Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:00

Welcome to the Deficient Vegans Podcast. This is episode 27. I'm the Muscle deficient vegan here with the protein deficient vegan. You wanna say hi?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:06

Hi.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:06

Hi everybody. So, today we're gonna cover how to find protein options at both vegan and non-vegan restaurants, including a few chain restaurants, which while they're not amazing, they're good and reliable in a pinch. But first up, new news.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:19

New news.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:20

The first one we have here is that Peta posted the CDC is going to end all of its monkey experiments for animal testing.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:27

That is very exciting news.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:28

Yeah, definitely. One of these days it'd be nice if we were able to do like synthetic testing and not have to use real animals. So looking forward to that future, if it's feasible.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:36

I hope it will be.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:37

Yeah. Also a new bill has passed the Senate that'll give kids plant-based milk options in school.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:43

I honestly can't believe this isn't already a thing. Like how, I mean, aside from veganism, like people have dairy intolerances, a lot of people have dairy intolerances.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:52

Yeah. I guess you just had to drink juice or water or something.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:54

Crazy.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:55

Also last up an update on the Miyoko's situation. We've talked about this a couple other times in the last couple of episodes, but basically Miyoko's old company went up for sale. She was trying to buy it back. Uh, and then some drama ensued.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:09

Wow. If we get any more drama, we're gonna have to rename this from new news to tea time because like the tea is hot.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:15

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:16

But basically Miyoko shared some private texts, which I'm gonna read for you because. Why wouldn't I?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:23

Right. So the company that ended up winning the bid for Miyoko's old company was a melt butter.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:29

Which I've never heard of before.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:30

I hadn't either. It sounds like they had a little bit of back and forth during the bidding process and maybe they're not on great terms.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:36

Yeah. So from what we can tell from the text exchange, is that the CEO from Melt, I guess, texted or DM'd Miyoko basically asking if she wanted to be a contractor. Because he was going to bid on Miyoko's and basically like, would you be, I, I guess like a figurehead in promoting this company, which is like, by the way, her own company with her own name and all of her own recipes. And so it seems like what I'm inferring from these texts is that she ended up learning that her company was up for sale from that exchange. Ended up getting a group of people together to put their own bid up, and then he sent her an article talking about how she was putting up a bid for the company as well, and then said, you are a cagey one. But I'm unsure why I wasn't given a heads up. Please clarify. And then she said, I'm not cagey.

I got this idea at 10: 2:31

00 PM last night, and then I made some late night calls. It's my brand and I need to own it or be an integral part of it. Thank you for your offer, but I'm not a 1099 contractor, I'm the force behind the brand. And then this is the really asshole-ish thing he said."You're right. You aren't a 1099. You're a failed business partner and appear not to have learned a thing. They were right. You don't belong with our team." And so, um, I don't know. Yeah, I, I kind of feel like if that's the kind of guy that's gonna own Miyoko's, I'm not using their shit anymore.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:04

Yeah, that's pretty spicy exchange there.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:07

Just be, and like the whole premise of him being mad at her for wanting to try to buy her own company back is wild. Oh, also all their comments are turned off on all their posts on socials because, uh, I think it's gotten pretty spicy.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:20

Yeah. This is probably not the way you wanna announce an acquisition.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:22

I know. I'll be interested to see if it goes up for sale again. Also, not really new news, but we just came back from seeing Wicked two, uh, changed For Good or for good, which

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:33

Wicked for Good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:35

Dude, that was the most vegan shit I've ever seen. That is the most vegan propaganda movie I've ever seen, and I loved every fucking second of it. Amazing.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:44

Yeah, I never realized, I don't know if the play is like this or not, but it's extremely animal activist undertones.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:50

Oh, it's great. I, I really kind of feel like.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:52

Not, not even really undertones actually.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:54

No, just overtones. I don't know. I mean, like, if babe converted people to veganism and like Charlotte's Web did, I can't even imagine what this movie's gonna do. I'm pretty excited to see what happens.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:06

