At Santosa, guests can use their free time to relax and disconnect from the stresses of the outside world by joining our free classes, taking a swim or a relaxing ice bath after a sauna.
Santosa Spa is truly an extension of our ethics; to take you on a sensual and luxurious journey. Our treatments nurture and support the connection between body, mind and spirit.
Shirodara & Ayurvedic - Thai Herbal Compress - Hot Stone - Cupping Therapy - Infrared Dome Sauna - Ion Cleanse Foot Bath - Epsom Salt Foot SPA and Foot Scrub
It is that time of the year again. The time to usher out the old and welcome in the new. Did you make any New Year’s Resolutions? Chances are, that if you did, those resolutions included losing weight, eating better and getting healthier? Are you aware that all of these goals can be met by switching to a vegan diet? Get ready to accomplish your goals and enjoy delicious, satisfying meals throughout the duration of your journey.
Going vegan in 2017 does not have to be difficult, and to be honest, there are some truly wonderful reasons to make the transition. For example, going vegan can help you shed those extra pounds you’ve been desperately trying to get rid of. Going vegan is a healthy way to keep the excess weight off for good. Being vegan is not a fad diet, it is a positive lifestyle change. Case in point, on average, vegans tend to be up to 20 pounds lighter than meat-eaters.
Raw Pad Thai
A vegan diet is also great for your health. Vegans are less likely to develop cancer, diabetes or heart disease and their blood pressure is usually much lower than a meat-eaters is. As a vegan diet is a plant-based diet, vegans get all of the nutrients needed to be healthy from plant protein, fiber and minerals. Also, a vegan diet does not contain the saturated fats and cholesterol found in diets rich in meat.
Does the thought of going vegan appeal to you, but are you afraid of giving up ice cream, chicken sandwiches and perhaps the occasional burger? You won’t have to! As the vegan diet continues to gain momentum and become more popular, companies continue to come out with tasty alternatives free of meat and dairy products that actually taste like the real thing. Also, there are tons of resources out there, recipes too, on how to substitute some of your favourite meat dishes and turn them into healthy vegan meals.
Vegan food is delicious, and steps toward eliminating meat and transitioning into a total vegan diet are not as difficult as they seem. Start day by day and do what is right for you, but no doubt about it, a vegan diet is much better for your health, for animals and for the planet in general. It’s a new year, make your ultimate goal in 2017 a whole new you!
Going Vegan in Phuket
Santosa Detox and Wellness Center, located near the popular Kata Beach on the southwest coast of Phuket, we have a fantastic, innovative vegan restaurant that utilizes only the best organic produce and local ingredients. Our restaurant hosts a popular vegan buffet twice a week, and we also offer vegan cooking classes with our vegan chef from Italy. Simply fill out the enquiry form below and a member of staff will get back to you as soon as possible.
We look forward to welcoming you to Santosa Detox and Wellness Center as well as sharing the health benefits of a vegan diet with you!
Exciting changes are afoot at our wonderful vegan restaurant within the Santosa Detox and Wellness Center complex as a new menu launch is set for the 5th of September 2016. Furthering on our successful vegan dishes, the new menu highlights a whole food plant based diet rich in delicious new menu options.
A whole food plant based diet is a diet that is based on fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. It often excludes or minimizes meat, eggs and dairy products as well as refined foods such as flour, sugar and oil. A whole food plant based diet is a healthy diet, one that is good for your body and your longevity.
Often times, people have the misconception that a healthy diet, or a vegan or whole food plant based diet, consists of only being able to eat boring meals of salads and leafy greens. This misconception is completely wrong. Just because something is good for you does not mean that it can’t be delicious, too!
Our new menu includes a wide variety of innovative new dishes featuring fresh and exuberant flavors. For example, our new menu starter Peace features raw cauliflower, bean sprouts and and black olive tapenade, and it’s enhanced with the super food sesame seeds. It is a light and delicious appetizer. Our unique soup Yogic is a refreshing cucumber and basil gazpacho with cilantro and lime as well as Spirulina. The soup packs a flavorful punch to the palate. A creative spin on a local Thai favorite View is a raw Pad Thai dish featuring sweet and sour hints of tamarind.
