How to Go Vegan: Green proteins, nutritional needs, and B12.
Food Alchemist Reflections #10. MEAT-FREE CONSUMPTION CONSEQUENCES
In a world that has been built by words and words that have been created by humans, where does nature take the lead? It is time for a change, re-think what has been already established by our words, and create a new paradigm that includes us as part of nature. How? Through Food. Food is our common treasure, the best indicator of our planet’s health. These words represent an out-loud thought from The Food Alchemist Lab that endeavors to take you on a trip around general and specific food topics → proposing solutions, destroying myths, and waking up your interest through impactful recipes. Because your curiosity is our trigger and, once you’ve shot us, nothing will stop us from bringing a better food system, the one that listens to nature’s voice.
1. FIRST THINGS FIRST
Is Veganism a trend?
Before answering this question, let’s begin by defining the words that formulate it. Veganism is the practice of avoiding animal suffering through not consuming animal products, particularly in diet, and following a respectful philosophy towards animals. There are different types of vegans depending on animal awareness. But we should also define trends before starting. The Collins dictionary defines trends in two different ways: (1) a change or development towards something new or different or (2) something that becomes accepted or fashionable, and that a lot of other people copy.
Upcoming generations, Millenials and Gen Z mostly, are demanding vegan products because they are drastically reducing their animal consumption. In Europe, one in ten products had a vegan/no animal ingredients claim in 2018, doubling the 5% present in 2015 (Mintel, 2019a). Also, vegan launches increased 175% from 2013 to 2018 (Mintel, 2019b). Another Mintel’s report indicates that Germany (36%), UK (21%), France (7%) and Italy (4%) are the European countries with the highest levels of new vegan products introduced in the market.
It is clear that veganism is a trend, people are asking for products without animal ingredients. However, is veganism the first or the second definition of trend?
People that are against this movement could say the second while those who are in favor of it would say that veganism is within the first definition. It is true that we are over producing animal products, we are wasting water and land in order to feed animals. The animal agriculture sector is responsible for 18% of the Greenhouse gas emissions in the world. If we analyze specifically the different gases the 9% human-induced emissions of carbon dioxide, the 37% of emissions of methane, (20 times the global warming potential of CO2), and 65% of emissions of nitrous oxide (nearly 300 times the GWP of CO2) of the total are produced by this sector (The Humane Society of the United States, n.d.).
Based on numbers, all the movements of people that are reducing their consumption of meat, are improving the world’s health. Consequently, we could say that veganism is closer to the first definition of the word trend. Now, different questions come to mind. Can I damage my health by eating vegan? How can I eat vegan in a healthy way? Do you think that a vegan diet could be at least as healthy as an omnivore one? What are the biggest nutritional deficiencies for a vegan? How can we manage these types of diets?
2. How to Go Vegan
New generations are changing the rules — the world is turning greener. However, nutritional needs are also changing due to food displacement. Depending on the level of meat and fish reduction, consumers will have different needs. For example, vegetarians that also consume animal by-products such as eggs, milk, or honey might not lack Vitamin B12 if they are following a balanced diet. More meat restrictions means more awareness of what we eat. Thus, I’ll present those nutrients that compromise nutrition more when people become vegan / vegetarian and how we can manage them:
- Vitamin B12: The recommendation is to intake supplements of this vitamin. Furthermore, I recommend you to also consume fermented foods such as tempeh, miso, or shoyu. They contain a higher quantity of Vitamin B12 than their non-fermented analogs (REF). Also, nutritional yeast or enriched vegan foods are good ingredients to increase this consumption.
- Calcium: Don’t forget dark-green-leaf veggies, nuts (such as almond and walnuts), seeds, legumes or dried fruits (such as figs).
- Proteins: Is not a big issue in vegetarian diets. You should eat a good quantity of legumes, cereals, and nuts with your calorie needs and you will not have problems.
- Iron: Include in your dishes of legumes or whole cereals ingredients that are rich in Vitamin C such as red pepper, citric fruits, red fruits, or strawberries in order to augment the iron bioavailability.
- Zinc: Whole grain products, seeds, nuts ,and tahini are good options to increase the zinc content in your dishes.
- Fatty Acids Omega 3: Seeds such as flax or chia seeds, or nuts such as almonds and walnuts are your best vegan alternatives to fish.
Becoming vegetarian or vegan is possible if it is done in the proper way: being aware of what you eat. In addition, a correct vegetarian diet is rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals and lower in trans fats, long-chain saturated fats, and oxidative compounds. Consequently, these diets are related to a lower prevalence of cardiovascular, inflammatory (such as obesity), and cancer diseases. However, people should follow the correct food pattern to achieve these benefits.
Is it healthier and more sustainable eating vegan ultra-processed foods than following an omnivore pattern with a lower intake of them? NO, NO, and NO. Regardless, we should be aware of what we eat. If we decide to become vegan/vegetarian/flexitarian to improve our and the world’s health, we shouldn’t displace real products such as meat, fish, eggs, etc, with ultra-processed foods because we will damage more than our health and world’s without contributing to a real change.
The current market uses words that consumers are looking for, but this sometimes confuses consumers instead of informing them. We are constantly seeing different vegan products and meat substitutes in tv advertisements, on the supermarket shelves, and on social media. If we analyze those products in terms of ingredients we can identify different common ingredients: refined fats, derivatives of sugar such as maltodextrin, aromas, vitamin B12, and other additives not 100% reliable. These ingredients are neither healthier, nor more sustainable.
We should consume natural and seasonal ingredients, and from the Food Alchemist Lab, our purpose is to develop innovative products that address consumer demand without confusing them. For example, as Jose showed in the last Medium post, we are developing a vegan aged sausage at the Lab and we have also developed vegan burger patties based on vegetable fibers (always not adding refined fats, sugars, or other ingredients that could compromise our products). We are also focused on the development of different natural flavoring, thanks to fermentation, without refining any component, and our colleague Leire is going to apply this knowledge in the vegan space from a healthy, sustainable, and innovative perspective.
3. RECIPE IN A NUTSHELL
Go Vegan Tempeh Tacos
Our colleague Leire is cooking a super easy recipe with chickpea tempeh and chickpea shoyu made in the Lab. She became inspired by past recipes of the Food Alchemist Lab, such as Beetroot-quinoa burger or the tempeh tacos. Instead of using a traditional tortilla, she is using lettuce to make it fresher. In this way, you will introduce lesser known and very healthy ingredients in your diet and be able to decrease your meat consumption with the same tastiness. Fires on, knifes up!
4. Bibliography
- De la Rosa Morón, José (2021). Food Alchemist Reflection #9. MEAT-FREE CONSUMPTION CONSEQUENCES PLANT BASED MEAT: TRANSITION OR NEW PARADIGM?. Future Food Medium. Accessed 20 July 2021. https://medium.com/futurefood/plant-based-meat-transition-or-new-paradigm-621c9b88a42e
- The Humane Society of the United States (n.d). Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Animal Agriculture. Accessed 19 July 2021. https://www.humanesociety.org/sites/default/files/archive/assets/pdfs/farm/hsus-fact-sheet-greenhouse-gas-emissions-from-animal-agriculture.pdf
- Mintel. (2019a). #Veganuary: UK overtakes Germany as world’s leader for vegan food launches.
- Mintel. (2019b). Germany continues to dominate global vegan new product development.
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