Vegan Diet

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Do any of our members eat a primarily vegan diet, and if so, how does it differ from a vegetarian diet? I've heard they are different. I'd like to start eating healthier and am open to recipes as well.
 
I read a few books and tried but never felt 100% the short time I was a vegan. The best blood type to be a vegan is supposedly type A. I have blood type A- and still didn't feel right.
 
Except in the case of a dairy allergy, I never understood the vegan trend. Radical diets where you totally eliminate certain foods don't work. It's all about moderation. Eat little bits of everything and most importantly, be active. Keep the body healthy with daily exercise and the soul healthy with meditation.
 
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My older daughter tried it and wasn't getting enough protein and moved back to vegetarian.

Essentially, vegan is NO animal products. Like vegetarian, no meat. But then add no dairy, no eggs and you largely have vegan.

So while a vegetarian could have butter, cheese, yogurt, milk, etc, a vegan is giving up those as well.

Frankly, it was a pain to have a vegan, vegetarian and omnivores all in the same home. Add in my wife's food allergies and meal planning was a nightmare.

I've enjoyed some well prepared vegan meals, so it's not like you have to give up flavor. But I don't think she was getting enough protein and suffering for it.

She seems to be doing well as a vegetarian. She's active, plays co-ed Ultimate Frisbee. (She's too competitive to play on a ladies only team.)

It's off to grad school for her this fall to get her Masters in Education.
 
A vegetarian diet is a plant-based diet (no meat, no fish, etc) but includes milk, cheese and eggs. A vegan diet does not include anything that has animal origin.

I was born a vegetarian, no meat or fish, but we ate milk and eggs. About 15 years ago I gave that up too, so now I am completely vegan. There are a bunch of substitute meat and cheese products to help you when transitioning, but they are not that healthy, too many chemicals to make it look and taste like meat. My wife is a great cook, so she has a bunch of recipes that she found and we like them. Some of them we didn't like, so it takes a while to find what you like.

I'm telling you, I'm glad that my parents were vegetarians and I got a headstart that way. I believe I am much healthier than I would have been had I not been vegetarian/vegan. I came to the states from Europe 23 years ago and I haven't had the need to go to the doctor, and I don't take any pills, ever. I cringe when I see the amount of pills some of my co-workers take for everything. I had a blood test done a couple of years ago just because I was curious, and everything came back normal.

I hope that you will stick with it. You will not regret it.
 
Baby steps.

Don't let minor set backs get you down.

Check to see if you have meal delivery services in your area. We had them in SF, and they'd deliver entire meals worth of ingredients to make it easier to try new recipes out.

There are even online groups and resources that will pair you up with a veteran veggiesaurus that can help with tips, tricks, and support. Like a big brother sort of thing.
 
I would like to start eating healthier and I like to cook. I don't think vegan would work for me because I like dairy, but I could cut out a lot of meat. I eat too much meat, too much fried food, although I've virtually cut out soda and processed snacks like snack cakes. I have developed a weakness for Publix bakery oatmeal rasin cookies, but those are about the only cookies I eat. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, although I like ice cream. I could stand to loose a little weight and exercise. I figured diet would be the easiest place to start.
 
www.sparkpeople.com, enter in your age, height, weight and it will tell you to lose 50 lbs over the next year. You track it as you go along. Lose the weight and the ladies will take notice. You won't be so invisible as you are now.
 
I had a severe reaction to a cancer drug and was given more drugs to stimulate growth hormones so my IGH-1 would return to normal levels. They failed and I was getting worse. So I went on a potato only diet for 3 months after doing a lot of research and in the first 30 days all my hormone levels returned to normal without drugs.

I was told that I was going to kill myself and that potatoes would not supply my nutritional needs. Well not only did my hormones respond positively but my bad cholesterol dropped, my blood pressure dropped but my energy level returned to normal and I did not have any desire for other food or for any changes in this diet. In the last 30 days I did add avocado and other salsa. All my lab work at the hospital was right on target and I think that starch is going to be a large part of my continuing diet.

It appears that all successful cultures with a few rare exceptions were based on starch and maybe we can do well following something that works as part of our overall diet.
 