The new menu at Santosa Vegan Restaurant also features some out of this world dessert; yes, dessert can be healthy! Made from ingredients such as pistachio nuts, mangos, and cacao, our raw cheesecakes are to die for! We are also now offering an assortment of vegan ice cream and sorbet choices, available in one, two or three scoops for good measure.
With the launch of the new menu, we also launch an exciting addition to our ever-popular vegan buffet. Starting the 5th of September, our vegan buffet will now be offered on Wednesday and Saturday nights. Now, there are two reasons to eat healthy each week! If you have not yet tried our vegan buffet, please do make a reservation and come and see for yourself what all of the fuss is about. Fresh, local ingredients are made into wholesome, innovative, delicious and best of all, healthy, meals. Stop in on Wednesday or Saturday to enjoy the spectacular sunset views and see what all of the fuss is about!
Santosa Vegan Restaurant in Phuket, Thailand
If you are interested in sampling some of our menu items or booking a spot for the vegan buffet, simply fill out the enquiry form below and a member of staff will get back to you. Here at Santosa, we believe that it’s possible for healthy eating to taste good and we are excited for you to experience our fantastic restaurant and tasty menu items. We look forward to welcoming you to Santosa Vegan Restaurant high in the hills above Kata Beach in Phuket, Thailand.
Veganism is wrapped in many myths and misconceptions. In truth, going vegan does not have to be difficult. You can still eat comfort food, you can still save money at the grocery store or market, and regardless of what you may have heard, you can still frequent your favourite restaurants. Although going vegan is a lifestyle change, it is a positive change and one that can truly be very easy.
What is a vegan?
A vegan is a person who avoids eating animal products. As veganism is a plant-based diet, vegans tend to have lower rates of obesity, and on average weigh 5 to 20 percent less than regular meat eaters. For some, the philosophy of veganism reaches beyond the plate. Many vegans do not wear animal products and avoid products with animal ingredients or those that test on animals. Studies have proven that veganism existed in ancient India and Greece, so although it has recently gained momentum with regards to certain environmental and health movements, veganism is not a fad diet.
Steps to going vegan
Making changes to your everyday meals is without a doubt the easiest way to start your path to becoming a vegan. The best way to start is by removing meat or dairy one day a week and continue from there. There is a plant-based alternative for almost every type of food you come into contact with, so in all sincerity, you do not have to miss out on any of your favourite snacks or foods. Going vegan can simply be started by switching out the cow’s milk you drink with almond milk or soy milk, or substituting butter with the healthier alternative of coconut oil.
Will I get enough protein?
The answer is absolutely yes. You will get enough protein from eating plants. Many vegans meet the necessary dietary requirements of protein by eating a variety of beans and legumes such as lentils, eating cooked spinach and other leafy greens as well as adding soy products such as tempeh to their meals.
Doing vegan the right way
As a vegan, you need to make sure that you are not missing out on essential nutrients. One of those key nutrients is vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 helps with brain and nervous system functions and is found naturally in many animal-sourced foods. As a vegan, you can eat fortified nutritional yeast and sprinkle it over dishes such as pasta to get a buttery taste. If you are concerned about missing out on essential nutrients, just make sure that you are eating a wide variety of plant-based foods.
Many vegans center their diet around fresh fruit and vegetables in addition to beans, grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. Purchasing in bulk is an economical way to stock your kitchen with vegan ingredients.
Like any lifestyle change, going completely vegan won’t necessarily happen overnight. Becoming a vegan takes a bit of getting used to, and you also need to take it slow and figure out what works best for you. Try new things, and expose your taste buds to a wide variety of new foods and flavours. Find your food comfort zone and don’t give up. There are so many meals that can be prepared from staples you already have in your kitchen, and many restaurants these days have vegan-friendly options.
