hello everybody. Not so long ago I decided to switch to vegan or to vegetarian diet the only thing is that I still don’t know which one to choose. I know very well what is vegetarian diet and I know all the benefits and all the negative points but I don’t know so much about vegan diet. I would like to find out things that I need to know and I need your help. Can you just describe this diet and explain a little bit what this is and how to deal with it. I mean, I know very well that I can find some info in the internet, but I would like to hear some real problem who are on a vegan diet, what are the strong points, why it is hard or easy to be on eat, advantages disadvantages, everything that you know. Maybe some tips. In short – all! Thank you a lot in advance for taking your time helping me.
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I want to know more info about this Vegan diet
- Thread starter Schmidt
- Start date
okay it’s very easy to explain this diet just in one phrase “ this is a life style choice, a vegan doesn’t eat anything that is of an any animal origin. Many of vegans consider that this is more a philosophy than a lifestyle choice. You know very well that vegetarian people don’t eat animals too, the difference is that vegans don’t eat even animal based products, and don’t use anything that was made or created with or by animal influence. It’s hard to believe that they are able to eat all their entire life without using anything that is colligated with animals. Usually people choose to switch to a vegan diet not because of a healthy decision, most of them, 95% of them choose vegan diet because of animal right, environmental factors, and the other only 5% are choosing this because of a better health. Vegans don’t agree with vegetarians because they consider that vegetarians are not introducing seriously and totally their changes in their lifestyle – I mean, even though they don’t eat animal meat, they do it something related to them. In order to make you understand better, vegans don’t eat even honey and even eggs, because of the same reason- they were produced by some animals. Honestly I don’t like to criticize them, everybody can have their own choice and lifestyle but I don’t consider that eating honey means that you are doing something wrong, honey is one of the most healthy product out there helping to treat a lot of health issues. In fact when a bee produces its honey it’s a natural thing that happens because of their own choice without human intervention. The only thing why human being can step in is because they are able to help them to produce more honey than they are naturally producing.
If I would have to choose between becoming an vegan and vegetarian I’ll choose vegetarian and I think that it’s healthier than being vegan. Of course all the things have their positive and negative parts, but I have found a lot of arguments why becoming vegan it’s so bad for health.
First of all you cut a lot of vitamin B12 from your diet and even if some of vegans are going to tell you that the veggies and fruits that you eat are going fill up your organism with this vitamin the same way as animal meat be sure that this is wrong. The second thing is protein deficiency and I think that this is a very important thing. Our brain and our body can’t work properly without proteins, and you can’t say that the protein that you find in veggies and fruits are all the same.. this is not true. I’m not a doctor to judge and to explain better all this things but I remember so many times that when I have had my blood test my doctor always told me to eat more meat because I have had some protein deficiencies, to eat as much eggs and chicken meat as I can because they are reach in proteins and let’s consider the fact that this was told me by a doctor. Another negative thing is that you have calcium deficiency and this is also very bad for your health, in this case vegetarian diet is better, because they are allowed to eat cheese or milk or some yogurts. Becoming a vegetarian is very hard and you have to have a lot of willpower to go on with this diet for all your life. Honestly I believe that in order to become a vegan or a vegetarian you have to start while you are young, that’s why if you want your kids to be vegetarians or vegans you have to start to do this since they are little. Talking seriously I would never do this to my kids because I think that they have to decide by their own to do this or not, however there are a lot of mothers who are not allowing their kinds by any means to eat meat. The only thing that you have to remember if you want to start this that it will be very hard and you have to be ready and prepared to this physically as well as mentally. I’m sorry that I cannot tell you more about this and that I cannot tell you this by my own experience since I’m not either a vegetarian or vegan but I’ve tried to help you with everything I knew.
