Veganism

[JDTAY]

I’ve decided to go vegan and also eliminate added sugar based on some spiritual advice. I have no idea where to start though, so I thought it might be good to have a thread for everyone to share advice on the subject. So far I’ve learned that vegans don’t eat peanuts, and that instant coffee is technically vegan, though there are sustainability concerns with it. I can give up all animal products, but I’ll drink instant coffee in hell if necessary.

 

[rygD]

What about pizza? And family dinners?

 

[JDTAY]

What about pizza? And family dinners?

Yeah, um, it’s going to be a difficult adjustment for sure, but a necessary one. The real test comes next week, when I ask them about doing grocery shopping on Amazon instead of at Food Lion. I was just going to use my weekly spending money tomorrow to test Amazon grocery shopping out, but next week they’ll be expecting me to go to Food Lion.

 

[pyrat]

Well, I don't know how it could work for you, but you can try it step by step. First you eliminate the meat or fish that seems easier and little by little you eliminate more things. And don't forget to introduce new things. There are lots of delicious vegetables, fruit and seeds. Don't take for granted which you like or not, try them again, people change tastes, specially when changing diet. As I once said, you should learn some dietetics, but everyone should, vegan or not.

About sugar, don't replace it with aspartan (an sweetener in light sodas, Coca Cola zero and many diet foods and drinks). Turns out it causes anxiety in you, your children and your grandchildren (at least if you're a lab mouse in a box or a maze). Maybe try stevia, or nothing, I don't know. As the saying goes, in the internet nobody knows you're a lab mouse with an smuggled phone in a maze...

 

[HelenF]

I don't think it's going to work going vegan just like that. And if you take a diet that's high in junk food and just try to turn it vegan, you're going to get nutrient deficiencies - you'll need to eat a lot of different kinds of vegetables, nuts, etc. I'd suggest spending a couple of months figuring out what you're going to eat instead. Practice new recipes, try all the different types of vegan pizza to see which one you like, and so on. If you're going for vegan with no added sugar, Dr Greger's "How Not To Die" and the related resources might be interesting.

 

[elw3]

Why vegan and not vegetarian?

based on some spiritual advice.

Uhm? Did you see an angel that told you to eat healthier?
No seriously, is this a health concern or something ethical?

So far I’ve learned that vegans don’t eat peanuts

Bullshitery, but there seem to be canned peanuts with added pigfat that made this myth.

but I’ll drink instant coffee in hell if necessary.

instant coffee is among the worst stuff there is in the world, health wise and ethically.

What about pizza?

Technically Pizza can be vegan and very healthy. After all its just dough and tomato. Plant cheese is eww, but most cheap frozen pizzas already have that on them anyway.

I ask them about doing grocery shopping on Amazon instead of at Food Lion.

The heck is Food lion? Also amazon has the "bad guy" image, are you requesting that your family hits the puppies instead petting them?
Normally you request to not have anyone use amazon.

Maybe try stevia

NO.
Just to make this absolutely clear: Replacements are not healthy.
Any food that says sugar reduced IS unhealthy, same applies to fat reduced.
The reason being that the taste is linked to your bodies hormone system, a specific taste will cause a specific reaction.
If you taste sweet food your pancreas will start producing the matching digestive fluids and your body will prepare to take this into the bloodstream.
If the food now tastes different than what it is made of, say has no sugar while being sweet, it will completely wreck your blood sugars for example.

Eating healthy is really not hard that all: Avoid processed food, avoid candy, dont repeat eating the same stuff again and again, only drink water. What is left is automatically healthy.
Myself i am eating oats with apples or bananas in milk a lot.

 

[JDTAY]

instant coffee is among the worst stuff there is in the world, health wise and ethically.

Noted. You know what, I will give up the coffee. I think I found a good replacement.

Edit: Actually, screw the replacement, I’ll try flying without caffeine completely.

 

[JDTAY]

Why vegan and not vegetarian?

You know, I’m wondering that myself. I’ll give it some thought.

