(laughs)
- No!
I was just taste testing!
I was just taste testing some chicken!
- [Matthew] Chicken wild rice soup!
- (laughs) Oh no!
- [Matthew] I shame you!
(upbeat music)
- Hi, I'm Rachel and I'm a Tasty producer.
Back in October, the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change released a new report
on the potential consequences of global warming.
They found that in order to remain at or below
the crucial 1.5 degree Celsius increase,
we would need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions
by 45% of 2010 levels by 2030
and achieve net zero by 2050.
Some of the consequences of climate change
would be the rise in sea level,
severe drought and water scarcity,
the destruction of our coral reefs,
and possibly even a mass refugee crisis.
Which is all pretty terrifying.
A study published in the journal Nature
found that Western countries,
specifically the US and the UK,
would need to reduce beef consumption by 90%,
cut milk consumption by 60%,
and eat four to six times as many beans and legumes
in order to help keep the temperature
under a two degree Celsius increase.
Since eating fewer animal products
is a significant way to help combat climate change,
I decided to challenge six Tasty producers
to go vegan for a week so they could evaluate
their relationship with food and its impact
on the environment.
- My diet right now is pretty
meat centric I have to say.
I have been doing the high protein, low carb kinda thing.
Meat is just easy for me because I know I like
the taste of it, I know it'll fill me up,
and I know how to cook with it.
So, it's kind of my go-to.
- I think what's gonna be super challenging
about this is that I'm married and my husband is not
going vegan.
He says he's gonna support me,
but it is always hard to do something
when you live with someone else that's not doing it.
- I think the hardest part of this challenge
is gonna be breaking away from the very
solid non-vegan habits I have day to day.
- Well what I plan to do is go through
Tasty's vegetarian page and check their work
and imitate those recipes and enjoy them.
- I think one of the biggest challenges will be
basically seeing an option of free food
that has meat or dairy in it
and then recognizing that I can't eat that.
- I love that with vegan cuisine
you're highlighting vegetables and fruit,
and grains and legumes,
and usually those ingredients are pushed to the side
but they're so good!
I just wanna push myself to cook impressive
beautiful food that just happens to be vegan.
- I do expect though to be kind of hungry (laughs).
(gentle music)
- I woke up wanting a Starbucks Doubleshot,
(cat meows)
and I went to go get it and then my husband
was like, "That has cream in it, you can't have it."
And I'm so mad right now!
- Good morning, it is bright and early
on day one of vegan week.
I'm excited, I'm coming to the office now
even though no one else is gonna be here
'cause we have the day off.
And I'm here to meal prep some vegan food
for the whole week.
My plan now is to cook and prepare most of the proteins
and cook some of the legumes
that way throughout the rest of the week
I'm just tossing together the fresher items
and making a plate for myself.
- I thought it was a Monday, it's Tuesday.
On Mondays, BuzzFeed usually gives us food
which is very nice.
But I did not bring lunch today.
This is Claire.
Claire is gonna give me her roasted veggies
that she was gonna eat for lunch
and she's gonna eat--
- [Claire] Chocolate cake instead.
- [Katie] Chocolate cake.
Which I've gotta be honest,
I wish I was Claire.
- [Rachel] How's it going, guys?
(laughs)
- It's great!
Look at Jordan savoring that pasta.
It's good. - Yeah.
Like it's good, it's like everything
but the kitchen sink pasta.
- Look, I can still eat fried plantain.
- [Rachel] Oh, look at this!
You're eating plantains, this looks delicious.
- [Jordan] Where'd you get your plantains?
- It's New York, man.
Every corner has plantains.
- It's day two of the vegan challenge.
First day in the office and I'm having breakfast.
Some vegan cashew yogurt, chia seeds, granola,
dried cranberries, so far so good.
As I attempt to shoot a video full of dairy
and cured meat.
Great.
- I'm having some of my homemade seitan
that I made on Monday.
It looks like beef but it kind of just tastes bread
so I kind of miss protein tonight.
- One of my biggest concerns for this challenge
was that the producers were still going to be working
at Tasty and therefore surrounded by temptations.
So I was a little nervous about whether
they would have the willpower to stay strong.
- This is the daily temptation that happens at Tasty,
This is the leftovers table
and there is a giant sheet pan cake that I can't have today.
See, everyone's coming over.
Okay, no one feels bad for me.
- I'm sorry!
- I'm so sad!
- [Jordan] We just had Chef JJ
make some chicken plantain nachos.
They smell absolutely amazing.
As I watch everyone else just loving it up.
- There's so much temptation all around,
everyday all day and you know, obviously I know my job.
