Brooks is a mixed martial artist who was fighting at the highest level of competition, but to be specific he is a “Brazilian JiuJitzu practitioner” who has been grappling since he was a kid. “Wrestling runs in my family,” he explains, so when his wrestling career came to an end he kept going with jiujitsu. . “Brazilian jiujitsu is not so much of a striking martial art but you want to close the gap and get your opponent on the ground and use holds to submit your opponent with holds. Basically, anything that makes your opponent feel pain and either tap out or tap out. “it’s not a walk in the park,” says Brooks. “You can control how much pain you want to endure. So if your opponent locks up some kind of submission on you, you can decide whether you want to fight through it or tap out.”

He is a second-degree purple belt and training for jiujitsu is one of “the biggest passions in his life” but until he can get back in the ring, he still works as a videographer, creating videos for clients such as engagement videos or modeling videos. “It’s something I am passionate about along with jiujitsu” and it’s part of what helps him maintain his happiness along with his martial arts career. 

He had read that going plant-based could help get athletes back into action, and he used it to return to the life and workouts he loved. His comeback is now something he shares with others to help athletes suffering injuries to heal, feel stronger than ever, and learn about the power of fueling up with plant-based protein.

In a recent interview, Brooks explains how easy it is to build muscle and get enough protein on a vegan diet, despite the myth that you can’t get enough protein to workout and train at the highest levels on plant-based food alone. Below are some of his tips for any athlete who is considering going plant-based, on how to harness the power of a protein-filled vegan diet.

How this athlete used a vegan diet to recover faster and get back to the gym

“The story about how I transitioned to a vegan lifestyle is unique in itself. It started years before I went vegan. I met this big guy at the gym and he looked like a linebacker. We were talking about routines and weights and supplements and diet. And he told me he was vegan and I thought he was lying to me because I thought there is no way he is getting enough protein from peanuts or chickpeas or pea protein, or whatever. He looked like a linebacker!

But then I met my future wife and she was vegan. She was never very forceful about it but she eats vegan. She would show me videos of animals being slaughtered and I would just grimace and look away. I didn’t want to deal with it. I managed to stay nonvegan for so long because I shut myself off from seeing animals being hurt.

“I tried being vegan once and failed at it. I went back to my own way. I then tried it again and I stopped eating cows. And then I stopped eating pigs. and then I stopped eating chicken and turkey. And it was around that point that I hurt my neck. I had been doing barbell crunches on one leg, 275 pounds. And me being the all or nothing person I am, I was not doing the correct form, and my knee would hit the ground, and eventually, I was doing it wrong and I blew out my disc. It hurt to walk, just the vibration of when I would put my foot on the ground. I needed surgery, there was no way around it. It was to the point where I was considering giving up jiujitsu and I thought maybe Im just getting old. but it was because if what I was eating was all meat-based, which is very inflammatory.

“I was injured and I had my surgery and I had to sit still while the screws had time to settle. and if you are injured it’s hard to eat healthy in that state.I lost all my muscle mass and put on a lot of fat. And I was depressed. But then when my doctor gave me permission to go, I went back and jumped back in too hard. And then my neck was fused. and then Margie, the vegan angel she is kept sprinkling hints here and there. She showed me vegan athletes and she showed me what happened to animals. And when people think they go vegan, they don’t want to see what is going on with animals. But I never want anyone to feel bad about that. … it’s your journey and initially, I went vegan because I thought it could help my joints. and withint 2 weeks the pain in my neck was gone and the pain in my elbow and then I was able to push the weight like I was 18 again, and by then I was 34.

“I got back to where I was when I was pre-injury. And then I started lifting even more. I have metal in my neck, I have had plenty of injuries like broken ribs .. but once I stuck with it for 2 weeks all that pain was gone. And the amazing thing is once I was well into being plant-based I thought I need to stop looking away from what animals go through so I started to watch videos and learn more. So here I am learning empathy because I needed to feel better. My selfish beginnings then led to empathy and I didn’t want to say I was fully vegan until I was ready. I didn’t start off as vegan for the animals but they are a huge motivator and anchoring for the rest of my life. You can still be muscular and strong. It’s okay to be a man and to care about the animals too.

“Now, I think about that big linebacker and how I thought he was lying but I realize he wasn’t and now when people ask if I’m supplementing, then I think it’s a compliment. Another guy at the gym asked if I was vegan and I said yes and then he admitted he was too and we go out with that robot-like strength, and people can’t believe it. I help tell people who say they gained weight. When someone goes from a meat-based diet to a plant-based diet, when you eat a meat-based food they are dense in calories, but when you switch to a plant-based diet if you are not tracking what you are doing, it can help. Since if you have a physical goal in mind if you begin to drop weight they are clearly not eating enough. Or on the other hand, people go vegan and plant-based their shopping list off processed junk food. But if you ever talk to a coach, or nutritionist, switching to a whole-food, plant-based diet, that makes the difference. That’s what makes the diff. I like to make a meal plan and calculate my food one time and that makes it so much easier.

5 Tips to transition to a plant-based diet, and get the protein you need

1. Be Patient

First and foremost, you need to be patient with yourself. You’re going to make mistakes, everyone does. I did. It’s not a reason to give up. So just stay patient, Allow yourself some leeway. I’m hard on myself so I understand that feeling very much. Don’t worry about it, you’re fine.”

2. Time Is On Your Side

Go slow. You don’t have to go full vegan overnight. Some people do and they’re successful with it, but don’t let that make you feel pressured. You don’t need to do anything overnight. I cut out certain groups of meat and animals over a few months period of time and then when I tried to go fully vegan, and I didn’t succeed. I messed up. So instead of giving up, you just keep trying, and you learn along the way and you’re going to make mistakes.

3. Don’t Go It Alone

If you’re not comfortable jumping on Google and doing your own research, there’s nothing wrong with hiring a coach. I do coaching for people who want to transition to a vegan lifestyle. I do coaching for people who want to transition to a vegan lifestyle and maintain muscle mass or gain muscle mass or lose fat. So, there’s nothing wrong with asking for help.

(The Beet‘s Beginner’s Guide is a good place to get started if you’re overwhelmed.)

4. Keep An Open Mind

Keep an open mind. I started trying all kinds of new foods that I never would have eaten had I not been open-minded. Things like seitan, for example. You know back when I was meat-based, I wanted to eat the leanest meat. The meat with the lowest fat and the highest protein and the lowest carbs. It was ridiculous, but now since I became vegan, the seitan I eat is actually leaner than the chicken I used to eat, and there’s no estrogen in it. It doesn’t require something to be killed. So keep an open mind. Try new things.

I used to think tofu was extremely strange and now I love it. There are so many things you can do with tofu, so don’t be scared to try new things because there’s a whole other world out there and it’s an amazing one.

