Vegans, please help me?

Question

I want to be vegan. I know that I can do it. But... how long have you been a vegan? Are you sick at all? I heard that being a vegan can be deadly. What I really want to know is how to get all of the nutrients and vitimans and stuff that I need to live without eating animal products. Please answer. I need help.

Answer 1

I've been a vegan for about three weeks but I've been on this lifestyle before. I am not sick at all and as a matter of fact my blood pressure has been tending to go lower, which it has needed to do.

Contrary to popular beliefe you don't have to have protein in order to build protein. After all, how many cows, sheep, goats, etc., do you see eating any protein at all? Yet they have no problem puting meat (protein) on their bones. As long as you are getting enough amino acids from the vegetables and fruits you eat, you should have no problem with the protein part.

Also, I would imagine that vegans who plan their diet well, would probably have more vitamins and nutrients in their bodies than those on a meat diet. Just make sure you eat enough "live" vegetalbes and fruits (raw) in order to get the most nutrients. Juicing would be a way to get some concentrated nutrition. We juice carrots (California organic), spinach, kale, beets, tomatoes, broccoli and celery. We don't juice these all at once but in various combinations. We also juice various fruits to add with the vegetables sometimes.

You can also add the juice of barley to your diet (we do BarleyMax). Eating some almonds, pecans, walnuts etc would be a way to get the needed fat in your diet.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

If you heard being vegan can be deadly, why would you want to be one? Sorry, those two statements just sounded weird together.

I've only been vegan a couple of months and was vegetarian for a long time before that. I hardly ever get sick and don't feel like I'm any more predisposed to it now than I was pre-vegan. I'm eating healthier than before and concentrating more on whole foods than on convenience foods. If you do it right, it's about as healthy a diet as you can get.

How to get everything you need is a big question (or maybe I should say it's a question with a big answer.) The only thing you're not going to find naturally occuring in a vegan diet is B12, which comes from a bacteria. You can supplement or cook with nutritional yeast. Everything else can be found in vegan food. Pick up a copy of "Becoming Vegan" by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina for indepth coverage of vegan nutrition. It's very thorough.

Answer 3

Well, unless you're eating mostly junk food or you're not eating enough food, you will get the nutrients you need. The only "nutrients" meat has that may be lacking in a vegan diet are cholesterol, saturated fat, and B12. The first two, you really don't need. B12 you can get from supplements, from fortified foods, and from nutritional yeast. Check out "Skinny *****" by Kim Barnouin and Rory Freidman for more tips. They'll suggest an omni or ovo-lacto diet is what's deadly.

I've been vegetarian for almost six years, vegan most of that time. I do get monthly migraines and the change-of-season cold, but that's pretty much it.

Answer 4

The best thing youc an do is to start doing research. There is so much information ont he web that is easy to find - just use a search engine. I recommend the book BECOMING VEGAN to give you great advice on how to meet all your nutitional needs.

It's not hard and it is NOT deadly. There are a lot of people who dont know anything about veganism that try to spew information and they really have no business doing that. There is nothing you can get from meat that you can't get from other sources. Don't sweat it. It will be the best thing you've ever done for yourself. There has been so much research done to back up what I'm saying that you're going to see a lot more people going vegan in the coming years. I know a man who ran one of the leading universities for cancer research and he just went vegan because of all he's learned about the role of animal products in disease.

Good luck!

Answer 5

The difference between being a vegetarian and being a vegan is that a vegan eats NO animal products whatsoever (no milk, cheese, yogurt, eggs, etc.). I'm a vegetarian and my dad was once a vegan. Some very extreme vegans don't even eat any cooked vegetables or fruits or anything and some will only eat food that fell off the tree or plant by itself. I've been a vegetarian for years and I'm very healthy, however, when my father was a vegan that didn't eat cooked vegetables, he was hungry a lot and felt weak. It can become unhealthy, so I reccomend being a vegetarian, not a vegan. Sorry if this didn't help much.

Answer 6

I'm a vegetarian, but I've had a vegan uncle.

It is dangerous, and also very difficult. Remember that most of the regular foods will be cut from your diet. Even desserts, like cake a brownies!
If you decide to become one, you need to make sure to consult with a nutritionist. They will help you plan out meals so that you can remain healthy. I really think that's the major mistake vegans make, they don't know WHAT their body needs and HOW much. A doctor won't criticize your choices, and if they do, get a new one!

Good luck!

Answer 7

Why be a vegan? Unless it's on philosophical/moral grounds, which I admit are pretty unanswerable (except by the essentially Nietzschean argument for why we should eat meat, which comes down to: because we can), you are cutting yourself off from butter, cheese, cream, creme fraiche, all kinds of wonderful things which are not necessarily all that tasty in themselves (except for cheese) but which make other things far tastier.

And best of all, animals don't have to die so that you can eat a lovely mild Cambozola. As long as it's made with vegetarian rennet, obviously.

Answer 8

1. Vegetarian almost 10 years. Vegan, 1.
2. No, i'm not "sick of it." It's not a trendy phase, it's a lifestyle.
3. Eat a varied diet.

Answer 9

my father became a vegetarian and he always tells me that he fells better although he needs to consume more food because meet has many things that the body needs but can be equally nuresht by eating vegetables ... you eat more but at least your sticking to your principals

but im no expert :)