I know that I cook all day, but do you even realize
that we also watch food all day,
when we take notes on videos?
- [Katie] So you know how hard this is?
- [Alix] So everyday, you can't get away from it.
- [Katie] It's everywhere.
- [Alix] You just can't get away.
- What're you making?
- I'm making fish and chips
and they are fried to perfection.
- They look so good. - You should show the pile.
Oh, actually french fries are vegan!
- [Katie] Yeah, I can eat so I'm gonna eat one of these.
- Today we shot a huge video for pate en croute
which is like a meat dish
and I really want to eat it 'cause the day is over.
So instead we had a side salad I made for it
and I'm just gonna have that for dinner.
- Dude, I'm taking a walk down from Grand Central
right here to the office.
This is Park Avenue, New York City, okay?
And there's a bunch of propaganda, pro-meaty products.
I'm talking about like sandwiches, burgers.
From breakfast to dinner.
Bombarded with images of meaty and dairy products.
It's everywhere.
You gotta have some serious discipline
to be a full-time vegan.
You guys are not making it easy, you guys are not.
That is insanely tough.
- [Rachel] Even though the first few days
were a struggle for some,
things finally started to turn around and get easier.
- I'm literally shook.
I can't believe how lucky I am that she's making this today
because I just didn't have any time to prep food
and I was just gonna wing it when I got to work
and you know what?
It worked out for me guys.
My luck is turning around.
- [Rachel] One thing that's great about working
for Buzzfeed is that they provide
a catered lunch twice a week
that always includes vegan options.
- Okay, so here's our final plates.
- Ooh.
- They actually had a few options.
We have some lettuce, some potatoes and cabbage.
- Lentils.
- [Alix] Carrots and lentils.
- Ooh, you got carrots? - I got the carrots.
- Just less vegetables in mine.
- I like vegetables, you know?
It's all I can eat.
I feel like I'm gonna be full which is good.
This is looking good, I'm excited.
- [Rachel] It's day four of their vegan challenge
and I made some mushroom walnut pizza.
Get in there folks.
- If this is what I can keep eating,
I'll be a vegan today, full time.
- [Rachel] Thoughts on vegan pizza?
- Vegan pizza's great, yeah.
- [Rachel] Yay, thumbs up!
- Hey everyone!
Sitting down for dinner.
Hey, hey, hey.
Tonight, we made a curry, a vegan curry.
It's delicious.
Yeah, I'm having fun being vegan, now.
It was rough at the go.
I'm not gonna lie, very tough.
But it's gotten easier.
- Towards the end of the challenge,
I decided to treat the producers and order some lunch
because I wanted to show them just how many vegan options
there are out there.
Do you feel like you can eat this for lunch
a few days a week instead of real meat?
- Yeah, this would definitely be like, this is really good.
I could eat this twice a week, three times a week.
Five times a week.
- [Pierce] I would eat this every day.
- [Jordan] It's still a lot of hamburger.
- Honestly, it's so good to find out that
there's so many options that you can eat beyond broccoli,
you can have this, pretty awesome.
- We went out for vegan food today,
it's our final day.
- [Matthew] And we ordered a bunch of food.
- [Katie] I think it was the easiest part
of my whole experience so far
and there was so many options.
Mac and cheese, I had the mac and cheese.
Mac and cheese was really good
but I really liked the shiitake mushrooms
that tasted like bacon.
It really did taste like bacon.
- What's nice is for me, I've been cooking all week
and even though I love to do that,
it was cool to not have to worry about that
and just get a great meal.
- Today, was a turning point for me.
I was like,
"This could be something I can actually do
"a little bit more of."
(upbeat music)
- For this week, it has really taught me a lot about
just eating more plant based food
and how it's not as hard or as challenging
as I thought it might be.
I definitely can incorporate more plant based
staples in my diet and have less meat.
I'm not gonna give it up completely.
I just think I will save meat for a more special occasion.
- I have consciously decided to reduce my meat consumption,
not eliminate it, but just reduce it
because I think we are overdoing people.
We really really are.
- I definitely think it's important
that I make efforts to reduce my carbon footprint.
In the future, I plan on hoping to make
more of my meals vegan deliberately
and worry less about having meat
be a central focus of any meal.
- Although I love meat so much,
I am open and willing to cut down on my consumption.
I love trying new foods and I think it's just exciting
to be able to try a new diet
and maybe find things that I actually really love.
- Overall, I'm so proud of these producers
for taking on this challenge.
My goal was never to get anybody to go 100% vegan,
but show them that plant based
eating can be just as delicious
and that by incorporating even a few vegan meals a week,
you can make a positive impact on the planet.
(upbeat music)