Hey, a few questions (UK)

[Gilead]

Hey guys, I have a few questions if you'd be kind to help me out

I've been a vegetarian for well over 4 years now, and thinking of taking the step of completely eliminating my dairy intake. I know this is probably an even bigger step than going vegetarian, but I want to give it a shot; I don't want to fund any of the animal industry anymore.

I figured it would be good to get some form of cook book, so could someone recommend one? I'm not the the greatest cook in the world but I learn fast - so a beginner/intermediate level of cooking would be fine. Also, where's the best place to shop? I normally currently shop at Tesco/Morrisons and I struggle to find vegan products (maybe I'm just not looking hard enough), and on a lighter note is there many restaurants that cater for veganism? Again, I fail to see many places and it's usually just displayed as Vegetarian only (usually with cheese et al).

Thank you, hopefully I can start to live dairy free now with some help. On another smaller note I like to keep very active, so would going vegan drain my energy or is there substitutes that can keep me healthy and active?

Thankee-sai!

[Blueberries]

Heya Gilead, welcome to the forum! I'm glad you want to go vegan. I'm in Ireland, not the UK, but hopefully I can be of some help!

I figured it would be good to get some form of cook book, so could someone recommend one? I'm not the the greatest cook in the world but I learn fast - so a beginner/intermediate level of cooking would be fine

I've heard great things about 'Another Dinner is Possible' and 'Veganomicon'. Also recipe websites like Vegweb and the PPK will give you some great recipes. It depends very much on your style of cooking.

Also, where's the best place to shop? I normally currently shop at Tesco/Morrisons and I struggle to find vegan products (maybe I'm just not looking hard enough), and on a lighter note is there many restaurants that cater for veganism? Again, I fail to see many places and it's usually just displayed as Vegetarian only (usually with cheese et al).

You can get dried and tinned beans, nuts, tofu, veggie burgers, soya mince, soya yoghurt and Linda McCartney sausages in Tesco (as well as fruit and veg). Not sure about Morrisons as we don't have it here in Ireland.

On another smaller note I like to keep very active, so would going vegan drain my energy or is there substitutes that can keep me healthy and active?!

I'm not athlete but I know that as long as you get sufficient nutrients and calories you'll be fine. If you use protein powders, vegan sources are pea, hemp and soya protein. There are plenty of examples of successful vegan athlethes, such as UFC fighters and ultra-marathoners. Apart from this forum's fitter members, there is another forum veganfitness.net where there is no doubt loads of advice for vegan athlethes

[Gilead]

Heya Gilead, welcome to the forum! I'm glad you want to go vegan. I'm in Ireland, not the UK, but hopefully I can be of some help!



I've heard great things about 'Another Dinner is Possible' and 'Veganomicon'. Also recipe websites like Vegweb and the PPK will give you some great recipes. It depends very much on your style of cooking.



You can get dried and tinned beans, nuts, tofu, veggie burgers, soya mince, soya yoghurt and Linda McCartney sausages in Tesco (as well as fruit and veg). Not sure about Morrisons as we don't have it here in Ireland.



I'm not athlete but I know that as long as you get sufficient nutrients and calories you'll be fine. If you use protein powders, vegan sources are pea, hemp and soya protein. There are plenty of examples of successful vegan athlethes, such as UFC fighters and ultra-marathoners. Apart from this forum's fitter members, there is another forum veganfitness.net where there is no doubt loads of advice for vegan athlethes

Thank you for your reply, will be a massive help

[pusskins]

Hi Gilead, and welcome to the forum!

I think Blueberries managed to answer your questions, but just to add - I have found Sarah Kramer's books to be good for starters to veganism. This was our first book, and really helped us.

Food-wise from supermarkets, have a search on the forum for info on individual supermarkets. You'd be surprised at what you can get! It's always a minefield at the start, and a lot of label reading to be done. But it does get easier and there is a ton of info on here.

I'm an active person, and I have two of my close friends who are vegan and one does marathons and generally lots of running, and the other is a hardcore cyclist. Clif bars and some other items they do are great for boosts of protein and energy, and also nakd and Trek bars.

[chickpea1]

hi, Hope you manage to make the step to being vegan!- i found it much easier than i thought it would be. i try not to eat a lot of processed food but if you go to tesco their veggie mince and beanburgers are suitable for vegans- as are their frozen falafels which are all in the same section in my local one. there are also the linda mccartney pies and sausages which are great to keep in the freezer. even my omni hubby likes those. i have veganomicon cookbook, it's got some good ideas but does include a lot of things that are hard to come by- it helpfully highlights recipies where you can generally get the ingredients from a supermarket as well though. it is an american book though so they use different names for certain things. would recommend it though.

i recommend oat drink milk personally and moo free chocolates! oh and superdrug is also good for vegan toiletries- their own-brand stuff anyway

good luck!!

