5 Free Plant-based Apps for a Healthy Lifestyle while Traveling

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Photo by Abillion

When traveling, you want to experience everything your destination has to offer, from its culture, art, music to it’s gastronomy. Experiencing local cuisines can sometimes be a challenge for those who follow specific diets, such as plant-based and vegan lifestyles. Despite the fact that plant-based lifestyles are becoming more common nowadays, many cuisines rely heavily on dairy and meat products. This makes it particularly challenging for vegans to locate (authentic) vegan restaurants during their travels.

Luckily, there are many apps out there that make eating according to your preferences easier. The following apps make it easy to find local food stalls, create tasty menus, and build a community around your eating habits. These apps help you to easily achieve your food goals whilst experiencing new cuisines at the same time, so you don’t have to worry about where to find food or what kind of food to eat. 

Before diving into these apps, let’s discuss how you can choose an app that is the best fit for you. There are MANY food apps available online. Some help with plant diets while others are heavy on snacks. 

Choosing an app can get frustrating. Sometimes it is the case that an app initially seems like the right fit, but then it disappoints with its features. Upon turning to another app, you discover that it captures misleading information. How do you choose the best app for your healthy diet?

• Check reviews- reviews capture the views of other people who have been using the app. They provide a testimony of their user experience, quality of content in the app, community engagement, and whether the app helped them to achieve their vegan goals. Reviews are the most authentic source of information on the best apps for plant-based lifestyles. 

• Use trial opportunities- most app developers provide users with a chance to test the product before purchase. Use trial versions before settling for the ultimate app. The trial versions come with all the features you can expect from the main app. You are allowed to abandon an app that did not meet your expectations. 

• Check the features- what features are on offer in the app? Does it link you to markets where you can get your supplies? Does the app bring you a community where you can share your challenges and successes? Is it easy to use the app in your plant-based journey? Choose an app with rich features that make your vegan journey exciting. 

• Does it come at a cost?- how much will you pay to use the app? Some of the apps are free while others require a subscription. Free apps may come with limited features. It does not automatically make paid apps better. However, you may need to pay for the premium features on apps to enhance your experience. 

• Personal preference- given two apps with similar features, what do you prefer? In other cases, you have to choose the features you will sacrifice to enjoy one app and not the other. You may want an app because a friend recommended it. Such preferences are acceptable as long as they help you to achieve desired goals. 

Some diets and food lifestyles such as vegetarianism or veganism can be strict in terms of what can and what cannot be eaten. In order to also stick to your healthy habits whilst being on the road, you can use an app that guarantees a seamless experience,  helping you to find healthy and tasty food whenever you are planning your meals.

Here are some excellent food apps to consider:

1. Zomato

Zomate is a worldwide app which allows you to search for restaurants in over 10,000 cities and browse through their menus. Additionally, this app shows you popular cuisines near you and also functions as a food delivery app in India, the UAE and Lebanon. Zomato recently rolled out “climate conscious delivery”, a new feature to skip cutlery with orders, making it possible for customers to opt out of  receiving unnecessary cutlery and contributing to plastic pollution. Curious? To already discover new cuisines near you, access the desktop version of Zomato here.

2. Happy Cow

Happy Cow is an app for all vegans. It segments its content based on the type of food each user prefers. It feels like personalizing the app for your taste and preference. Happy Cow is a pioneer in the vegan space. It has, therefore, developed its content over the years, resulting in the most refined and valuable vegan recipes and tips. Happy Cow has a vibrant community of users. You can share your worries and experiences, enabling you to enjoy a rich vegan lifestyle. If you are a flexitarian, you will also enjoy your fair share of tips. 

3. Cruelty Cutter 

“Saving animals with a single scan”, is what the Cruelty Cutter scanning app promises its users. This app helps you buy the right foods for your dietary needs. It goes beyond groceries to cover cosmetics and personal care items. It will capture barcodes and other labels to protect your dietary preferences and make cruelty free shopping easier. This is particularly useful while traveling, when you may experience difficulty deciphering labels in foreign languages.

4. 21-Day Vegan Kickstart 

21-Day Vegan Kickstart is a meal planning app. It helps you to calculate your calories and will highlight foods that are not as good for your health. It also has recipes to expand your dietary choices. If your goal is to become a more responsible and sustainable consumer overall, then why not use this app to plan your meals whilst being on vacation? 

5. Vegan Calculator 

Maybe you have already heard of carbon calculators that can calculate the carbon footprint of your vacation, but did you also know that there are apps that can calculate the impact of your food consumption on the environment. Vegan Calculator does exactly this, but also tells you how your food choices can impact your physical health. Using an app like Vegan Calculator can not only help you create and sustain healthy food habits, it can also help you lower your overall carbon footprint, contributing to not only your health but also the health of our planet. What’s not to love?

What is your food goal?

The food apps that we discussed all target different aspects. Whether you aim to eat more plant-based meals, go fully vegan or simply cut back on carbon intensive foods such as meats and dairy, apps can offer a hand in creating healthy new habits in your daily life, or help sustain them whilst traveling.  Choose an app that meets your expectations and will help you to actualize your food goals.

So what are you waiting for? Go visit the App Store or Google Play to download some of these handy free apps that support your healthy lifestyle and start daydreaming about the cuisines that you will discover on your next trip! 

This blog was written by Natalie Crawford, a writing service expert at “Coursework Writing Services UK", a servicethat helps you chooseinteresting topics to write about, while guaranteeing that you achieve your highest grades on assignments. 

Sea Going Green is a sustainable tourism consultancy that works with clients in the tourism industry to provide sustainable experiences for guests.

Food and drinks make up a large part of tourism operators’ and travelers’ environmental footprints. Our strategies measure this impact and strategize methods to enhance sustainable sourcing, helping clients create menus that accommodate guests’ needs.

Interested in creating sustainable experiences for guests? Get in touch.