Yeah, it was a good movie.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:07

It was a good movie, aside from all of the animal rights stuff, like it was a good movie just in general, so go check it out.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:13

For sure. Alright, and that's the news. So now we'll get into the main topic of the podcast here. So, if you're already a vegan, you might know that eating out as a vegan can be really hard and if you're trying to become a vegan or just, you know, eat less meat in your diet and things like that, you might have run into this already. Like, oh wow. I have suddenly a lot less options out in the world.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:33

Yeah. For me, going vegan, this was, I think the first thing I really noticed was that any of, and I was vegetarian before this, so like while the options weren't great, I always had like some options at places. But then you go vegan, and your options are like so limited. And then, you know, you're also trying to learn how to cook for the first time, vegan food, and it can just all be really overwhelming and feel like, I think a little demoralizing.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:57

Yeah. And while it's great and a good idea to learn how to cook and make your own stuff, for sure, sometimes you just want to go to a restaurant or you need to, if you're traveling, things like that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:05

Yeah. Sometimes you don't wanna make your own pasta sauce, you know, like sometimes you just wanna be able to order food after a long day of work.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:12

Yeah. So we're gonna go over some tips to hopefully make it a little easier and also help you pick out options that actually have protein. Yeah. First things first, some sneaky things to watch out for that you might assume are vegan but may not be at these restaurants. First up here is fried food. You may have seen recently, uh, beef tallow has had quite the comeback and marketing campaign.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:30

When I thought we were safe. How is this comeback again? It's so gross. Yeah, but also like fries used to be a safe thing. This is annoying.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:42

Yeah, so now you're probably gonna want to check with your restaurants or keep an eye on which chains are switching over to Beef tallow, because if it's cooked in beef tallow, it's not vegan anymore.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:51

Apparently people are also wiping it on their face, you know, which is disgusting, but.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:57

I hadn't heard that. Uh, what?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:58

You didn't know.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:59

What are the purported benefits of doing that?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:01

Oh, I don't know. I think it helps you un age 20 years or some stupid shit.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:05

Isn't that what lotion does?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:07

Dude, I don't know. Influencers will push any fucking thing.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:09

After fried foods, next up, bread and buns. A decent amount of the bread and buns you'll find at restaurants actually contain traces of milk.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:16

Yeah. This is actually, this kind of sucks and sometimes you won't really even know, like some of these places, they don't have their allergen list up. So I don't know. I always like check and if I don't know, I don't eat it. Also, if you've been vegan for a while, like you can develop a pretty bad intolerance for dairy pretty quickly.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:34

There's like a bioidentical whey protein that is made from, um, like microalgae or something. It's vegan, but it is bioidentical to whey. Yeah. Which is a milk protein.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:43

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:43

So, uh, even that which is not actually milk. I tried.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:47

And it is vegan.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:48

It is vegan, yeah. I tried once and, uh, had a really bad time.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:54

So then he tried it a second time to be sure that's what it was.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:57

Yeah, that did happen.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:00

And it, that is what it was.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:02

It made me incredibly sick both times. And again, that's not even actually milk, so, yeah. Um, yeah. Your gut changes a little bit and as you go vegan, specifically with dairy, lose some of the enzymes to help break that down.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:16

Yeah. So it's like, aside from not wanting to eat it because of ethical reasons, it's you, I wouldn't chance it 'cause of your stomach might not be able to handle what it used to handle. So

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:25

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:25

Check for breads and buns.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:27

Yeah. Also, in kind of the bread arena. Pizza dough.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:30

This is a weird one. Um, specifically Domino's, a lot of their crusts have like dairy or eggs.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:37

Which is weird because a lot of pizza doughs are naturally vegan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:40

I know. I don't know why you're putting dairy and eggs in our pizza dough. Like, can we just have the dough? Um, I don't know. I thought the Domino's thing was funny because. That's the company that PETA, uh, bought into. Right? Like.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:52

