Want To Ditch Meat? Tips And Tricks On How To Convert To A Plant-Based Diet

Presser

3 years ago

Here are some tips to convert to a plant-based diet.

So this article is going to be coming to you from a personal perspective, as I have been plant based for over 5 years now and prior to that was practicing keto on and off.

Now my biggest concern prior to considering plant based was, ‘so what do I eat?’ and ‘what is my protein source going to be?’

As If It doesn’t come from meat, eggs, poultry and dairy then where will it come from?

Well I would essentially be getting the protein from the same place the animals get theirs from, plants. (among other things)

So today I am going to be giving you a breakdown to alternative plant based options which are readily available, and making sure you don’t die of protein deficiency …

Protein Comparison

Tofu Scramble Instead Of Scrambled Eggs

Per 100g

So let’s begin by breaking it down with eggs.

One of the alternatives to eggs is tofu, as it’s a great source of protein and low in carbs too and can be scrambled.

	Scrambled Tofu	Scrambled Eggs
Calories	102.7	113.4
Fat	7.7g	7.5g
Carbs	2.7g	0.6g
Protein	7.5g	10g

Eggs snatches the win on the protein front but tofu is not far behind and actually has less calories.

Steak v Ground Beef v Seitan v Tempeh v Impossible Burger Beyond Ground Beef

Per 100g

Let’s get to the meat of the matter, red meat! Take a look at the comparisons below:

	Steak	Ground Beef	Seitan	Tempeh	Impossible	Beyond ground beef
	AP	AP	PB	PB	PB	PB
Calories	218	274.1	153.8	196.4	213.6	218.8
Fat	10.8g	17.8g	3.5g	11.4g	12.5g	15.8g
Carbs	0.5g	0g	7.1g	7.9g	8g	2.6g
Protein	28.1g	27.6g	26g	20g	16.g	17.5g

AP – Animal Product

PB – Plant Based

As you can see seitan comes lowest for calories, and lowest for fat content. Ground beef takes the lowest carb content and by not much steak takes the highest protein content. But as you can see the plant based options for seitan and tempeh boast a very high protein content per 100g.

Now let’s turn our attention to dairy.

Milk v Oat Milk v Cashew Milk v Soy Milk v Hemp Milk v Almond Milk v Coconut Milk

Per 1 Cup (244g)

	Cow’s MIlk (full fat)	Cow’s Milk (1%)	Oat Milk	Cashew Milk	Soy Milk	Almond Milk	Hemp Milk	Pea Milk
	AP	AP	PB	PB	PB	PB	PB	PB
Calories	122	102	140	25	100	30	50	100
Fat	4.8g	2.4g	7g	2g	4.5g	2.5g	5g	4.5g
Carbs	12g	12g	11g	1g	9g	1g	1g	6g
Protein	8.1g	8.2g	8g	0.5	8g	1g	2g	8g

Plant-Based Milk With Additional Protein

So if protein is what you really desire then there are plant based options available with additional protein.

	Orgain Milk Almond Organic Unsweetened	Silk Unsweet Almond & Cashew Protein	Silk Unsweet Ultra Plant-Based Protein Drink	EdenSoy Unsweetened Organic Soy Milk
Calories	80	110	180	120
Fat	3.5g	7g	9g	6g
Carbs	4g	2g	5g	4g
Protein	10g	10g	20g	12g

Cheese v Nutritional Yeast

28g

I know cheese is addictive for many people out there and is very difficult to give up but a great protein filled alternative is Nutritional Yeast

The reason I didn’t select a plant based cheese alternative is that many plant based cheeses lack the protein content required so nutritional yeast is a great option.

	Cheese	Nutritional Yeast
Calories	115	92.4
Fat	9,4g	2g
Carbs	0.9g	10.4g
Protein	6.5g	12.5g

As you can see Nutritional Yeast, other than having more carbs has less calories, fat and also has more protein per 28g (approx 3.3 tbsp).

Chicken v Tempeh

100g

Now let’s look at chicken, I am going to compare it to tempeh which we also looked at earlier. I could compare to a faux chicken but I wanted to compare to a purer food source

	Chicken	Tempeh
Calories	221.9	196.4
Fat	13.1g	11.4g
Carbs	0g	7.9g
Protein	23.7g	20g

So tempeh is lower in calories and in fat, but chicken has less carbs and just a tad more protein. But Tempeh has a considerable amount of protein per 100g also

So as you can see we have covered quite a bit but this is merely scratching the surface.

If you are considering going plant based use this as a guide but also experiment and do your research, go to the store and look at labels, it may surprise you as to which items are also accidentally plant based