5. Spice Up Your Life

Lastly, I would say learn to use spices and powders and sauces, because I see a lot of people that go vegan and they’re just throwing plain broccoli in with plain beans and plain rice and they’re struggling through it. I would struggle through that, so don’t be afraid to experiment with different spices and powders and even if it’s terrible, you know, “Okay, I don’t mix that next time.” So, get experimental, try different things. You’ll find your way I promise.

Will Brooks’ 3 Tips to Get Enough Protein on a Plant-Based Diet

1. Say It With Me: I’ll Have the Seitan!

There’s a variety of ways you can get protein. As a new vegan you might think, “Wow, I only have a handful of options.” But really you have a treasure chest of options. So, if you’re not even looking at the whole food plant-based options if you want to look at your seitan, your tempeh, your tofu, even your textured vegetable protein, or textured vegetable protein (TVP). Those are some of your more processed options, some less than others, but I partake in all of those. I love those.

2. Get More Protein with Black Bean Pasta

I also love protein pasta. So that’s actually a simple tip to immediately increase your protein as a vegan where you take your pasta or whatever you make your spaghetti or linguine with and you switch it out for black bean pasta or edamame pasta or any of those. You’re going to instantly increase your protein substantially. A single serving, I believe, of edamame pasta has around twenty grams of protein and that’s plant-based protein.

3. Eat More Lentils and Beans to Get Lean

And then you can go to the whole food options where you’re looking at lentils which are also a carb source. I love lentils. You’re looking at beans, black beans, pinto beans. Beans and rice? I mean come on, what kind of a combo?! You gotta love that.

Elysabeth Alfano is a plant-based business consultant and interviewer: @ElysabethAlfano at ElysabethAlfano.com.

The post A Vegan Athlete’s 5 Simple Tips to Get Protein on a Plant-Based Diet appeared first on The Beet.

So, when the doctor said that the way for Raydel to live with his gout was to commit to a life of pills, he was less bothered than when she said if he wanted to reverse his gout, he would need to go vegan.  Pills he was willing to accept.  Giving up meat…not so much.  Still, this was his life he was making decisions about, so he decided to do some research, starting with watching Forks Over Knives.

Things clicked in his mind and, though his family thought he was crazy, he decided to try to cut out meat and dairy to see what would happen.  He started slowly and it wasn’t always easy, but soon he felt better. He had more energy.  He had more focus. He had more clarity. He stuck with it and soon he lost 25 pounds, dropped his cholesterol 100 points, and got his life back…without pills.

But one thing was missing: He still wanted to eat the classic Cuban recipes he grew up on.  He still wanted that time in the kitchen with his Grandmother.  So, Raydel got to work on veganizing the Cuban classics which resulted in the book, “It’s Delicious! It’s Vegan! It’s Cuban!”

Learn about his personal journey in the long-form interview here. Raydel’s Top Five Tips for Meat Eaters To Eat Less Meat are below.

Elysabeth Alfano: So, before we went to break, we were talking about this incredible transformation that you’ve done, but, of course, you grew up a meat-eater. In fact, you really relied on it as part of your deep Cuban heritage.

So, for those meat eaters out there who are just thinking, “I don’t know if I can do it. Help me through,” what are your top five tips to start working out the meat and bringing in the plants for your health?

Raydel Hernandez: Well, I don’t know if I have five, but I definitely have tips.

1. It’s Not Do or Die (Well, It Could Be)

It doesn’t have to be an all or none thing and I think most people would agree. Do it gradually. It’s almost like running, right? You don’t run six miles your first time. You run half a mile or a hundred yards and you build and you build and you build and you get used to it. It’s the same thing. Maybe you pick a day of the week and that’s- and I wouldn’t even say vegan, [let’s say] vegetarian day. So, you start gradually working your way out of it.

2. You Got This. Literally.

The other tip I could tell you from my personal experience is you are giving up nothing. You don’t have to give up a thing. There are meat substitutes out there. If you want a hamburger, you can eat a plant-based hamburger.

I’ve lost my taste for meat. Anything that’s flavored like meat I don’t really care for it that much anymore. But we live in a world now where you can go to Burger King and have the Impossible Burger. You’re not giving up anything, there’s no sacrifice.

3. It’s Not Fake Meat. It’s Fake News.

The other tip I would tell you is, and this is a big one, it’s hard for people to wrap their heads around this. You’re brainwashed. You have to un-brainwash yourself. You have to unstick yourself from the tar because everyone is trying to sell you something and that is no different in the meat and food world.

They all want to convince you that what they’re selling is good for you when it’s really not. And they confuse the situation by putting misinformation all over the internet. Unfortunately, in this country, if you Google something, whoever pays the most comes up first and that’s not necessarily the best thing because they’re trying to sell you something that isn’t true.

4. Homework is Your Friend.

Another tip is you have to self-research. You can’t take it from me, you can’t take it from Elysabeth. You have to read and read and read. What I did was I started off with a few documentaries. The most famous one is Forks Over Knives.

That’s the one that really turned the page for me. But if you look in the credits, they list all the scientists and all the studies and I contacted those people on email and I said, “I saw this documentary, can you send me the research?” And they all sent it to me free of charge. It’s all public information at this point, and I read everything. I can’t tell you I understood every single experiment, but I read it all first-hand and it’s been common knowledge that the foods you eat affect your health for at least eighty years. It’s all out there. So those would be my tips, I think I hit four.

5. You Are Your Own Best Advocate

EA: You did hit four, but I’ll give a fifth, which kind of riffs off what you were saying in three and four: You must advocate for yourselves. You were saying you must research for yourself. Absolutely, 100%.   You must also advocate for yourself. You have to take your own health into your own hands. Even farming it out to your doctor is not always in your best interest.

So, take the time. Start gradually, whatever works for you. We’re not here to tell you what to do. Figure it out for yourself, but it has to be your own journey because there are a lot of forces out there trying to sway you one way or the other, regardless of what is best for you.

Ultimately, the only thing you have to give up is the notion that it will be hard, it won’t taste good, you’ll be missing out and eating won’t be fun…because nothing is as fun as feeling great. It’s time to get your health back.

Elysabeth Alfano is a plant-based business consultant and helps people transition to a plant-based diet. Follow her @ElysabethAlfano on all platforms and at ElysabethAlfano.com.

The post 5 Tips To Eat Less Meat From a Former Die-Hard Meat Eater appeared first on The Beet.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

Christian stumbled onto a plant-based diet while working as a waiter in a high-end Italian restaurant,  At first, he enjoyed the extravagant and heavy meat and dairy dishes that Italian restaurants are known for. But as tasty as it was, he found himself having afternoon slumps.

