Vegans

MrsBalletStar05 · April 2012

We are considering a vegan diet. I haven't jumped on the bandwagon just yet because I want to be really informed. I want to find great recipes, know where to shop, what things to avoid that I might think follow a vegan diet, but really don't, ect. If anyone has some great resources for me, blogs, chat boards, recipe sites, ect. that would be awesome. Thanks in advance.

bobbyme · April 2012

Hey! Check out my blog. Link in siggy. There is a tab for vegan resources. Hope this helps! feel free to email me and lmk if you have any questions.

bexram · April 2012

Awesome! This might be an obvious question.. but are you Vegetarian already? When I was vegan before I was pg I started slow.. I had already been veg for 4 years but then I cut out milk, then cheese, then things with milk in the ingredients, then refined sugar, etc. I felt SO healthy when I was doing this. Can't lie though.. not sure if I could ever go back..vegetarian yes vegan I don't think so:( (I caved and started eating meat again when I was pg)

abbyful · April 2012

Just curious, what are your health goals and why do you feel vegan is the way to go?

MrsBalletStar05 · April 2012

Thanks for the replies!

No, not a vegetarian yet. I started off this week by doing several no-meat meals, and just a couple with very little meat. The no meat thing isn't a huge deal to me, I feel that will be the easy part. I'm also increasing the fruits and veggies we consume this week.....not ready to tackle no dairy though. I'm hoping to make a total transition by the fall.

We are doing this as a family, mostly my husband is the one who wants to do it for his health. He has slightly high blood pressure already....his dad also has high blood pressure and the medication he was taking came with side effects, and more medication for those side effects, ect. He was on 6 different medications. He switched to a vegan diet and is on NO medications now. My husband is deployed right now and jumped right in on the diet. He tells me he is feeling really good about it all. I think it sounds like a good idea, I want to support my husband, and think eating better than we have been would be good for our long term health. We're not overweight and we are both in pretty good shape, so not trying it as a weight loss method - just for overall health and well being. I want the kids and I to be on board with eating this way by the time he returns.

Oh, and if I'm ever pregnant again I know I will have to go back to meat :-( With both of my boys that (and bread) were the only things I craved and could keep down in the 1st tri!

abbyful · April 2012

I would urge you to REALLY research vegan diets before deciding to go down that road. I personally would be very worried about the health of any of my friends or family members if they decided to be vegan.

In my opinion, it is not a healthy diet. You cannot even get all the nutrients required to live from a vegan diet, you MUST supplement and/or buy artificially-fortified foods. There has not been any culture that lives on a traditionally vegan diet, they would have died out if they tried. Cultures that are mostly vegetarian highly prize the animal products they do eat (eggs, milk) because of the nutrients those things provide.

I would urge you to look more along the lines of the WAPF (Weston Allen Price Foundation) or Paleo/Primal eating philosophies. After reading many books on the subject of nutrition, I have settled on a primal eating philosophy for myself and my family. My cholesterol numbers are great, they were decent before, but last time it was checked my good cholesterol had nearly doubled (from "borderline healthy" to "ideal")!

I would suggest reading these books before you make any major decisions on your diet:

"Nutrition and Physical Degeneration" by Weston A Price DDS

"Good Calories Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes

"The Primal Blueprint" by Mark Sission

"Protein Power" by Michael Eades MD and Mary Eades MD

"The Paleo Diet" by Loren Cordain PhD

"The Vegetarian Myth" by Lierre Keith (former vegan)

"In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan

"Real Food" by Nina Planck

And I also recommend watching the movie "Fat Head".

MrsBalletStar05 · April 2012

Thanks for the unsolicited advice? Confused

missacorn · April 2012

*lurker here-sorry this will be long *

There is a lot of propaganda on all sides so take everything you read with a grain of salt. Trust your body to tell you what you need and how you feel. Some people do well being vegan, some do not. For me, it has been life-changing and amazing.

The best books I have read have been by Dr Neil Barnard, Dr. McDougall, and Dr. Dean Ornish. Kris Carr and Alex Jamieson also have good books and websites with great recipes and info on transitioning to vegan. I think Alex Jamieson even wrote a Dummies Guide to Being Vegan. She also has a great book called the Great American Detox Diet (or something like that) with a lot of yummy recipes. Dr Barnard is with a group called the PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine). They do a Vegan Kickstart every once in a while which is a 21 day guided program. You get daily emails, recipes, menu plans and more for 21 days. Robin Robertson has the best vegan cookbooks and Dr Ornish's are good too but he advocates a very low fat diet which some people don't do well with (I personally do). Veg News magazine is really great too and can point you to a lot of fantastic resources. They also have a lot of recipes and more online.

I shop at farmer's markets and regular grocery stores. I don't obsess over ingredients in foods that might be vegan or not, I just stay away from packaged food with ingredients I don't recognize (even the vegan stuff). The only supplement you truly need is Vitamin B12 which is in most multi-vitamins. I obsessed over protein for a long time because I am athletic but in the end I am healthiest when I eat lots of starchy and non-starchy carbs, some fruit, protein mostly from legumes and occasionally soy, and a little fat. Dairy was the hardest to give up but once I stopped it made the biggest difference in my health than anything else.

