Vegan Intelligence is a project launched by a small group of vegan and plant-based human beings. Based on years-long experience and expertise in various fields relating to health and nutrition, animal care, food preparation and psychology, we aim to publish educational content, spark debate and also approach the topic of veganism in a fun and entertaining way. Who’s part of the Vegan Intelligence Team?
We are an international team based in Europe with growing connections with vegans and animal lovers all over the world.
All content on the vegan-intelligence Website is original and protected. This includes all pictures and photos used. The author(s) refrain from using any form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create written content.
The Vegan Intelligence Team
Sonja
Writer & Publisher
I first went plant-based in 2012 as a result of in-depth research about the connection between dairy consumption and allergies. Without having been vegan or even vegetarian before, I decided to have a one month trial of strict veganism. Jumping in at the deep end without any preparation, cooking skills or ideas what to eat, it was potatoes only for several days. What I years later found out to be called “potato cleanse” or “potato reset” helped me to jumpstart my health and got me excited about discovering new foods and ways of preparation.
It was very quick that I ended up deep inside the whole food plant-based (WFPB) realm. I got my hands on any nutritional medicine book I could find and followed online lectures of several well-known plant-based physicians. Over the years I learnt as much as I could about nutrients, optimal diet and disease prevention. At a specialised college in Bristol, England, I completed a one-year course in Biomedicine with a focus on anatomy, physiology and pathology. This equipped me with knowledge of all the basics needed for Naturopathic Nutrition.
My journey into veganism started a lot later after crossing paths with my now husband Levent in 2016. He was neither vegan nor plant-based when we met but very curious about everything related. Despite his growing interest into the health factors of a plant-based diet, for him it was the animal suffering that made him switch. It was him who opened my eyes to this aspect of food choices. So while I may have made him go plant-based he has made me vegan.
More than a decade later from where I started I can now say that being plant-based and vegan is an unshakeable part of my identity. When I look at animal-based products I don’t perceive them as food or even an edible item. But pretty much the same way I’d perceive a mouldy block of wood. My role within the Vegan Intelligence Team is to produce educational content with a main focus on health and psychology.
Levent
Vegan Chef & Animal Advocate
When I met Sonja, I had no idea what the word vegan even means. My very first reaction of course was “I could never be vegan”, a sentence most vegans have said before becoming vegan. The nutritional benefits of a plant-based diet impressed me. But what really got to me was seeing footage of animal cruelty. It took me a while to fully eliminate all animal products but there was a point when I would have called myself “90 % vegan”. But that simply didn’t make sense to me anymore. Once at 100 % there was no going back.
My biggest challenge was then to create vegan versions of all the dishes I used to cook and enjoy. Mastering the traditional Turkish cuisine in a vegan and on top of that whole food plant-based and oil free fashion was a very challenging endeavour indeed. However, I love to experiment. And while doing so discovered many things over the years on what works and what doesn’t for healthy and delicious vegan meals. It’s still fun to discover new products, especially when travelling to other countries. As a chef the learning never stops.
As for the animals, I love and cherish them all. There is nothing more rewarding than gaining their trust and forming this special bond. Seeing any animal being used and abused for human pleasure or commodity is beyond heart-breaking. In the world we live in today, at the very least in the Western World, there is no excuse anymore not to be vegan.
I grew up in Turkey and was raised on typical meat-based dishes. If I can be vegan, anyone can. As part of the Vegan Intelligence team I want to share my experience and show how delicious and easy vegan meals can be.
The Cat Crew
Cats entered the life of Sonja and Levent in 2020. Today they are very important members of the Vegan Intelligence Team. Project 833 Cats started in Southern Italy where we found ourselves inundated by starving stray cats. It was our mission to stop the growing problem of an uncontrolled cat population at least in that tiny part of the world where we happened to stay for a while. Instead of “trap-neuter-release”, we started a “gain trust-neuter-adopt” programme.
In collaboration with local vets and an adoption shelter in Northern Italy we managed to find homes for dozens of formerly feral cats. Not all of them stayed as temporary guests for domestication. A bunch of them became family and will forever stay with us.
They inspire us, the whole Vegan Intelligence Team, to keep working for a better planet with kinder people and less animal suffering. They make everybody fall in love with them and each of them has an incredibly unique character and lifestyle. Vegan Intelligence and Rainbow Cats are therefore closely intertwined and one wouldn’t exist without the other.