Im almost 100% vegan. I dont do it to "be a vegan", might sound strange but over the past 10 years, Ive changed the way I eat by how things feel, how I respond to them. Along with that Ive got to a point where I no longer wish to eat flesh of any kind. There are millions of people that eat completely unethical, dollar driven, mass produced meat and have no idea where its coming from. Its a really sad thing. Eating dairy is simply an insane conditioned thing, it makes zero sense.

The word protein is such a mythical thing now. We've been brainwashed for so, so long into thinking, believing that we need more than we do.

I'd highly recommend watching some videos by some of the greats of the vegan diet world; Brian Clement, Gabriel Cousens, cant think of others right now.

If you want to PM me I'd be happy to share more. It has been proven that it is the healthiest way to live, no denying it, the science has been done.

some recommended videos from the above mentioned figures:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5dCfkwHvo4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu4UF8RoOsY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iIOL91YZBE
 
Originally Posted By: Red91
I would like to start eating healthier and I like to cook. I don't think vegan would work for me because I like dairy, but I could cut out a lot of meat. I eat too much meat, too much fried food, although I've virtually cut out soda and processed snacks like snack cakes. I have developed a weakness for Publix bakery oatmeal rasin cookies, but those are about the only cookies I eat. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, although I like ice cream. I could stand to loose a little weight and exercise. I figured diet would be the easiest place to start.


Not wanting to pick on you but I see my past self in your words about sweet things. You're addicted to sugar. I was too. to break this is THE most liberating thing you can do with regard to food. Recently, Ive cut all grains, im working on getting my fasting blood sugar numbers down. The doctor accepted "if youre below 100 in the morning, youre good" is a fallacy. We need to be down to about 80-85 for fasting numbers. One of the best exercises you can do is rebounding.
 
Originally Posted By: mclasser
Except in the case of a dairy allergy, I never understood the vegan trend. Radical diets where you totally eliminate certain foods don't work. It's all about moderation. Eat little bits of everything and most importantly, be active. Keep the body healthy with daily exercise and the soul healthy with meditation.


Moderation is a killer. It neither doing nor not doing. Its sitting on the fence.
 
I've been vegetarian for 40 years, and was vegan for many years. I got low on B12, and rather than resort to suppliments have been back on dairy for awhile. I have to remember to eat dairy, I'm happy not to have it. So I have to find ways to add cheese to my meals, have milk in my drinks, sometimes yoghurt, half a dozen eggs last me a couple of weeks. I don't feel I'm super fit and healthy, still have high BP, but compared to others my age, I'd say I'm doing pretty well.
 
My family history of CVD is terrible. (cardio vascular disease) So I tried the vegan diet for years. That was a mistake. In the end, I found that a lower carb, low glycemic index, balanced diet works best for me. Wish I had known that earlier. The assumption that a totally plant based or vegan diet is best, is pure bunk. They are often loaded with carbs, and low to very low on key amino acids, certain minerals and vitamins.

Studies now show that diets high in processed carbs raise the risk of heart disease, diabetes and so on. It's been said for years that a Mediterranean diet is best, with a good percentage of calories from clean animal proteins and fresh uncooked or lightly cooked vegetables etc. Limiting the processed and starchy foods to an absolute minimum.

It's my belief that being at your ideal weight via a balanced diet and appropriate exercise is the key to improving your health based risks.
 
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My best friend went hardcore on that diet for 6 years, probably the weakest I ever saw him. Then he broke down one day and stopped at Chick-fil-a. Now he's back to a normal, healthy, animals will die-diet. He told me that he feels so much better, he will never do it again. Every Vegan I know looks like they don't produce testosterone.
 
A lot of people are what we call White Bread Vegetarians - they stop eating meat, or dairy, and carry on eating highly processed and high sugar foods. It takes a bit more effort than that.
 
I would like to bring up the Paleo diet, if as an alternative to the vegan/vegetarian option. I have always believed that mankind was in its natural form to eat meat.

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The Paleo Diet is an effort to eat like we used to eat back in the day…WAY back in the day. If a caveman couldn't eat it, neither can you. This means you can eat anything we could hunt or gather – meats, fish, nuts, leafy greens, regional veggies, and seeds. Sorry, the pasta, cereal, and candy will have to go!


There is more to it than that, but at its simplest, it's greatly reducing or actually eliminating carbs amd sugars, and really focusing on protein. (Chicken and fish. Chicken for breakfast.) Please note that veggies are encompassed, and that the greens are supposed to the the best, including legumes.
 
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