WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PLANT BASED DIET AND BEING VEGAN?

A plant based-whole foods diet is a way of eating plants and excluding animal based food and unhealthy processed food.

Veganims on the other hand, excludes ALL animal products and the exploitation of animals by abstaining from purchasing fur, leather, silk, consuming products that have been tested on animals, going to the circuit, zoo, aquariums, buying pets instead of adopting. All of these activities are extremely cruel and harmful to the animals. 

Being a healthy vegan means that you're both vegan and plant based 🌱

YES:

• Fruits: Bananas, dates, berries, oranges, custard apples, grapes, papaya, pineapple, dragon fruit, persimmons, pomegranate, and avocados
• Veggies: Leafy greens (spinach, arugula, parsley) cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, kale, cauliflower, cabbage), Other veggies (squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, bell peppers)
• Legumes: Black beans, pinto beans, fava beans, lentils, tofu, hummus, edamame, split peas, and kidney beans.
• Whole grain: Oats, brown rice, barley, whole wheat, millet, buckwheat, quinoa, rye, and amaranth. In their whole form or in the form whole grain bread, pasta, cereal etc. 
• Nuts & Seeds: Almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, sunflower butter, tahina (sesame butter) chia seeds, and flaxseeds.

NO:

• Animal based food: Meat, fish, eggs, dairy (milk, yogurt, butter), and gelatin. 
• Processed food: Refined flour, refined sugar, protein powders, and oils. It's better to stay away from anything that comes in a box, has preservatives, and too many ingredients that you cannot pronounce. 

WHY GO VEGAN?

In short, you should go vegan for your health, the environment, and the animals. I used to think that veganism is extreme. Well, until I learned what's really extreme. 

HEALTH 🌱🍎

SHORT-TERM BENEFITS

1. Increased energy: No more relying on coffee for me!
2. Healthy weight management // Weight loss
3. Improved digestion: No more smelly eggy farts, bloating, constipation. When I used to eat a high protein diet, I used to be constipated ALL the time. 
4. Healthy, shiny, and thick hair
5. Faster recovery from your workouts!
6. Glowing clear skin: Especially if you eat them carrots 🥕🥕🥕
7. Strong nails 💅🏾
8. No restriction. No calorie counting. Eat when you're hungry and until you're 80% full (not stuffed, satisfied) 
9. Naturally detoxifying. Allow your body to heal itself by eating healthy ALL the time. Not just one week per year..

LONG TERM BENEFITS

For a long time, the health and nutrition community has been confused. The reason behind this is because they keep categorizing food into macronutrients and micronutrients instead of seeing the whole picture. Until a number of doctors and scientists started looking at food as a whole. The way it exists in nature. Whole plant based food and animal based. 

Conducting studies where the participant lower their fat intake but increase their animal protein intake lead to confusing results. But when doctors like Dr. Colin Campbell did the China Study he revealed how ANIMAL PROTEIN AND ANIMAL FAT promote cancer growth, hearth disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, cholesterol, strokes, kidney failure and kidney stones, high blood pressure, PCOS, and migraines. 

Some patients were able to reverse their conditions, especially type 2 diabetes within 2 weeks!!! That's why plant-based doctors advise that you check with your doctor while you change your diet as it can lower your condition drastically requiring you to change your medication dosage or stop taking it all together!

Many plant based doctors now have their own programs where they REVERSE their patients illnesses by changing their lifestyle! No pills no surgery!! What we put in our mouths has a lot to do with our health. 

Change your diet. Change your life.

THE ENVIRONMENT 🌍🌸🌤🌈🌱

"Animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than the combined exhaust from all transportation."

Fao.org. Spotlight: Livestock impacts on the environment.

"Livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, or 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions."

Animal Feed Science and Technology “comment to editor” Goodland, Anhang.

"Methane is 25-100 times more destructive than CO2 on a 20 year time frame."

“Improved Attribution of Climate Forcing to Emissions.” Science Magazine.

Basically cow farts (due to their unnatural diet of soy and corn) are ruining the planet.. 

"5% of water consumed in the US is by private homes. 55% of water consumed in the US is for animal agriculture."

And they tell us to take shorted showers.. 

"Animal agriculture is responsible for up to 91% of Amazon destruction."

World Bank. "Causes of Deforestation of theBrazilian Amazon”

For more facts visit: http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/ 

For more info go watch COWSPIRACY. It's on NetFlix. 

TIPS

1. First thing you want to do is to stock up your kitchen with healthy vegan food and if you can, get rid of non vegan food by giving them to friends, pets, or charity. 
2. Make a list of the vegan items you want to get. You can use my grocery list to help you out. You want to buy mostly vegan items that you already like or kinda like, but need to get used to. 
3. Every week try something new! Whether it's chia pudding, tofu, nutritional yeast etc. All of these things that I just mentioned, I personally used to DISLIKE! Until I gave them another try, many times. Now they're one of my favorite things to eat! Nooch (short for nutritional yeast..) is as they say, my vegan crack now.
4. Experiment in the kitchen. I used to be the WORST cook. My sisters hated it when I asked them to try my food. I used to pick parsley leaves one by one instead of just chopping the thing up,  Yeah.. I can't believe I just shared that. Too embarrassing.
5.  After experimenting, you want to master a few recipes so they're your GO-TO meals when you're in a hurry or if you have friends coming over. I suggested you start by trying these easy recipes:
   1. Mushroom Curry
   2. Vegan Pink Sauce Pasta
   3. Baked potato fries
6. Now that you've got your cooking skills down, you can start meal prepping to make your life easier and a bit more organized. Start by meal prepping the meal you tend to struggle with the most. Busy mornings? Prep breakfast, dining out during lunch? Bring your lunch with you. You get the idea. 
7. Cook in batches
   1. Make soup, stew, curry, brown rice, sweet potatoes, etc in large batches to feed you for the next four days.
   2. Freeze! Things like soups, curries, vegan cheese, veggie burgers, and pizzas, can easily be frozen and reheated. 
   3. Freeze ripe fruits. ESPECIALLY ripe, soft, spotted bananas. They will make you the best smoothies & nice cream. You can thaw them and use them in pancakes, banana milk, and baking.
   4. Freeze bliss balls, rawnola, raw cakes, pudding, grapes, and dates. Perfect for your sweet tooth.
   5. Basically use your freezer.😂
8. Try different cuisines! India Food anyone?
9. Make vegan friends. The internet is a great place for this. Get out of your comfort zone and message a vegan person in your area you found on Instagram or twitter. Use hashtags to find them vegans! I used to think that I'm the only vegan in Riyadh until I was SHOCKED by the amount of girls and guys that are vegan in this city! 
10. LAST STEP!
    1. This is the MOST important step. STAY EDUCATED & MOTIVATED!! Check out my resources page for a complete list of books, documentaries, websites, youtube channels, blogs etc.

Thank you SO MUCH for considering changing your lifestyle and going vegan. I know that it can be challenging to change your life long habits at first. But I promise you, it's worth it. Plus, I truly believe that if someone wants to do something, they'll find ways to do it instead finding excuses! 

Thank you again. I hope the world will have more compassionate, loving, and conscious individuals like you ♥️🌱

Love,

- Raoum