General Info

Taco Bell is one of the most vegetarian and vegan fast food restaurants I have found.  That said, it is still fast food.  Even if the corporate headquarters is telling us one thing about the ingredients, it still gets made at your local store and there is no telling for sure what goes into the food.  My point is that your mileage may vary on this, and if you are a super-strict vegan then this probably isn’t the place for you.  According to Taco Bell headquarters, they don’t use lard in things like beans and the basics like corn and flour taco shells are vegan.

One thing to watch out for is the sauces and dressings.  Most have egg and/or milk so they aren’t vegan.  The 3 basic border sauces (mild, medium, & fire) are vegan.

They have a great resources on their website.  They have a table of food allergens and sensitivities which lists egg, dairy, wheat, plus other things like shellfish.  They also have a complete ingredient list of basic components on their website.

On The Menu

First off, there are several items on the menu which are vegetarian and can easily be made vegan.  Parenthesis indicate steps to make it vegan.

• Guacamole
• Cinnamon Twists
• Mexican Rice
• Tostada (no cheese)
• Seven Layer Burrito (no cheese, no sour cream)
• Bean Burrito (no cheese)
• Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes (no cheese)
• Pintos ‘N Cheese (no cheese)
• Cheese Quesadilla (not vegan)
• Cheesy Nachos (not vegan)

Off The Menu – Sub Beans

You can also order almost anything on the menu and have them substitute beans instead of beef.  I usually am redundant in ordering things this way.  Say “no meat, with beans instead of beef” for example on a regular crunchy taco.  The hard and soft tacos can be ordered this way, plus anything else that strikes you on the menu.  This should be a standard substitution that any Taco Bell can handle.  I believe they have a button on the cash register for substituting the beef with beans.  I have never had a problem at the different Taco Bells I have tried and most cashiers don’t seem to have any difficulty with it and take it right in stride.

Fresco Is Your Friend

They have a term called “fresco” which is used on their healthy and lowfat menu line which they also refer to as the “drive-thru diet”.  It basically means no cheese and add “fiesta salsa” which is simply diced tomato and a tiny bit of diced onion.  This is the easiest way to order things vegan – by substituting beans for beef where necessary, and then saying fresco style.

Putting It All Together

I like to start out setting the expectation with “there should be no meat in anything we order” and then proceed from there.  A few of my favorites are “crunchy tacos, no meat, substitute beans for the beef, fresco style” and the very simple “fresco bean burrito”.  I usually add a side or two of guacamole for dipping the tacos too.  Yumm, I’m getting hungry now!  Any thoughts or experience on eating vegan or vegetarian at Taco Bell?

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The Differences

One of the biggest things I have noticed is that it is harder to eat out strictly vegan than it is just vegetarian.  Many of the vegetarian staples – like nachos, grilled cheese, quesadillas, and cheese subs – are not options anymore.  It definitely takes more effort to find vegan options.  While most restaurants have at least something to offer for vegetarians, I am finding more places just don’t have anything at all for vegan options.  Eating vegan has been eye-opening and I have figured out what I can and can’t eat, and places that are more friendly or have regular options or ways to order dishes to make them vegan.  I’ll do some future posts on how to order at typical places.

Best Effort

I coined the term “approximate vegan” to describe how I have been eating.  It is, simply put, making a best effort to eat vegan without sweating the small stuff.  When I can, I avoid dairy and eggs.  I no longer order dishes that are mostly cheese or have obvious eggs in them.  On the other hand, I will still take my kids out for sandwiches and for myself I get just veggies or hummus on bread or sub rolls that probably have dairy and eggs in them.  I do try to find places with vegan bread – Thundercloud Subs in my part of the world is a good one – but I don’t stress if it is a small amount.  Another example is we went to Disney World in August.  I ate mostly vegan, but some of the dishes and desserts sounded and looked too good to pass up.  Again, I didn’t eat anything majorly made out of cheese, but I did eat some dairy and probably some eggs in things.  One restaurant had a fabulous buffet with a dessert spread with tiny little individual desserts so I tried a tiny caramel cheese cake and a chocolate mousse with chocolate ears shaped like Mickey Mouse.  It enhanced my experience without diminishing my veganism by much.

Good Enough?

So is an approximate vegan a true vegan and is it good enough?  I’m not really concerned with being able to properly label myself, I am more concerned about trying my best to be healthy without adding a huge amount of stress to my life.  Eating with the kids is a bonding experience, and it already is restrictive being vegetarian.  I don’t want to expose them to a huge production of talking to the chef every time we go out and making a big deal out of getting a pure vegan meal.  So what is your opinion on this best effort vegan eating?

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Make Up Your Mind

The first thing you need to do is get your mind set.  Why do you want to be a vegetarian?  If you don’t have a reason behind it, you are already set up for failure.  Do you want to be healthier?  Do you want to lose weight?  Do you have ethical concerns about the treatment of animals?  Figure out why you want this and write down a personal “mission statement” on why you are going vegetarian.  This will help you if you are having a hard time so you have something to refer back to.  It can also help if you get resistance from friends or family around you.  If you can clearly explain why you are doing this, then they may be more understanding or at least less resistant.

Use Available Resources

There are plenty of resources out there especially on the web.  Follow these steps as just a beginning and you will get tons of help and reference material out of it.  Here is a very quick list of some places to start:

• The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG)
• GoVeg.org (they have a great “vegetarian 101″ section)
• VegWeb.com – recipes and cooking tips
• Vegetarian recipes on Allrecipes.com
• PETA’s website – for animal cruelty information (watch a few of their videos!)