Maybe they'll get the dough changed. And maybe, maybe for the love of God, we'll get a pizza chain in America with vegan cheese.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:58

Oh, I see a lot of people posting, I think mostly from the UK that like Papa John's has vegan cheese option and I think maybe even Pizza Hut has vegan cheese option in Europe, but none of them have a vegan cheese option here, which is just annoying. I would just like one of them to offer a vegan cheese, so you could just order a vegan pizza from a chain.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:16

Yeah. And I think the American chains that have it in Europe advertise it pretty heavily over there. So I don't know if they just get, I, I'm guessing they try to do it here and they get backlash, but yeah, that whole thing is obviously insane. So.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:27

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:27

And also not just the pizza dough, but sometimes the pizza sauce. Sometimes they'll have cheese in there.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:32

Yeah. Sometimes they'll even have meat in there. So like be careful.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:36

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:36

Check, ask. A good resource though is like, I think Veggly. Mm-hmm. V-E-G-G-L-Y. Like we check that a lot. They have like up to date ordering options for a lot of the chain restaurants.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:47

I think there's another one called Veggl.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:49

Ooh. Maybe that's what I'm thinking of. I don't know. We just look up like vegan options, pizza Hut, and it'll tell us everything and it'll give you like an updated date on when it was last updated, and it'll tell you like the sauces that you can order and the things on the menu. It, it actually does that. It's pretty comprehensive. All the restaurants it covers.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:07

Also a good trick just in general is to look at the allergen list for a restaurant online. Mm-hmm. Don't, don't try to look at like the nutrition facts and the ingredients and stuff. Yeah. That can, it gets pretty hard to read, but if you go to the allergen list, that will at least tell you if there's like milk or egg. It won't really tell you if there's meat in it, 'cause that's not something that goes on the allergy list. But it will tell you from meat and eggs if you're concerned about that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:28

So that's helpful.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:29

Yeah. Also, salad dressings specifically, even the non creamy salad dressings can still have egg or dairy.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:36

Yeah. Like, uh, like Olive Garden for instance. So that's an Italian dressing that's not vegan.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:41

I don't think there's much at Parmesan, so I don't think there's much at Olive Garden that's vegan. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:44

I think you can, uh, get a salad without cheese and without dressing.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:48

A bowl of lettuce.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:50

A bowl of lettuce and, oh, I think you can get noodles with like, basically just tomato sauce. I don't know. Somebody in our area put Olive Garden on Happy Cow. And every time I see it, it pisses me off.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:01

They must really just like spaghetti.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:02

You can't even eat their fucking breadsticks.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:05

Wow. That sucks.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:06

Nope.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:07

Also breaded foods. A lot of the time there's like an egg wash on the breaded foods. They'll put the breading on.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:12

So yeah, like onion rings or anything fried. So you gotta watch out for the beef tallow, and then you have to watch out for like the potential milk or egg wash they're dipped in before they bread them.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:22

Yeah, and I really like onion rings, so I'm always on the lookout for like an onion ring that's accidentally vegan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:26

Yeah. I think Burger Kings are.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:28

Yeah. Also some refried beans are not vegan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:31

Yeah. I think they have lard. So you gotta look for the ones that are vegan and vegetarian.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:36

Yeah. Even beans aren't safe.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:38

I know.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:38

And then the last one, it's talked about a lot in the vegan community is honey. This is not necessarily something, although it does sneak into a lot of foods, but the real issue with honey is that a lot of people don't even realize that it's not really vegan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:50

Yeah. I've seen restaurants have a menu and they'll have the, you know, the vegan symbol next to stuff. That has honey and you're like, that's not vegan. Like why are you labeling it vegan? And they just genuinely, they don't even know honey isn't vegan. Yeah. Most, a lot of omnivores have no idea that we don't eat honey. So. Right. It's just like something to watch out for because they might code it as vegan and then it has honey in it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:12

