Going vegan is easy nowadays. You will find a wide range of vegan essentials in supermarkets, health and whole-food shops. In fact, you will probably be eating a wider variety of foods than you did before. You will be buying things like vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, tofu, beans, grains, seitan, tempeh as well as dairy alternatives such as oat, almond or soya milk, vegan yoghurt and, possibly, some vegan meat alternatives.

You will be cooking more and preparing more food from scratch. You will find a wide variety of recipe websites and blogs if you do a Google search, and there are hundreds of vegan recipe books available to buy.

Remember that everything you have been eating up to now can be created or bought as a vegan version. It is just a matter of finding the right recipe or product. Here are some things you could be eating as a vegan:

Spaghetti Bolognese, fruit smoothies, full Irish breakfast, falafel salad, pizza, hummus, tofu curry, soups, nut roast, quiche, lasagne, raw fruit crumble, ice cream, lentil curry, macaroni cheese, vegetable biryani, chickpea burgers, nut burgers, salads, sausage rolls, omelette, vegetable and black bean burritos, tortillas and food from every culinary tradition.

There are a wide variety of plant-based milks in the supermarkets these days. You will find everything from soya to hemp milk and everything in between ­­— oat, coconut, rice, almond and so on. The same goes for cheese. Cheddar, cream cheese, pizza cheese and even halloumi are now available for vegans. You will also find a wide variety of vegan yoghurts.

Many people find that plant-based meat alternatives are useful, especially when they first go vegan. It is just a matter of replacing the meat in their favourite dishes with an alternative that tastes pretty much the same. While plant-based meats come under the heading of ‘processed foods’, some studies have found that they are marginally healthier than meat. They are also better for the environment and, of course, no animals were harmed or killed. The advice in relation to processed foods — for any type of diet — is to keep them to a minimum.

For the original founders of the vegan movement, human health was not a top priority. However, we now know that a vegan diet — if based solely on whole foods — can be one of the healthiest diets in the world. Numerous clinical studies have shown that a whole-food, plant-based diet can help prevent diseases like cancer and heart disease, help promote a healthy weight and offer numerous other benefits.

The T. Colin Campbell Centre for Nutrition Studies has an excellent guide to whole-food, plant-based nutrition, and you will also find some great recipes. There are also many books, websites and blogs where you can find more information about this diet.

Many products are ‘naturally vegan’. This means they may not be labelled as ‘vegan’, but they contain no animal-derived products and have not been tested on animals.

Some common non-vegan ingredients include:

• Beeswax
• Casein (a protein that comes from milk)
• Carmine (made from crushed insects)
• Gelatin (produced from animal bones)
• Lactose (made from milk, however, Lactic acid is nearly always vegan)
• Lanolin (made from sheep’s wool)
• Natural flavourings (may or may not be animal-derived although the packaging usually does not specify)
• Vitamin D3 (can be derived from sheep’s wool, but this is not always stated on the packaging)
• Whey (dairy product)

You will find a full list of non-vegan substances on our web page.

Some alcoholic beverages use animal products such as egg or bone char in their production process. To find out if a particular drink is vegan, the Barnivore website is useful.

Protein is found in nearly all foods in varying amounts. Foods that are high in protein include tofu, tempeh, seitan, lentils, beans, chickpeas, nuts, chia seeds and hemp seeds.

Calcium is found in many foods, including almonds, olives, kale, kidney beans, chickpeas, brazil nuts, bok choy, broccoli, blackcurrants and oranges, and many plant-based milks are also fortified with calcium.

Good sources of iron include dark leafy vegetables, pulses, wholemeal bread and flour, dried fruit, sesame seeds and tahini.

Vitamin B12

Vegans are advised to take a vitamin B12 supplement. It is the only nutrient that cannot be reliably sourced on a vegan diet. Good B12 supplements include the Vegan Society’s VEG 1 and the Vegetology vegan range. The B12 in these supplements is made from cultured bacteria.

While there is some evidence that B12 can be produced by plants, supplements and fortified foods are currently the only proven reliable sources for vegans.

B12 fortified foods include some plant-based milks, vegan spreads, nutritional yeast flakes, yeast extracts and some breakfast cereals.

When baking, you need to avoid eggs, dairy, honey and non-vegan food colouring. Plant-based butter and milk are widely available and can be used in baking for perfect results. Agave or maple syrup can be substituted for honey. Bananas, flax seed, applesauce, aquafaba, yoghurt, silken tofu or a commercial egg replacer can be substituted for eggs. Vegan cream is also available at supermarkets and health shops. Coconut milk can be whipped to form a thick cream.

If you have never cooked with tofu, tempeh, seitan, chickpeas, beans or lentils before, here is a guide to preparing them.

If you buy a lot of meat and dairy analogues such as plant-based meats, cheese and vegan convenience foods you may find that they are generally more expensive than meat and dairy. (This is because the meat and dairy industry is heavily subsidised, making these foods artificially lower in price.) However, a vegan diet can be the least expensive way to eat if you avoid processed foods and stick to healthy foods such as beans, chickpeas, lentils, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds and fruit, and prepare your food yourself.

Many restaurants, cafes and hotels all over Ireland provide vegan options or a vegan menu. You can find a list of vegan-friendly restaurants in Ireland, and all over the world, on the Happy Cow app and on the Irish Vegan website. You could also join the Facebook group ‘Vegan Dining Out (Ireland)’.

There are two things to look out for with toiletries, cosmetics and cleaning products. Firstly, they must be cruelty-free, which means the product and its ingredients were not tested on animals.

Secondly, they should not contain any animal-derived ingredients.

Some manufacturers put a ‘vegan’ label on their product when, in fact, it may have been tested on animals. It is always best to do your own research. Look out for obvious ingredients, such as tallow, gelatin, beeswax, carmine, collagen (can be animal-derived), lanolin, retinol (can be animal-derived), lactic acid (can be animal-derived) and squalene (can be animal-derived).

Vegan shoes can be purchased online. Some shops have vegan shoe collections where the shoes are marked vegan. The symbols on shoes indicate what material each part of the shoe is made from.

When buying clothes, you should avoid wool, silk, suede and leather.

When purchasing bedding, always ensure that no down (i.e. poultry feathers) was used.

For more support and to meet like-minded individuals, join our Facebook group, or one of the many other vegan Facebook groups around Ireland.