Hello, this is Monica Reinagle.

Welcome to the Nutrition Diva Podcast.

We're talking about vegan foods this week, which aren't just for vegans anymore.

Even if you're not a vegetarian or vegan, reducing your consumption of animal products

can save you money on your groceries, benefit the environment, and protect animal

welfare. And when it comes to your health, limiting your consumption of red meat

to a few times a month is probably ideal. Whether you're trying to incorporate a few more meatless meals

into your repertoire or you have vegetarians coming to your barbecue, you also

have a lot more vegan products to choose from than you used to, everything from fake fish to veggie

vener schnitzel to Erzats' Ementaler.

And unlike in the past, they're not all made from soy anymore.

As I discussed in my episode on the pros and cons of soy, soy can be a valuable source of

protein, especially for vegetarians, but there are a few reasons that you don't want to

overdo it with soy, so it's really nice to see vegetarian foods made from a

greater variety of ingredients. Having all these new alternatives available certainly makes it easier to reduce your dependence on animal foods.

The problem is that these foods aren't always providing the same nutrition as the foods that they're intended to replace.

Let me give you a few examples.

I was recently asked to review a new line of vegan cheese

made out of coconut oil, potato starch, and seaweed extracts.

Now I'm not going to lie to you, I would not have served this on a cheese plate, no matter what the press release said.

But you could use it to make a reasonable facsimile of a grilled cheese sandwich for your kid.

This cheese was free of soy, gluten, and dairy, and if you're trying to avoid any of those things,

...