Switching to a plant-based diet can be a game-changing decision, but navigating the world of veganism and whole-food, plant-based eating can initially feel tricky. Fortunately, numerous apps are designed to simplify the process, offering resources ranging from recipe ideas to restaurant recommendations and nutritional guidance. This guide explores some of the best apps available to support you in adopting and maintaining a healthy and delicious plant-based lifestyle.
Why Use Apps for a Plant-Based Diet?
In 2009, Apple trademarked the phrase “There’s an app for that,” which has proven true across many aspects of life. Smartphones have become essential tools, and apps can be incredibly helpful for improving your diet and health. Here's how:
- Meal Planning and Grocery Shopping: Some mobile apps can help you plan meals and shop for groceries. They can simplify meal planning and save time by providing customizable grocery lists and meal suggestions. Some apps take it a step further by creating shopping lists based on your requested recipes.
- Recipe Inspiration: Some food apps provide a treasure trove of healthy recipes tailored to different dietary preferences, such as plant-based eating, gluten-free options, low-sodium meals, and allergy-friendly alternatives. Unlike a traditional print cookbook, the recipe databases are searchable.
- Dining Out Assistance: Depending on your location, it can be challenging to find plant-based options when dining out or traveling. Apps can help you prepare by identifying restaurants and checking out their menus.
- Motivation and Support: Some apps allow you to track your progress and see how you’re doing over time, providing encouragement to stick to your health goals.
- Sustainability Focus: Some apps may help you use ingredients to create recipes to reduce food waste.
Featured Apps for Plant-Based Success
Here's a detailed look at some of the top apps to support your plant-based journey:
1. Dr. Greger's Daily Dozen
This free app, an extension of Dr. Michael Greger's book How Not To Die, details the healthiest foods and how many servings of each we should try to check off every day. The app answers the question, “What should I eat on a whole food plant-based diet?” It includes daily exercise and water intake. It is a mobile checklist for getting your daily dose of 12 different categories of food - plus exercise. Rather than a strict meal plan, it’s a guide to incorporating diverse plant foods into your diet.
nutritionfacts.org is a non-commercial, non-profit, science-based public service provided by Dr. Greger.
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2. Forks Over Knives
The Forks Over Knives app is a must-have recipe app designed by nutrition experts offers the change to put the healthiest diet to work for you! It provides easy access to recipes. You can choose your recipe, add it to favorites, click on the ingredient you need to purchase, and items go straight to your shopping cart. You can also add your own ingredients, print your grocery list or send it to someone, and share the recipe with loved ones. The app also includes FAQs about nutrition, addressing concerns like protein intake, Omega-3s, oil consumption, B12, and the need to eat organic. The app also features a kickstart program. The FOK app makes it easy to find new favorite dishes that adhere to the whole-food, plant-based diet.
The FOK app makes it easy to find new favorite dishes that adhere to the whole-food, plant-based diet. Every recipe includes simple, step-by-step instructions and the option to add notes and mark favorites for easy access. You can also send recipes to a built-in shopping list, where ingredients are automatically sorted by aisle.
The app comes with a one-time fee (not a subscription) of $20.
3. HappyCow
Not sure where to find yummy vegan food? Happy Cow has your back. Enter your location, and you’ll see all the vegan-friendly eateries around you - perfect if you’re traveling or searching for plant-based gems in your local town that you didn’t know existed. You can also leave reviews and share pictures of your food to help other vegans looking for somewhere to eat. Available on Apple iOS and Android.
HappyCow will show you everything nearby with reviews and photos from other users. This makes finding great food anywhere super easy.
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The Happy Cow app helps vegans and vegetarians find dining options worldwide. It offers a large database of vegan and vegetarian restaurants, cafes, and grocery stores in over 180 countries. Users can read and write reviews, save favorite spots for offline use, and navigate directly through the app.
4. Oh She Glows
New York Times bestselling cookbook author Angela Liddon, shares her most popular plant-based recipes from the award-winning recipe blog, OhSheGlows.com, and stunning, vibrant food photography for each recipe. Angela has been creating healthy, veggie-packed recipes for more than 10 years, and she only shares recipes that are hits with her family, friends, and recipe testers, so you can be confident that the recipes in this collection will win over even the biggest skeptic.
The award-winning Oh She Glows Recipe App is a plant-based recipe app on both iPhone and Android containing healthy, accessible, and delicious meal options. With more than 180 vegan recipes (including over 150 gluten-free recipes), meal prepping has never been easier or more tasty!
5. PlantYou Vegan Meal Planner
PlantYou Vegan Meal Planner is your best friend when it comes to cooking healthy vegan recipes and plant-based meals. This app helps you find healthy vegan ideas, browse through hundreds of plant-based recipes, get customizable meal plans, create grocery lists - all in one app!
