I’m frequently asked whether vegans and vegetarians can succeed on the Code Red Lifestyle™.

Short answer: Yes. And here’s why.

On the Code Red Lifestyle™, we eat meat, veggies, eggs, and healthy fats like nuts, seeds, avocado, coconut oil, and many more. I even allow a little dairy (though only very specific kinds).

If you don’t eat meat, eggs, or dairy, skip those things and focus on the Code Red-approved veggies, nuts, seeds, avocado, and use plant-based oils like coconut oil, avocado oil, MCT oil, and flax oil. You can also use non-dairy milks like flax, almond, coconut, and cashew.

Nuts are incredibly versatile and can be added to salads, either ground up or whole; seasoned and baked in the oven for delicious, easy on the go food; and even used in place of cereal.

Pour your favorite unsweetened, non-dairy milk over nuts (macadamia and pecans are my favorite), add some Stevia or monk fruit, blueberries, cinnamon, and enjoy!

You can also use seeds, like sunflower, pumpkin flax, and chia, for salad toppings or in nuts “cereal.” Chia seeds can be soaked in non-dairy milk, mixed with ground flax meal, and made into a hot cereal. Add cinnamon, vanilla, Stevia or monk fruit, and blueberries. You can even add nuts and nut butter, if you like!

Instead of rice, use riced cauliflower (look for it in the frozen foods section), or make your own by putting cauliflower florets in a food processor. (You can find riced cauliflower in the frozen foods section, too.) You won’t miss rice!

You can also boil and grind up cauliflower to make cauliflower mashed “potatoes,” or make pizza crust out of it.

In place of grain pasta noodles, use veggie-based noodles, like Zoodles (zucchini noodles), or noodles made from carrots or cucumber. Look for them in the frozen foods section, or make them yourself with a spiralizer.

To make sauces, add to coffee, or for “cereal” like I describe above, use unsweetened full-fat coconut milk or coconut cream.

Nutritional yeast (which is packed with B-vitamins) is popular with vegans (but great for anyone, vegan or not), and can be added to salads, or used to make cheese-like sauces.

Remember, real food, water, and sleep are still the keys top weight loss and optimal health, whether not you eat meat and dairy.

You can drink Diet Coke and eat French fries and call yourself a vegetarian. But you won’t be healthy.

And just because something has “vegan” slapped on it doesn’t automatically mean it’s good for you. Same with something that has a gluten-free label slapped on it. Those are marketing gimmicks. Processed food is processed food.