Good Luck!

abbyful · April 2012

MrsBalletStar05:
Thanks for the unsolicited advice?

You said you want to be healthy...

I'm just saying do your research so you *really* know what you're getting into. And research a variety of different eating philosophies, so you get the pros and cons on both sides.

There are unique challenges with the vegan diet if you decide to go that route. Since it is such a restrictive diet, if you don't supplement properly, you'll end up with deficiencies (there are no viable plant-based sources for some nutrients, such as B-12), and artificial supplements don't always work as well from nutrients from real food. Some deficiencies take a while to show up because your body has a stockpile of the nutrient stored within the body; so it could manifest several years after your diet change.

And even if you do supplement properly and do everything right, the vegan diet isn't for everyone, some people's bodies simply cannot thrive on such a diet. Lierre Keith, author of "The Vegetarian Myth", has done irreversible harm to her body by being vegan for 20 years. Nina Planck, author of "Real Food" found she was unhealthy and gained fat on a vegetarian and vegan diet. And here are two bloggers that vegetarian/vegan diets didn't work for either: Voracious Vegan and Crunchy Chewy Mama. These are just a handful of examples. It may work for you, it may not. There's no one-size-fits-all.

MrsBalletStar05 · April 2012

Unsolicited advice is both presumptuous and rude.

I am a grown adult who has been employed in the fitness industry for 12 years. I do not have a degree in nutrition, but I have had formal education/training on the topic of nutrition. I did not come here asking whether I should eat vegan or not. I asked for resources for a vegan diet.

You are right, not every way of eating works for everyone. I will try it out for myself and see.

MrsBalletStar05 · April 2012

missacorn:
*lurker here-sorry this will be long *
There is a lot of propaganda on all sides so take everything you read with a grain of salt. Trust your body to tell you what you need and how you feel. Some people do well being vegan, some do not. For me, it has been life-changing and amazing.
The best books I have read have been by Dr Neil Barnard, Dr. McDougall, and Dr. Dean Ornish. Kris Carr and Alex Jamieson also have good books and websites with great recipes and info on transitioning to vegan. I think Alex Jamieson even wrote a Dummies Guide to Being Vegan. She also has a great book called the Great American Detox Diet (or something like that) with a lot of yummy recipes. Dr Barnard is with a group called the PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine). They do a Vegan Kickstart every once in a while which is a 21 day guided program. You get daily emails, recipes, menu plans and more for 21 days. Robin Robertson has the best vegan cookbooks and Dr Ornish's are good too but he advocates a very low fat diet which some people don't do well with (I personally do). Veg News magazine is really great too and can point you to a lot of fantastic resources. They also have a lot of recipes and more online.
I shop at farmer's markets and regular grocery stores. I don't obsess over ingredients in foods that might be vegan or not, I just stay away from packaged food with ingredients I don't recognize (even the vegan stuff). The only supplement you truly need is Vitamin B12 which is in most multi-vitamins. I obsessed over protein for a long time because I am athletic but in the end I am healthiest when I eat lots of starchy and non-starchy carbs, some fruit, protein mostly from legumes and occasionally soy, and a little fat. Dairy was the hardest to give up but once I stopped it made the biggest difference in my health than anything else.
Good Luck!

Thank you! This was a great post really,and I appreciate your opinion on not obsessing over ingredients. I'm trying to avoid packaged food and using mostly fresh, but I guess I felt a bit lost when I was reading recipes and it called for canned items or meat substitutes...I've been talking with my husband and we've got to decide on how exactly we feel about all of that. That's why I feel like this is a "work in progress" and we'll try to transition over a period of several months since I'm still learning and unsure on specifics.

I was thinking today, that we've never eaten a ton of meat...and I've gone a few days now without eating any and I hadn't even noticed!

abbyful · April 2012

MrsBalletStar05:
Unsolicited advice is both presumptuous and rude.
I am a grown adult who has been employed in the fitness industry for 12 years. I do not have a degree in nutrition, but I have had formal education/training on the topic of nutrition. I did not come here asking whether I should eat vegan or not. I asked for resources for a vegan diet.
You are right, not every way of eating works for everyone. I will try it out for myself and see.

A little defensive, aren't we? All I said was RESEARCH the pros and cons before making a big diet change.

Ignorance is not bliss, any significant change in diet should be researched and the pros and cons weighed. All diets ("diet" being "eating philosophy") have pros and cons and many have unique challenges.

Good luck...

MrsBalletStar05 · April 2012

Defensive? Yes. By your response, you assumed I wanted your opinion and that I must know nothing about food/nutrition. Both are incorrect. Thanks for your well wishes.

Want a personalized experience?

Vegans

Re: Vegans

Choose Another Board

Search Boards