Veganism is an enormous topic encompassing nutrition, animal protection, food politics, and more. In this short piece I’ll introduce the concept and explain why it’s easy and sensible to embrace.

The word vegan wasoriginally defined as a diet free of meat, dairy products, and eggs. The term now also refers to any item, from shoes to shampoo, made without animal products.

Vegan diets offer compelling advantages on several fronts. They keep farm animals out of slaughterhouses and factory farms. Choosing vegan foods can also benefit your health and protect the environment.

A careful examination of thereasons to go vegan is well worth your time. But our objective right now is to quickly cover the basics. So let’s keep moving.

People of every age thrive on vegan food. The most rigorous assessment of the healthfulness of vegan diets is documented by a position paper published by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The authors determined that, “Vegan and vegetarian diets can provide significant health benefits compared with non-vegetarian diets.”

Vegan diets can even support elite levels of physical fitness. In fact, some of the world’s top athletes eat vegan. If a primarily vegan diet works for Tom Brady and Serena Williams, it can work for you. Going vegan offers a marvelous opportunity to upgrade your eating habits. For expert guidance on proper diet planning see our vegan nutrition primer.

You need never fall short on any particular nutrient. If required, a few supplements can cheaply and reliably close any gaps. Our vegan vitamins guide will help you make informed purchases.

In addition to proper nutrition, good health requires sufficient physical activity. Our lazy person’s fitness guide will get you off the sofa.

Switching to a vegan diet requires remarkably little effort. Our guide to going vegan lays out how to make the transition.

Here’s its most important lesson: Don’t emphasize cutting animal-based foods out of your diet. Instead, crowd them out by constantly discovering vegan foods you prefer.

If you want to rid our diet of animal products, your main task involves trying several new vegan foods each week. The more foods you try, the faster you’ll progress. So, ideally, try at least one new vegan item every day.

Vegans enjoy an abundance of flavorful food choices. Everywhere you look, you’ll find more vegan foods to try.

The easiest option is, of course, ready-to-eat foods. Sure, some of these foods are unhealthy indulgences. But you’ve got plenty of wonderfully healthy choices too. Please check out our long list of the worlds easiest vegan foods.

Sandwiches occupy a mid-point between convenience foods and actual cooking. You can make vegan sandwiches in thousands of healthy varieties. Buy large whole-grain tortillas and you can also turn any sandwich idea into a wrap.

Going vegan doesn’t mean giving up favorites like burgers, cream cheese, or yogurt. Dozens of companies make delicious vegan versions of these foods. The same goes for desserts. Vegan ice creams are marvelous and sold everywhere. And the best brownie and the best cookie I’ve ever eaten were both vegan.

If you enjoy alcohol, many of the world’s best wines and beers are vegan. And the vast majority of distilled spirits are vegan too.

You can master the basics of vegan cooking in no time. Just read our vegan cooking guide.

Many vegan meals take just minutes to prepare. Your first vegan cookbook should specialize in quick and easy recipes. You can later move on to more sophisticated meals.

As your cooking skills develop, your options increase. You can choose from hundreds of vegan cookbooks that collectively cover every conceivable cooking niche. Consider buying one specifically devoted to your favorite cuisine.

You can also go deep into any branch of vegan cooking that interests you. Maybe it’s desserts or Instant Pot recipes. There are even cookbooks focused entirely on vegan meats and cheeses.

Once vegan cooking becomes second nature, why not commit to going vegan at home? This move requires practically no effort, since you have total control over which foods you bring into your kitchen. Yet this simple commitment puts you a giant step closer to going entirely vegan.

Eating out lets you discover all sorts of exciting new dishes. Vegans have countless excellent restaurant choices. No matter where you live or visit, chances are theres great vegan food near you. Thousands of vegan and vegetarian restaurants exist worldwide. Dining out is a joy when the entire menu is vegan.

Many non-vegetarian restaurants work hard to please vegans, and offer superb vegan dishes. These places often label their vegan menu items, which makes ordering easy.

Lebanese and Israeli cooking is especially vegan-friendly. These restaurants serve outrageously good falafel, hummus, and salads. Italian and Ethiopian restaurants also offer a variety of enticing vegan meals.

If you travel abroad, you can get sensational vegan restaurant food unlike anything available at home. Thats doubly true if you seek out the countrys favorite vegan dishes.

On top of all this, vegan fast food is everywhere. That’s a big change from just a few years ago. Most of the top chains now feature delicious vegan items.

People define the word vegan in all sorts of reasonable and unreasonable ways. Heres our pragmatic take on how to most effectively define and use this term.