Memphis has great vegan food.

Seven days ago my father and I loaded up a Dodge Minivan with all of my worldly possessions and we set off across the country, driving from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco, California.

There are several routes you can take, the most common (and quickest according to Google Maps) is the northern route — through Chicago, then Nebraska and Utah and eventually to California.

I’ve driven several stretches of this route many, many times, so we opted to go the slightly longer Southern route.

This took us through the great state of Tennessee, across Arkansas, through Oklahoma, and criss-crossing the hot desert heat of New Mexico and Arizona.

While this route took us to states I’d never been and places I’d never seen, one thing I didn’t consider was that it was likely the far less “vegan friendly” route.

I mean — the South isn’t exactly known for their plant-based cuisine.

So how’d we do?

Let me just say that 2016 is a great time to be vegan. Through the assistance of the app Happy Cow, we had little trouble finding vegan food in any of the major cities we passed through. The smaller towns were tougher, however we got a nice assist from Yelp. So let’s take a look at what we were able to find out there on the open road:

Day 1: Washington, DC to Nashville, TN

Our first stop was a Greek cafe in Lexington, VA called “Niko’s Grille.” We found this spot with the Happy Cow app and it was a great first meal! They had listed on the menu a vegan sandwich that was super tasty. I always appreciate when a menu flat out labels something as vegan, no need to ask for special requests or how it was prepared!

For dinner we stopped in a tiny little Tennessee town, also at a place we found on the app. They had a separate vegan menu, a surprise for a town of less than 5,000 people! Delicious food too.

Day 2: Nashville, TN to Oklahoma City, OK

Imagine Cafe

For lunch we stopped in Memphis, Tennessee, a town known for their barbecue. Finding a vegan option felt like a tall order, but we ended up finding what was, for me at least, my favorite meal (and restaurant) of the entire trip!

The menu

I cannot recommend highly enough Imagine Cafe in Memphis, TN. A fully vegan restaurant, they made a killer vegan barbecue sandwich platter, and the atmosphere of the whole place was just awesome! This was the only fully vegan restaurant we found on the entire trip, and I can’t tell you how nice it is to have an entire menu to choose from. Definitely check this place out if you’re ever on your way through Memphis.

For dinner we leaned on Yelp to find us Happy Cafe in tiny little Henryetta, OK. I
ordered the orange tofu and the cook who made it personally came out to ask me how it was, I suspect because not many people in small town Oklahoma are ordering the tofu dish! Well she was pleased to learn that it was delicious!

Day 3: Oklahoma City, OK to Holbrook, AZ

We stopped in Amarillo, TX for lunch on day 3, and Happy Cow couldn’t find much for us, so we went with the old reliable, Chipotle, for lunch. One of my favorite restaurants, because not only is it delicious, but it’s uber easy to order vegan!

For dinner we stopped in Gallup, NM for our most interesting restaurant of the trip — an Indian restaurant at a truck stop! Not what I expected to find at a truck stop, but they were more than happy to make me a vegan chickpea dish that was delicious! We found this hidden gem with Happy Cow as well.

Day 4: Holbrook, AZ to Bakersfield, CA

Since we were making such good time and were ahead of schedule we decided to take a few hours off driving and go for a hike in Flagstaff, AZ. We bought some PB&J supplies and had a picnic on the trail. PB&J is one of those meals everyone forgets is vegan when they say “I don’t like any vegan food!”

And for dinner we stopped in Barstow, CA at an authentic Mexican place! Happy Cow gave us no listings, so I had to rely on a trick with Yelp that’s helped me out many times in a bind. For any restaurant you can search keywords in their reviews. I knew we wanted to find authentic Mexican, so I picked a few spots and searched for the word “vegan.” For Lola’s I found a review that someone had posted about how they were more than happy to accommodate and make her a vegan meal, so I walked up confidently to order, and voila — a vegan burrito was delivered and it was delicious!

Day 5: Bakersfield, CA to San Francisco, CA

We routed through Mountain View, CA for lunch so we could stop at Veggie Grill — the all vegan fast food chain! It’s always fantastic — I can’t wait for it to expand nationwide.