He also felt bad asking the chefs who were working so hard to whip up something for him to eat during their breaks.  So when they asked, ‘Hey, what can we get you?’  Christian just told them something “simple and easy,” like sauteed spinach or a salad. He noticed that eating this way, devoid of meat and dairy, made him feel so much better. He started to choose cleaner, leaner foods and suddenly was no longer dragging after meals. He had more energy.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

So began Christian’s plant-based journey. It hasn’t always been easy, he admits, and he has had his fair share of falling off the ‘program.’  Here, Christian shares how he gets back on track and how he feels he has finally found his ‘cruising altitude’ with a plant-based diet without carrying all the ‘baggage’.

Immediately after this interview, Christian made a vegan dinner, with vegan wines from Vejii.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

For the full interview, click here.

Eliysabeth: Was it hard for you at any point [to go plant-based] and what are the tips you would give for people who are starting out?

Christian Madsen: Yes, it was hard for me in the beginning only because of my non-understanding of how it worked. Of course, as a novice of these things, we go into it thinking ‘Oh, I just have to eat tofu and salad and that’s all I can eat.’  But, as you start to move away farther from that way of thinking, you realize that there is so much nutrition in lentils, seeds, nuts, tofu, our favorite tempeh, and different kinds of grains.

If you love pasta as I did, you can move towards a lentil pasta or something that’s a little bit cleaner than a flour-type base. Yeah, it was challenging in the beginning, but you have to understand that you’re changing your body. You’re changing your whole system when you take this dive.

So, as I said before, take steps to eliminate things first. Don’t just go straight cold turkey, no pun intended. Don’t go straight shut off. Wean off of things, see how you feel.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

If you’re feeling like a mess, you’re probably, levels-wise, doing something wrong. So, just give yourself some time. Understand that this is a process. It’s going to take about a month for adjustments and some energy and all that stuff. Just know that it takes yourself a little bit of time and trust yourself that you’re going to feel so much better. The energy is going to be back. You’re not going to have this lug or this lag, and you know just give yourself some time with it.

Elysabeth: Did you ever have a moment when you were going plant-based and it was going well and then you were on a trip or something, so you didn’t have your tempeh at hand, and you kind of fell off? And was it hard to get back on?

Christian Madsen: Yes, I think don’t kill yourself if you’ve fallen off. That’s number one. You find yourself on a cold snowy day [in Chicago, let’s say,] you know popping into Giordanos and that’s the only thing you can find.  You know, you’re not going to feel the best afterwards. But that’s only because you’re reentering something that hasn’t been in your system which is possibly meat or some sort of dairy. But the thing is don’t kill yourself about it.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

The next day or the next meal just go right back. Maybe go for a nice run. You know, get that stuff out, but don’t beat yourself up about it. I think a lot of the stuff becomes mental and it’s like, ‘oh what did I do?’ Just be patient and your body will adjust. And your body will also tell you how it feels afterward, whether it’s good or bad, and so just get right back on it.

So, don’t overthink it.  Don’t focus on the past. Focus on the future and feeling good. If you all off, start again without judgment and take it day by day. Before you know it, you will find your cruising altitude just like Christian – wise beyond his years! – and Veganuary just might end up being all year long.

Elysabeth Alfano is a plant-based business consultant and helps people transition to a plant-based diet. Follow her @ElysabethAlfano on all platforms and at ElysabethAlfano.com

The post <em>Divergent</em> Actor Shares How to Get Back on Track to Eating Plant-Based appeared first on The Beet.

In a previous interview, Dr. Dean Ornish said that he was studying and believed there to be a relationship between Alzheimer’s Disease and diet. My interest has been piqued ever since. This is why I wanted to sit down to discuss the relationship between mental well-being and diet with a board-certified psychiatrist, Dr. Ashok Nagella. Our video interview as well as a portion of the chat is below.

Elysabeth Alfano: Lovely, I’m so happy that you’re here. There’s such a connection between diet and mental health, diet and staying strong, diet and anger management, even diet and depression. I know you work in this area. I wondered if you could help us understand the connection between diet and general mental health.

Dr. Ashok Nagella: Sure, I agree there’s definitely a connection between mental health and diet. I’ve seen it anecdotally in the clinic setting. Also, there’s a significant amount of research to support that and evidence-based research. So based on the research, inflammation of the brain may play a significant role in causing or perpetuating mental illness and neurocognitive disorders.

So, what I mean by mental illness is, the most common things we see in psychiatry are depression, anxiety, ADD, ADHD, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. Those are just a few of the main ones. And also, neurocognitive disorders, what I mean by that is Alzheimer’s, dementia– that’s probably the most common, and Vascular Dementia.

So, it turns out inflammation plays a major role in those conditions. A low inflammation diet can often significantly reduce or even prevent the symptoms of these devastating illnesses while also improving cognition. So, what I mean by that is increasing attention, focus, processing speed, and memory.

EA: Is this something that changing your meal plan- like let’s say you just change what you eat for breakfast- is that enough or do you really have to go 100 percent getting rid of the inflammatory foods which are basically meat and dairy, and sugar, I believe.

AN: Right, I always recommend going as far as possible where you just get much more robust results that way. So, the ideal low inflammatory diet is the whole foods plant-based diet based on all the research that I’ve done on this topic. So, the whole foods plant-based diet is centered around fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and legumes while minimizing processed foods, refined sugars, animal products, and refined carbohydrates.

One question I get frequently is “where am I going to get my Omega 3s?” because a lot of people just assume that they should just get it from fish. [However,] ideally, they should be getting it from walnuts, flax seeds, and chia seeds. These are excellent sources of Omega 3s that improve cognition and mood. While fish do provide Omega 3s, they also increase cholesterol and saturated fat which can predispose an increased risk of heart disease. Fish we have to remember, too, contain mercury, PCBs, and dioxins, which are harmful to our body.

EA: Something that I’m a big fan of is hemp seeds just because you don’t have to grind them like you have to grind chia and flax seeds, and they also give me some Omega 3s and Omega 6s.  I try to work that into breakfast almost every day.

I can understand what you’re saying about diet and depression because of course if you’re not feeling well– if your diet is not making you feel great, it’s going to slow you down. To be fair that might even be true if you were living on let’s say Twizzlers which are vegan but maybe not really what we’re talking about here. So, you really want to keep the processed foods to a minimum even if you are vegan.

But I’ve heard plant-based athletes talk about the connection between diet and anger management and once they went to a plant-based diet they were able to really keep their anger issues in control. I wonder if you ever see anything like that.

AN: Yes, I do actually. Research definitely shows that anger, hostility, and irritability are symptoms that we often see in depression and anxiety, and the research shows that a low inflammation diet such as a whole foods plant-based diet is shown to reduce these symptoms.

Foods that actually have a higher tryptophan content include saffron, leafy greens, and sunflower seeds [are also important.] The reason why tryptophan is important is that tryptophan is an amino acid that gets converted to serotonin in our body and in our brains. So, any foods that increase serotonin will help you treat depression, anxiety, and anger more optimally.

EA: I thought tryptophan was something not good for you, so thank you for schooling me on this. I thought it was found in turkey, do I have that wrong?

