Anemia - Vegan question.?!
Do you have your blood checked?
Where do you get your B12?
Iron?
People seem so concerned about my diet, as I watch them wolf down deep fried meat, mayonnaise and processed foods. I don't get all worked up about it, I figure that most people don't get everything they need, why are some people obsessed with my diet?
I eat fortified cereal, Rice or soy milk (1 cup give me 50% of my b12 and 1/4 of my iron) whole wheat etc.
Have any of you became ill after becoming vegan?
Answers: I was wondering if any of you have ever had anemia? (Not someone you know, you!)
Do you have your blood checked?
Where do you get your B12?
Iron?
People seem so concerned about my diet, as I watch them wolf down deep fried meat, mayonnaise and processed foods. I don't get all worked up about it, I figure that most people don't get everything they need, why are some people obsessed with my diet?
I eat fortified cereal, Rice or soy milk (1 cup give me 50% of my b12 and 1/4 of my iron) whole wheat etc.
Have any of you became ill after becoming vegan?
I don't like to to take vitamins, but I do make sure that I get everything that I need with fortified soy products. I agree that most people do not get ever thing that they need, but it's easy to pick on vegans because we are different then they average herbivore.
Everyone says that they know someone who was anaemic. there are all kinds of people, healthy and not, and most healthy people, either omni...veggie..or vegan are the ones who are informed.
:)
Personally I have become vegan and no I have not been ill, but that is due to my knowledge of nutrition. I am sure to get all I need as far as proteins, vitamins and grains especially fiber daily. There is a lot of free information at most libraries as well as the internet and your local health food store. Good Luck and remember you are the one caring for your body and the old saying holds true, you are what you eat!!!
I was never ill when I was vegan. But you should be taking a multi-vitamin (it can be hard to find vegan ones, but I bought some at Whole Foods and of course they would be available online). It's also good to get some nutritional yeast, it helps with the B vitamins.
Read a vegan cookbook (Vegan With a Vengenace is good) and they will address any food concerns reasonably and scientifically.
My mother was concerned about me when I went vegan, most of these concerns are invalid and spread by misinformation.
If you choose to do this to yourself it's your choice and go in peace. But it behooves to get up close and personal with a couple of good nutrition books before something happens. At the very least you can put all your critics to shame because you have the answers to their questions. At the most you will understand what your body need to thrive.
Please don't be so negative about processed food; it's how most people eat and live and you don't know anything about it anyway.
PhD Food Chemistry and Nutrition
sea veggies have both B vits and Dulse another sea veggie (my personal favorite) is loaded with iron. and if you are really worried about the iron thing "Hyland's" homeopathic iron tonic is very good, and don't forget too much iron can constipate. and maybe they are obsessed cause they care and have not educated themselves on the issue. education is the key to eating healthy. and last but not least - NO i did not become ill, but i will say this - your body will go thru a cleansing, because your new diet will cleanse your body of the toxins accumulated from years of meat eating (it can take up to 6 months to fully digest a steak. that means it is in your bowel rotting causing toxins inside of you the entire time-eeeeeu). check out "Anne Wigmore" on internet. again education is power! good luck :)
B vitamin shots from your doctor are your best bet.
I have not had my blood checked. But I take a vegan multivitamin with B12 and Iron, and I also have fortified foods within my diet. I also take an additional vegan calcium/magnesium/zinc tablet.
Since I became vegan, I have felt better than ever.
I used to get headaches all the time, stomach aches (partially due to the fact that I am also lactose intolerant), and experience general malaise. Since I have stopped eating animal products, I feel better both physically and mentally.
I just think people don't understand that there are ways to have a healthy diet without consuming flesh. Part of that may be due to the fact that they don't know the health benefits of raw vegetables, etc. and that they are so accustomed to a meat-eating society.
The government desperately wants people to believe that being vegan will lead to a whole host of health problems such as protein, iron and B-12 deficiencies, but this simply isn't true. Most vegans get too much protein, and iron and B-12 are readily found in fortified soy, rice and hemp milks as well as naturally in fruits, vegetables, legumes, seeds and nuts. I am also a fan of B-Fresh gum & vitamins, which are vegan and have up to 500% of your daily recommended B-12. I recently had my iron checked as a long-time vegan and it was found that I actually have great iron levels! You are on a diet that will lead to many healthy, happy years and you're doing the planet a huge favor - props to you!!!