And for dinner we ate at Plant Cafe on the Embarcadero, right next to San Francisco Bay, a perfect end to a wonderful (vegan friendly) road trip through the south!

Download Happy Cow today, and don’t forget that Yelp trick! If I could find a tofu dish in Henryetta, OK, you truly can eat vegan anywhere in the country! You just have to be willing to put in a little research

Can you picture it? A vegan world? When will it come?

A lot of people ask me this when they find out that I am vegan.

“Do you really think all human beings will give up meat??”

“How will you convince everyone to give up meat?

I think I have an answer:

Make meat unappealing.

Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re probably thinking that’s kind of obvious, and you’re probably thinking I mean increase the awareness over the animal rights, environmental and health disaster that is animal agriculture.

And while I do think all three of those things are incredibly important to educate people about, that’s not what I mean.

Maybe I’ll put it differently: make alternatives the appealing choice.

Yes, I’m talking about fake meat.

Here’s the deal — meat from animals is inefficient. You pretty much can’t argue this. It’s just physics. It’s ecology. Eating higher on the food chain is inherently inefficient. Eating lower on the food chain will always be more efficient.

Why? Because things higher on the food chain require more inputs (water, food, fertilizer, antiobiotics, etc). Those inputs cost money and resources and are thusly inefficient.

Plants are lower on the food chain and are more efficient, both from a resource perspective and a cost perspective.

So alternatives (yes, I mean fake meat) outperform meat from animals in cost and environmental efficiency. They also obviously outperform meat from animals from an ethical standpoint. No dead cows means a more ethical burger.

The remaining question: taste.

Well if you haven’t tried fake meat in awhile, they are damn good. I’ve fooled many meat-loving peers of mine with fake meat products. I’ve served them without telling them what it was and they’ve been floored. I’ve asked them “if fake meat tasted identical or better to the real thing would you eat it?” I’ve never had a friend answer anything other than “yes.”

Then there’s this: a vegan burger just won Best Burger in the World.

Note: that didn’t say “Best Veggie Burger in the World.” Meat burgers were in the running, but one made from plants won the day.

So if plants can be cheaper, better for the environment, more humane, more nutritious and tastier???

We may not have to convince anyone to go vegan, we merely have to continue to work to make alternatives win in all these categories. If it’s cheaper and tastes just as good, this will be the end of meat and no one will miss it.

For more meat-free products check out Gardein, Beyond Meat, Tofurky, and many others. If you live in the Minneapolis area you can check out the world’s first Vegan Butcher for artisanal vegan meats and cheeses at The Herbivorous Butcher.

*That burger is 100% vegan. It won Best Burger

A week or two ago I saw a meme on Facebook.

Ok I see lots of memes on Facebook, and to be honest, most are pretty meaningless.

But this one was a quote from the Dalai Lama. He’s a pretty wise man, so I tend to listen to what he has to say.

Take a look:

This meme succinctly describes the hypocrisy of how many modern humans conduct their lives. I’m not here to point any fingers or blame anyone for this imbalance. I merely want to shine a light on it, and suggest that we’ve got it all wrong.

I want to make the plea for health.

We tend to sacrifice a lot of ourselves in the pursuit of attaining more – more money, more status, more clothing, more possessions, etc.

We tend to, as a culture, be over-worked and over-stressed in these pursuits.

We, as the quote suggests, sacrifice our health in the pursuit of wealth, only to, as we get older, use that wealth to try to buy back some health.

As I said, we’ve got this all wrong, and I can prove it.

The future does not exist.

Bear with me for a second here, I am going to get just a bit existential.

The future does not exist. It’s not real. That may or may not sound controversial to you. But it’s hard to argue with.

We can reasonably predict that some future will take place in some way.

Things have continued for however many years we’ve already lived, and with a little luck, we can reasonably assume that we will continue to exist in a relatively similar fashion.

But we have little actual impact on that future. The amount that we control in that future is very very small.

This isn’t to say that we should not work hard or save money. For many life goals, money is essential.

But while the future is and always will be a fantasy, an idea, there is something real that you are experiencing right now.

Can you guess?

It’s… RIGHT NOW.

The present moment is real, it is tangible. You are experiencing it right now, and believe it or not, it’s all you actually have. Even when the future comes you will experience it in the present moment.