AN: It is but I think there are healthier sources of it. So, tryptophan we want it to convert to 5-hydroxytryptophan which is actually what serotonin is. But there are healthier sources of serotonin and tryptophan out there than turkey.

EA: So, you really advocate for a whole foods plant-based diet and I’ll say as a recently licensed food for life instructor with the Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine, I do too. Can you give some examples of what you would suggest people eat on a daily basis?

AN: Sure, [some examples are] leafy greens, broccoli, mushrooms, saffron, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, fruits, vegetables. Kale is excellent as well as sweet potatoes.

There it is again: inflammation is the cause of so much damage to our bodies, even including our brain, the largest muscle in the body! As we look to keep inflammation to an absolute minimum, bring on those dark leafy greens, whole grains, seeds, nuts, fruits, legumes, beans, and – to treat yourself for being so good – don’t forget the dates!

Elysabeth Alfano is a plant-based business consultant and helps people transition to a plant-based diet. Follow her @ElysabethAlfano on all platforms and at ElysabethAlfano.com

The post How a Plant-Based Diet Boosts Mood, Mind, and Memory, From a Psychiatrist appeared first on The Beet.

Bye Bye, Plant-based Burger, we’re moving on!

Note that not all plant-based options below are equally healthy. As always, if you made your own burger at home from mushrooms and lentils, it would be healthier than a burger made with coconut oil at the store. Of course, no surprise there and the same will usually apply to the list below.

That said, even the transition foods help move us away from meat and dairy and are either better for us  (see number two as we say ‘adios’ to nitrates), even if not perfect, or super healthy (see number seven.) 2021 will give us a plethora of options.

Lastly, diligently reading labels is still a mandate for 2021, so don’t let that super skill lapse.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

1. Veggies of the Sea

Seafood, seafood, seafood! Plant-based seafood is all the rage: Good Catch Tuna and Crab and Fish Cakes, The Plant-Based Seafood Company (made with Konjac), New Wave Foods, Shiok Meats (made from cellular agriculture), Save Da Sea (made from carrots). There are so many plant-based seafood options and more on the way.   Plant-based seafood is to 2021 what plant-based burgers were to 2019.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

2. But, Bacon and Pass the Plant-based Pork, Please

Finally, there is an answer to, “But, how can you give up bacon?” Hooray Foods bacon is on the West Coast of the United States in just a couple of stores but will grow into more stories in 2021. Folks looking to give up nitrites and nitrates can finally have their bacon and eat it, too.

In fact, while we’re talking pork, plant-based pork options will grow around the globe with Omnipork running rampant domination in Asia and brands like Barvecue pulled pork going coast to coast in the U.S.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

3. Eggs Over Easy

Getting your hands on plant-based eggs, usually made from mung beans or chickpeas or other recognizable foods, has never been easier.  With Eat Just distributed across the U.S., Zero Egg available in foodservice, and Evo Eggs in India, plant-based eggs are one thing you won’t have to scramble for in 2021.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

4. Plant-based Fried Chick’n

Ok, so we are talking about fried chicken, and no, vegan fried chick’n won’t miraculously be fried.  It’s fried, people! It says it in the name!  But, it isn’t chicken, so it’s got that going for it!  In other words, it won’t have hormones, antibiotics, and the negative properties of meat.  Should you live on vegan fried chick’n every day?  Probably not.

But like its friend, the plant-based burger, this is a great option when you are out with your crew and can’t always control going to a plant-based restaurant.  From Rebellyous Foods to Beyond Meat, from Nuggs to Vegan Fried Chick’n, you will now be able to gobble up some vegan lickin’ good all across the land.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

5. King Mushroom

2021 is the year of the mushroom and mushrooms reign supreme. You will see whole food mushroom meats from places like Atlast Foods and Meati that are steaks and pieces of meat made directly from mushrooms, a generally very healthy option.

Also, more products will be made from Mycoprotein, a fungal protein, and mycelium, such as Fable Foods’ Braised Beef.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

6. Frozen Party

Oh, the party is in the frozen food aisle: plant-based ice cream, cheesecake, and portable ice cream pies that fit in your hand and go with you on the run: Hello Revolution Gelato! The wild and crazy treat aisle will continue to grow in the middle of the grocery store.

As is obvious to most, we aren’t talking about celery, we are talking about ice cream which means fat and calories.  So, this one doesn’t do your health a huge favor, but it does keep you away from dairy, a health step in the right direction for not ingesting casein, which, as discussed by T. Colin Campbell in The China Study, can cause cancer.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

7. WFPB 4 U

Yep! Whole Food Plant-based gets super-sized as people want to recognize what they eat and take back their health. The Beet readers: Represent!  This is where we shine!  Products that are less processed, have clean ingredients, short ingredient lists, and are combinations of actual fruits and vegetables will start to take center stage.

Brands like Cool Beans and The Tattooed Chef lead the way.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

8. Drink To Your Health

Needing more probiotics, but don’t want the calories? Want an alcoholic drink, but don’t want the carbs?  Hoping your drink might up your antibodies?  Healthy drinking goes big with probiotic drinks like hard kombucha by Flying Embers and low -calorie sparkling drinks with exotic natural flavors like Blood Orange Tumeric and Watermelon Hibiscus by Nix & Kik (coming soon to Amazon) are there to give you a pick-me-up without the calories.

 Even the Co-Founder of Oatly, Bjorn Oste, is in on it. His newest company Good Idea Drinks offers sparkling waters with chromium and amino acids to help cut sugar spikes during and after meals, a valuable asset for diabetics.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

9. No Can Do

Plant-based takes on plastic. Eco-friendly packaging will be a very important priority as people want it all. They don’t just want their food animal-free, but they also want their packaging not to damage the planet and companies are responding.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

10. Revamp

Grocery stores revamp their real estate and plant-based foods come out of hiding so finally, people can find them. Why? Because Grocery Store Managers are (business) people, too, and they want to make money, just like everyone else.

A study by the Plant-Based Foods Association showed that when plant-based meats were placed in the meat area where (surprise!) people could find them, sales went up 23% nationally. Sales went up 32% in the Midwest. That’s a meaningful coin that no manager wants to leave on the table.

Since the study came out over nine months ago, COVID-19 has made this even more imperative as people focus on getting healthy by boosting their immune systems.  According to Nielsen, sales of fresh plant-based meat alternatives have nearly doubled every month this year. Plantega, a company that puts fridges full of plant-based products in NYC-area bodegas, is a great example of traditional grocers trying to welcome in the meatless and dairy-free crowd.

11. Bonus! You’re Going Down

Plant-based prices come down as distribution goes up and more and more plant-based food manufacturing facilities come on-line. Yahoo! With good news such as this, 2020 must really be over!

