Eating a plant-based diet in El Salvador is certainly hard but definitely not impossible. However, there were a few surprises that I came across that will be very helpful for others to know.
1. Basic foods are your best friends when wanting to lose weight in a healthy, long-term way. They are also great for keeping a stable and healthy weight according to your height and age.
I left weighing 89 pounds and came back weighing 86.9 pounds. I am 147cm tall (4’10”ft) and am 25 years old. My healthy weight range is between 85-105 pounds.
The week that I ate nothing but rice (with vegetables such as green beans and carrots mixed in), whole beans and avocado I got very lean and my abs showed more than ever despite not doing any exercise at all.
2. It’s true, El Salvador does not have many vegan restaurants or options, whether it is at an actual restaurant or vegan replacements store.
However, since there are not too many replacements around, you actually end up eating very basic foods that your body loves because they have a lot of fiber and are full of nutrients. Example: rice, beans, avocado, lentils, quinoa, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes and a lot of vegetables and types of greens. Vegan meat replacers, for example, are a fantastic idea to get used to stop eating meat but in the long term eating them every day can be harmful since they contain few nutrients and fiber since they are usually very chemically processed products. Tofu is the best choice of meat replacement since it is a little processed food.
This does not mean that the vegan restaurants around aren’t DELICIOUS! They are truly amazing and I applaud the effort of all the owners for their perseverance and the thought they put into their recipes. All the vegan dishes I tried from SoyGreen, El Veggie SV, Go Vegan and Kombucha Sivar were outstanding! I loved that even the replacements for meats they use are not heavy but instead very fresh and flavorful.
3. Be careful with what is added to the food or where it is cooked.
Vegetables from steak restaurants: I ordered some vegetables from La Pampa Argentina (Steak restaurant) and they literally tasted like meat. I kept telling myself that they probably put the same spices on the vegetables as they do on the meat, but afterwards my stomach felt very heavy and uncomfortable. I learned my lesson and decided that I should have asked them to cook my vegetables separate from the meat (in case they did, since I actually never knew if they did or not) or ask for steamed veggies instead of grilled.
Butter: I ate some vegetables that had been sautéed with olive oil AND butter. This was obviously not done in purpose and I did not know until I had already eaten all the vegetables and thought something was off. Always ask WHAT other ingredients the food has since butter can be easily mistaken for oil. This happened at Hotel Joya del Pacifico in La Costa del Sol.
4. In El Salvador there is this huge misunderstanding that if you do not eat meat or dairy you will be severely malnourished and weak. I proved my family through eating a lot during the day (I ate as much as I wanted without calorie restriction) that I lead a healthy lifestyle without starving. I was never tired after eating and the only time I felt bloated was when I was on my period.
Something that was interesting was that on this particular day at the beach, for breakfast my cousin had nothing else but fried cheese (8 pieces) and my grandpa did not tell her anything about being malnourished or that she was borderline anorexic. On the other hand, I ate a whole plantain (several pieces of fried plantain), refried beans and avocado. Twenty minutes earlier I had also eaten a big plate of papaya and cantaloupe. I was being called out by my grandpa that I was borderline anorexic/malnourished for not eating dairy, even though I ate a dense meal high in carbs that my body used for energy and low in fat (especially artery clogging saturated fats that are found in dairy).
There are limited vegan options in El Salvador, but since there is so much fruit and grains, it was not as hard as I thought. I ate as much as I wanted and I still got to lose a few pounds of weight without trying! Breaking the taboo in your head is the first step towards achieving the best health you have ever had.
You can download my guide on “How to Become Vegan” to learn more specifics about the foods you can eat to make your transition into a plant-based lifestyle.
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