So if you are still with me, it stands to reason that we should place more value on what is now than what will be. (Again, I am not saying throw away all planning or forethought toward the future, just stay with me.)

And while a lot of people think that investing in your health is solely for the purposes of attaining more future (increasing the amount of years you have on the planet), the real benefit of health is experienced in the NOW.

Why?

This is the only time when you can experience anything!

That, and because health is a present state of being. I am not a healthy 80-year old. I am a healthy 29-year old, and as such I am fit, in shape, and eat a diet that gives me abundant energy in the moment. It makes me feel good today, not 50 years from now!

If I am fortunate the choices I make today can lead to a better reality for myself in 50 years. But that is simply a fantasy, an illusion. Not entirely unimportant to consider, but not where the real benefit of a healthy lifestyle is conferred.

Look, money, hard work, promotions – these are good things for which to strive. But do not sacrifice your health in their pursuit, because this is a truly foolish trade. You trade your wellbeing now (the only time you can experience wellbeing) for potential future wellbeing. Once this future is achieved, you need to trade back the money you got for the health you gave up in the form of expensive drugs and surgeries.

It’s a raw deal.

Invest in your health TODAY, in THIS MOMENT. It is far more valuable than any sum of money you could possibly dream of.

If you follow current health trends online — subscribe to a blog, follow a nutrition “expert” on social media, etc — you may feel like there is a ridiculous amount of conflicting evidence pointing one way or another on diet advice.

There’s the classic divide between paleo and vegan, but then there’s low-carb, low-fat, high-fat, Zone, South Beach, etc.

There’s a lot to be confused about.

Or so it would seem…

The reality is there is far more consensus on what we should be eating than you probably realize. Why might you not know this?

Controversy sells books.

The next study showing a previously heralded food is bad for you will be music to the ears of book publishers. They can’t wait to sell you the next greatest thing in to the diet crazed public.

Don’t buy the hype. Literally. Save your money.

Healthy eating is simple, and a few weeks ago leaders from all walks of nutrition, paleo advocates and vegan plant-based advocates alike, all met to discuss common ground.

And while many topics were discussed, this is where they landed:

“The foods that define a healthy diet include abundant fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, legumes and minimal amounts of refined starch, sugar and red meat, especially keeping processed red meat intake low.”

Nothing too inflammatory there. Honestly nothing that would make for a New York Times Bestseller.

And that’s how you know it’s true.

All leading experts agree — paleos and vegans — that our diets need to be centered around whole plant foods and not animal or processed foods! It’s really that simple.

They went on to also agree on another key, interesting point:

“Food insecurity cannot be solved without sustainable food systems. Inattention to sustainability is willful disregard for the quality and quantity of food available to the next generation, i.e., our own children.”

And even a paleo die hard, Boyd Eaton, stated: “Red meat is incompatible with environmental health in a sustainable world. We need a diet that equals the nutrition of our Paleo ancestors, but is sustainable.”

The message is clear and simple, and still, to this day, best summed up by Michael Pollan’s seven simple words: “Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.”

If you’d like to read more about this meeting of the minds, as well as see who was on the panel, check out the write up by Forks Over Knives.

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/20/us/noaa-2015-warmest-year/
SOURCE: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/20/2015-smashes-record-for-hottest-year-final-figures-confirm
SOURCE on 51% claim: https://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Livestock%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf

Last night a friend came to town for the holidays. He happens to be a fan of the blog, and has recently gone vegan! So it was extra fun to see him now that we share the same diet, and to commemorate this, we decided to cook a healthy vegan meal at his parents’ house.

See, being Midwestern folk, they were pretty worried about what to feed their son while he was home, now that he was a crazy vegan.

In fact, they were very worried.

So we decided to take the reigns and show off what healthy plant-based vegan cooking can look like!

His mother had bought some black bean spaghetti, and though neither of us had ever had it, we decided to go for it. We roasted up some butternut squash, red onions, and garlic, and tossed it with the pasta and some balsamic vinegar.

We also whipped up an awesome spinach salad, and my friend made these bell pepper and avocado “bites” that were super delicious!