How to go vegan in Phuket?
Going vegan in Phuket is easier than you might think. Plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits abound, and there are also a wide variety of organic options as far as produce and dry goods are concerned. It is quite easy to replace eggs and dairy in any recipe, and Phuket has the available resources in a number of supermarkets to experiment with a variety of vegan-friendly recipes. Also, the vegan community is growing in Phuket, and there are a lot of individuals willing to help you on our journey.
Santosa Vegan Restaurant
The vegan restaurant at Santosa serves modern vegan and raw food in a relaxed setting. The restaurant offers a stunning view of the Andaman Ocean, and is the view is glorious at sunset. It is the perfect place to enjoy the ultimate, guilt-free fine dining experience. Our healthy, plant-based menu helps to restore alkalinity while exciting the palate with fresh, exuberant flavours.
We offer a vegan buffet every Saturday at our restaurant starting at 18:30pm. Chef Mauro wows every guest with his raw, culinary creations. If you are looking for the ultimate vegan dining experience, please call +66 (0) 76 330 600 for a reservation, or simply fill out the form below.
Attending Santosa’s three day detox was a treat for the mind, body and soul. It also had a great social element; being surrounded by like-minded people with the combined goal of cleansing their bodies. The morning meetings, yoga, meditations and work-out classes brought us all together so we could connect easily.
This gave me the opportunity to discover what motivated people to do a detox. I discovered the vast majority go for their spring clean; to pick their bodies up after months or years of unconscious eating. Others go to remedy various health conditions without the aid of prescribed medication – a great alternative to mainstream medicine.
However, one of the less common reasons I came across was when people detoxed just before travelling. This unique take on a detox can be quite a powerful one. It’s not enough to say ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’, it has to begin with the right step.
So why make the first step of your journey a detox? Here are some great reasons for you to do so:
1) Being in an environment you’re not used to can throw your immune system off guard, decreasing your resistance to infections.
2) When travelling, you’re exposed to unusual parasites, insect bites, viruses and bacteria which means your defence system should always be strong.
3) Getting ill on your travels can be unsettling, disrupt your journey and depending on the severity, it may cost you a fortune.
Even though we cannot avoid everything, we take precautions that decrease the likelihood of catching something. A detox is one of the strongest precautions we can take. Why? Because it completely recharges the body. It gives our bodies first line of defence the chance to function optimally by flushing the body of harmful toxins that suppress it.
How you can detox before your trip ….
Ø Start with the small things: begin your day with a cleanse drink and give your body the boost it needs. Choose from either coconut water, warm (not hot) lemon water or a wheatgrass shot to give your blood and body a complete cleanse every morning.
Ø Eat the right fruits: Hunt for fruits that are high in vitamin C to build your immune system plus clean your colon, stomach and intestines. Keep consuming pomelo, papaya and oranges to supply you with your daily Vitamin C needs.
Ø Take probiotics: doing so in the form of yogurts or even better, Kefir, will keep your digestive tract balanced. Something as simple as adding yogurt to your cereal every morning can increase the good bacteria in your gut. Doing so will help your body fight any infections that come.
Ø Travel with Calcium Bentonite Clay. Coming from volcanic ash, the clay has a negative ionic charge. This allows it to draw bacteria and toxins away from your body as these are positively charged. Add psyllium husk for the perfect cleanse drink.
Ø Load your body with green smoothies. Fresh juices is a great way of getting your veggies in a raw, untouched form. Juicing pre-digests your vegetables so all the antioxidants, vitamins and minerals can be utilized quicker. Make your main focus celery, beetroots, kale, spinach, and carrots and try to get them organic. You can add your favourite fruits to sweeten things up and don’t forget about super-food powders like matcha, spirulina and chlorella!
Ø Alternatively… book yourself into a detox centre away from the hustle and bustle of city life. If you are staying somewhere with a heavy tourist industry like Phuket, Santosa offers a peaceful retreat away from the noise. Get daily guidance from experts and gain access to top quality facilities, supplements, nourishing foods and healing classes.