Certainly, vegetarian would allow me to do pizzas and meals with family fairly easily. It may even allow me to shop at Food Lion.

 

[elw3]

What the heck is Food lion?

 

[netcat]

vegan sux / vegi rulz

 

[JDTAY]

What the heck is Food lion?

A small grocery chain in the Southeastern United States. They’re the closest store to here, so that’s where I’m usually forced to shop. Staff here usually makes me walk there, but they pick me up.

 

[TeDaDeS]

Why vegan and not vegetarian?

Changing how you live is one of the hardest things ever. I would indeed take small steps if you really want to improve.
You don't need to go vegetarian of vegan to reduce your sugar intake though. But switching diet could help with your general health, some people go vegan while others go full meat-only.
Having less sugary alternatives could already be a step, probably you'll have to create awareness for yourself of you daily intake of food/drinks and see what sugar intake there is.
Probably you could already drastically reduce your intake based on this quick-check.
Next step is to get a better alternative. Make it something you do like, we're all people and not everyone has a strong will. There is no reason to punish yourself with horrible tasting food/drinks, that will reduce your motivation to change.
Probably also good to imagine what it's like when you did change, and how you would get there. Having concrete steps of what to do improves the chance of you actually doing it.

vegan sux / vegi rulz

Vegan doesn't suck
But vegetarian is like a diet, while vegan is also a life-style. Even if you only take the diet part it's much harder (and convenient) compared to a vegetarian diet.
Even vegetarian diets can be much harder if you take everything strict compared to not looking into details (like ignoring animal source rennet in cheese, or it's by-product milk/whey powder).
And every person has to eat and not everyone makes their own dinner, or can easily buy required ingredients. I think US subsidizes meat and not vegetables, so a vegetarian diet could be more expensive in some areas.

Switching from 2 pizza's with a animal-sourced topping to vegetarian topping might be a slight improvement, but probably the difference will be in reducing the amount of intake.
As intake reduction is harder to do, switching to plant-based alternatives will help. As you'll probably already eat less because it's less tasty for you at first, but even if you would have the same intake it contains less calories.

Reducing your calorie intake via drinks also helps, if you want to do it as a diet. Don't replace it with juice, that might contain even more calories.

And lets add one silly tip that I didn't research: I once read that having the bedroom temperature lower causes you to use more energy while sleeping, also helping a bit in losing weight (if that is a goal). It could be total malarkey though.

 

[kuru]

Xylitol is a great replacement. It is just as sweet and pleasant as regular sugar, it won't make you crave something else. And it comes with lower calories. It has a bit of menthol like, fresh quality.
If you stick with real sugar, raw cane sugar is "healthier" and has a rich taste. But afaik that's more common in the US anyway.
I've tried Stevia liquid and I can only tolerate it in water with lots of lemon.

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

I went from a diet of 100% junkfood including large amounts of meat and dairy to a raw fruitarian diet containing mostly fruit but sometimes also tender leaves (e.g. lettuce), salt, herbs, nuts, and honey.

I healed from:
- sore throat
- overweightness
- urticaria
- foul body odour (reappeared within less than a day after showering so even daily showers did not help enough)
- fungal nail
- burning stomach acid

In addition, I have more energy, look better (better skin, too, I look like I am stuck in my early twenties), am more capable of concentrating and more intelligent and bright, and feel much better and much more comfortable. My mood also drastically improved, making me less judgemental and less burdened by anger and the like. Healthy living is amazing, life is just more fun when your body and mind work properly. I definitely encourage you to go for it.


Some advice to achieve it:
- I think slowly transitioning is much easier than going all in at once. Slow transitioning was how I did it.
- If you fail and eat something bad, then just try again. Never give up. I fell back in unhealthy habits many times, but none of those set-backs caused me to give up.
- Think about the prize, about what you can be. What it would be like to sleep well every night, feel great every day, be smarter, stronger, slimmer, better looking. Health really is important.
- For meat, dairy, and eggs, watch something like Earthlings as it may provide you extra motivation to stop consuming them.