Elysabeth Alfano is a plant-based business consultant and helps people transition to a plant-based diet. Follow her @ElysabethAlfano on all platforms and at ElysabethAlfano.com

The post The 10 Healthy Plant-Based Food Trends That Will Be Big in 2021 and Beyond appeared first on The Beet.

Co-founders Bonnie Brown and Paul Turcotte who created Passion Placement to help people find jobs that they really care about have discovered that the pandemic has provided a springboard for many people to seek more meaningful work. It starts when they either find themselves unemployed or constantly thinking about what they really want to do, and they then begin their search for meaningful work. To address the growing demand for purpose-driven employment, Brown and Turcotte launched Passion Placement, a career matchmaking platform that specializes in placing mission-aligned hires into companies that make a difference for humans, the planet, and animals.

“Passion Placement grew out of my frustration as a financial professional looking to apply my career skills to helping animals and improving life on the planet, only to find myself jumping from one site to another, back and forth, thinking there has got to be a better way,” said Brown.

“I wanted to help mission-driven people use their skill set for companies making a positive impact. Through Covid and into the new year, we have been offering free coaching sessions to help people find their passion placement and joy in a purpose-driven job. We now also offer recruiting, job posting, and consulting for both companies and candidates so we can all use our talents together to create a better world.”

Gen Z Got The Memo

Even before the pandemic, mission-aligned employment was a growing trend with Millennials and Gen Z’s looking to make a difference for their planet.  WeSpire noted in a recent study that Gen Z is the “first generation to prioritize purpose over money. Called the ‘Change Generation’ due to passion and desire to make a difference through work, [Gen Z] needs to see [a] connection between what they are doing and broader social impact. Empowering work culture is two-times more important than higher salary for retention.”

Now more experienced candidates are also looking to begin living a more meaningful life through their work, Brown finds, which is why she and Turcotte decided to connect candidates for all types of positions, from the intern to C-suite positions and from the volunteer to the board member, with organizations from all types of industries provided they concretely and authentically share the mission of positive and measurable change.

COVID Clarity: Do What Is Meaningful

The past year, of COVID-19, coupled with people’s desire to find purpose in 2021, has crystalized the new approach that they are calling: ‘New Year, New Career’ for many workers looking to pivot to a more meaningful direction for how they spend their nine-to-five.

“I’m looking to switch to a more mission-aligned job because our future depends on it. I want to do everything I can to make this world a safer, more equitable place, both in my personal life, as well as my professional life,” said MK (who chooses to be anonymous).

Curtis agrees. “We are living through a very chaotic time where I don’t feel in control of many things. Believing in the mission or purpose of a company makes me feel my job will be important and that I can make difference even on a small scale.”

Employees aren’t the only ones who benefit from a mission-aligned hire. “At abillion app, we get really excited about folks that are mission-driven like us,” explained the app’s founder, Vikas Garg. “Having that passion is like rocket fuel. It means you get through problems faster, find solutions faster, love your team more and it’s easier to form a bond and trust between the individual and the company.”

Founder of dairy-free Revolution Gelato, Jared Olkin agrees. “Values alignment in the Revolution Gelato team and our partners is simply a must-have. I’ve found that when we work with people who really believe in what we are doing and why, it shows — not only are they the most dedicated but also we can trust them implicitly to represent the brand.”

If you are feeling a spark of hope and are thinking that 2021 is the year that you turn your employment around to work with companies that you know are making a difference, here are Brown’s top five tips to find your mission-aligned job,

Top Five Ways to Find Your Mission-Aligned Job

1. Look forward to your second most important day

Take time to define your passion and purpose. This may take longer than you want it to, and may not be resolved in an afternoon, but the time invested is time well spent and the key to finding the right direction. According to lore, Mark Twain said: “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” There is an entire website dedicated to the idea that he did not in fact pen or speak those words, called The Apocryphal Twain, which sleuths out misattributions, but the same site reports that it’s been searched over 5 million times in a short period, so obviously the line resonates.

2. Make a List of companies that are aligned to your passions, not just appear to be

Start doing your homework. Once you know what industry or area you care about find out which companies share your mission by researching those around the themes that move you. Dive deep into learning about them (go on Glass Door for instance and read up on the corporate culture. There’s nothing worse than a fitness company that never lets its employees workout, for instance), and you will have a list of mission-aligned companies that you admire. Connect with them through social media, particularly via Linkedin.

3. Figure out the narrative to your story, then tell it

Everyone needs to be able to tell the story of why they want to make this change. You’re bringing your skill set to a new set of problems, so connect the dots for a future interviewer. This may start to feel a little bit like therapy at times, as you figure out the narrative, so don’t be surprised if you find yourself lying on the couch, staring at the ceiling. Get clear about your natural and experiential talents and what brings you joy. (And avoid ever saying: “I’m a people person.” Instead, tell how you use your background or skills to accomplish a difficult task.) Then, write these down and define your ideal job or career path.  Be as tunnel-vision as possible here as you want to go for your dream job. You can always expand later to cast a wider net if need be.

4. Write a customized resume for each company or industry if you need to

Customize your resume to prioritize the areas that best suit your future job or employer, not your past. You want to address your perfect job specifically on each line, and be clear in your profile or summary section as to what your passion is and what you bring to the job that will be a benefit to them (you are there to solve their problems, remember). Expect to do several revisions until you think: If I were them, I would want me to join their team (not: I want to join their team). Be concise about what you bring to the situation. Then, head on over to Linkedin and tailor your profile there.

5. Start connecting to people over zoom “just because” and before you need them

There is so much truth in ‘It’s all about who you know.’ Oddly, COVID has, in many ways despite social distancing, made this easier.  Make a commitment to network with like-minded people and companies that share your passion.

What does this mean exactly?  Comment thoughtfully with ‘value-add’ on Linkedin when the companies or people you respect make a post. Share their posts with others on your page, with relevant hashtags, so you can engage and network on Linkedin and form a community.  Linkedin is your new home-away-from-home.

Hit up every Zoom meeting that you think is going to make you connections. Networking is the job before you get the job. Follow up with fellow participants or speakers from the Zoom meeting, webinar, speaker series, etc. because, as we know, ‘It’s all about who you know.’

The Big Bonus: You don’t have to go it alone

And if all of this has you in a career crisis, of course, just reach out to the experts like Bonnie or others to talk it all through and find some clarity and direction.  Looking for a job – like living through a pandemic – can be extremely stressful, and you don’t have to go it alone!

Elysabeth Alfano is a plant-based business consultant and helps people transition to a plant-based diet. Follow her @ElysabethAlfano on all platforms and at ElysabethAlfano.com.

The post New Year, New Career: 5 Expert Tips to Help You Find a Mission-Aligned Job appeared first on The Beet.

In this episode of Awesome Vegans, Brian joins me to share his story of how he lost 140 pounds and created Fool’s Gold, a line of plant-based barbeque sauces and rubs for tofu, tempeh, sweet potatoes, and more. Brian was determined that if he had to give up meat, he would never have to give up the barbeque. Read on to see how Brian changed his life and adapted his passion to serve his health, and improve the health of others.

