It is believed that Russian northern cuisine is not adapted to vegetarianism. Nevertheless, veganism and vegetarianism are becoming more and more popular.
Social surveys show, the number of Russians who have given up eating meat is in the hundreds of thousands. The dynamics are increasing, especially for the most "strict" category - vegans. There are 1.5 times more of them every year.
For the Russian market, vegetarian and vegan products are no longer a rarity. Every year there is an increasing demand for vegetarian products in supermarkets, and new vegan establishments are opening. For example, in Moscow alone, a restaurant search engine gives 194 options, among which are both profile vegetarian establishments and places where the menu has a corresponding section.
But St. Petersburg can safely be called the vegan capital of Russia. It surpasses Moscow in the number of vegan places! At the same time, the city inspires with its example also the regions - Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod and even Muslim Kazan.
In addition to specialized stores, appropriate goods appear on the shelves of conventional supermarkets.
The menus of cafes and restaurants include not only salads, but also burgers with potato, soy, chickpea and other "non-meat" cutlets. Items and products are increasingly being labeled with the appropriate labels to make it easier for vegetarians and vegans to navigate the list of dishes.
And Russia also has its own mobile app which identifies vegan products by barcode, because, after all, even products marked "lean" are sometimes not suitable for vegans.
Happy World Vegan Day 🌿❤️✨
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By choosing veganism, we recognize that animals are not ours to use or consume, and we take a stand against cruelty and exploitation by abstaining from its products and practices. Because animals are friends — not food.
#Repost from @lindamccartneyfoods with @ming.app . It's #WorldVeganDay 🌱 ⠀ ⠀ 🎉We're celebrating by looking back at some of your amazing vegan creations with Linda McCartney's products. Swipe to see! 👉⠀ ⠀ How will you be enjoying World Vegan Day?⠀ ⠀ Tag us in your photos to be featured!⠀ ⠀ #vegan #vegansofig #veganism #worldvegan #veganday #veganfood #veganrecipes ⠀ ⠀ Photos by: @ainecarlin @what_hannah_ate @jencooksplants @myvegandiary87 @kingcookdaily @glutenfreealice @eatwithroses https://www.instagram.com/p/B4U4xALhmCb/?igshid=1tug0pm3y14p3
A year has passed since the beginning of my experiment.
I can say it was the most productive year of my life. And the experiment gave me some unexpected results, though unnoticeable at first.
I turned to vegan lifestyle a year ago, on October 1.
Even when I was a vegetarian, I had heard a lot of stories about how hard it was to be a vegan, how limited vegetable food was, and how bloggers return to vegetarianism or even meat. But none of these bloggers could give real reasons or evidence that vegetable nutrition is not effective for athletes, is detrimental or harmful to health. These people took veganism as a diet, at the same time spreading stories about the everlasting lack of vitamin B12 for everyone who denies meat. They wanted to lose weight by going vegan or pursued religious goals, which led to disappointment for many of them.
Personally I made this decision for other reasons. Many years of vegetarianism soothed my conscience. I wasn’t very interested in the news about farms. I didn’t know exactly how dairy products are made, how poultry farms work. I didn’t seriously think about the effect such nutrition makes to my body. I was sure that milk and eggs are rich sources of nutrients, and for some reason cow or goat milk is just perfect for human food. It seemed to be something like a healing elixir, discovered after examining nature. I thought that it was possible to eat dairy products if animals were kept in ethical conditions, such as, for example, beloved cows in villages.
But is it really possible? The crucial information for me was the truth about the catastrophic ecological effect of animal agriculture and the point of no return on the consumption of Earth resources. In 2017, on August 2, we had exhausted the yearly resources of the Earth. Making humans vegan is one of the main solutions to this problem.
I revised my diet and replaced my old habits with new ones.
I no longer eat my favorite cheese and drink cocktails with cow's milk, but I eat a lot of seitan, lentils, tofu, mushrooms and soy, which is no less tasty, but just different. I have chosen for myself the ideal options of vegetable milk. I have a favorite milk brand. In the mornings I continue to eat so-called smoothie bowls, but with slightly different ingredients. I continue to drink my favorite cocoa. Well, I don’t eat milk porridge now, but I don’t miss it either. I don’t regret parting with pizza.
Definitely my diet has become healthier and much more diverse. I didn’t gain weight this year and didn’t lose much weight, but I didn’t go to gym as much as before. Outwardly, I wouldn’t say I noticed any serious changes. I eat as much and as tasty as before, tried a bunch of new flavors and products. I expected my skin to be perfectly smooth. I expected that I would shine and heal from all diseases. Perhaps there should be more time for impressive and striking changes. I understand that there can be no miracles in a disgustingly dirty city and with my quite chaotic working schedule.
But there was something that surprised me a lot.
I got rid of a long-standing problem torturing me from my childhood. Given that, at a conscious age, I began to visit doctors and persistently look for the cause. I have a whole range of gastrointestinal diagnoses, and I was tormented by bloating, despite the relatively healthy lifestyle. I rarely drank, did not smoke, tried to adhere to the correct diet and sports, and regularly treated seasonal disorders. But the problem resumed. In 4 months from the beginning of veganism, my stomach became soft and did not bother me anymore. I can’t say what was the exact reason, since I also had to adjust the portions. But it seems that my issue was precisely in animal proteins and fats.I did not have such problems with vegetable food, regardless of its complexity. Mushrooms, legumes - everything is digested well.
Most unexpected result of becoming vegan is that I stopped catching colds in autumn and winter. Although before my veganism I could get sick in May, and in September, it was enough to shudder a bit or talk to sick people. I caught cold several times during the autumn-winter-spring season all my life, as I can remember. Always took day off from kindergarten and school, then endured colds on the run or lay at home for weeks. My most amazing result - I haven’t got ill this year at all!
Small nice bonus - I became lighter and faster. I became less tired. It doesn’t feel as if you yanked a giant cup of coffee or an energy drink. Just after a long period, you notice how physical activity became more bearable, how much more energy you have, you even take the stress relatively easier. And it’s not my body eating itself because of alleged protein lack, as some coaches believe. My body always has something to chew on - I won’t ever deprive myself of food.
I assume my immune system has somehow improved, and I no longer need to go to an immunologist to solve unsolvable problems. I don’t have to take several types of antibiotics for obscure chronic disorders, and then immunomodulators to help my body cope with the aftermath.
Surely, food doesn’t fix all the issues. We all should take tableted vitamins and microelements periodically, because no diet in the world can provide the perfect delivery of substances. But nutrition as the basis of life decides a lot. In the near future, I am going to pass control tests and check my blood for important microelements’ volumes.
At this stage, I feel good and find logic in all my reasons for becoming vegan. If I have health problems, I will look for causes in other areas, adjust my diet with a wide variety and the right combination of plant foods. And now it’s hard for me to imagine that I would return to eating animal products. Let's see how healthy and energetic I will be in a few years and whether I can avoid chronic meat-eating diseases.
World Vegan Month is celebrated around the world as a time to recognize how far the vegan movement has come, reflect on our successes, learn from mistakes, and to highlight how accessible and beneficial a vegan lifestyle is.
