How to identify types of vegans in Nairobi

Piece by: Grace Kerongo
Lifestyle

A lot of Kenyans nowadays are practising veganism or simply being vegetarian due to various personal reasons, health, monetary or religious issues.

The widely known vegans and vegetarians are Rastafarian's some Buddhist, Indians, Chinese, Ethiopians and some Americans.

Being vegetarian simply means that you don’t consume meat or other by-products of animal slaughter. Your diet will simply contain vegetables, nuts, grains, fruits the inclusion of eggs and dairy products will hugely depend of the type of diet you follow.

Vegetarians

They are of different types:

Macrobiotic vegetarians :

they eat unprocessed vegan foods such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables and occasional consumption of fish. Sugar and refined oils are avoided.

Lacto – ovo- vegetarians:

The most common type of vegetarians. “ovo” comes from a Latin word meaning, ‘eggs’ These vegetarians don’t eat meat of any kind, be it white or red meat but they can eat eggs. ‘lacto’ means ‘milk’ these vegetarians can have milk or dairy products in their diet.

These two can be separated to lacto-vegeterians(take milk products) and ovo-vegeterians(only take eggs) or both lacto-ovo-vegetarian(take both eggs and milk).

Pescatarian [ from the word picses meaning Fish]

These vegetarians abstain from eating all animal flesh with the exclusion of fish.

Many people are adopting this kind of lifestyle due to health concerns.

Semi-vegetarian

these are flexible vegetarians their diet does not limit them from anything, but they occasionally make sure they have a balance between the daily intake of carbs, proteins, vitamins and fats.

Fruitarian

these vegetarians only have raw fruits in their diet, either blended juices, huge bowls of smoothies or raw whole fruits. This is hard because it has a lot of health risks such as malnutrition, low levels of vitamin B12, anemia, fatigue and a weak immune system because your body needs other supplements of food in order to function properly.

Vegan

they consume foods that are of no animal ingredient or even traces of animal ingredients. They are very strict in what they eat they can eat fruits, vegetable vegan hotdogs, vegan ice-cream, egg-free pasta, vegan smoothies and non- dairy yoghurt among other selected products.

Common eateries in Nairobi for vegans and vegetarian foods.

  1. Zucchni  at Garden City, ABC Mall
  2. Artcaffe coffee and bakery – junction mall branch: {opens at 7am to midnight}
  3. Tinroof cafe – Langata and Karen
  4. Boho Eatery – Karen
  5. CJ's
  6. Zen garden
  7. honey and dough
  8. Nyama Mama
  9. Healthy U

Story By Margaret Wanjiru