Going vegan for the animals is a great reason, also. Like I said, watch something like Earthlings if you want motivation for that reason.
The nice thing about meat, dairy, and eggs is that they are all bad for health, for the animal victims, and for the environment. That makes it easier to stop consuming them because you can have a triple reason to do so.


As for sugar replacement, honey is healthy but not good for bees. Recently I started growing stevia. Stevia leaves are sweet, healthy, and animal friendly. Though the leaves can lose their sweetness if the plant is not treated properly, so stevia needs a bit of care in order to stay sweet. I heard there are other plants with sweet leaves as well.

So far I’ve learned that vegans don’t eat peanuts,

Why is that? Peanuts are completely plant-based. AFAIK vegans can eat peanuts just fine. And peanuts are pretty healthy. They can be great transition foods if you like them. Definitely if they replace pizza.

Certainly, vegetarian would allow me to do pizzas and meals with family fairly easily. It may even allow me to shop at Food Lion.

Maybe you can also
- invite them at home
- take your own food with you to a vegan-unfriendly restaurant
- go to a vegan restaurant

 

[spud42]

Xylitol has a side effect of anal leakage. stevia is from a plant is very sweet to us and has zero calories.

if you are on medication then maybe you should consult your doctor before making a drastic change to your diet.

iron and protien are a big problem if you dont find a good source in your chosen new diet.

 

[TrashyMG]

Meat is just veggies with extra steps, so not seeing the big deal.

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

Meat is just veggies with extra steps,

So are my feces.

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

iron and protien are a big problem if you dont find a good source in your chosen new diet.

No need to worry, it is unlikely that those pepperoni pizzas and the like are causing his diet to be nutritionally well-balanced. It should be safe to take them out.

 

[pyrat]

Oh, and I forgot to warn you about vitamin B12. You can get most vitamins from vegetables, but B12 is a different story. It has a slow metabolism, it may take 5 years until you deplete your current bodily stock, but it can eventually lead to disease (physical or mental, I think). If you go fully vegan you should most likely take some form of B12 supplement (pills or whatever). But too little is bad and too much too, or imbalanced with other stuff, so you'd better ask a doctor. Note that not all meat has B12, so non-vegans can also have trouble with their B12. I think B12 is in beef or cow, some seafish (some moluscs?), and I forget what else. It's not a really animal thing. Some fungi or bacteries or some such produce it in the grass or the gorund beneath and the cows eat it or something, and it sounds more efficient to produce it in a bioreactor than to grow a huge cow for some tiny B12 molecules. Once you eat pills or food with B12, the process your body goes through to assimilate it is very complicated, and some people lack the intrinsic factor or some other mechanism and need B12 injections. It's a vitamin with cobalt in it, (B12 it's called cobalamin) go figure.
The most stable form is cyanocobalamin (combined with cyanide, that's what you get if you get first intoxicated with cyanide and then saved with hidrocobalamin used as an antidote), other forms are a little more healthy but have short shelf life and are not practical.
I'm not an expert, but inform yourself.

Post automatically merged: Dec 22, 2022

You should ask an expert but I think it's easy to get enough iron and proteins in a vegan diet. One should take some care, but non-vegans too. Rice with lentils gives enoguh aminoacids for you to build your proteins. Spinach and other green leaves have iron, etc. I don't really think that's a problem. Or at least is a problem with an easy enough solution.

 

[elw3]

B12 never showed any negative side effects so they just started spiking everything with it. You get your weeks dose from a bottle of Redbull.
I also have gummy bears with like 10000% of a daily dose in the package.
If you want to replace meat with candy, that actually works quite well.

Spinach and other green leaves have iron, etc.

No, thats nonsense. Someone years ago miscalculated that by a two digit factor and people keep repeating that like a broken record.
You want green leaves for vitamin K. Thats not a vegan thing tho. If you dont eat green leaves you will die of a stroke, plain fact.