becoming vegan?

Question

i would love to be vegan (i'm lacto-ovo now). but my parents insist that i can't get enough protein. What kinds of veggies have lots of protein? They also say i will get osteoporosis when i'm old, so what kinds of veggies have calcium in them? Is there anything else i need to know about?
Also, if it says on the label may contain traces of eggs/dairy, is it still okay to eat it?
ps. please don't tell me to eat meat. thanks but i have parents for that. :)

Sorry, guess i wasn't clear. I meant, i am lacto ovo vegetarian now, and i would like to become vegan.

Answer 1

stay vegetarian!
you'll probably become weak if you dont get the necessary things your body needs.
Id like to be a vegan too but i know my body wont get the nutrition it needs!

Answer 2

It's unbelievable that people dont do any research and even though they say things like they really know what they are talking about !!!

When you drink cow milk the ratio of calcium and phosforus is about 1.2/1 which is really bad because the phosforus won't let the calcium get to your bones, but if you eat let's say almonds the ratio is about 2/1 so there is more calcium than phosforus and that is a good thing to get to absorbe calcium.

The milk gives breast cancer for all the synthetic hormones that you body gets and not to mention the antibiotics !!!

3 out of 4 people dont have the lactose enzime, and all the animals and Asians and Africans wont eat diary nor drink milk just like all the other animals that wont drink milk after switching from milk to their food.

THINK MORE AND DIFFERENT if you wanna have the advantage !!

Answer 3

you can still get plenty of protein as a vegan, because the sources of protein most essential to a vegetarian like soy, beans, legumes, and wheat gluten are all vegan.

eat peanut butter, nuts, beans, tofu, seitan, tempeh, etc. and you should be good to go.

John Robbins (of Baskin-Robbins ice cream lineage) is a vegan, and chose not to inherit his father's company because of the cruelty and demand of cows in the dairy industry. He wrote a wonderful book, as well as produced an excellent film (of the same name as the book) called "A Diet for a New America." In the book, he debunks some of the myths circulating vegan diets (like that vegan diets lead to osteoporosis, he writes that in the majority of the countries outside of Europe and the U.S.A. where diets do not subsist of any dairy or eggs, the rates for osteoporosis are even lower than here where we consume large quantities of dairy) I really recommend this book to you, it gives great nutritional info that will really help you learn how to eat a balanced diet and articulates your dietary needs in a way that i could never do here. perhaps even more importantly, it will teach you how to defend your diet against the skeptics like your parents. just google it or go to amazon to get your copy!

as for your last question, if it says the food may contain traces of eggs/dairy, then the product probably does contain those products. I personally will not eat those products. However, if the label says that the product is manufactured in a facility that processes dairy and eggs, then I will eat the product because that does not mean that the product actually contains egg and dairy ingredients. but it's really up to you as to how strict you want to be.

good luck, and kudos for making the switch to vegan!

Answer 4

Nearly every food has protein in it and it's extremely difficult to be deficient of it. Wholegrains (bread, pasta and rice), tofu, nuts, seeds, beens and soy milk are especially high in protein. If you're eating a balanced vegan diet you shouldn't need to worry about your protein levels. Calcium is also found in many sources such as tofu, baked beans, broccoli, peas, sesame seeds and almonds. Calcium can actually increase your risk of osteoporosis. The dairy industry is a huge business and a lot of misinformation is given out, usually by these companies and the government who also benefit from dairy. Maybe you could print up information from the following sites (which don't get money from your milk consumption or lack of it) to show your parents:

http://www.rense.com/general26/milk.htm
http://www.notmilk.com/
http://www.milkmyths.org.uk
http://www.milksucks.co.uk

Answer 5

*Sigh* The protein myth is insanely pernicious, isn't it? As long as you ingest enough calories, and you don't get those calories from junk food, you'll get enough protein. Even vegans get more protein than they really need. And excess protein is bad because it leaches calcium from your bones.

Now, the dairy industry's advertising is utter lies (but then most advertising is) as societies with high rates of dairy consumption also have high rates of osteoporosis. Societies with low rates of dairy consumption--such as those in Asia--have very low rates of osteoporosis. During warmer months, try to get about 10 to 20 minutes of sun on your face and arms every day to help your body produce vitamin D, which helps you process calcium.

Vegetarian Resource Group (www.vrg.org) has on its website a list of plant foods that have calcium, and one of them is almonds. Chickpeas are little nutritional powerhouses, containing both iron and calcium (so eat your hummus!). Many soymilks are also fortified with calcium.

As for the "may contain traces of," to me that's analogous to the shared machinery thing. So as long as dairy and/or eggs don't appear in the ingredients, I'll eat it.

Answer 6

Walnuts, pecans, peanuts, peanut butter, beans, tofu (which you will probably be eating a lot of), and soy (a lot of that, too) all have a lot of protein in them. I think vegetables like split peas have pretty good amounts of protein.

I never drink milk, mainly because I don't like it, but Soy Milk is so good and has calcium. There are a lot of products made with soy that replace milk and other dairy.

Bucca and Morning Star are good vegetarian products, I'm not sure if they are vegan, though. You have to look deep into the grocery store to find them though, haha.

Answer 7

Here are some vegan protein and calcium sources:

Protein: almonds, black beans, brown rice, cashews, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), kidney beans, lentils, lima beans, peanut butter, pinto beans, seitan, soybeans, soymilk, sunflower seeds, textured vegetable protein (TVP), tofu, vegetarian hot dogs and burgers

Calcium: almonds, black beans, broccoli, calcium-fortified orange juice, collard greens, great northern beans, kale, kidney beans, mustard greens, navy beans, orange juice, pinto beans, sesame seeds, soybeans, soymilk, textured vegetable protein (TVP), tofu

Show your parents this website:
http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/advocacy_933_ENU_HTML.htm
"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."

It's fine if there are traces of egg/dairy, because those aren't ingredients... it just means the vegan food was produced on the same machinery as non-vegan food. (The "traces" info is for people with allergies).

Good luck!

Answer 8

lacto ovo vegetarian means not eating anything relating to animals exlcuding diary and eggs