And there are a couple brands of vegan honey, but there's a pretty good chance if you're seeing it on a restaurant menu, it's just honey and they don't know that's not vegan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:19

Yeah. And the, yeah, the likelihood of them buying the vegan honey and using it is pretty low. Unless it's a vegan restaurant.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:26

And if they cared enough to buy the vegan honey, they'd probably put vegan honey on the menu.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:29

I agree.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:30

So, what are we left with after all those?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:32

Uh, I think very little.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:35

Yeah. So those are some of the things on the menu that might kind of trip you up, or you might just assume are vegan when maybe they're not. So now let's talk about, once you've dodged all of those bullets, uh, if you're still trying to get in some protein, sometimes you're gonna be outta luck, and these are the reasons why.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:51

I think the first one is that vegan cheese is typically coconut oil based. So normally, especially when I was a vegetarian, I'd be getting some protein from like dairy cheese because it has protein, but you will not be getting protein from vegan cheese. And you know, the same with like a lot of the vegan milk options, unless they're soy based, most of those just don't really have protein. They're just kind of oil.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:12

Yeah. A lot of vegan cheese, just oil.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:15

Yeah. Except for kitchen 17's deep dish, which was soy-based, but they're no longer around, so.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:21

Oh, yeah. RIP Kitchen 17. Uh, yeah. Soy-based cheese is a MVP.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:26

If you can tell. I agree.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:26

Next up cauliflower wings, cauliflower steaks, rice dishes with veggies, pizza without cheese, side salad and fries. Uh, not ideal. Yeah, almost no protein even though they're kind of like entree options and uh, it sucks 'cause they are a lot of the options that we have available.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:43

Yeah, I know. And it's interesting because I think a lot of the restaurants, especially like the non-chain restaurants, think they're really like putting out something. Like they think it's a good vegan option, but for some reason, like, and I don't know what it is, but omnivores for some reason, don't think vegans need protein at all. Like they don't even think about it. It's just one of those weird things.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:05

Yeah. I feel like, if you're gonna have wings, which are traditionally a source of protein, why are we doing cauliflower and not like tofu, seitan, something that has protein in it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:16

Or like if you're gonna do a salad or a rice bowl or something, like why not throw some tofu in there?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:21

Yeah, I mean, since I've been vegan, I think I've talked about this before, but I really feel like tofu should just be there with all the other protein options on every menu.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:28

Yeah, it's like, it's a pretty frustrating thing. I know at work I was gonna potentially be locked in for two weeks and I was so stressed about this because I was like, what option am I gonna have because I'm a vegan and like. I'm not seeing a menu or you weren't gonna have your own fridge. So I was like really stressed about this and I like asked, I'm like, what are the vegan options? Because when you're locked in, you can't go places, you can't get delivery. Right. And they were like, well for the vegan option we're gonna have mixed greens and you can bring your own dressing. And I'm like, what do you, that is not a vegan option for two weeks. Like, what are you talking about? I ended up having to email the plant manager and be like, hey, I don't know if you knew this, but vegans actually still require protein to live.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:11

And vegans exist.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:12

And vegans exist in your plant. And he was actually pretty cool about it and was like, if we get locked in, I'll make it work. But like. I mean, it's just like a wild thing to constantly have to advocate for yourself that like vegans exist and vegans also require protein. That we can't just live off the, the rabbit food thing is so funny because the omnivores forced that title on us that we're like, only eating rabbit food.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:35

And then that's all they offer you.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:36

And that's all they offer you. And I'm like, I don't want to eat rabbit food. That's a, that's your perception of what we're doing. Um, anyway, that's my rant.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:45