hi! I’m a vegan and I feel very good and happy that I’m vegan. I can’t agree with the second poster about the fact that being vegetarian is better. I started my diet being vegetarian and while I was eating dairy I felt like I was a balloon. It’s true that it’s hard to start but once you started and once you feel like your health is changing to better, you start to want to feel like this forever and it is becoming easier. I started to be vegan not because I wanted to change forever but because I wanted to eliminate the entire diary from my life and to see how I would feel. I tried it for 2 weeks and I felt so good that I wanted to continue like this forever. Since I started my vegan diet passed 3 years and I feel very good and a healthy person. Talking about your kids okay, I agree that it’s not a good idea to do this to them, I think that if someday they are going like to change and to be vegan they will do this by their own, I know that there are a lot of other vegans that will be against my position and I think that this is because they are vegans because they are animal protectors, this is one of the reasons why I don’t eat meat but generally my position is because of my health and I don’t have any objections to those people that like to eat meat, comparing to a lot of other vegans who hate people eating meat which means that they hate majority people on this planet. I live with my husband and he can’t live without meat, it’s something important for him. When he goes to gym he feel like he has to eat a piece of meat, its protein and he explains that actually protein from meat and protein from veggies is not the same- I agree. This is a decision that I think that every person should take or decide by their own and not to be imposed. Hope this would help you a little bit.
Ella Haleee9090
New member
I’m a vegan too, and I decided to be one because of animal protection first. I don’t agree that in my family there should be a democracy and that everybody have to decide by their own what to do. When I started to be vegan I started to talk with my family to explain why they should do the same and actually I consider that when our kids are little its better and easier to do something, to change the lifestyle and to be vegan, my kids are vegans too, and they feel okay about this, I explained since they were little that we shouldn’t eat animals, and all the stuff concerning this thing, they agreed with me and they started to be vegans the same as I am. They are happy since they can eat candies and I’m happy since they can be truly vegans, I know that after some years they will be happy and healthy with this decision and they will be glad that I convinced them to do this thing. besides, animals should not be eaten, that’s for sure!
I don’t agree with you, I don’t think that it’s a good idea to change their entire diet since they are little. They have to grow up in order to change it. While they are little they have to eat a lot of things, their organism must not have any lacks in anything, they have to eat a piece of meat, some diaries is very important for their bones and everybody know this, don’t tell me some sh** like in some veggies you can find the same as in diary thing because is not the same and you know it very well, in this way you’re not improving your kids health but you’re ruining it, and I’m very sorry about that, I’m very sorry for your kids.
hello dear, I think that it’s better to be vegetarian, this way you can eat dairy food which is very important for our bodies. There is an example of a celebrity that is vegetarian but it’s a little bit different from normal vegetarians, its Gwyneth Paltrow and I like the way she uses her diet. She is vegetarian but she explains that sometimes she have to eat a little bit of chicken meat, and I think that she is right, sometimes our body just need something like this, it’s nature and it’s okay to eat a little piece of it in a while. I don’t think that veganism is the best thing ever, just think about the fact that you exclude a lot of things from your diet and it can have some consequences on your health, not the best idea I think. The problem is that a lot of people are abusing eating animal meat and this is the other side of the coin that shouldn’t be allowed too. I think that there should be a balance!
okay there are a lot of things that you should know before going vegetarian or vegan. I’ll try to explain some of them in the best way I can. Okay, first of all I think that you have heard that this is a diet that can take care about your heath and that’s right, the only thing is that it’s true- you can have a lot of lacks in your diet and the first thing that you have to do is to buy some B12 supplements, normally you have the B12 vitamin from meat, once you stop to eat it your body and your organism start to suffer and to feel this lack, therefore the only thing that you would think about would be meat. It’s very important to have B12 supplements, it keeps the body’s nerves and brain cells, these body cells are very important for your hair if you want to grow it and to have a healthy hair and nails, vitamin B12 is also important to be used in your DNA construction and if you would have this lack you would start to feel terrible changes in your body. Another important supplement is iron supplement, this is another thing that is found in animal products and once you totally eliminate animal meat from your diet you start to have this lack too. Generally we take more than 40% of iron from animal products, and this is not just meat it’s also diary and other stuff. The iron is devided in heme and non-heme particles, while you are a vegan and you don’t eat meat at all you have just the part of non-heme, in order to be absorbed the iron should be introduced in your body completely, this means that you have to have also the heme part, supplements can help you with this. People usually don’t understand that this is a very important change in your life, and I don’t know really about your situation but when I switched to my vegetarian life my family was very surprised because they didn’t expected something like this and there started to be a lot of thing, like some questions and negative thoughts about this, I would like to advert you and I think that you have to be prepared to this, to prepare a lot of arguments why you decided to change your diet plans and so on in case you really want to change your diet.