Create A Plan

Once you have done some research, come up with a plan on when you want to start and what your expectations are.  Will you switch cold turkey (pun intended) or will you start by having meat-free days and gradually increase those days?  The main goal here is to do what you feel comfortable with and let it be good enough.  During your planning you should come up with some simple meal recipes that you can create so you always have available food.  It also helps to scope out your town to find vegetarian restaurants or vegetarian dishes at your local food places.

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The process for this 7 day cleanse is pretty easy to follow.  There is a packet you take in the morning, capsules you take with breakfast & lunch, and a powder you mix with water and drink before bedtime.  One thing I didn’t like was that the directions are not clear about what else you can or should ingest while doing the cleanse.  I discussed with one of the employees at Sprouts and also researched online.  I found that it is recommended to drink plenty of water, eat mostly fruits, vegetable, and nuts, and add some healthy fat like coconut oil or flaxseed oil.  Also, it is recommended to eliminate high allergen foods (wheat, dairy, soy, etc.) and eliminate sugar, refined flour, processed foods, and caffeine.

Step 1 - Toxin Defense

Step 1

The first step is a little packet that you take first thing in the morning.  The instructions are to open the packet and dump it in your mouth.  Then add a little bit of water and swish it around your mouth.  Finally, swallow the whole thing.  The idea of this step is to balance out your mouth – which is the first point of access to your digestive system.  It contains probiotics that work in both the mouth and the intestinal tract.  It is a defense against toxins at the entry point into your body.  I like the idea of this “point of entry” defense and haven’t seen this idea in other cleanses.

The taste of this packet isn’t bad at all.  I did find that it clumps up pretty easily and sticks to the insides of your mouth.  My suggestion is to put some water in your mouth first and then pour the packet in.  That seems to help the powder mix a little better.

Step 2 - Organ Detox

Step 2

The second step is capsules that you take throughout the day.  These are marked as organ detoxifying and contain things like milk thistle for liver function and green things like chlorella and spirulina as antioxidants.  You take 6 capsules each day.  The directions recommend taking 3 capsules with breakfast and 3 with lunch.  The idea of this step is to support liver function so that your body can better eliminate normal and environmental toxins.  It also contains a range of antioxidants to help with this as well.

Being capsules, obviously there is no taste to discuss.  The capsules themselves are fairly large, but I found them fine to swallow and didn’t notice any aftertaste or refluxed taste.

Step 3 - Digestion & Elimination

Step 3

The third and final step is powder that you mix into a glass of water and drink down. This is done about an hour before bedtime.  The container comes with a little plastic scooper and you add two level scoops to a tall glass of water.  The powder doesn’t really fully dissolve, so you are left with a large glass of thick chunky liquid to drink.

I use the term “drink” loosely – it is more like “chug while trying not to gag”.  The taste isn’t very good, and it is hard to deal with the thick consistency.  This was the worst part of the cleanse.  While it doesn’t taste great, it isn’t terrible and if you just gulp it down quickly it goes fine.  This is the most noticeable step because the contents act as a fiber bulk and your bowel movements the next day will be decidedly larger and bulkier.  It is made up of natural fibers like coconut fiber, flax seed, and chia seed.  The product material claims that the fibers used are less harsh on your digestive system than things like psyllium which many other colon cleanses contain.

Final Thoughts

I did the whole 7 days of this cleanse and it was a good experience overall.  While I did not notice anything drastic, it did feel like my digestive system was a little more settled and happy.  As I mentioned above, the 3rd step of the powder noticeably affected my bowel movements and it seemed to clean me out a little.  Compared to the Master Cleanse, the results are far more subtle.  It was a positive experience, but I’ not sure how often I would repeat the process.

Have you done this cleanse or any others?  If so, or if you have any other feedback or questions, please comment and let me know.

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1. RAW Cleanse Toxin Defense – optimal oral health and immune system support.
2. RAW Cleanse Organ Detox – natural detoxification of organs and GI tract
3. RAW Cleanse Digestion & Elimination – toxin capture and removal

I’ll explain each component as I go through them.  I got my kit from our local Sprouts store for a little over $30 plus tax, but you can get it online from Amazon (RAW Cleanse – 7 day – Kit) for just under $30 with no tax and free shipping.  I liked it because the product is Vegan, gluten free, dairy free, and claims to be less harsh than some of the other colon cleanse products on the market. Here are some pictures of the whole box and the 3 parts inside.

Garden of Life – RAW Cleanse Box

3 Components of the Garden of Life RAW Cleanse

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So Delicious Coconut Bars

I recently discovered coconut milk and have been drinking it and using it in smoothies. It is awesome for that, but these vegan coconut bars are awesome!

They are by So Delicious (yes, that is the brand name!).  The inside is ice cream made out of coconut milk and they come in either plain chocolate (on the left) or coconut almond which has flakes of coconut and slivered almonds in the chocolate crust.  Both flavors are awesome and I have stocked up and always keep a few boxes in my freezer.

If you haven’t tried coconut milk, it is a great-tasting alternative to cow’s milk and to other non-dairy drinks like soy milk.  The coconut also has great health benefits.  This quote is from Why Coconut on their website:

• Coconut represents a vegetarian-sourced saturated fat consisting of medium chain fatty acids (MCFA). Scientists have long recognized MCFAs such as lauric and capric acid for their anti-viral and anti-microbial properties. The body utilizes MCFAs as energy instead of storing them as fat.

Here is the list of ingredients on the frozen coconut bars

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