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How to start a plant-based diet: a simple 4-week plan
One meal at a time, with a shopping list and the checks that keep you healthy.
The people who stay with plant-based eating usually change gradually. This plan moves one meal at a time over four weeks, so new habits have time to settle before you add the next one.
Before you begin
- If you have a health condition, take regular medication, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are planning for a child, speak with your doctor first.
- Consider a baseline blood test (B12, iron, vitamin D) so you can compare later.
Week 1: breakfast
Make every breakfast plant-based. Choose from oats with fruit and groundnuts, hausa koko with koose, tom brown, or a smoothie with soy milk. Breakfast is the easiest meal to change because most people eat the same few things anyway.
Week 2: lunch
Keep breakfasts, and make lunch plant-based on at least four days: red red, waakye with plant sides, jollof with vegetables, or a bean salad. Put a bean, groundnut or soy food in every lunch for protein.
Week 3: dinner
Move weekday dinners over: ampesi with kontomire stew, groundnut soup with mushrooms, a tofu stir-fry with brown rice. Aim for something green on every dinner plate.
Week 4: settle in and cover the essentials
- If you have stopped eating animal foods entirely, start vitamin B12 now. See our B12 guide.
- Pair iron-rich meals with vitamin C, and move tea and coffee away from mealtimes.
- Use iodised salt, in small amounts.
- Add a calcium food every day: dark greens, tofu, sesame or fortified plant milk.
A basic shopping list
- Legumes: black-eyed peas, bambara beans, lentils, chickpeas, tofu.
- Grains and roots: oats, millet, brown rice, yam, plantain, sweet potato.
- Greens and vegetables: kontomire, garden eggs, okro, tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrots.
- Nuts and seeds: groundnuts and groundnut paste, sesame, agushie.
- Fruit: whatever is in season, plus oranges or pineapple for vitamin C.
- Extras: iodised salt, fortified soy milk, and a B12 supplement.
How to tell it is working
Notice your energy, digestion and sleep over the four weeks. Book a blood test after 3–6 months to check B12, iron and vitamin D. If you feel unusually tired, weak or dizzy at any point, see a doctor.
Want someone else to plan it?
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Eat this way without the planning.
Fresh plant-based meals, cooked to order in Osu and delivered across Accra.
Keep reading
Foundations
The benefits of a plant-based diet: what the evidence says
What the research shows, where it is strong, and where it is still uncertain.
Getting started
The best times to start eating plant-based (and when to get advice first)
Good moments to begin, the easiest meal to start with, and the times to check with a professional first.
Foundations
The pros and cons of a plant-based diet: what you are responsible for
The upsides are real. So are the nutrients you have to take responsibility for.