Yeah. So instead of like the cauliflower wings, cauliflower steaks, try to look for places that have tofu, seitan, if you're really lucky. Mm-hmm. Um, they make great wings outta seitan anywhere. So, uh, beans, chickpeas, which is used in like hummus and falafel and that's, you know, a pretty good option. Yeah. Not ideal, but better than some of the other options we have. Another good one, uh, obvious one to look out for is like meat alternatives, like beyond and impossible. Yeah, they're pretty decent. Not something I'd want to eat every day, but if I'm on the road and I see something with an impossible burger, I'm probably gravitating towards that.'cause I know what it is. Yeah, it's consistent, you know, so. Yeah. TVP also, there are some places that have TVP options and I like if I see TVP, I'm definitely going for that. Yeah, that's my number one priority. But, it's pretty rare. And if none of those things exist where you're going, uh, you might have to do it with vegetables, like broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, are all high in protein for what they are. And then quinoa could be a pretty good option if we would have it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:37

Yeah. At least it's like a hardier option.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:40

Yeah. So those are some of the things that might trip you up or might make you disappointed as you look through a menu. So, now we can talk about some of the chain restaurants first that aren't totally horrible and have pretty reliable options.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:51

Yeah, and I think for us, if there's a vegan restaurant or a smaller establishment that has like legitimate vegan options, like we're usually gonna choose that. But this is more of like, if you are somewhere that just doesn't have other places other than chains with vegan options, then these are some good options. Like if you're traveling or if you're in a smaller town.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:10

Yeah, small towns like um, off the exit road, near a rest stop, things like that. These are probably the things you're gonna go toward.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:16

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:17

The first one is Taco Bell. This one's always been really vegetarian friendly, but they also have some vegan options. Usually you just get it with beans, make it fresco style, which takes off the cheese and sour cream adds the pico de gallo, and you've already got a pretty good, decent option. Uh, basically whole food, uh, vegan beans.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:33

It is actually like a pretty healthy option, especially when you're eating vegan. I mean, it's literally beans, vegetables, um, I think they even have bowls, right? Like protein bowls? Yeah. Yeah. That you can get without.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:42

Yeah, with beans.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:43

Without the tortilla and with extra beans. And you can always add like, uh, roasted potatoes if you want.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:49

Yeah. The potatoes are a big hack for Taco Bell. I love them. Adding potatoes to pretty much everything.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:53

Doesn't necessarily add protein, but it does add like a little bit more. Yeah, you're getting more food.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:58

Right.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:58

Um, but yeah, taco Bell's always been a good one for me and I think it still holds true for now that I'm vegan.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:04

Yeah. Uh, one of the better options, I think this is not something with a drive through, but it's more like fast casual is Chipotle. Yeah. They have their sofritas, which is like marinated slightly spicy tofu.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:15

Yeah, it's a little spicy for me, but I'm kind of a little bitch on spicy stuff.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:19

Yeah. But, uh, yeah, they have, you know, beans and you can make a bowl and get some beans and a big pile of tofu and yeah, just a bunch of veggies.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:26

Or like a big burrito or, yeah, I mean, definitely Chipotle is a really good option and I think it's definitely a better option than it's competition in that same space. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:35

Nobody, I think.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:36

Moe's doesn't really have anything.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:38

But Qdoba used to have a, some sort of vegan meat. I think they got rid of it. They did? Yeah. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:44

We used to get that and they stopped using it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:46

But yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:46

Chipotle's the one.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:47

That's right. Uh, also Noodle Bowl places like Noodles and Co is like the one that's popular around here. Yeah. But there's a bunch of Noodle Bowl places in the country.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:55

Yeah. We really like Noodles and Co. You can get a bowl and you can get like extra tofu and um, we get a bunch of broccoli in it too. It's really good. It's a good option.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:04

Good thing about the Noodle Bowl places is they often have tofu as an option.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:07

Yes.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:08

So, um, also poke bowl, kind of similar to a noodle bowl, but usually with rice instead. Uh, a lot of those as well have tofu. Some of 'em even have tofu skin, which is really high protein.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:17

