Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Vegan Lifestyle Links

We start with websites that support the vegan lifestyle, then add links to recipe websites we like, then equipment we use daily, then our links to learn more about vegan meat and cheese substitutes to help you transition to a whole foods, plant-based diet.


Forks Over Knives http://forksoverknives.com/ You can rent the movie there or see it on Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Video, check out of your local library. There are lots of free recipes, success stories for inspiration plus tips on making the lifestyle work for you.

Nutrition Facts NutritionFacts.org is run by a hero of the planet, Dr. Michael Greger MD who compiles and presents all of the English language research papers about nutrition and presents them in videos (usually about 2-3 minutes long) that explain the scientific evidence in lay person’s terms, citing each paper presented in his videos so you can go read the papers for yourself.

Dr. John McDougall MD drmcdougall.com practices in Santa Rosa, California and has several patients who have reversed heart disease, defeated cancers of all kinds, reversed type 2 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and several other diseases. There are lots of inspiring videos of his patients describing how sick they were before adopting Dr. McDougall’s diet and how good they feel and look now. There are also free recipes and newsletters available.

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine http://pcrm.org started by another hero of the planet, Dr. Neal Barnard MD as an association of physicians who promote a healthy plant-based whole food diet as a way of healing their patients. There are several free recipes there along with video cooking lessons. They sponsor a free 21-Day Vegan Kickstart which you can sign up for and start on the first day of each month. They’ll send you free recipes and links to videos to help keep you motivated and on track. It normally takes about no more than 14 days, up to 21 days for your tastebuds to reset and after that you won’t miss the high fat animal foods that are making you sick.

For cooking ideas, check out Happy Herbivore http://happyherbivore.com/ Lindsay Nixon is the creator of the Happy Herbivore and she’s written several books which are a good way to get started with plant-based cooking, the ingredients are mostly easy to find in your local grocery store and are not usually complicated or time consuming.

If you have Netflix look for Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue for great information about getting rid of the harmful items in your kitchen, how to shop for foods and how to prepare a few recipes. Highly recommended.

Fat Free Vegan http://blog.fatfreevegan.com created by Susan Voisin is another great website with free recipes that we make all the time.

Jeff Novick, RD, MS has videos about shopping and cooking for the vegan diet, here’s one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXi998JX8YM

Chef AJ http://chefajwebsite.com/index.html is fun and witty and has some really great videos in her “Healthy Living with Chef AJ” series.

Jill McKeever has super fun videos and has some amazing recipes, many using the Instant Pot, here’s her YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/user/SimpleDailyRecipes

You may be interested in buying an Instant Pot, it’s super versatile and Chef AJ and Jill McKeever have tons of recipes using it. This is the model we use https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FLYWNYQ/

A high speed blender such as Vitamix or Blendtec will definitely make your life easier. We absolutely love our Vitamix! They sometimes sell Vitamix blenders at Costco, that’s where we bought ours.

Meat substitutes: you really want to read the labels on these because many companies put animal proteins into their products. There are a few that are vegan such as:

Beyond Meat http://beyondmeat.com


Field Roast http://fieldroast.com

Gardein https://gardein.com/ I think Gardein products are most or all vegan, check the label first (should say it’s vegan on the package)

“Cheeses”: Same with meats, check the ingredients to avoid animal proteins, but these are vegan:

Daiya “cheese” http://daiyafoods.com available at Whole Foods and certainly other grocery stores.

Miyoko’s Creamery Artisan Vegan Cultured Nut Products http://miyokoskitchen.com available at Whole Foods and other health food stores, spendy but fun to have around from time to time.