6. abillion
With so many vegan menus to try, it can be hard to decide where to go. The abillion app allows you to discover vegan options around you and explore reviews and ratings to help you choose the dishes for your tastes. Discover over 1 million vegan options from 134,000 restaurants and 116,000 brands across food, fashion, health & beauty.
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The abillion app is a platform dedicated to promoting sustainable living and plant-based food choices. It reviews restaurants serving vegan dishes and includes product reviews and recipes. You can support them financially by shopping in the app’s marketplace.
7. So Vegan’s app
Get tasty and simple plant-based recipes at your fingertips thanks to So Vegan’s app! The app gives you access to over 350 vegan recipes and you can even export ingredients to a shopping list.
8. Fig
Fig is a great food scanning app that supports every dietary restriction and allergy, helping you find food you can eat. This app is great for people with food allergies, people who want to eat a Low FODMAP, Gluten-Free, Vegan, Low Histamine, Alpha-Gal diet along with so many other options. Fig empowers you to navigate grocery aisles and restaurants with confidence and reclaim your love for food.
9. Vegan Recipes
Cooking delicious vegan meals has never been easier and faster than with this app. Vegan Recipes takes you step-by-step on what you need to do to cook the more than 50 recipes they offer. Most can be done in 20 minutes or less, making them perfect for quick dinners. This app also provides a food and calorie counter, yoga routines, and food databases with nutritional values.
10. Forks Meal Planner
Make meal planning easy with the Forks Meal Planner, which offers seasonal menus, grocery lists, and all of the resources you need to make plant-based living easy. This app gives you healthy and delicious plant-based meals planned for every day of the week that you can cook in 35 minutes or less, making meal planning easy for you and your family.
11. Is It Vegan
We all know that apples and almond milk are vegan, but when it comes to packaged food it can be trickier. This is where Is It Vegan comes in handy. You can either scan the barcode of an item, or manually search for it.
12. Cruelty-Cutter
Similar to Is It Vegan this cruelty free app lets you scan barcodes of products, making it super easy to find household cleaners and beauty products. If an item shows up not cruelty-free the app will help you find products that are safe. I like how you can also save your favourites, and see your history of items you previously scanned.
Other Notable Apps
Here are a few additional apps that can be valuable on your plant-based journey:
- MyFitnessPal: One of the original food and fitness apps designed to help users achieve their health goals. It features a barcode scanner and tools for tracking food, exercise, and fasting.
- Cronometer: Helps users monitor their dietary intake and health metrics. It offers detailed nutrient tracking, allowing users to log food intake and view comprehensive data on macronutrients, vitamins, and minerals.
- Paprika Recipe Manager: Organizes recipes, plans meals, and creates grocery lists. It features a built-in browser for saving recipes from the web.
- Yuka: Designed to help users make informed choices about food and personal care products by scanning barcodes and rating products based on ingredients, nutritional value, and potential health impacts.
- Environmental Working Group (EWG) Healthy Living: Provides access to EWG’s extensive databases, which rate the safety of cosmetics and personal care products based on their ingredients.
- WhatsVegan: Users can quickly check if a product is vegan by taking a photo of the ingredients list. It highlights ingredients in green for vegan, red for non-vegan, and orange for those derived from either animal or plant sources.
- Vegan-Friendly: Helps users find vegan restaurants and other businesses and products in their area.
Potential Downsides of Relying on Apps
- Over-reliance on Calorie Counting: Some food tracking apps cater to the public perception that calories are the most important (or even only) metric.
- Obsessive Tracking: Food tracking apps can encourage a hyper-focus on every meal and nutrient, which can be especially problematic for people who suffer from body image issues, perfectionism, or a history of disordered eating.
- Increased Screen Time: Healthy eating apps can fuel screen time and contribute to screen addiction.
- Privacy Concerns: Many apps, particularly health apps, collect detailed personal information, including dietary habits, health conditions, and location data.
- Inaccurate or Incomplete Recommendations: While smartphone apps may know a great deal about you (depending on what you tell them), their nutritional recommendations may not fully accommodate some important information about you.
- Cost Barriers: Some apps have paywalls that can limit access for users who would benefit most and deter people from fully committing to healthier eating habits if the costs are prohibitive.
Tips for Choosing and Using Plant-Based Diet Apps
- Define Your Needs: Determine what aspects of plant-based living you need the most support with, whether it's finding recipes, locating vegan restaurants, or tracking your nutrient intake.
- Read Reviews: Check user reviews to get an idea of the app's reliability and user-friendliness.
- Consider the Cost: Decide whether you prefer free apps with basic features or are willing to pay for more comprehensive apps.
- Prioritize Privacy: Review the app's privacy policy to understand how your data is collected and used.
- Use Apps as a Tool, Not a Crutch: Remember that apps are meant to support your journey, not dictate it. Listen to your body and consult with healthcare professionals for personalized advice.