Yeah. And like the thing I like most about those is you can just always add extra.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:21

Mm-hmm.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:21

It's like kind of like a build your own. So if you want more tofu, add more tofu.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:25

Yeah. Next up Burger King, surprisingly, because they still have their impossible whopper.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:30

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:30

And also they have, uh, vegan fries and onion rings if you.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:33

That's true.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:33

Don't wanna go the protein route. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:35

They don't have beef tallow, uh, yet.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:37

Yet.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:37

So please, please, burger King. Don't add beef tallow. That just doesn't make sense if you have an impossible burger. Right. And also don't get rid of the Impossible Burger.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:44

Oh, get it without the mayonnaise, 'cause they do come with mayonnaise.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:46

Oh, that's true. Yeah. Sometimes we'll order it and then we'll put vegan cheese on it at home. Yeah. I don't like plain burgers. I want, I want a vegan cheeseburger.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:54

Huh? I know. Uh, next up Asian places. Obviously, you know, tofu is really popular in Asia. Noodles really popular in Asia.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:02

Thank God for Asian restaurants, dude.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:04

Yeah. Chinese, Thai, Japanese places almost always have some kind of tofu option.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:09

And they're good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:10

Yeah, good food.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:11

It's good food. It's reliable food. They almost always have a tofu option. You're not gonna be disappointed. You should definitely check and make sure there's not other stuff in there that like, you know, especially like sauces, you wanna definitely check on the sauces or like if you're getting something with noodles, like it might have eggs or something.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:28

Eggs really popular. Like we have a Thai place near us where it's just they have a pad thai and to make it vegan, they just don't use egg. So yeah, something like that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:34

So it's like definitely worth checking. But most places you can figure out some kind of vegan option that still has like a tofu.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:39

Another good one that we go to a lot is, uh, like a smoothie place. Yeah. Like Jamba Juice or, uh, smoothie King, a couple of the other ones. It's not really for the drinkable smoothies, although those are good too, but they usually have smoothie bowls. Yeah. Which is like, you know, a smoothie and a bowl with a bunch of fruit and coconut and granola and things like that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:56

Like maybe nut butter or seeds you can add. Um, but a lot of the smoothie places you can also add in a plant protein powder. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:03

Like an Orgain protein or something.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:04

Yeah. To the smoothie. So you can get like a higher protein smoothie, so like that's a good option too, especially for like a breakfast.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:10

Yeah, definitely. Also Starbucks now has a couple of vegan options. They have a falafel wrap and a vegan snack box thing.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:17

Yeah, I think the vegan snack box has like, uh, like veggie chicken nuggets and a couple other things in it. Actually, I have a friend that's not vegan and she gets that. She's actually the one that told me about that 'cause she likes Starbucks. I don't usually go to Starbucks, but.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:30

Unless it's a hot chocolate time of year.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:31

Yeah, I do like hot chocy.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:35

Also Mediterranean food. They have hummus and falafel, like I mentioned before. A lot of chickpea based stuff. Yeah, a lot of good vegan options.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:41

Yeah, it's an underrated option for sure.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:44

And then last up is Indian food. A lot of Indian restaurants do have tofu options. Um, you do have to be careful because, uh, vegan is not like super popular in India, it's mostly vegetarian, so milk is in a lot of things by default. Mm-hmm. So you really have to check the menu, maybe ask the server or the person on the phone, whatever.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:02

Yeah. I don't know how many dishes can be veganized, but there are some that can be.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:06

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:07

And they usually do have tofu, so. Right. I think they almost always have tofu. Um, I think the key takeaway here is that American and Italian restaurants not really vegan friendly, but your friends are gonna be like your, your Chinese restaurants, your Asian restaurants, Indian restaurants, Mediterranean. Mexican restaurants.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:26

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:26

That's where the vegan stuff is guys.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:29

The international crowd has been using tofu. Yeah. For much longer than the United States has been a country.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:33