Here is a short excerpt from our longer interview, which you can watch below.

Elysabeth Alfano: Brian, tell us your story. I think most guys think, ‘Barbeque: it’s summer, it’s all about the meat.” But not for you because you lost 140 pounds on a plant-based diet and you’re not going back. Tell me how you did it.

Brian Rodgers: I was 300 pounds about a year ago and, for everybody watching this, I’m not 300 pounds. Now I’m 160 pounds. Yay! So how it started for me: I’m from Kansas City born and raised, home of barbeque!  I’ve been doing professional barbeque for over thirty years and won the American Royal actually, the largest barbeque contest in the world in 1999.  So, I’ve got a love for the barbeque chops!

I moved to Colorado, about two years ago, and I was still doing barbeque. However, I went to my doctor and I was diagnosed as being morbidly obese. I was 300 pounds. And I also got diagnosed with six life-threatening diseases.  I was diagnosed with liver disease, with Despedida, I had severe hypertension. I even had a buffalo hump. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a buffalo how they have that little extra piece of fat behind their head.  Well, humans can get that, too. I did not know that until I went to the doctor. I was diagnosed with buffalo hump, as well.

EA: So that’s an actual diagnosis? That’s not just a nickname?

BR: Yes, yes it is.

EA: Oh, I’ve never heard of that before.

BR: It’s an actual diagnosis. It’s related to several different diseases which- I’m not a doctor, I don’t even enjoy science or medicine. You have some amazing doctors on your show, I’m sure they could tell you exactly what it is. But yeah, so it’s a fatty build-up behind your neck. I basically decided I was going to have to do something to change or I had to get gastric bypass surgery. Those were my two choices.

So, I went to the gastric bypass surgeon to see what that was all about. And he said, ‘We’re going to dissect your body.  We’re going to do all these different things to you. You could die,” and then he dropped the bomb on me. He said, ‘Now Brian, we talked a little bit before we started here and I know how much you love barbeque, and that’s what you eat and you’re a big foodie.”

I’m also a classically trained chef as well. He said, ‘So I just want you to know that your taste buds are going to probably change. In fact, you probably won’t like barbecue anymore.” And that was it for me! That was it for me! That was the trigger!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

EA: That’s all you needed? Oh my gosh!

BR: That was the trigger! He said I could die, you know and that was a lot, but giving up barbeque? I was not ready to do that. So, I started the next day, I went cold tofurky. I haven’t eaten a piece of meat since. I don’t do dairy, I don’t really do oil too much. I just stopped eating salt for the most part. And I went on a mission to see if I could still eat [plant-based] barbeque and here I am. I lost 120 pounds and I reversed all six diseases within six months of that first appointment. And now I’ve gone on to lose another 20 so I’ve lost 140 pounds since I’ve started. I’m maintaining it and I’m still eating [plant-based] barbeque.

EA: Oh, I love this! I want to step back. First of all, shout out to the human body. We can abuse it for decades and sometimes knowingly we dive into the bag of chips and we know we’re being bad, and we try to retreat. Sometimes unknowingly, meat and dairy are served to us as healthy foods and so we don’t even know that we’re doing something bad for the body literally since we’re weaned from our mothers. We are talking about decades of abuse.  Listen to that! In six months, your body bounces back. I’m incredulous and in awe of what the human body can do.

So, when you start to shift the Titanic and you say, “Okay, no more meat because I don’t want to go under the knife, and I don’t want to die either.  I’m just going to do food as medicine.” You decide that the easiest way to do this, the lowest hanging fruit…is to change what I eat.  Did you have any trip-ups, pitfalls, anything that kind of set you back a little bit? Or was it smooth sailing the whole way?

BR: Oh, every day is still [a challenge]. I got to tell you it was a lot easier to lose the weight and reverse the disease than it was to get it. I worked really hard at putting that 300 pounds on. And I’ve been fighting childhood obesity since I was eight years old. That’s what I’m all about. That’s what my foundation is. Fool’s Gold barbeque, that’s what we do. All the things we do is about fighting the incredible disease of childhood obesity.

I’ve been [personally] fighting it since I was eight years old and nothing’s ever worked. So, do I have trip-ups? Every single day. Every day it’s still a challenge. But I’ve met so many incredible people that I didn’t even realize this whole world of plant-based and veganism existed until I stepped into it. But yeah, challenges every single day. Every single day I want to do something that I know is not right for my body and it’s not an easy journey, particularly when you lose as much weight as I did. It’s a mental challenge, too.

So, I mean I still look in the mirror sometimes and still see my old 300-pound self. It’s a crazy thing, your brain takes a little bit to catch up with you. And my doctor is always telling me, ‘Brian that’s going to go away. Brian that’s going to go away.” But it’s really weird when your wife says, “Brian you’re 160 pounds” and you walk past a store or in a mirror and you see a 300-pound man. I mean, I don’t know if you’ve seen my before and after pictures, but it’s pretty dramatic.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

So, yeah, it’s a battle. It’s a battle every day but it’s a great battle. It is such an amazing battle that I’ve dropped everything else. I’ve had a lot of successes in my life. I sold a company to one of the big credit bureaus and made a lot of money. Now I’ve dropped everything else and I’m on a mission. I’m on a mission to kind of be the lead generation aspect of plant-based and plant-based barbeque!

Not everyone can go cold Tofurky, like Brian, but Brian shows us that just because you give up meat and dairy, doesn’t mean you have to give up taste!  And I can vouch for this! Barbeque tofu, tempeh, and sweet potatoes are the bomb! You can find recipes here.

For the full interview, click here.

Elysabeth Alfano is a plant-based business consultant and helps people transition to a plant-based diet. Follow her @ElysabethAlfano on all platforms and at ElysabethAlfano.com

The post This Grill Master Lost 140 Pounds and Reversed Disease on a Plant-Based Diet appeared first on The Beet.

Stefanie and I have been friends for years. We both are Food For Life instructors with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). We both have certificates in nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies. We both give cooking and nutrition classes to groups and individuals and we both can’t stop talking about the benefits of eating plant-based foods for health and wellbeing. On this episode of Awesome Vegans, Stefanie Ignoffo of Plantspiration, LLC gets real. An excerpt of our conversation is below.

Stefanie: In 2015 my daughter Hailey was 15 at the time and she came home from school and she said, ‘Mom, I want go vegan,” and I said, ‘No way! Worst idea in the world. You’re going to die of protein deficiency. You’re not going to have calcium. I truly believed that this was going to be the worst thing she could ever do.

She had mentioned she was reading this book (about people) that didn’t use animals. I understood the logic. So, at that moment I backed her up on it. ‘Alright, I’ll go along with your bad diet.’ Then I went to the internet to search, you know. How long can we live without eating meat? How long could we survive? Will she make it a week?

