Vegan=Healthy?

Question

Just because the food is vegan, does it mean that it is healthy??
Enlighten me..

Answer 1

Any diet is healthy or unhealthy depending on how you eat. If you eat a bunch of junk food, you will be unhealthy. You can eat vegan cupcakes, vegan donuts, potato chips oreos.
All = not healthy to eat a bunch of
:)

Vegans (and non-vegans) should be eating a variety of foods.
http://www.vegsource.com/food_groups.htm
This is the Vegan Food Pyramid. It helps you figure out how much of what to eat.

It does not take a vegan rocket scientist to be healthy. Some people who are lacking in veggie knowledge will say you are lacking in proteins and calcium etc. This is false. Your veggies etc. contain all you need. Sprinkle some nutritional yeast to your foods and you also get your B vitamins. I have heard about nutritional yeast for a while, and finally bought some.

Answer 2

My answer is the same as others, "no."
Potato chips and all sorts of stuff people eat on a daily basis are vegan and very unhealthy.

On a side note: just imagine if all potato chips were labeled "vegan" -- I wonder how many meat eaters would not eat potato chips any longer just because they suddenly realized that they contain no animal products or meat. I'm willing to be a lot. I know people who believer that each and every meal they have must contain meat and cannot have a dinner which contains no animal ingredients. Yet, they will have some pasta with tomato sauce and some bread and a glass of water and never really notice -- oops, I just ate vegan stuff...!! What next??

Answer 3

First of all, an oreo cookie is not vegan! lol

Anyway, as everyone has said, there is plenty of vegan junk food. What makes the vegan diet healthy is that there is no cholesterol in vegan foods, because cholesterol can only be found in animal products. Another reason a vegan diet can be healthy is because vegans do not consume the antibiotics and hormones that are often found in animal products, including dairy products. Eating organic animal products can help, but they're not 100 percent accurate, do some research. Basically, to be a healthy vegan, you still have to make healthy choices. Eat fruits and vegetables as your main food group, lentils, beans, tofu, and whole grains next, and only use unrefined sugars. If you read the labels of the foods you eat, make sure not to consume things that have no nutritional benefit. Raw sugar, brown sugar, molasses, all of those are sweeteners that actually have nutritious value! They're still not necessarily healthy, but if you're gonna put something in your body, make sure it has some reason to be there!

One more thing, like I said, do some research, vegans have much lower risk of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, high cholesterol, the list goes on...maybe it's not all related to not consuming animal products, but vegans do tend to think before they put food in their mouth. Something that most of us should do a lot more of.

Answer 4

A lot of vegan food is actually less healthy than once anticipated. The best, healthiest vegan food is natural food...like fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Olive oil, soy, and tofu is good for vegans as well. But vegan cheese, and any type of meat or dairy subsitute could contain more chemicals than you are aware of. Be careful.

It's important that you get all the nutrients that you need from the food you are eating. It's quite difficult to get everything you need from the food, so you may want to invest in some vitamin supplements and oils. Go to your local Whole Foods and ask for their help.

-E

Answer 5

Not necessarily.
1. Nutrition.
You have to have all nutrition necessary for human body (proteins, amino-acids, vitamins, etc.). So, it's very important to have right variety.

2. Preparation.
Cooking could kill some or all nutrition. Over-processed food (vegan or not) is not very healthy.

3. Food combining.
You should not eat everything with everything. Wrong food combination could dramatically decrease nutrition value and create very unhealthy result. For example, fruits should not be eaten with any other kinds of food. Only separately and at least half of hour before of two hours later than other kinds of food.

Conclusion: to get healthy result, you should make your research at first. There are a lot of info on Internet and a lot of books about vegan and raw food.

Answer 6

1. NO.

Soy delicious and rice dream have enough
fruit and potato sugars to make you fat if
eat them in excess. Vegetarian chocolate
has antioxitants but not alot of nutritional
value. Terra chips- all vegetable are
full of sodium.

Incidently alot of alcoholics are vegan
by accident because they've lost taste
for everything else and all concern for
the basic neceessities of life.
Another vegan pointed this out to me.
And yes you can find vegan alcohol
if it's moonshine or whiskey.

Answer 7

You can eat very healthy or unhealthy whether you are vegan, vegetarian, or neither. There is plenty of junk food available in each category.

Answer 8

Studies have strongly correlated a plant based diet with better health benefits than a meat heavy diet.[17][18][19] Vegans note additional health benefits are gained by not consuming artificial substances such as growth hormones and antibiotics, which are often given to farmed animals.[20][21][22][23]

The American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada state that "well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence."[24]

Vegan diets tend toward several nutritional benefits, including lower levels of saturated fat, no cholesterol, and higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate, antioxidant vitamins C and E and phytochemicals.[citation needed]

Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than nonvegetarians, although there was no significant difference in blood pressure rates.[25] The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine says that one small scale study has observed that a vegan diet can reduce blood cholesterol in people with, and significantly reduce the complications of Type 2 diabetes.[26]

There are a number of vegan athletes. Vegan athletes compete in a variety of sports, such as powerlifting, bodybuilding, martial arts, long distance running, and many others.[27][28] Multiple Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis has stated that he became vegan in 1990 and felt that his "best year of track competition" was when he ate a vegan diet.[29]

Some studies have found benefits associated with diets rich in whole plant foods, and risks associated with diets rich in animal-based foods. One of the researchers from the 1990 epidemiological study, "The China Study," said "Even small increases in the consumption of animal-based foods was associated with increased disease risk."[17][18] Studies in Japan found that increased consumption of some animal products coincided with a decrease in risk for some forms of cerebrovascular disease and stroke mortality.[30]

There are also claims that industry livestock feeding practices pose health threats to human consumers. According to Dr. Michael Greger [2] in a January 2004 lecture at MIT (which is the basis for Whistleblower, a 2007 documentary film by Jeff Bellamar) each year more than one million tons of animal excrement are fed back to farm animals raised for human consumption to lower the feed costs. He also says that up to 10% of blood from killed animals is mixed into some cattle feed, and up to 30% of some poultry feed is made up of the blood. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is believed to be caused by cows being fed with contaminated meat and bone meal, a high-protein substance obtained from the remnants of butchered animals, including cows and sheep. In most parts of the developed world, such remnants are no longer allowed in feed for ruminant animals, and the World Health Organization recommends a complete ban on ruminant-to-ruminant feeding, but the practice persists in a few countries[3].

Answer 9

All of life is balance- so be well educated on the foods and the right suppliments you need to consume to remain healthy.

Nutrients can be destroyed real easy...so prepare them wisely.
Get a blood test annually to see what your need, and take suppliements if you can't consume it with food.

Best wishes

Answer 10

sure... long as you eat right.. variety and maintain the proper caloric intake and watch the fats...

it's healthy.

any style of food preference can be healthy.

from meat to all vegetable.

as long as you regulate yourself and know all about vitamins and minerals.

oh and um.. yellow jeff.. oreos aren't vegan.. please learn to read the ingredients on packages.