So america's really behind on tofu and I'm, I'm gonna need America to catch the fuck up.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:40

One day. Those are some of the chain restaurants, but if you're living somewhere with some like actual vegan restaurants and you're trying to pick the options that have the best macros or the best protein options, we've got some tips for you for that as well.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:51

Yeah, I think the number one tip is check Happy cow and look through all their menus.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:56

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:57

That's what we do. We just like open up Happy cow. We look through like 20 restaurants and read all their menus and stuff.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:03

Yeah, and even no matter where you are, if you even maybe think you don't have vegan restaurant options, download Happy cow. Check it out. You might be surprised. There's like one or two sprinkled into a lot of towns.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:11

We found entire vegan food trucks in our small town that we didn't even know existed. It just like popped up on Happy Cow one day. Like I've opened that app like hundreds of times and then it was just like, wow. One random Wednesday afternoon, I was like, I wonder if there's anything new added to Happy Cow. And there it was a vegan food truck, a fully vegan food truck. It was crazy.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:31

Do you know if Happy Cow is global?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:33

Um, I think it is.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:34

Yeah. I think I remember looking in.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:36

Yeah, I think I've looked for like spain for fun. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:38

So yeah, even if you're not in, could I eat in Spain? Even if you're not in the us, uh, maybe use Happy Cow or try to find someplace near you. Yeah. I don't know exactly what the user rate is like outside the country, but maybe it's good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:47

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:47

Hopefully.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:48

I also like that it has user reviews, like real people, real vegans and vegetarians and stuff are reviewing

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:54

with pictures.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:54

Yeah. The only thing that I don't like is sometimes you'll find a restaurant that has maybe been closed for a while and it hasn't been updated because, most of the data is coming from people going there. So it would take someone to be like, Ooh, this is now closed, to get it updated on Happy Cow. So some of the stuff's not like super accurate. Some of the hours aren't accurate. The reviews are nice. They usually have menu pictures.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 23:15

Yeah, if the business hasn't been claimed on Happy Cow yet by the owners, it might be a little out of date, but generally pretty reliable. Uh, one weird nuance with reviews on Happy Cow is you can't leave five stars if it's not a fully vegan place. So don't be turned off if you see a four star place that looks like it might have some good vegan options.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:30

Yeah, that's true.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 23:31

Also try to pick places or menu items that focus on tofu, TVP, seitan, beans and lentils. Those are gonna be your best options for protein specifically. Stay away from fried items in general. It won't necessarily take away from the amount of protein in the dish, but it'll increase the calories by a lot, which will lower the protein percentage of the dish. Yeah, obviously like you can take tofu and then, you know, wrap it up and fry it and dip it in chocolate and you still get your 30 grams of protein, but it's gonna be a thousand calories.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:58

Wait. Fried tofu and chocolate. I don't know. Is this a recipe?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:03

They do deep fried, uh, cookies and stuff. Really?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:05

Yeah. I don't know. I'm like kind of into this idea. I don't know. Should we make this?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:09

Oh, well now you have to name it after me because this is the first recipe I've ever come up with on my own.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:14

Especially if it's not good, I'll definitely name it after you.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:18

It won't be good, I promise.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:19

I don't know. I don't know. I, I see the vision.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:24

And then, unless you just really like the taste of it, you probably never choose the cauliflower option if a Tofu, TVP or seitan option exists.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:32

Yeah. Or mushrooms, you know? Yeah. Like mushrooms also are a little bit better than, yeah. Than cauliflower.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:37

Cauliflower's great and all, but first of all, if you're paying for a dish that's cauliflower, you're probably massively overpaying. And two, there's just, you know, there's not much to it for protein.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:46

But hey, if you don't care about protein. Eat all the cauliflower you want. Like it makes you happy.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:50

