Vegan dietary concerns?

Question

I've was lacto-ova vegitarian for a long time, and recently have decided to go vegan. I'm really particular about my diet, making sure I'm getting a variety of veggies, tofu, chickpeas or beans, nuts and soymilk on a daily basis. Are there any dietary concerns, or foods I really should be eating that I'm not covering though?

Answer 1

Dont listen to tthe person above me ranting about non-sence. Take a vegan multivitamin(http://www.veganessentials.com) Very good site for alot of vegan stuff. Soy milk is wonderful.( i prefer Silk =]) And To the person above, we are aware we can't be COMPLETELY vegan, the littles that we are still aware of. But its almost impossible to be completely vegan. Still its helping the envirnment tons. And Its really healthy if done right. You can live longer, feel better. All that jazz kay?

Anyways, Good luck on your switch to becoming vegan.

Answer 2

Don't forget about your calcium. Spinach and Broccoli are really good sources, and your body absorbs the calcium from these foods better than it would from dairy products.

Be careful with the soy products. Too much soy has been shown to mess up the thyroid gland.

Also, I take a vitamin cocktail every morning. You can get vegan multivitamins in any health food store. That will ensure you get the vitamins and minerals you may be lacking in your diet.

Answer 3

Here is something your missing from your diet: real food! I get vegetarianism, but veganism is just rediculous. People die of malnutrition from being vegan. YOu can't eat out, you can't eat at a friend's house (inless you were a pain of a guest and had them get all-vegan pfoods, which no sane person eats alone in a regular meal). I understand, eating vegetables is important. But so is protein! Calcium! Eating things that taste good! seriously, what is the appeal? You said you decided to go vegan, so it's not like you have to for some medical reason.

Answer 4

Meat....you should be eating meat!


How far are you willing to go for this???

If you give a guy head you are ingesting animal protein.

Would you buy a leather belt, purse or shoes at a thrift store??? Why not? This could be considered recycling.

Are your pets vegans as well???? This is cruelty to animals!! Both Dogs and cats are naturally meat eaters.
Vegan Cat Food: complete nutrition

Of the many nutrients that cats require, taurine is the one that is traditionally the hardest to get when eating a vegan diet because it usually comes from fish. Without taurine cats can go blind and even succumb to heart disease. As with changing one's own diet, it's important to understand nutritional requirements before jumping into any new food products.

Taurine can also be derived from yeast, which is a living organism but not sentient as far as current knowledge can tell. This would qualify it as a vegan source of taurine.
I say that I could make a pretty good arguement that most vegans are not "sentient". We have no idea what yeast thinks or talks about....we have no idea what fish think or talk about so this is not a valid way of picking proteins.

Wear wool???? Sheep! Buy cosmetics with lanolin??? Sheep!!!

Did you get or will you ever get immunizations???? Almost all are animal protein based.

Gonna ever need penicillin???? It is a living creature you know!

Do you make sure that the veggies you eat are not grown in manure(an animal product)?????? Even if you do not consider the poop to be non-vegan....do you know for sure that the animal never ate hydrogenated protein??? That is a meat product that is passed in the manure. It is also about 75% of the food fed to most animals in feed lots....and feed lots are the primary source of manure for farms.

Eat veggie burgers at restaurants???? Cooked on the same grill as murder-burgers! Same thing for french fries....cooked with fish and whatever else the restaurant deep fries. Even restaurants that say the have a vegitarian menu.....most do not have separate cooking facilities.

Kill a spider or fly???

Own any feathers?

Take vitamins???

Eat honey or cucumbers or peppers or apples???? All most all of these veggies are coated with bee's wax.


I personally consider veganism to be one of the most self-destructive eccentricities that anyone could develop....unless you grow your own veggies, and process them yourself....you are not a vegan....there is so much that goes into food processing that you can never be truly vegan.


Someone mentioned B12....and yes you NEED IT. But it is only from animals.
# Signs, symptoms, and health problems associated with vitamin B12 deficiency:Characteristic signs, symptoms, and health problems associated with vitamin B12 deficiency include anemia, fatigue, weakness, constipation, loss of appetite, and weight loss [1,3,12].
# Deficiency also can lead to neurological changes such as numbness and tingling in the hands and feet [7,13].
# Additional symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency are difficulty in maintaining balance, depression, confusion, dementia, poor memory, and soreness of the mouth or tongue [14].
# Signs of vitamin B12 deficiency in infancy include failure to thrive, movement disorders, delayed development, and megaloblastic anemia [15].

Last of all....If you have kids....are you going to Breast feed when your child are born??? Or are they going to be Vegans too???? Do not forget that you are an animal too....so do not bite your nails ....or swallow spit..... or mucouse.....and never never skip a period....your body would be eating itself!

Answer 5

i am also a vegetarian.
Just make sure you have at least one protein in one day like beans, tofu, pulses etc.
For carbohydrates, you can take anything made out of wheat, rice or potatoes (sandwhiches, boiled rice, noodles, pasta etc).
Vitamins and minerals can be obtained from fresh vegetables and fruits.
As you dont drink milk, calcium is a big concern for you. Have fresh oranges, green cabbage and broccoli to suppliment for calcium.

Answer 6

Soymilk, and soy in general, isn't very good.

It contains high levels of phytic acid in soy reduce assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. Phytic acid in soy is not neutralized by ordinary preparation methods such as soaking, sprouting and long, slow cooking. High phytate diets have caused growth problems in children.

Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and may cause pancreatic orders. In test animals soy containing trypsin inhibitors caused stunted growth.

Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women.

Soy phytoestrogens are potent antithyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.

Vitamin B12 analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body’s requirement for B12.

Soy foods increase the body’s requirement for vitamin D.

Fragile proteins are denatured during high temperature processing to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein.

Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.

Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and added to many soy foods.

Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys.

Answer 7

Sounds like you have it covered. Add some whole grains and make sure you are getting vitamin B12. I think soy milk from the store is fortified with B12.

Answer 8

Make sure you get lots of grains but besides that it sounds great to me!

Check out www.PCRM.com

They have this really cool chart called "The New Four Food Groups."

This will help you alot.

Take care. good luck.

Answer 9

You need vitamin B12 supplements! B12 is only present in animal products, so all vegans need to take the vitamin.

I would recommend taking a complete multi-vitamin.

Answer 10

Ask a doctor or a nutritionist. A lot of vegan I know doesn't look very healthy because they need more protein.