Ø Eat living foods: sprouts (like sunflower and alfalfa) are nutrient powerhouses and contain a full profile of nutrients and enzymes which are easily assimilated by the body. If you want to grow your own, remember the stage at which enzymes are most active is from germination to the seventh day. During this stage, the level of enzymes are 100x more powerful then enzymes found in fruits or veg. So cut out the junk food and replace them with raw snacks and sprouts today!
Ø Remember the digital detox:
digital detox
Disconnecting can make the world of difference to your travels. We live life in subservience to our devices. When the notification goes, we are compelled to look, compelled to communicate, compelled to stay connected.
It can be pretty liberating however to switch off the phone, just for a while, and immerse yourself completely in your surroundings. When you interact with people, you do so fully. When you eat, you do so with all your attention. The big benefit of becoming disconnected is that you become more connected to what’s around you. There are also the following benefits:
Ø You won’t miss meaningful moments life blesses us with
Ø You will get a more restful sleep
Ø Research reveals disconnecting can boost creativity and help you solve problems more efficiently
Ø You’ll be surprised how much time you spend texting, ‘Facebooking’ and ‘Instagramming’. Get rid of the digital devices and get more time for doing cool and memorable things that enhance your journey.
Every night you voluntarily allow your body to shut down. You lie down, close your eyes, and slow your breathing. It’s paradoxical that we as humans will fly across the room to plug in our phones in order to prevent it from shutting down, yet one of the biggest facets of human life is the concept of shutting down. Sleep is a wonderful thing, it is a time in which our thoughts become dreams, and our bodies remain a vessel. See the other great benefits sleep can provide to your brain and body…
As much as anyone loves sleep, doesn’t everybody hate that fifteen minute period when lying in bed trying to go to sleep?
There are many factors in our everyday life that can affect the way we sleep, and by lessening their influence an hour before bedtime we can avoid the trouble of falling asleep.
Light is one of biggest the factors that give us the most trouble when falling asleep.
There are two ways in which light can affect our sleep. One way is when we are falling asleep and there is a light staring into our eyes. This is a very direct way because we can simply shut off the light and find our way to bed. Another way in which light affects our sleep is when we are already sleeping. If a light were to emerge from your phone, or from the corner of your window and make its way to your eye it can mess with your internal clock. A beaming light in your eye will convince your body that it is daytime and that you must wake up right away. Exposure to light while sleeping throws your internal clock into a jambalaya and wreaks havoc on your sleep patterns, so if your sleep is in your best interests you may want to sleep with your phone far away and all your windows shut!
Jet lag and shift work also play large roles in the way we sleep.
This is because we mess with our internal clocks. There is something called the circadian rhythm which is a very important timeline for the body to perform certain jobs – e.g. detoxing, digesting, laying memories and so much more.
If you work a night shift or have jet lag then you may suffer from excessive sleepiness, but also research has found it can slow you down mentally by affecting your memory and reaction speed. Even things like diabetes and heart disease have been linked to this now…
Now comes the big one: Stress. Stress can affect your sleep big time.
Your body is programmed to react to a stressful situation by waking up / being ready for action. This makes deep sleep very hard to achieve if you have a high level of stress. Someone with high stress levels, or depression, experiences more REM sleep rather than deep sleep and that doesn’t allow the body to truly rest. If this is the case for you, maybe take a spa day and go get a massage, or meditate to get rid of that unneeded stress. Another stressor is not just our environment but also what we feed ourselves – specifically caffeine. Do you like to sip on some black tea or soda before you go to sleep? Well if you enjoy sleeping you should stop because the caffeine levels in soda and tea are high and caffeine stimulates your nervous system making your body more responsive and less relaxed.
Now how does sleep help with detox and what is sleep actually good for?