Steam cauliflower. Cauliflower is part of mixed vegetables. Fine, but don't gimme cauliflower wings, please. All right, so those are pretty much all the tips. Now we can talk about our myth of the week. The myth of the week this week is vegans need more protein than non-vegans.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:07

I actually had someone comment on one of my Reddit posts saying that you literally can't build muscle on a vegan diet, like vegan protein can't be used for muscle, which was a pretty weird comment, but I think it's kind of along these same lines of like, this is just how people think about vegan protein.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:25

Somebody should tell all the vegan bodybuilders and professional athletes that they can't build muscle.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:29

And actually, that's what I said.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:31

Uh, yeah. So this is one of those weird ones where it's like, this exists because there's a, a grain of truth to it. You know, technically vegan proteins have slightly less amino acids across the board than non-vegan proteins. Uh, so. In theory, you might need a little more to have the same results. But they've done, you know, several studies now comparing like vegans, protein sources and non-vegan protein sources and in like real outcomes as far as like how much muscle did you gain? They're not really seeing any differences when they just have like the same amount of total protein each day.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:04

Oh, that's interesting.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:04

Yeah. But if you wanted like an insurance policy and you just wanted to really make sure you're eking out every 1% mm-hmm. Then maybe you can bump your protein up by like 10% over what your non-vegan protein target might have been. Just to make sure you get a little extra of the amino acids that come with it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:20

Yeah. And I think that's like specifically if you're trying to build muscle, right?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:24

Yeah. I mean this, this is like, you're like super maximizing, trying to optimize every ounce out of it basically.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:31

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:32

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:32

So like for just a normal person?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:34

For a normal person, I would just use the same amount of protein as you would if you were not a vegan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:39

Yeah, that makes sense.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:40

Alright, next up you have a food update. You have a new long form YouTube video this week, but it is not technically about a recipe. What do you have this week?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:47

Wow. If you would really like to watch a seven minute video where I painstakingly pour over how to use the spreadsheet, I have the video for you.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:56

That sounds very exciting.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:58

For me. I find it exciting as well, but I like spreadsheets. But if you've been thinking about using my vegan protein database that we put together. This video just goes into how to use it, what use it could be for you.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:11

Yeah, so this is the vegan protein database we mentioned on the last episode, I believe that you put together that has like 200 different options for vegan protein and sorts'em by, protein percentage, protein per dollar, dollar per a hundred calories. A couple of different things like that. Mm-hmm. And shows you where to get 'em and you can mix and match the filters and things like that. So you've got a video where you kinda walk through it, talk about like how you made some of the decisions and how to actually use the filters and stuff like that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:36

Yeah, I thought it'd be useful in case maybe you're not like very computer savvy or maybe you just wanna know like all the ways it can be used or why it would be useful.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:43

Yeah, yeah. You do go a little bit into like why I might care about sorting by this option. Mm-hmm. And things like that that, I think will help. Cool. Well, everybody should go check out that video and uh, it's very fun.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:53

Yeah, it's very, very fun. Spreadsheets are very, very fun.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:57

I think you have a shirt that says that, right?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:58

I think I do. I should get a tattoo though.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:02

All right, so if you guys have any questions about the protein database, when you go to take a look at it, actually, when you go to open that video, I'd recommend opening the spreadsheet on your computer or phone and following along. But if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Protein Division Vegan on her social medias. You can find those links in the show notes, or you can even comment on that post itself. Mm-hmm. That has the, the, the protein database in there.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:22

I rarely get YouTube comments, so that'd be really fun.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:24

Yeah. Also be sure to subscribe to the podcast here. If you could leave us a review on Apple Podcast, that'd be really helpful. We've had a couple people there now. We really appreciate that. And any other questions or food recipe request or feedback or anything like that, we're happy to talk to people. Go ahead and send us an email. You can use the link in the show notes that says, send us a text so we can answer that on the podcast here. Feel free to reach out. I think that's it for this week. Do you wanna say bye?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:47

Bye.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:47

Bye everybody.