Went Vegan for a month

a reply to: Tucket

Some people get all messed up from too much nitrates, their blood pressure can drop too low leading to hypovolemia. Not enough blood flow to the brain from low blood volume. Basically dehydration from a combination of diaretics and nitrates in veggies. Possibly because of not enough salt in the diet too.

More people die of low blood pressure than high blood pressure, the same goes for the amount of people who wind up in ER at hospitals. Notice how many people wind up needing an IV containing sodium Chloride in the ER?

originally posted by: Oleandra88
a reply to: Secretrooster
I agree with what you say, except this:

That being said, is any meat eater here really healthy? The mass majority of people eat meat and the mass majority also have serious health issues.

Everyone breaths, and the mass majority you say has serious health issues. Clearly breathing is the true reason for these health issues, since everyone and not just the majority does it.

I’m not saying it’s caused by meat. My point is that you can’t say being vegan causes health issues if meat eaters aren’t healthy to begin with.

I’m late to the party... as usual.

I’ve been vegetarian since I was 19 (so just over 20 years) and on and off vegan for the last several years. I will say that I don’t think it’s for everyone. Since eating more vegan, I really have to eat a lot to try not to lose weight, and even then I might drop a couple of pounds which I don’t think looks great on me. Nowadays I eat mostly vegan but eat vegetarian on two occasions - holidays and pizza. Sorry pizza needs cheese. Real cheese not vegan cheese.

I have to take iron supplements, and sometimes my iron still gets low. I’ve had a couple of infusions in the past. I take b-12 too.

I eat the way I do because I like it, concern for animal welfare, environment, etc etc. Also aside from occasional anemia it keeps me very healthy - healthy weight, low bp, low cholesterol etc

But it isn’t for everyone. I think a lot of people really can’t do it physiologically. My husband and kids all eat meat, diary, and eggs... and I’m happy to cook it for then. I do try to get meat from “happy” local cows, grass fed, small farms. We are lucky to live somewhere that getting good local meat, diary, and eggs is possible.

Anyway, I give you props for trying it out. It’s possible that if you’d continue with it you would eventually start feeling more energy, but you know you body better than anyone on a message board. If you are concerned about factory farming there are a lot of way that you can minimize your support of that without having to go full vegan.

a reply to: Tucket

For a month i lived with a vegetarian gf for 2 years and did about one and a half years at home not eating meat , boy did i enjoy working away from home and steaks

a reply to: VegHead
Hey, thanks for piping up. Im definitely going to continue. I just need to make better meal plans and be more dynamic in my cooking.

Ive never been a big meat eater so it really shouldn't be difficult. I'm having fun learning new tasty recipes!

cheers

originally posted by: paraphi
I have no issue with veganism, so long as vegans appreciate that increased intensive soya production is calamitous to the environment, not to mention the bulldozing of rain forests to make the space and the pollution to get soya to your plate.

Ummm, soy is one of the most unhealthy things you can eat.

Good for you for trying it. I hate it when people bash any diet or life-long nutrition plan without trying it first.

The first time I went Vegan I did so cold turkey, I refused to supplement and I was also restricting calories. I lost a ton of weight which I couldn't afford to lose. I felt awesome in the first couple of weeks but ultimately crashed and burned as my diet was not balanced and I was missing important nutrients. I went back to being a vegetarian, slowly and for a little while I even ate red meat once a month. I began again by going back to my vegetarian diet, eventually gave up more and more animal products until I was down to egg whites and fish. I started supplementing with Iron, B and C vitamins and eventually gave up the egg whites and fish. I have a very well balanced nutrition plan that is in line with my athleticism. Some days it might seem like a science project LOL! But to me it's just about eating what my body needs to perform the functions that I do. I couldn't be healthier and have the actual numbers to prove it. Little by little I also gave up on supplementation - paying special attention to foods that are fortified in the vitamins that I need. Also slightly buying into the idea that plants and animals get their nutrients from the soil they grow from - I get my nutrients from the plants or animals that I eat, so it makes simple sense to eat certain things that contain those nutrients. Anyway - I enjoy my vegan lifestyle for sure, I'll never go back. Everything about suits me - I am fit, plenty of energy, lean and still able to build muscle, I sleep well, I think clearly and I never get sick anymore. For me I had to do it, I am a master licensed nutritionist and I didn't feel right about giving guidance to clients on a plant based diet if I hadn't done it myself. That quickly turned into pursuing it for ethical and personal reasons. Everyone has to have their own reason for doing it.

I would ask you what your daily food intake looked like during that time. Also - did you use many of the replacement items which can be highly processed?

And on soy -

Depending on where you’re coming from, soy-based foods like tofu, soy milk, miso, tempeh, and edamame may sound like classic "health" foods. But to some, these grocery store items have developed scary reputations for their purported "disease risk." We’ve all heard about the scary studies that say eating soy can mess with your hormones and thyroid, and even cause cancer!

As is often the case when it comes to nutrition, the answers aren’t black and white. But for the most part, soy-based foods are some of the best foods you can eat on the planet. Soybeans provide a plant-based protein source; a slew of vitamins and minerals crucial for reducing risk of chronic disease; and fiber that helps you fill up and feel satisfied."