The meal was very well received. No one went hungry. We were all well fed

As we dined we discussed healthy eating and why I was a vegan. And I shared the main reasons that sparked the change, including that animal agriculture is the number one cause of climate change.

And sometimes you forget — this stuff is not well known.

This was the first his parents had ever heard that, and they were stunned. Yet they also were quick to understand why. If you look at it, it’s pretty easy to see how industrialized animal agriculture is an incredibly wasteful system, and how eating plants directly is much more efficient.

We also talked about the health benefits, and I shared my mother’s now 40+ pounds of weight loss after going vegan and my 20+ pounds! My friend even had a 10-15 pound weight loss story of his own from going vegan.

Did we convert both of his parents into vegans?

Of course not. That’s not how it happens. And that’s ok.

This is gradual. They both did say they were going to try to eat more vegan meals, and that is a start. A darn good start!

As I shared in a recent video, Meatless Monday’s are almost solely responsible for 800 million fewer animals being raised and slaughtered in the US annually since 2007.

Sometimes vegans see the outrageous industry that is animal agriculture and they want to scream at people until they are blue in the face and the person is forced into veganism. But that’s not how it works.

Have pleasant, open, and informative conversations over a nice plant-based meal. That’s my strategy, anyway

Happy Holidays from Plantiful Health!

Not true.

Here’s a quick little video of everything I made, and everything I ate, on Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Vegan Pumpkin Pie: http://plantpoweredkitchen.com/pumpkin-pie-vegan-soy-free-gluten-free/
Maple-Miso Brussels Sprouts: http://kitchentonirvana.com/2014/01/16/roasted-brussel-sprouts-in-a-maple-miso-glaze/

COWSPIRACY: http://www.cowspiracy.com/
EARTHLINGS: http://www.nationearth.com/
FORKS OVER KNIVES: http://www.forksoverknives.com/

Note: This video contains some footage from each of these documentaries. I do not own this footage, but use it to urge others to see these life-changing documentaries! Please watch them! Cowspiracy and Forks Over Knives are NOW STREAMING on NETFLIX! Earthlings can be purchased through their website linked above!

The Comparative Anatomy of Eating: http://www.vegsource.com/news/2009/11/the-comparative-anatomy-of-eating.html
Teeth Graphic: http://freefromharm.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/comparative-anatomy-of-carnivores-omnivores-herbivores.jpg

It is often said that giving up the use of animal products for food and otherwise has three major benefits — for the animals, for the environment, and for your health.

To many, however, this may feel a bit abstract.

We can theorize a benefit for the animals, that is relatively obvious, but we still may not feel it’s necessity. We may be able to grasp some benefit for the environment, though we are already getting more abstract. And the health detriments of animal-based foods is nearly completely obscured from the mainstream dialogue (SEE: Paleo Diet Fad).

Therefore, allow me to issue a challenge, a challenge that will not only make these issues much clearer for you, but may just inspire you to ditch the animal products entirely as well and go vegan!!

I am calling this challenge “The Vegan Maker.”

All I need is 4 hours and 41 minutes of your time and in that time I believe I can turn you into a vegan. Don’t believe me? Perfect! You are an ideal candidate for this challenge!

In this allotted time all I am going to ask you to do is watch movies. Three movies in particular. Sounds like a pretty simple challenge doesn’t it? A few other quick rules and then I will reveal the movies and the order in which to watch them.

Rules:

1. Everything is more fun with a friend, so enlist a buddy

2. Eat your meal beforehand, not during..

That’s it! Just two rules.

Final note: If you are brave you can choose to watch these documentaries back to back to back. Or alternatively, watch one per night for three nights. It’s up to you.

Ok drumroll please. Here are the three movies I want you to watch, in order:

The Vegan Maker:

1. Earthlings (1:35) (Free on YouTube, or for HD visit their website)

2. Cowspiracy (1:30) (Starting TODAY this amazing documentary is streaming on Netflix!)

3. Forks Over Knives (1:36) (Streaming FREE on Netflix!)

If you have YouTube and Netflix this is a totally free date night!

So, are you up to it?!

Let me know in the comments, and be sure to report back once you have finished! Regardless of the outcome I assure you, you will never look at food the same.