[TarekF]

I wish you all the best with trying veganism! The dairy free step is probably not so difficult as you may think, and definitely try following everyones advice. I would offer one thing, pay attention to B12 (my father who is vegan had a slight deficiency after 15-16 years of vegetarian/vegan, but they suspect its because of a digestion problem he has, i digress). I would highly recommend nutritional yeast of some kind. The moment i started eating that stuff I felt a surge of energy (it has all the B vitamins and is 50% protein content, i think it has some iron too). Make sure its not brewers yeast.

Before i was vegan i was a cheese lover, and have not found it too difficult. The nutritional yeast tastes slightly cheesy and even if you initially think it tastes odd (like i did), the stuff really grows on you (almost addicting lol).

Other things id recommend, dont skimp on the fats in the diet, flaxseed meal, hemp seeds, almond, olive oil, etc all good things to have in the diet especially for energy.

For protein shakes I use "Vega" or "Sunwarrior" protein powders.

Also I am an athlete, tennis player and a runner, veganism done right has done nothing but good in my athleticism.

I wish you all the best!

[peaceheart]

To reassure you, I found going vegan far easier than I'd expected. I was anticipating a difficult time because I am disabled and used to rely quite heavily on convenience foods when my support worker wasn't around. Many of them (even the most innocuous-looking vegetable soup) aren't vegan. But it actually turned out to be more of an adventure than a trial, and I've discovered a ton of great food that I wouldn't have otherwise considered.

Regarding recipe books, do you like Asian food? I have found a lot of vegan recipes in Indian, Thai, and Vietnamese cookbooks. Even those recipes that aren't vegan can easily be vegan-ized (for example, coconut milk makes a good substitute in a curry calling for cream, and you can buy it tinned in most supermarkets). My evening meals for the past week have been sweet potato and coconut soup, sweet potato curry and rice (lots of other nice vegetables added), beans on toast (needed a quick fix!), a nut cutlet with peas and carrots, a vegan pizza (it's way better without the cheese), and vegetable stir-fry with rice noodles. It's honestly a myth that you can't get much variety if you're vegan. I'm actually a much more varied eater than when I was an omni, because now I have to plan ahead more and can't fall back on the same old easy-cook standbys all the time.

Sometimes I still need to use ready meals. Innocent's veg pots are my fall-back when I have no assistance with cooking - they're sold by Sainsbury's, Tesco, and Waitrose. They're pricey for what they are, but they taste good and they're vegan, so I'm not complaining. You can also pick up beanburgers, falafel, and that kind of thing from any supermarket.

As for restaurants, that's harder. I was out with my parents for my dad's birthday recently and there was not one vegan thing on the menu. It frustrates me that people seem to think 'vegetarian' means 'a plateful of cheese' - it's not only unhelpful, it's lazy and boring. If I have the choice of the restaurant, I can usually find a place that has vegan options, but if it's somebody's birthday and I don't have a choice then I often find myself having to do weird things like order two starters just so I can get enough to eat. At first this was difficult, especially when I was faced with disapproving looks from other people at the table (some relatives accused me of spoiling the occasion) but ethics are more important than convenience.

[Blueberries]

To reassure you, I found going vegan far easier than I'd expected. I was anticipating a difficult time because I am disabled and used to rely quite heavily on convenience foods when my support worker wasn't around. Many of them (even the most innocuous-looking vegetable soup) aren't vegan. But it actually turned out to be more of an adventure than a trial, and I've discovered a ton of great food that I wouldn't have otherwise considered..

That's great to hear , I'm glad that you're getting on well!

(some relatives accused me of spoiling the occasion) but ethics are more important than convenience.

Wow, that's quite petty of them to say you spoiled the occasion by ordering 2 starters and not having a slice of birthday cake or whatever. The important thing is that you were there for your dad.

[harpy]

Hello gilead and welcome to vegandom As well as recipe books there are some vg recipe sites like http://www.parsleysoup.co.uk/

Re eating out, some chains cater for vegans quite well - for example, Pizza Express (nothing actually on the menu but they will make a pizza without cheese and the bases are OK) and Wagamama (has a list of what is or can be adapted to be vegan). "Ethnic" places such as Indian or Chinese can be good too - have a chat with them before you go first if you can, to see if they understand what you're on about.

Well done peaceheart - and I agree with Blueberries about the rellies. What rubbish, how could that have spoiled the occasion? If anything did it was probably their whingeing