When you sleep your brain has an extremely unique way of removing waste through the Glymphatic system. During sleep your brain releases toxins which include harmful proteins that have been linked to brain disorders as well as Alzheimer’s. An even crazier concept is that during this time your brain cells shrink by sixty percent so it is easier to seek out the harmful toxins. The Glymphatic system is just like the Lymphatic system. The lymphatic system is responsible for removing toxins in the body, but the brain is a closed organ so it has to have its own way of removing waste. The ‘G’ in Glymphatic stands for Glial cells.
Ugh so much big science talk, just bear with me, please. These cells manage the system.
Glial cells flush the waste from the brain to the circulatory system where it is eventually circulated to the liver where it is eliminated. Basically now you know how your brain detoxes itself! Your brain actually performs its own colonic!
It is actually found that your Glymphatic system is ten times more active at night than it is during the day. Therefore, without even being aware that you are detoxing, your brain is doing it for you! Now when you dream about the Vegan summer rolls and vegan lasagna that Susana makes here at Santosa, wake up thinking about all the detoxing your brain just did for you! Your brain just does it at night to keep it classy. Always stay classy and Beautiful.
There are five stages of sleep, and each is pretty interesting.
The first stage of sleep is our lightest in which we can be woken up, and most likely a person being woken up then will wake up by saying, “I wasn’t sleeping.” He/she was sleeping, but only in stage one sleep. An interesting thing about stage one is that this is when you experience the sensation of falling. Not in deep sleep, but in the lightest of sleep! Stage Two is a slightly deeper sleep in which eye movement ceases and brain waves become slower with occasional rapid bursts. In stage three sleeps your brain waves become extremely slow and have adopted the name delta waves and are interspersed with some fast waves. In stage four sleep the delta waves are not interspersed with faster waves, and your brain solely produces delta waves. If you’re an occasional bed wetter, it’s ok. Sleep walking, bedwetting, and night terrors all occur during stage three and four of sleep which is considered deep sleep. When you’re in deep sleep you’re a hard person to wake up, your eyes are still, and you have no muscle activity (Besides your cardiac muscles which regulate your blood, and create heartbeats).
The final stage of sleep is the REM period.
During this time your breathing intensifies, your eyes begin to jerk, and your limb muscles become temporarily paralyzed. During REM sleep your brain waves increase to a level as if you are awake. Blood pressure rises at this point as well as your heartbeat. This all sounds scary, but don’t worry: it’s normal.
The normal human being experiences three to five intervals of REM sleep a night. The reason these scary things happen during REM sleep is because this is the same time you dream. These are the dreams that you can actually remember.
It all sounds pretty hectic but it’s all completely healthy, and is important for maintaining homeostasis (balance in the body), and high energy levels! Sleep better, detox better!
With the launch of the new menu, we also launch an exciting addition to our ever-popular vegan buffet. Starting the 5th of September, our vegan buffet will now be offered on Wednesday and Saturday nights. Now, there are two reasons to eat healthy each week! If you have not yet tried our vegan buffet, please do make a reservation and come and see for yourself what all of the fuss is about. Fresh, local ingredients are made into wholesome, innovative, delicious and best of all, healthy, meals. Stop in on Wednesday or Saturday to enjoy the spectacular sunset views and see what all of the fuss is about!
regardless of what you may have heard, you can still frequent your favourite restaurants. Although going vegan is a lifestyle change, it is a positive change and one that can truly be very easy.
Going vegan in Phuket is easier than you might think. Plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits abound, and there are also a wide variety of organic options as far as produce and dry goods are concerned. It is quite easy to replace eggs and dairy in any recipe, and Phuket has the available resources in a number of supermarkets to experiment with a variety of vegan-friendly recipes. Also, the vegan community is growing in Phuket, and there are a lot of individuals willing to help you on our journey.
The vegan restaurant at Santosa serves modern vegan and raw food in a relaxed setting. The restaurant offers a stunning view of the Andaman Ocean, and is the view is glorious at sunset. It is the perfect place to enjoy the ultimate, guilt-free fine dining experience. Our healthy, plant-based menu helps to restore alkalinity while exciting the palate with fresh, exuberant flavours. 
