I’ll start: some years ago, a medical professional recommended I take a daily omega-3 supplement. What I got naturally was fish oil capsules, and these of course had the nutrients I needed. So problem solved. But not only did these make me queasy, they also (I’m so sorry for this imagery for those who’ve never had these) gave “fish burps”. Basically, after ingesting them, they can (and for me consistently did) give you these nasty, tic-like burps that taste like you let a fish decay in a bucket for three days and drank that water.
This goes on for a while until the I realize that they sell “burpless” fish oil. The day was saved, and I went home with a new lease on life. Well, until I tried it and I realized that it’s not so much “burp-less” as it is “burp-lite”. It just reduced the severity of the symptoms but meant I still felt slightly sick and could still have those nauseating burps. I eventually gave up on it because even just one stray burp felt that gross.
Later on, I went vegetarian (I’m now vegan), and although at that point I had plenty of ALA in my diet, I decided to look back into an omega-3 supplement as a precaution since my diet had shifted so dramatically. Of course fish was out of the question, so I looked into alternatives and landed on flaxseed oil capsules. These were more expensive per capsule, but I felt that they made up for it by having 1.6x the omega-3 per capsule. Taking one for the first time, I felt 100% normal. No upset stomach, no burps, no weird fish taste (in fact, if you crack open the capsule, the oil is quite bland). It worked flawlessly. At that time I didn’t avoid the gelatin in the capsule as I would now, but you can find flaxseed oil in plant-based capsules for a slightly higher price from suppliers like Deva.
TL;DR: flaxseed oil supplements omega-3 without nasty side effects like fish oil capsules. It just works, and I wish I’d known about it so much sooner.
Seitan, in all its forms.
The other big thing was hitting up the Asian market for all the different styles of tofu
I wish I started just eating vegetables earlier. For the first year I think, I was eating lots of plant based meats. Honestly nowadays I’ll make pasta and curries without any plant based meat substitutes and it’s way better than trying to make a meat dish with a substitution. That said, Pie Society does a gangster plant based sausage rolls for something quick and easy and I swear by veggie delights’ chicken style patties for burgers
TVP has been a godsend as a ground beef replacer, and it is extremely cheap too. I only with I had discovered it earlier.
I dont care about alternatives. It just needed to click in my head.
But yeah, tofu with good seasoning rocks.
Chickpea salad sandwiches rock.
That’s a good question but hard to nail down. In terms of nutrition, I was in decent shape as an omnivore in my late teens, early twenties, but nutrition was miles away from any thoughts I had on my diet. And even then, back in the late 90s/turn of the millinea, most substitutes and otherwise interesting plant-based foods didn’t exist, had limited availability or were pretty rough (cheeses, burgers etc…). Best we had was Morningstar corn dogs, boca and tofutti slices.
I think Soy Curls were hitting the market up in Portland around that time (2k-ish), and that would have been mega when I was younger. But I was in Sac/San Diego at that time and distribution wasnt as widespread, or at least I hadn’t seen them. Though, now that I think of it, you could get big tvp chunks in 16oz bags at Trader Joe’s in that timeframe, so I guess that’s my primary answer.
That said, I suppose I would have loved to discover Sunflower Cafe in Fair Oaks (Sacramento CA area) earlier on before going vegan. The super nut-burgers are amazing and that might have driven me to joining the dark side a lot sooner.
Do you remember Veat? It was a fake chicken breast molded into a little chicken shaped tray, and it was incredible. I don’t think I saw it after 2003, but it was one of the first truly delicious meat substitutes. Besides riblets and corndogs.
I had totally forgotten about Veat. But you also reminded me about the Morningstar riblets. If those were around in the late eighties, early ninties, that would be my answer. It would have made me rethink the whole meat industry.
Of course the barbarisim and inefficiencies of meat/dairy production as a whole should be enough, but I wasn’t exactly the deepest thinker when I was younger.
is it possible to add flaxseed (or some other) oil to your diet instead of taking pills?
Yes. You could also just add ground flax to foods when preparing.
Yeah, this is what I do. It’s actually what I’ve done for decades, even before going vegan; I’ve always been allergic to seafood and nuts, so omegas are kinda hard for me to get.
Ground flax is great in a lot of things, morning oatmeal and soups are probably the big ones (though, does make is ‘gooey’, but for soups, does make ot similar to adding flour to thicken).
Whole flax seeds are better in stuff you don’t want ‘thickened’.
Just as a sort of PSA: You will get no omega acids from WHOLE flax seeds. You need to ground them up first! This should be done shortly before consuming as the ALA in the seeds tends to oxidize when exposed to air.
Tempeh and vegan cheese (specifically Wensleydale and cranberries) are what initially made me feel like I could easily go vegan. So those two. But also seitan, knowing how to make that is amazing.