Little did I know that not only can we survive, but we can actually thrive! So, after John and I were finishing up on what had been our ninth surgery in eleven months, I went back and I revisited that Forks Over Knives documentary that I had come across while seeing how long my daughter could live. I sat my family down and, you know, I thought we were healthy eating our lean chicken, eating our low-fat milk and our low-fat cheese.

But after I watched this movie, I just realized here I was enabling these diseases. You know, here I was bringing the food in. I was making my husband overweight. I was helping my son with this childhood obesity. I was watching my girls struggle with energy and skin. I realized we were all being affected by what I was bringing home. So, I went cold Tofurky, as they say, and I completely stopped bringing animals into the house.

Altogether we lost 250 pounds, by accident! Eating only plant foods!  So,100 of that was mine.  The rest was the rest of my family. It was a huge impact, and I couldn’t stop talking about it after that. I felt like everybody should know that this is awesome!

I had tried everything. Nothing had worked like this! All the other diets I’d tried, yeah, maybe I had lost a couple of pounds here and there, but my entire life I had been obese. I had just found what worked and it didn’t just help me lose weight. It helped me reverse diseases and it’s easy- I’ve kept it off easily three years later. The whole family, we’re still crankin’ the plants.

EA: I love this story because you are every mom in America.

You start thinking, ‘What? My kid’s going to die. That’s just crazy talk.’  But then it always helps to have a teenage daughter. They’re so very convincing. So, you say, “Okay fine. I’ll follow you on a lark for two weeks. I’ll be a supportive mom,’ and then low and behold you find 250 pounds later that your kids have more energy, their skin is better, and you’re reversing lifestyle diseases.

SI: You know, here we’re living the standard American life. We’re getting older, we get bigger, we get sicker. Isn’t that the way we think this goes? Well, I’m here to tell people that’s not the way it goes!

EA: Yeah, I say that all the time, too. You are here to take back your health.

People think this is sort of a rite of passage. We get older, so we get sick. No, it does not have to be that way. In fact, you can take back not just your health but your youth. I mean I’ve always had a lot of energy, but in many ways, I felt like, “Oh my gosh, I’ve got this newfound lightning bolt in my step, but my health had been kept from me.”

SI: It really was, it really was. Nobody told me about this, nobody explained I could be eating all that I want. I didn’t have to restrict, I didn’t have to count, I didn’t have to measure, I didn’t have to weigh. This was glorious. We were waking up every day and the scale was actually moving, and it didn’t stop. It’s like (eating plants) took us to where we should be.

EA: Naturally, which is what I love.

For the full interview, click here.

Elysabeth Alfano is a plant-based business consultant and helps people transition to a plant-based diet. Follow her @ElysabethAlfano on all platforms.

The post How One Family Lost 250 Pounds and Reversed Disease By Going Plant-Based appeared first on The Beet.

Elysabeth: Please, for the record, give us your top tips for where to get your protein.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

Austin Aries: Number one, don’t worry about where you get your protein.

1. Don’t Worry, Just Eat Real Food

Austin Aries: The vast majority of us who aren’t pro-athletes or tearing our bodies down and trying to rebuild them are getting plenty of protein in our daily diet. So, I think we need to look at protein as no more or less important than our carbohydrates, our fats, our fiber, our micronutrients.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

Protein is just one of the important components to a healthy diet. It’s not the most important.  So, I think, especially for guys, we’ve been really driven home this idea that protein is this ultimate [macro] calorie that puts on lean muscle mass, and the more we consume of it the more muscles we get, and it’s just not true. So that’s tip number one, stop worrying so much about your protein.

Editors’ Note: Most people get more protein than they need. See our story about how much protein is the right amount for you.

2. Add It Up. It All Adds Up

Little amounts of protein in a bunch of foods add up to an adequate amount of protein [in the course of a day]. So, you don’t have to get twenty grams of protein from one source. If you can get three grams here, five grams here, six grams here, before you know it you’ve got your twenty.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

A couple of my favorite protein sources: Nutritional yeast, which has three grams of protein per tablespoon. Put three tablespoons on your pasta and you just added an extra 9 to 10 grams of protein. Hulled hemp seeds do the same thing: Three tablespoons equals 10 grams of protein. So, you start looking for these little sources that you can add to your dishes. Before you know it, you’re hitting your 20 or 25 grams which is more than enough per meal.

Editor’s Note: Check out this list of seeds with the most protein per serving. Seeds add up.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

3. Variety Is the Protein of Life

Next: don’t worry about complete protein sources. You know we hear a lot about, ‘Oh, it’s not a complete protein.’ I had this argument once with a bodybuilder and he’s going back and forth saying, ‘Yeah, but bro, it’s not a complete protein.’

It doesn’t matter unless you’re only eating the same protein source day in and day out.  Your body breaks down proteins and, I like to say, it makes a little amino acid soup and then as it needs these proteins to build your muscles it takes what it needs, and it builds the blocks. So as long as you’re eating variety, you’re going to have complete proteins.

So, don’t worry about it coming as a complete protein from one source.  Just make sure you’re eating a bunch of different sources of protein and you’ll be fine.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

4. To Supplement Or Not To Supplement? Get The Facts

Don’t be afraid of supplements. Sometimes, it’s not easy, especially if you are an athlete or you are someone who needs more protein intake than regular, and you can’t always necessarily get it from food.  So, don’t be afraid of using a protein supplement.

However, be mindful that not all protein supplements are made equal and that some of the highest contaminants come from plant-based protein sources. Heavy metal contaminants if you look, by and large, are a lot of our plant-based protein supplements because it’s being sourced from rice and from these things that are very highly contaminated?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

So, make sure you’re checking what kind of protein supplements you’re using. That’s why, I’m not trying to show for it, but I like Purium because they’re one of the only supplement companies I know of that test for heavy metals in all their supplements. So that gives me peace of mind that I know I’m not ingesting a bunch of toxins with my protein.

5. Protein Up Your Pasta

Focus on your micronutrients and focus on your overall calories, and if you focus on those things you should be hitting your protein source…unless you’re just eating Oreos and Iceberg lettuce all day, then you’ve got a bigger issue than protein going on.

One of my favorites too, again I’m gluten-free, so I don’t eat regular pasta.  I eat chickpea and lentil pasta which has about three times the amount of protein as your normal pasta, and fewer carbohydrates and it has fiber. And really, it’s not a noticeable difference at all. So, I encourage everybody: that’s an easy switch that all of a sudden two to three-fold [of protein] in your pasta meal by just making that change.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

Editor’s Note: How to bulk up or lean down on a plant-based diet depends on calories.

6. Protein Comes From…Um, Food!

The last one I have is, don’t ask other people where they get their protein from. We get it from food. Stop asking, it’s annoying.

