Hippocrates said "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." The human body thrives off vegetables, so it should be no surprise that more people than ever before are turning to a vegetable-based lifestyle.

The problem with this lifestyle, if you've never tried it before, is that our world isn't built for it. You'll find fast food, processed food, and lots of meat everywhere you look. To make sure your diet is mostly plant-based, you really have to work at it and plan for it.

The following apps can really help with making that effort a bit easier.

1. gonutss

gonutss bills itself as a "vegan translator". That is, it helps you translate unhealthy food into vegan or vegetarian alternatives.

Knowing some ways to satisfy your old cravings with vegetarian alternatives can really help with sticking to the lifestyle. gonutss can help with that.

Some features include:

  • Search for vegan or vegetarian alternatives including recipes, ingredients, and products.
  • A "Veganpedia" feature lets you identify and learn about raw vegan ingredients.
  • An egg calculator that helps you measure out replacement ingredients for eggs.
  • A protein calculator that helps you measure out ingredients with the same amount of protein as non-vegan food.

This will surely become your go-to app any time you're looking to make recipes or plan meals. It's a great place to turn when you're struggling to keep on track with your new plant-based lifestyle.

Download: gonutss for Android | iOS (Free)

2. Vegan Amino

Speaking of staying on track, there's no better way to stay motivated than to talk with other vegans about their food choices or cooking tips.

Vegan Amino is not just an app for discovering new vegan meals or learning about vegan ingredients. It's a community filled with other people from all walks of life who've adopted the vegan lifestyle. Everyone there is at a different stage in their vegan journey, so there's always something new to learn.

Some features of this app include:

  • A community where you can meet and chat with other vegans around the world.
  • See what foods others have made, and have a conversation about cooking tips.
  • Visit the Questions area where you can ask or answer vegan lifestyle-related questions.
  • Use the Wiki to access information like cookbooks, recipes, nutrition tips, and more.

If you choose only a single app from this list to install, this is the best one. There's no better way to maintain a lifestyle like this than having other people who are living it every day just like you are.

Download: Vegan Amino for Android | iOS (Free)

3. Vegan Recipe Club

One of the hardest aspects of staying vegan or vegetarian is finding a variety of foods to eat. There's actually an amazing array of choices for a planet-based lifestyle, but you won't find them in typical cookbooks or recipe websites.

This is why the Vegan Recipe Club app is so useful. It includes over 600 vegan recipes in its library, with new recipes added weekly.

Features include:

  • The ability to sort recipes by dietary need, meal course, holidays, and even guest chef name.
  • Recipes include everything from beginner to gourmet. There's something for everyone.
  • You can enable a feature to keep the screen from turning off while you're cooking.

Since most of the effort of living a plant-based lifestyle is in the cooking, this app will become invaluable. If you need more recipes, check out the best vegan recipe blogs. Don't miss out on these baking recipe websites either. With the right ingredients, desserts can be both delicious and healthy!

Download: Vegan Recipe Club for Android | iOS (Free)

4. Happy Cow

When you don't feel like cooking at home, you may decide to go out for dinner. This is the moment when sticking to your diet is becomes most difficult.

Finding vegan food and vegetarian restaurants isn't always easy. Enter Happy Cow, the app that makes all cows in the world happy, because it'll help you avoid eating meat even when you're not eating at home.

Features include:

  • Search for vegetarian or vegan restaurants in your area.
  • Search by your current location or anywhere.
  • Filter by the type of plant-based diet you prefer.
  • Save your favorite locations.

Happy Cow is one of the quickest and most convenient plant-based restaurant search apps you'll find. It doesn't have any complicated bells and whistles; a simple search and plenty of listings is all you need.

Download: Happy Cow for Android | iOS (Free)

5. Vanilla Bean

Vanilla Bean is a slightly more advanced plant-based restaurant search app, if you're looking for a few extra features. Helpfully, the app actually includes photos of the restaurant and its food in many of the listings. The main page of Vanilla Bean is simply a search engine.

You can access other features through the icons at the bottom of the main screen. Some of those include:

  • Filters for criteria like fair-trade, raw food offers, and more.
  • A Discover page with new restaurants near you that you haven't tried yet.
  • A map feature that let's you see restaurant locations Google Maps-style.

If you go out for lunch during the workday or otherwise find yourself away from home during meals, Vanilla Bean can help you maintain your plant-based diet without too much effort.

Download: Vanilla Bean for Android | iOS (Free)

6. Hebbars Kitchen

Indian culture has adopted the vegan and vegetarian culinary approach on a large scale. Since Indian foods incorporate the best vegetables, herbs, and spices, you probably enjoy them as a vegan or vegetarian. Whether it's a curry, paratha, or masala, this app will provide you with the ingredients you need and instructions for making the recipe.

Indian foods are some of the healthiest in the world. And the vegetarian variety are even better for you. The Hebbars Kitchen app has hundreds of Indian vegetarian recipes for you to choose from.

Features include:

  • Recipes have simple descriptions and easy step-by-step instructions.
  • You can save and organize recipes.
  • Holds a library of cooking tips for tasks like making curd, storing vegetables, getting more protein, and more.

Download: Hebbars Kitchen for Android | iOS (Free)

7. Quit Meat

If you're not currently fully vegetarian or vegan, but want to be, Quit Meat is great at helping you reach your no-meat goals. The app offers such features as:

  • Meat and dairy free breakfast, lunch, and dinner ideas.
  • A log of how long you have gone without eating meat or dairy.
  • Statistics on how many animals you have saved by avoiding meat and dairy, as well as how much water you have saved, and how you have helped reduce CO2 emissions with your diet.
  • Fun facts about a wide range of topics on health and biology.

Download: Quit Meat for Android | iOS (Free)

Plant-Based Diets With Vegetarian and Vegan Apps

Being a vegetarian or vegan is more than just what you eat. It's about always seeking to put only foods with the most nutrients into your body. This is something you have to get into a habit of doing every day, and these apps can help.

To help you get started, you may want to look into a food delivery service, many of which have plant-based diet options. You could also check out some vegetarian or vegan lifestyle videos on YouTube to get an idea on what it's like to live without meat or dairy.