My Plant-Based Food Adventures As A Type 1 Diabetic – Red Sugar Life

I am still living my Red Sugar Life and being a Type-1 Diabetic. With the VERY WELCOME change of seasons from summer to fall, life has been presenting many new things for me to explore. See here where I write about more of the changes in my life! One such change, is me exploring replacing meat with plant-based alternatives. I am doing this for several reasons (listing reasons later). I am not dependent on meat anyway. It is not something I just have to have everyday, so I was open to trying this out, especially if it is something that I can incorporate into my diet for good. My diet is what I call “meat-decentered” or “meat-deprioritized” because I don’t prioritize meat or center it in my diet, and I’m not specifically vegetarian or vegan.

Why The Change?

Some reasons I am kicking meat to the curb:

• With the pandemic, meat is harder to find.
• I noticed the quality of meat seems to have reduced.
• I am no longer willing to accommodate the issues that come with dealing with meat.
• Handling it, all the bacteria/disease concerns that come with both handling and consuming it
• The smell. I hate the smell of raw meat, it is so off-putting to me and I could never get used to it.
• There are many things that are really off about certain kinds of meat and I find that I am pretty grossed out in general.

I literally just cannot be bothered with meat anymore. It is more of a burden in my life than it is a benefit. And one of the many wonderful changes I have been making in my life is being far more decisive and assertive about removing things that are a burden to me. So meat, you gots to go. Bye!

So What’s New?

I eat lots of vegetables, legumes, and plant foods in general so trying out different kinds of plant-based foods isn’t a big change for me. What IS a big change for me, is trying meat-alternatives. I never tried to replace meat with an alternative because to me, meat is meat and not-meat is well…not meat. I still don’t consider plant-based meat alternatives as meat, because it isn’t meat.

Before, I didn’t know much about them and my limited experience with them has been soy products or tofu. I’m not a fan of soy or tofu, and my body doesn’t like it very much either. I don’t like the taste and some of my recent experiences kind of reaffirmed why I am not a fan of it (I will talk more about that later). So much to my surprise as I was browsing Instacart (I love Instacart), I saw some items featured at the store I was making a cart in. I don’t eat beef very often, it’s not something I have to have, but I was intrigued at seeing these veggie burgers listed on the site. I never had a veggie burger before of any kind and I was never particularly curious about it before. However, I was curious about it that day. So, I tried some out!  

What Have I Tried So Far?

At the time of this post, I have tried (not all at once):

• Dr. Praeger’s – YES! MY FAVE SO FAR! They have so many options that do not have soy, gluten, and are vegan.
• Lightlife – it’s a no for me, it had soy and I didn’t realize it until I got it home. It was a plant-based crumble. I was disappointed because I really wanted this to work for me as an alternative to ground beef or ground turkey.
• MorningStar Farms – (yes sort of) – I tried some of their veggie burgers which I did like, but I think they all have soy, so I have to say no ultimately.

Different Products, Different Results

Now, I wanted to try several different things before I made a note about trying plant-based meat alternatives because I am very aware that different companies do different things. And, my experience with different companies/products will vary. Soy is still a hard no for me, which is why I am glad I found Dr. Praegar’s. They have several options that have NO soy, and NO GLUTEN. Yay!

One thing I haven’t tried yet is plant-based “chicken” alternatives. I think that may be something I will try later on just to see how I like it.

I Will Keep Going

Overall I am having a good time trying out this different plant-based alternatives and seeing how they fit into my Red Sugar Life. I am going to keep going, trying out different things and seeing what works best for me!

Be well,

Luna