made from 80 percent lean meat and 20 percent fat.

Impossible Burger’s plant-based offering is still more expensive to produce than beef patties, a cost reflected in the $13 to $16 asking price at restaurants. But the company expects to refine its production processes and beef up its distribution network, which will lead to selling the product in stores.

The Beyond Burger

Impossible Foods hopes to convince meat eaters they can enjoy a burger that’s hyped as being better than the real thing.

Beyond Meat, which also offers a plant-based ground beef alternative, has its sights set on a smaller group of eaters: vegans.

The Los Angeles company’s Beyond Burger is a pea protein offering that supposedly packs the sizzle of ground beef and “bleeds” beet juice.

But the biggest hurdle of all might be carnivorous consumers. Recent focus group participants said they’re not comfortable eating meat that isn’t meat.

Does someone in your family have dairy allergies or sensitivities? Are you trying to reduce or eliminate dairy products from your diet? Or are you just in the mood to try something new?

21 percent of Americans use milk alternatives. If you’re seeking a non-milk product for drinking, pouring over cereal, or to use as a nondairy substitute for cooking and baking, you won’t have any trouble finding several on your grocer’s shelves.

But how do you know which to choose? Flavor is an important element, of course, and you and your family may want to hold taste tests to see which ones you all prefer. But there are other factors to keep in mind as well, including nutritional value, possible contraindicators (you don’t want to replace one allergen with another, for example), and how particular milk alternatives stand up to baking.

Here’s the lowdown on some of the most popular products.

Up-and-Coming Plant Milks

Demand for plant-based products is strong and growing, which is leading to innovation and experimentation with a new wave of dairy milk alternatives.

While you may not see them in the supermarket anytime soon, here are three up-and-coming plant milks hoping to make their mark:

• Pea Milk

  Pea milk has a color, consistency, and taste similar to cow’s milk, and offers 7 grams of protein per serving. It’s also a more environmentally friendly alternative to dairy and requires less water to produce than some other plant- based milks.

• Pistachio Milk

  Pistachio milk has less than 100 calories per cup (on par with skim milk), but its off-brown color may make it less appealing than other plant-based milks. However, pistachio milk does offer more protein than some of its competitors.

• Potato Milk

  Potato milk, rich in starch, has a similar appearance to cow’s milk. Because growing potatoes requires fewer resources than some other plants used to make dairy milk alternatives, it may be a good choice for those who want to reduce their environmental impact.

The glorious thing about plant-based eating is that your grocery store or farmer’s market is full of an incredible array of foods, flavors, and textures that are just waiting to be discovered. Even a typical grocery store has a produce section that carries seasonal and ethnic foods that often get passed-over, but are convenient, inexpensive, and yummy.

If you’re stuck in a rut of getting the same lettuce-tomato-onion-type foods that you always get, take a walk! Look at some of the other plant-based foods and see how you can work them into your diet.

Not sure where to start? In the spirit of a number that signifies longevity, here are six plant-based foods I totally love that are healthy and tasty, but not part of the average diet. What are some delicious food discoveries you’ve made and put on your grocery list each week?

Six Plant-Based Foods You May Not Know

1. Jicama

   Jicama, also known as a Mexican potato, is a big, heavy, brown fruit that really does look like a weird potato. The excellent thing about jicama is that it is very crisp and crunchy, but has a mild flavor like a cucumber. Jicama can be sliced and used with dips as an alternative to chips, eaten in sticks like any other crunchy veggie, or added to salads for a snappy texture without confusing the flavor profile. It’s a great summer side dish served with a spritz of lime juice and a dusting of chili powder if you’d like a little kick!

2. Bok Choy

   In Asian cuisine, bok choy is a staple! For most of us, though, we’d never think to work bok choy into a dish, which is unfortunate because of how versatile and healthy this veggie is. Bok choy can be added to a salad, but it can also be eaten like you’d eat celery with a little hummus or nut butter. It can also be added to soups or stir-frys, or braised or grilled on its own, and given a little seasoning to become a brilliant side dish.

3. Pluots

   Pluots are an incredible, juicy little snack that comes from mixing a plum with an apricot. They’re so good! Plums aren’t terribly uncommon, but not a lot of people are familiar with pluots. It’s a shame because they’re easy to carry in a lunch for you or for your children, they’re a little sweet with the benefits of both plums and apricots, and they’re another inexpensive fruit. They might be seasonal depending on where you live, but look for a fruit that’s a little smaller than a plum, and more yellow, in the plum area of your grocery store.

4. Rutabaga

   Rutabaga is popular in some countries around the world, but it frequently gets forgotten in the US. With a little bit of a punch like a radish, rutabaga is an awesome root vegetable. If you like the spicy snap of it, it’s great to be eaten as a raw veggie. Others would enjoy rutabagas along with things like potatoes, parsnips, and squash in a cold-weather harvest stew!

5. Nopal (Prickly Pear Cactus)

   A lot of people feel strange about eating cactus, but prickly pear cactus (also known as nopal) tastes great and is SO good for you! It can have positive effects on blood sugar and managing diabetes, and it can help lower cholesterol. I suggest buying it cleaned already because the spines can be difficult to deal with if you’re new to the food, but many average grocery stores (and I imagine every Mexican or Hispanic market) carry cleaned nopal ready to cook. Similar in texture to something like a green pepper, nopal is great in dishes like scrambled tofu, or really anything sautéed. It tastes like other green veggies (think green peppers or green beans) with just a little lemony tartness. It goes really well with spicy dishes.

6. Dandelion Greens

   The wonderful world of leafy greens leaves us with plenty of options at pretty much every grocery store, but dandelion greens aren’t something most people eat every day. The green leaves are great in salads and slaws, but they can also be boiled like spinach or sautéed and seasoned. They’re just a little bitter, but fun to try, and you can even forage for them if you’re really up for an adventure!

Plant-Based Eating is Without Limits

When people tell me that they don’t do plant-based eating because they don’t want to limit themselves, I have to laugh. People limit themselves all the time! Even with great options and an endless menu of flavors and colors, most people fall into a routine of eating the same things all the time. This is your wake-up call to use plant-based eating as a way to EXPAND your diet, and bring in fantastic fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and beans that you otherwise never would have enjoyed.