Elysabeth: Yes, eat! I’ll say: Stop asking ‘Where do you get your protein from?’ and start asking, ‘Where you do get your fiber from?’ Fiber is the most important thing since you can’t be healthy without fiber.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

7. Quality Soy Is Not Scary

Austin Aries: I need to mention here, too. Guys, don’t be afraid of soy. It’s not going to give you boobs.  It’s not going to raise your estrogen levels.  If that were the case, I’d probably have some thirty-six Double Ds at this point in my life. I’ve eaten a lot of soy and I’m still very manly. But again, be mindful of what soy source you choose. Overly processed soy, soy byproducts are not as good for you as whole foods. Get some sprouted organic soy.  But if you’re going to choose your Tempeh or your tofu, [or your soybeans], you’ll be just fine.

Editor’s Note: Soy is safe for men and women who fear breast cancer, since phytoestrogen in soy, does not act like actual estrogen in the body. In fact, soy appears to lower levels of estrogen, studies show.

For the full interview, click here.

Elysabeth Alfano is a plant-based business journalist covering plant-based health, food, culture, business, and environmental news. Follow her @ElysabethAlfano on all platforms.

The post Where Do You Get Your Protein on a Plant-Based Diet, From a Pro Wrestler appeared first on The Beet.

For Garg, as time went on, the big bucks weren’t enough to keep his interest in the financial world and he was tired of having his career exist outside of his values, which included a respect for nature and animals.  According to Garg, he thought he could be the most impactful in the world if he built something that allowed him to live by his principles every day.  “That’s the life I wanted,” he explains.

He launched the abillionveg app, which allows people to review and share plant-based menu items, packaged foods, and cruelty-free consumer products to one another. The goal is to make it fun and easy to find vegan and cruelty-free choices, and encourage people to support each other on their journey to living more sustainably. “People don’t even need to be 100% vegan. They could just want to have a life more aligned with sustainability,” he says. The app’s tag line is Social Media for Social Good.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

Still a businessman at heart, Garg notes that future revenue opportunities are huge.  “We are building a global ecosystem. We connect businesses to consumers, and we connect consumers to each other. We also have a B2B element that helps companies identify peers they can do business with around the globe.” Cha-Ching!

Even better, Vikas wanted to create something that helps the planet and animals.  “I wanted to help people close this gap from where being sustainable feels like a sacrifice, to where being sustainable is just doing the right thing and the best thing for one’s health, the health of the planet, and for animals.”  In addition to helping make a plant-based lifestyle easier, more accessible, and entertaining, abillionveg app donates $1 for every review to animal sanctuaries and conservation charities around the world.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

Like all of us, Garg wasn’t born vegan but he did start out vegetarian.  Part of his rationale for building the abillionveg app is that he wanted to help people through the transition to living more plant-based. “I’ve been raised vegetarian since birth,” Vikas told me. “Sometime in 2008, I started transitioning to eating vegan. It wasn’t easy. Despite being vegetarian, cutting out dairy, cheese and eggs were hard, especially because it felt like I had far fewer options when  dining out.”  With the abillionveg app, he wanted to make the switch easier and fun for others, so they didn’t have to feel there was a major sacrifice involved.  In reviewing products and sharing reviews, consumers let their community know what tasty options are nearby, so eating plant-based becomes more of a discovery and quest for the best food experience, and an exercise of abundance, rather than of sacrifice.

Here is a snippet and video from my long-form Awesome Vegans Influencer Series Interview with Vikas Garg.

Elysabeth: Do you see the world going plant-based?

Vikas Garg: I think that it’s going to be nuanced, but I think the direction is very strong for sustainability. The new generation of consumers-the next generation of consumers, anybody who’s under the age of twenty to twenty-five, has grown up in a world where they’ve been surrounded by this new sort-of counter-trend: this new trend toward sustainability.

When they’re going out to buy their next car, they’re going to buy an electric car, right?  Or maybe they’re not even going to buy a car. They don’t need to buy a car anymore because they grew up in a generation of Uber.  So, they’re not going to buy a car and they’re going to take shared transportation or public transportation, right? And I think that this, in a way, is analogous to so many different things.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

Vegan options are not going to be that funky weird thing on the menu, but what we’re trying to do is really say (to restaurants with our abillionveg app is), “Hey, your vegan option needs to be the best thing on the menu. The sustainable option needs to be the tastiest and the most delicious, the most fun, and colorful and interesting thing on the menu.”  And people are going to grow up in an environment where choosing vegan is sexy and it’s trendy and fun, and it’s interesting and it’s delicious.

And you know buying something- buying a car that doesn’t have leather seats is more luxurious and interesting. And buying, you know, shoes that aren’t made out of leather is more interesting. And why would you buy cosmetics that have the shell of an insect ground up inside of your lipstick or use tissues from sharks in your mascara or any of these different things, right? Like, that’s just not cool.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by

Elysabeth: What are your Top Five Tips for Going Plantbased?

Vikas Garg:

1. The more colors on your plate the better you’ll feel. And no, I’m not talking about ketchup!
2. Carbs are great! Like anything, it shouldn’t be everything on your plate, but whole food grains like quinoa and rice and beans and avocados…what could be better?  And they are filling, so load up!
3. Some of my favorite things like pizza and Indian food are surprisingly light and more delicious without animal ingredients. You can eat them and not feel like you have set yourself back and now suddenly need to take a nap.  So, enjoy these treats so you will never feel like you are missing out.
4. Don’t get frustrated if you make mistakes. It’s going to happen. You’d be surprised at how much stuff has dairy in it.  As you get more and more comfortable reading labels, you will see whey pop up everywhere and soon be able to navigate around it.  Until then, don’t sweat the small stuff, keep moving in the right direction.
5. Be positive and proud of your choices. You’re living life with values and purpose! What could feel better, both mentally and physically, than that?

Elysabeth:  What trends are you seeing?

Vikas: It’s really encouraging to see that people, even if they are already vegetarian or pescatarian, are looking to reduce their consumption of meat and dairy. People are more aware of the health hazards of meat, such as the [health impact of] antibiotics, hormones or steroids that are injected into animals.

In the more affluent markets, there is also a greater awareness of the environmental toll of our food choices and our food supply system. In addition, we see people increasingly concerned about the concept of social justice and the true cost of our actions, particularly since Covid, whether it’s from a human and social perspective, or the plight of animals.

Veganism is so much more than a trend, he finds, as more people embrace plant-based foods.  With the help of the consumer-friendly abillionveg app, he hopes that businesses will be able to connect with consumers better and move even faster toward introducing more plant-based options to satisfy growing demand.

For the full interview, click here.

Elysabeth Alfano is a plant-based expert for mainstream media, breaking down the plant-based health, food, culture, business and environmental news for the general public on radio and TV. Follow her @elysabethalfano on all platforms.

The post This App Connects Consumers to Vegan, Cruelty-Free and Sustainable Foods appeared first on The Beet.