You can eat a ton of vegetables and stil have a cup of yogurt, or some grated cheese or smoked salmon on your salad. There's really no need to go vegan in order to eat more vegetables. Personally, I think that - for most poeple - strictly adhering to veganism makes eating a healthy diet rich in vegetables more difficult, not less - think about eating out and the healthiest option would be a salad, but there's no vegan dressing available; or you could have the spinach but wait, no, unfortunately there's a dash of cream added to it. We are not living in a vegan society, after all. If you cook for yourself, a very small amout of parmesan or bacon, for example, can go a long way in adding taste to a vegetable dish. In my opinion, the most fundamental barrier to a healthier diet is simply the absurd convention entrenched in Western food culture that vegetables are to be regarded as a sparse "side dish", whereas meat and other animal food are the ample "main dish", accompanied by heapings of (mostly refined) carbohydrates. Just do away with this this decadent disproportion by making the vegetable the main dish again and the animal food the optional side dish, as it has always been in traditional diets such as the Mediterranean diet. Thinking of a plate, always reserve at least half of it for vegetables, no more than a fourth for animal foods and fill the rest with healthy, non-refined carbs like potatoes, brown rice and other whole grains.
Edited by timar, 28 October 2014 - 08:04 PM.