Replace your Plant Based Products

Many times, it seems like we need to choose between our health and our enjoyment of food. I was never satisfied with picking one or the other, so I have gone through ingredient lists and products time and time again to find healthy and simple versions of my favorite foods.

It seems silly to me that the food industry is constantly overcomplicating foods that nature has provided to us since the beginning of time. I myself fell prey to the marketing and guilt tripping into buying ALL of these products... You're not alone!

I wanted to provide a follow up to my last blog, Is "Plant Based" Really Healthier? - So here are some simple, healthy, whole food alternatives to popular food products to keep your nutrition simple, nutritive, and delicious like nature intended!

Swap your vegan buttery spread, margarine, and other hydrogenated oils for:

Grass Fed Butter- good quality butter is very rich in nutrients like calories, fat, vitamin A, omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin K2, beta-carotene, linoleic acid, etc. Butter is minimally processed, especially compared to other butter alternatives which are highly processed and don’t contain as many nutrients.
Coconut Oil- while grass fed butter is the best option for a buttery spread, some people are sensitive to dairy. If that is you, I have found using salted and seasoned coconut oil to be a great dairy free alternative for butter. Because coconuts are high in fat and it can be extracted via cold press, coconut oil is a minimally processed oil option that still has that buttery texture.
Bacon Fat / other tallow- save your Sunday bacon grease to use as butter throughout the week! It is solid at room temperature, spreads like butter, and is already salted. Another great dairy free option.

Swap your highly processed milks for:

Raw Milk!- believe it or not, dairy is not the devil. The problem is that our conventional dairy comes from cows kept in poor conditions, being fed a diet they aren’t meant to eat, being injected with steroids and hormones and antibiotics. Then the milk is boiled, killing many of the beneficial properties and reducing it down to essentially sugar water. Raw milk from grass fed cows, however, contains much more nutrients and enzymes to help us break down and digest the dairy.
Low temp pasteurized grass fed milk- because raw milk is hard to come by, this is the closest thing you can find commercially. It still contains more of the nutrients than other conventional milks. I like Kalona SuperNatural Organic Milk
Simple ingredient nut/oat milks like MALK (or homemade!)- as we know, many commercial dairy free milks are filled with thickeners, inflammatory oils, low quality fortifications, preservatives, and other additives. If you are sensitive to dairy but still want a better quality option, look for milks with only a few simple ingredients- the nut/oat, water, and maybe some salt. MALK has great additive free options.

Swap your vegan / meatless options for:

Real Meat!– unfortunately, the food product industry has demonized real foods like animal products (because they can’t be patented therefore there’s not enough money to be made). Coincidentally, they are heavily pushing meat alternatives which can be patented. The long list of low quality ingredients is enough for me to avoid these products. Meat, on the other hand, has one ingredient. It is minimally processed, and it is some of the most nutrient dense food on the planet! It is the most absorbable form of protein, & the most docile in terms of digestive health.
Homemade / minimally processed vegan options- I don’t recommend a vegan diet in the context of total health. I do, however, support those who do it for their own moral and spiritual beliefs. Homemade bean and veggie burgers without all of the oils, preservatives, and other additives are a much better option than the highly processed and packaged commercial options.

At the end of the day, animal products are a great source of absorbable nutrients, and it is counterintuitive to cut them out of your diet in the name of health. For the longest time, I feared animal products and everything that went into my body. I was overwhelmed, misguided, bloated, and broke. Now that I have learned that eating what nature has given us is the best thing we can do for our health, I have healed my messy relationship with food as well as many of the ailments I was experiencing before -(anemia, IBS, acne, etc.).

The problem isn’t the “fat”, the “meat”, the “dairy”, the “carbs”… the problem is the quality. Buy better quality versions of your favorite foods!