I'm pesco-vegan (I'm basically a pescatarian - no meat but fish's ok - and I don't digest dairy very well, so hardly eat it), and I recently developed suspected anaemia, though I have not had a blood test to prove it.
It's easier to become anaemic if you have this sort of diet, and you do have to be very careful. I took my eye off the ball, and ended up with it. Now I'm taking supplements (B complex, iron, calcium and essential fatty acids), and will probably continue to do so, to make sure.
As long as you're careful, you should be alright. Omega's 3, 6 and 9 are also worth keeping an eye on, as they are hard to get a sufficient quantity of on a vegan diet, plus of course calcium. As a group, vegans are generally healthier because they're more conscious of what they put into their bodies and care a lot more than many about eating well. There's no reason to copromise with all the alternative food and supplements around today.
Hi Earth!! (love your screenname, by the way)
I have never been a vegan personally, so please forgive my bustin' in like this.
However.....I have been shopping at health food stores since the mid-70s and I'm afraid I've gotta tell you this. Some of the very MOST unhealthy looking people I have seen are the vegans shopping at those. They're pale (anemic) and their energy levels clearly are so low (I'm no weirdo whacko, but I'm familiar with electric fields and energy auras generated by the SA node in your heart and pumping current clear throughout all you neurons) you know their energy/aura is veritably non-existant just by looking at and listening to them. They clearly haven't done their "home-work" and don't know how to combine their proteins and B-complexes and fatty acids and minerals and what-not to achieve a good balance. It seems to me that most of them (vegans) are more about attitude than good health. Soy is not that healthy of a food unless it is fermented. Besides, I beleive that much of the soy to day is genetically engineered - do you suppose that's healthy? Imagine the signals some of these engineered grains are sending to our DNA and RNA.....talk about potential mutations.
***Additional comments
By the way, there are many very healthy vegans, too. I suppose the main thing to keep in mind is balance. Please find and take good multi-vitamin supplements, as just about everyone needs to do for optimal health this day and age. There's a basic nutritional protocol I've recommended to everyone over the years: a good daily balanced multi-vitamin, a good omega 3/omega 6 (for gals, less 6 for older guys), a good high mineral ascorbate, and for some a good balanced calcium and vitamin D3 bone formula. Please be careful about over-supplementing with iron as toxicity is proving a concern to doctors these days. It's the other cofactors which bind iron to the red blood cells which may be deficient. It never hurts to have your blood checked if you can afford it, just realize that the reference values used are often ranges for unhealthy people and not necessarily for optimal health, which is what you're targeting. If you take B12 orally, the better form seems to be methylcobalamin, which is proving to be better absorbed (orally) than cyanocobalamin. If you feel you need to supplement with iron, the old-time favorite was black-strap molasses. But if you eat plenty of color-rich (full color spectrum, too) vegetables - leafy and otherwise - you're probably getting an adequate amount of minerals unless you are highly physically active. Then you certainly need to supplement with extra minerals/electrolytes. I again caution about too much (unfermented) soy and it's proven consequences towards thyroid hypertrophy. "Virgin" coconut oil is a very compatible oil for the human body, incidentally, as compared to soy oil. Meat-lovers are just as susceptible to poor health in one way or another as vegans. I was maybe being a bit severe in my earlier comments. I'm not personally opposed to vegans as it may have sounded. I'm opposed to poor health....I really want people to feel and be well. I've seen so much poor health in my time....malnourishment....when there was plenty food to be had. We in the US do not have 3rd World conditions. We have access to everything we need to be healthy and thrive....and it's a shame that we are still so unhealthy.
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Dulse and kelp/seaweed and miso are great.
You may want to look into the "macrobiotic" diets. They're basically similar principles, but with a little more lattitude, and maybe a little less "attitude". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrobiotic...
You can get it from vitamins, or you can just eat leafy green vegetables like spinach. There is no reason to have a blood test unless you are pretty sure you're sick, you can also be anemic if you aren't vegan it is simply an iron defeciency. But unless you are on a raw vegan diet you can be just as unhealthy as a person who isn't vegan, sometimes a bit healthier, or a bit unhealthier.
eat more spinach.. and go back to steak!!
When I went vegetarian as a young teenager, I didn't handle it very well and became anemic very quickly. Tendency to toward iron deficiency varies from person to person, but if you're eating dark green vegetables and drinking iron-fortified beverages, you should be fine.
I've been vegan for almost five years and I've never had a problem.
http://www.veganhealth.org/sh
I'm anemic and a vegan
i get my iron through having a supplement everyday
and i wasn't ill when i became a vegan