Vegans HELP...?!
Vegans HELP...?
ok so me and my friend am thinking about going vegan is there anything i should do or not do. any vitammens i should take? dose soy milk, soy cheese, and soy yogurt tast good? ok so my friend is like 5'11 and weights 124 lbs he wonts to know if he goes vegan is going to look anorexic! PLEASE HELP!!!!
Answers:
If you go totally Vegan, then you can not eat cheese or milk products. They come from Cows. any dairy products are not part of the Vegan diet.
But if you can get yourself to learn new methods of eating, with fruit and vegetables. Drinking water alot.
then you will be alot healthier then any vitamin could ever do for ya.
you may want to find different things to provide your source of Vitamin C. Like oranges and citris. alot of your B vitamins you can get from fresh vegies. and calcium also comes naturally in some foods. start watching the labels of foods that you buy in cans.
Try to eat as fresh as possible all foods you intake.
If you can grow your own garden, then you will have the best you can get.
store it in the winter time, freeze it or dry it.
either way you can make your own snacks forwhen the garden is not a choice to have, like during the winter times.
Dried fruit is nice to have around the home.
Take vitamin B-12.
It is really a do it yourself thing, find some vegetable dishes you really like and stick with them. Rice and beans is a popular choice.
I hope your not a terribley picky eater! Soy food does taste great! Some brands of soy cream taste better than the real ice cream! At first, you may loose a lot of weight being vegan, but you shouldn't. You should still be able to get all your nutrients and vitamins in your diet, so you shouldn't loose weight once you are at a healthy point. It's completely healthy, so you'll look good, not overweight-because your not eating fattening foods anymore-and not anorexic-because your still eatining.
drink plenty of bleach. bleach has nutrients that will replace the nutrients in meat you arent eating. and its safe to drink bleach only when you arent eating meat.
You could do your body a healthy favor and not become Vegan. Becoming a Vegan is not only unhealthy because the body gets many vitamins and minerals that are only found in certain meets and animal based products, but its expensive to buy organic fruits and vegetables to properly maintain you diet.
It's a stupid idea.
Get a life.
beans are very necasary in order to ger your protein.
it is rather hard to just up and say you want to be vegan.
it may be easyer just to be a vegitarian at first.
see how it goes.
Buy, "The vegetarian Way" by Messina & Messina. This is an easy to read book listing ALL the requirements of a vegan diet. As for cooking vegan, a great cookbook is, "Chinese Authenic Cuisine" by Bryanna Clark Grogen.
With just those two books, you'll do great!!
Or you can google post punk kitchen you can get some great vegan videos there.
Congrats! Your body (and animals) will thank you. Of course, just like any diet, you'll need to plan a balanced diet w/ vegetables (especially dark, leafy greens), fruits, grains & legumes. Try for unprocessed whole foods & try to avoid processed foods as much as possible.
Veganhealth.org http://www.veganhealth.org/ is full of essential nutritional info.
For a quick start, here are some meal plans:
http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/meal...
I second the Post Punk Kitchen http://theppk.com/
Just don't go overboard on the cupcakes ;)
Supplementing w/ B12 is important, but if you drink enriched soy milk, it will contain enough. Yeast contains B12 as well, so the easiest source would be bread. (And yes, yeast is vegan, one-celled organisms do not count as animals)
Taste is subjective, so you may or may not like some soy foods. Experiment w/ different brands as taste varies among them. I prefer Silk. Edamame, fresh soybeans, are yummy.
Make sure you get 10 min of direct sunlight per day for vit. D.
You need essential fatty acids as well. The best & easy source is ground flax seed, which contains omega-3. It has high-quality protein as well. Sprinkle it on cereal, smoothies, etc. It's high in fiber, so make sure you consume plenty of liquids w/ it.
Assure your friend he will not look anorexic. There are even vegan body builders. If he feels like he is losing too much weight, then he just needs to eat more (of the whole foods, not empty calorie junk foods which leach the nutrients out of the body). As long as he maintains a healthy balance of carbs, fats, protein, etc. and avoids the all raw diet, he'll be fine.
Eat a variety of "whole foods," with plenty of beans, nuts, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Avoid unhealthy foods like trans fats, which are usually listed as partially hydrogenated oils. Deep-fried foods often contain trans fats. Choose margarines that use nonhydrogenated oil, like Earth Balance or Smart Balance. Although a diet consisting of Coke and French fries is technically vegan, you can't be healthy if you eat nothing but junk food. Vitamin B12: Vitamin B12 is produced by bacteria, and some experts believe that vegetarians used to get plenty of this vitamin from bacteria in drinking water. Since drinking water is now treated with chemicals that kill the bacteria, it's important to make sure that you get enough vitamin B12 from fortified foods (like most brands of soy or rice milks, some breakfast cereals, and many brands of nutritional yeast) on a daily basis or by taking a sublingual B12 tablet of 10 mcg per day.
Iron-beans, dark green leafy vegetables (like spinach),whole grain breads, Also eat something with vitamin c when you eat something with iron, it increases absorption
Calcium-dark green leafy vegetables (spinach, broccoli, soymilk)
Protein-Isn't really hard to get, just eat a variety of foods, good sources are beans, brown rice, nuts, whole grain breads, soy foods
Omega-3 fatty acids-flax seeds/oil,walnuts,canola oil
Zinc-pumpkin seeds (best source), beans and lentils, yeast, nuts, seeds and whole grain cereals
Selenium-Brazil nuts are a particularly good source of selenium, so try to eat a couple every day. Eating a small bag of mixed unsalted nuts can be a convenient way to get your daily selenium intake, but make sure it contains Brazils. Bread and eggs also provide some selenium.
Vitamin D- Vitamin D, often called the sunshine vitamin, is another common deficiency in those not drinking vitamin D fortified milk. Synthetic vitamin D is added to both cow’s milk and most brands of soy milk today.
Vitamins A (beta carotene),C, K, E and Folate-variety of fruits and veggies
Iodine-Iodine is a trace mineral that's important for healthy thyroid function. Table salt is the most common and reliable source of iodine in Americans' diets. (However, sodium in processed foods usually does not contain iodine.) If you don't consume table salt, you can get iodine from a multivitamin or from kelp tablets.