While some small, poorly designed studies have made inflammatory headlines over the years, it’s important to think about all foods in context. Eating plant-based foods in their closest-to-nature (a.k.a. least processed) form? Super nutritious. But taking supplements made with the compounds in soybean? Not so much.

That's where health risks have been seen - not in eating the food itself, but in supplementation. Supplementation linked to increased disease risk, while real, whole foods are linked to decrease.

In the FAT-phobic 1990s, when soy foods first started really hitting it big many experts believed that soy had the power to fight problems like obesity, heart disease, and even cancer. In Asia where a lot of soy is consumed studies showed that these populations had significantly lower rates of obesity, heart disease, and breast cancer compared to people in the U.S. Clearly, soy was the miracle food! Not necessarily. Those studies only looked at associations, not causation. Just because people who consume a lot of soy also happen to be healthier than people who don’t eat soy doesn’t automatically mean that soy is the key to their superior state. Countless other factors — from genetics, to lifestyle, to the rest of their diet — also play a role.

When researchers began taking a closer look to find out what made soy so healthy, they ran into some surprises. Soy, it turned out, contains estrogen-like compounds called isoflavones. And some findings suggested that these compounds could promote the growth of some cancer cells, impair female fertility, and mess with thyroid function.

At the same time, other studies were still showing that soy consumption could cure high cholesterol and help women cope with the symptoms of menopause. Add it all up, and you can see how this little green bean became a source of mass dietary confusion.

The majority of recent, high-quality studies have found that soy doesn’t increase breast cancer risk, and very high consumption could even offer some protection. A PLoS One meta-analysis of 35 studies found that soy intake lowered breast cancer risk for women in Asian countries; among U.S. women, soy consumption and breast cancer risk were unrelated.

Eating soy could help protect against other types of cancer, too. Findings show that soy consumption may slightly lower the risk for gastrointestinal cancers and have a protective effect in prostate cancer survivors. Eating a high-fiber diet is also tied to lower colon cancer rates, and soyfoods like edamame and tempeh both have plenty of roughage.

Soy appears to be beneficial for fertility, as long as you don’t eat too much. Women undergoing in vitro fertilization who have environmental exposure to BPA are more likely to get pregnant if they also ate soy. That’s likely because soy’s isoflavones help neutralize the BPA’s endocrine-disrupting effects.

Just don’t go overboard. Consuming over 100mg of soy isoflavones (the equivalent of 6-ounces uncooked tempeh or 16 cups soy milk) daily was linked to reduced ovarian function, found a Journal of Nutrition review. But moderate soy consumption didn’t pose a problem.

As for soy solving hot flash problems? It might help, but not for everyone. Among women whose bodies produce the soy metabolite equol, those who ate the most soy experienced significantly fewer hot flashes and night sweats compared to those who ate the least, found one Menopause study. (Between 20% and 50% of North American and European women produce equol. Some research centers can test for it in a urine sample, but there’s an easier option: Try adding soy to your diet for four to six weeks and see what happens. If it helps, you produce equol. If it doesn’t, you probably don’t, the study authors say.)

Soy foods don’t affect thyroid function in people with healthy thyroids, found a Loma Linda University review of 14 studies. But if you have an underactive thyroid, you might want to watch how much soy you eat. Soy foods have been shown to interfere with the body’s absorption of thyroid medication — but only if you overdo it, suggests a 2016 Nutrients review. The evidence is still far from conclusive, but experts still advise to wait at least four hours after consuming soy to take your thyroid medicine.

Eating soy in place of meat will probably protect your heart. Early research suggested that soy could help lower levels of bad cholesterol. But more recent findings have shown that might not be the case, and in 2008, the American Heart Association said that there wasn’t enough evidence to say for sure that soy lowered the risk of heart disease.

Still, it’s safe to assume that soy has some benefits going for it. In general, replacing animal foods with plant foods like soy lowers saturated fat intake and ups fiber intake, both of which are help your heart. In other words, swapping that steak out for tofu or tempeh is a heart-smart move. But having steak followed by a bowl of soy ice cream for dessert probably won’t be as helpful.

All of soy’s potential benefits come with an important caveat: To reap them, you need to pick minimally processed forms of soy — think tempeh, tofu, miso, and edamame.

These foods serve up soy’s entire nutritional package without added sugar, unhealthy fats, sodium, or preservatives that you usually find in highly processed foods.

Soy frankenfoods like meat analogs, soy bars, soy yogurts, or protein powders usually only contain soy protein isolates, rather than nutrition from the whole soybean. Just as other processed foods are lower in nutrient density, removing the protein from the other enzymes and bacteria needed for digestion affects the nutritional quality.

As for how often you should eat soy? As with all foods, moderation is the way to go. Generally, three to five servings of minimally processed soy foods per week are perfectly fine.

a reply to: Grenade

This will get me another off topic penalty...
Can you post without saying cuss words?

originally posted by: mamabeth
a reply to: Grenade

This will get me another off topic penalty...
Can you post without saying cuss words?

Right? There's always gotta be one...!