Of course, as everyone knows go vegan and your body will love you as you forsake unhealthy snacks and focus on eating nourishing, nutritionally valuable food.
Yeah right…
Like a lot of long term vegans I am delighted that Veganuary has acted as a spur to bring on loads of new vegan options. And yes I will be trying the KFC Zero Chicken Burger and the Pizza Hut Pepperphoni Pizza very soon.
It does however seem as if the new breed of vegan treats – cos that what they mainly are – might be a little on the unhealthy side. You can make you own call on how much fat and saturated fat you need, and yes I know there is an ongoing debate about the links between saturated fat and cholesterol. So no value judgements from me – this is just helping you make decisions.
Bottom line is that if you eat a lot of high fat food and don’t exercise and then no shit Sherlock you will put on weight.
Here then is a quick whizz through their nutritional value.
Pizza Hut Pepperphoni Pizza
£11.69 basic deep pan
See what they did there? Clever name team PH and the pizza looks delicious with the fake meat made from pea protein. Pizzas are never going to be that healthy though and in this instance a basic deep pan comes in at about 900 calories. As for the fat it has 39 grams – remember you adult intake should be between 44 and 77 grams so that doesn’t leave you with a lot of wiggle room – and a whopping 15.6 grams of saturated fat – which is more than a day allowance for most people. But it is pizza innit…
Costa Vegan Smoky Ham & CheeZe Toastie
£2.95
This is a take on Costa Coffee’s Classic Ham & Cheese Toastie, but made without meat or dairy. Costa have been a bit rubbish with savoury vegan options, so it is really great to see them upping their game. The toastie is meat-free, Quorn Smoky Ham and melted CheeZe sandwiched between two slices of vegan bread. It weighs in at 352 calories – so not far off what for example most Pret vegan sandwiches are. The meat and cheese version has 320 calories. It has 8.9 grams of fat of which half are saturated – which is similar to the standard version. So not a bad snacking option if you are keeping tabs on your intake. Costa also has an interesting looking all day breakfast vegan burrito, which has similar nutritional values
Pret A Manger Vegan Croissant Very Berry
£1.70
All I want is decent vegan croissants in every bakery across the land. Not charcoal ones (note Coco di Mama) and certainly not filed with jam as this option from Pret is. Just normal bog standard ones.
Nevertheless the new croissant goes nationwide on January 7th. No nutritional information yet
Greggs Vegan Steak Bake
£1.55
Had a Steak Bake yet? Sara had one yesterday and raved about it. She will be delighted to know that it is only 380 calories toom 30 or so less than the original meaty version. More concerning is that it has 24g of fat which includes 12g of saturated fat. So when it comes to the later this is possibly the worst Veganuary offender, though actually slightly less fatty than the original. Mighty tasty though…
Subway Meatless Mariani
£TBC
Following on from the vegan pattie they launched last year Subway now has a twist on its infamous Meatball Marinara. The new vegan version has that addictive sauce and also comes with a dollop of vegan cheese. But how healthy is it? For a 6inch sub you get around 560 calories, 12 grams of fat and four grams of saturated fat which actually makes it one of the more healthy Veganuary offerings. The original meatball one is less calorific but has more fat. Mind you it does have 3.6 grams of salt – which is over half of your rec daily intake
McDonalds Veggie Dippers
£3.29
Ok so it says veggie but we know that they are only called that not to put waverers off. The new dippers are vegan and are made from red pepper, rice, sundried tomato pesto and split peas surrounded by light and crispy breadcrumbs. So not fake meat alchemy going on here. Turns out too that they aren’t that unhealthy. Four dippers is 321 calories, 13grams of fat and 1.34 grams of saturated fat. Not sure how they will go down with your average Big Mac fan – Neat Burger is probably a better bet. But if you do like them and you don’t go overboard on the fries this is a not that unhealthy snack.
KFC Zero Chicken vegan burger
£3.99
11 herbs and spices but zero chicken. Sounds good to us. You are basically eating a Quorn fillet with vegan mayonnaise and lettuce. It comes in at 450 calories so again that’s roughly the spec of a say a Pret vegan sandwich, and a fair bit less than a chicken KFC. It has 19 grams of fat – which is quite high (the original only has 13) but only around two grams of saturated fat. You could eat a lot worse…
Conclusion
Well it looks like good news for Subway fans as the Meatless Marinara not only looks ultra filling, but won’t make your too rotund. The Zero Chicken Burger from KFC also looks relatively healthy.
Well relatively compared with the Pepperphoni Pizza and Greggs Vegan Steak Bake.
But they are (probably) all great, provided you don’t eat them every day…
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