another important thing that I observed was a very serious problem for me was to find out the new sources of protein. While you quit eating diary and meat food it’s very hard and very important to find out the protein sources for you. I think that you know how important is protein, it helps to build cells and if you want to be healthy and to have normally functioning muscles you should eat protein. Green peas are sources or good protein and I love them, you can also find protein in quinoa very good and I adore it also nuts and nut butter and they are really good for gym, tempeh and tofu but I don’t like them so much, leathy greens, chia seeds, sesame, sunflower and poppy seeds, seitan- if you love meat this have the test of meat and bread and I love it, non-diary milk is an alternative for you, I love milk and sometimes I have to drink at least a cup of it, cocoa powder is one of my favorite and I love it.
another thing that I would like to tell you is that some people that switch to vegetarian diet they start to eat junk foot and it’s very bad, I always remember this and when I feel like I’m going to lose I try to eat a piece of that thing that doesn’t take part from my vegetarian diet, and I consider that this is better than starting to eat food just in order to avoid to eat a piece of chicken. Another thing that I would like to underline is the soy products, its okay to eat them if you want but you have to pay attention and to avoid eating it too often. Consuming to much soy products can be more dangerous than consuming animal meat and then consuming red meat. I think that once in a week it’s okay or maybe twice but not more than this. The biggest mistake that I observed in other vegans is that they try to switch immediately and even vegetarians do the same thing, I think it’s very bad and I have read about this so many things. Remember that you have to do this day by day and then after some time you’ll switch automatically without any drastically changes. You can’t switch immediately to vegan or vegetarian diet, it’s impossible to do something like this, and even if you do this it doesn’t mean that this is a good thing, your body starts to feel a lot of lacks and start to feel bad about this, and these diets were made in order to make you feel better not worse but anything that promptly changes in our bodies would lead to an negative impact. Another change in your life could be the shopping, and I don’t know how about other vegetarians but before become one of them I wasn’t so interested in reading the labels of all the things that I was used to buy, I usually liked to buy things that I wanted and things that I loved most, without being interested in what contains that stuff and what is better to choose. Now that I’m vegetarian this part is one of the most important parts in my life, I read all the labels and all the inscriptions, this way you can choose the best thing for your diet. Don’t forget that such a thing requires more time, and try to have a couple of hours in order to have enough time to read all the things that you really need to know, it would be harder initially but later you would get used and you would already know everything.
when you’ll start to eat vegetarian food, be sure that you’ll start to feel happier, because your body will start to receive healthy food and this is so important for your brain, in case you are feeling worse then I don’t think that there would be any point is continuing with this diet. Once your brain will start to achieve the best from this healthy food it will start to send you happy sensations, and good feeling, your body will start to change and your mental condition too. Don’t be afraid about your favorite restaurants because it will be okay to go there. It doesn’t mean that if you are vegetarian or vegan there will be no point to go there where you loved to eat food. In fact vegetarian and vegan food started to develop in a lot of countries and different restaurants started to introduce a lot of vegetarian things in order to have more clients. I’m sure that the next time that you’ll go there as a vegetarian you’ll find a lot of vegetarian things that you haven’t noticed in the past. The cost of the things is not cheaper and neither more expensive, if you used to pay for example 200$ for all the stuff that you bought before becoming a vegetarian be sure that you’ll be able to spent 200$ also for vegetarian food too.
oh yeah, the problem of calcium is also important but don’t worry there are a lot of things that can substitute your calcium needs such as: kale, cok choy, almonds, soy beans, figs, cereals, and plant- based milks.
I’m very happy that I’m a vegetarian and I think that it’s a very good decision to change your life-style. I really hope that I helped at least a little bit and that the next time you’ll be here in order to tell us your vegetarian story. I’ll be happy to hear about your experience and problems that you have had during the conversion. I’ll be here if you would need some help and I’ll be happy to answer to all of your questions. I wish you a lot of good luck with this! there’s nothing easy but it is worth it!