Can you go vegan cold turkey at mid-life?!

A lot of people go vegan cold turkey. AnA d it has a lot of health benefits. I don't think you have to do much soy. For example, use almond milk on your breakfast cereal and to make pudding, etc. And there is a fantastic ice cream sold at Whole Foods based on coconut milk. Oh, is it good.


A lot of poor people in Mexico eat a diet mostly based on beans and rice.
Don't do imitation meat, I am close to vegan but not vegan and I can't stand imitation meat. I eat a lot of salads topped with garbanzos and a lot of yummy other stuff, beets, hearts of palm, whatever you like, ok there's lunch...eat some cornbread with your salad
Vegetable soups, oh a lot of things.
With your wheat issues, I'd not go totally vegan but you can eat a lot less meat. People in this country get a lot too much meat, usually. 3 or 4 ounces in a meal is a gracious plenty. I started by dropping beef (very unhealthy, bad for the environment, and a lot of cruelty to animals involved)
My daughter is vegan, she has a lot of health benefits, including staying at her ideal weight effortlessly (she used to have trouble with weight gain) and also her cholesterol level. Her HDL has gone above 90 which amazes her doctor.
Also, take a look at the mediterranean diet linked below.
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http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/int…
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mediter…

You can go vegan cold turkey any time. Some people find it easier to quit slowly though. I stopped overnight.

The benefits are you will feel the health benefits of it quicker if you stop everything all at once.
You will feel more pro-active and less impatient than cutting things out one at a time.

On the other hand the change can cause you to feel quite ill for a few days. Not seriously so, just achey and tired. Once this clears you generally feel a LOT better, I know I did.
It can be stressful to change everything all at once, worrying about trace quantities of whey and so forth in products.

Really it depends on you, if you are a "Dive in" sort of person, then dive in. If you are a toe-dipper, then dip your toe. Give up red meat one week, poultry the next, then dairy, then eggs then all foods that contain traces of animal products.

I recommend a couple of books rather than an online source, to be perfectly honest. "Becoming Vegan" is an excellent guide to nutrition as is "Living Vegan for Dummies".


The only way you will injure yourself is if you are not eating healthily! The best way to avoid this is information, information, information!


ETA: That stuff about men becoming feminised is utter crap, just so you know. There are plant oestrogens in many foods. There are a ton of studies on soya and some say it is beneficial, some say it is harmful...but as to people becoming feminised on it that is utter nonsense. No food is good for you when you consume tonnes of it, but moderate amounts of soya is not going to give your breasts!

And BTW I know many soya free vegetarians. I try not to over-rely on soya, I never have soya milk and I really only eat soya in tempeh and tofu forms maybe twice a week. Many vegans hate soya. And just so you know there will already be a ton of soya protein in the foods you eat unless you eat no processed food...so much stuff contains soya these days. It may make it more difficult if you have to avoid wheat as well, but to be perfectly honest if you're going to give up before you begin why bother?