Going Vegan

[Faldoe]

Is anyone Vegan? Advice - reading materials, on how to develop a good nutritious diet? I'm an avid meat eater but I'm thinking of making the transition.

I'm 30, in fairly good shape, not overweight.

Also feel free to share your stories of transitioning (that the proper terminology? Seems appropriate).

[MEC]

If you are currently eating meat I would suggest going vegetarian first.
It will make the eventual transition to vegan less of a shock.

Here's some info & recipes: http://www.theppk.com

[neonblack]

http://www.theppk.com

Your new favorite website.

Learn to make seitan. Its a versatile, easy to make protein (aka Wheat Meat)

Tempeh and Tofu are also delicious if you learn to cook them right. Beans and nuts are your new best friends. Kidney beans. Chickpeas. Cashews especially. With raw cashews (NOT roasted) you can make cream sauces, Mac and cheese, queso dip, and other cheese-like substances. Nutritional Yeast and Miso help add some savory cheesiness back to your meals.

Contrary to what most people think, vegan food doesn't have to be bland.

[Faldoe]

Anyone try the Beyond Meat products? Any info on vegan tacos? - faux meat.

[Chankgeez]

I'm not a big fan of fake meat. Haven't tried Beyond Meat. Don't expect I'll like it.

Tempeh tacos are great.

Isa Chandra Moskowitz

[tabbycat]

Is anyone Vegan? Advice - reading materials, on how to develop a good nutritious diet? I'm an avid meat eater but I'm thinking of making the transition.

i recommend you read the section in on non-meat and vegan diets in this http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Health-Delu ... 1848506864 before going further down that route.

leaving aside the moral and eco arguments to concentrate on the physiological, we have developed and evolved into carnivores over millennia. at this point in our development as a species our digestive systems are incredibly efficient machines for extracting all the nutrients we need for optimum nutrition from a diet that includes animal products. you will be shooting yourself in the foot, nutritionally speaking, to begin substituting plant for animal.
omega 3 is a great example. there are no good (assimilable, of sufficient grade and quantity) plant-based equivalents for omega 3. there are chains of vegetable-based omega 3 in hemp, flax, etc, but it's the wrong kind for your body to be able to make much use of. you are an animal and you need animal grade omega 3. dha based (marine, predominantly), not ala (plant source). look it up before you give it up.

people say 'well what about herbivores, they do it?' well herbivores have longer guts and (through as long a course of evolution as we have taken to adapt to meat eating) have become far better adapted than us to converting these types of omega 3 into usable acids.

people say 'well people used to be herbivores once'. by that token, people used to be submarine amoeba blobs but it doesn't mean we can still live underwater.

you can go vegan and scrape by. i have vegan friends (and i tried it for a few years before i got ill because of it and switched back), but you will need to supplement with animal source vits/mins/etc (or suffer the consequences of inferior plant-based supplements) and get regular blood tests to keep on top of deficiencies, which are inevitable without animal products in your diet.

i'm opening myself up to major shit here because i know the sort of passion this stuff can arouse. but i have studied this subject area like a degree subject and know the evidence overwhelmingly supports keeping animal products a permanent part of any healthy diet. obviously don't eat crap processed meat, don't eat it every day, and good clean fish is best.

honestly, read that section (skim it in a bookshop even, half an hour) before you go ahead. there are other books and studies that reach the same conclusions i can link to, but that section is the most concise and clearly evidenced argument i have seen yet for the case.

[oscillateur]

I can't comment that much about strict vegan stuff but I've been a vegetarian for more than 15 years, I get pretty full health check-ups for work including blood tests, etc. every year (as does everyone working in Japan) and I have no deficiencies whatsoever. And I don't take any supplement. I just eat good stuff, avoid junk food, etc. As I said, I'm not a vegan so I do eat milk-based products (I'm french, I need cheese) and eggs. But no fish/meat/seafood/etc.

So yeah, tabbycat's post does contain bits of truth but it also contains a sizeable amount of bullshit...

[rustywire]

I'm no nutritionist, but the most beneficial diets appear to be balanced with moderation and minimal processing...largely paleo.
If a diet is "extreme" in any way then I think it is likelier to shorten your lifespan than extend it.

The most common deficiency among vegans is with B-12, which without fauna sources, can only be adequately obtained through fortified foods...which create a new set of problems if you aren't careful.

http://www.naturalnews.com/032766_cyano ... _B-12.html

[neonblack]

All I'm gonna say is that if we were meant to be carnivores, we would be able to hunt and kill prey with our hands and teeth and eat the meat raw.

When is the last time you ate a fresh kill, still warm with blood?

[goroth]

All I'm gonna say is that if we were meant to be carnivores, we would be able to hunt and kill prey with our hands and teeth and eat the meat raw.

When is the last time you ate a fresh kill, still warm with blood?

This is super illogical dude. Humans have been able to use food and fire for what, 40, 50000 years? If everyone had to live by your requirement above we wouldn't even have survived long enough to get to the iron age. If you apply the same logic you use to other areas of life (for example, your bass vi) you can see that it doesn't hold.

For the record: I enjoy all food. I eat vegetarian a couple of times a week, fish at least once a week, red meat once a week, white meat probably once or twice a week. I enjoy eating vegan but don't often cook it myself because I can't be bothered thinking that carefully about my nutrition, and to be honest I enjoy too many of the foods that end up on the black list when eating vegan. It's also, in my experience, difficult to get umami into vegan cooking.

I think going vegan is challenging because of two reasons: one being the availability of certain nutrients and fatty acids, and the other, perhaps the primary reason, being that it makes eating away from your home a pain in the ass. It's a much greater undertaking than other types of diets. Note that I said "challenging" and not "bad". I think a vegan diet affects your lifestyle as a whole a lot more than other diets.

[neonblack]

I'm mostly just stirring up shit. I like to stay mostly uninvolved in vegan/non vegan debates.

My grandpa had his first heart attack at 38. 2 more since then. I'm just trying to do my part to not die

Miso paste is good for that umami flavor, IMO.

[oscillateur]

I'm no nutritionist, but the most beneficial diets appear to be balanced with moderation and minimal processing...largely paleo.
If a diet is "extreme" in any way then I think it is likelier to shorten your lifespan than extend it.

Yeah. If you want to have a vegetarian/vegan diet for ethical reasons, then you should definitely try it to see if it fits your lifestyle, etc.
But if it's mostly for health or environmental concerns, focus first on buying food that's been made in a reasonable manner and on eating a balanced diet of quality stuff. That usually (but not always) means spending a bit more money and spending more time checking where/how things were made though .

[goroth]

I'm mostly just stirring up shit. I like to stay mostly uninvolved in vegan/non vegan debates.

Shoulda seen that.

Miso is awesome.

[cheesecats]

i've been a vegetarian since the early 90s--one of the best decisions i've ever made. i do eat eggs (sparingly) and dairy products. i agree that it may be best to transition to a vegan diet gradually.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXIdcA6mlV4[/youtube]

[UglyCasanova]

The most common deficiency among vegans is with B-12, which without fauna sources, can only be adequately obtained through fortified foods...which create a new set of problems if you aren't careful.

http://www.naturalnews.com/032766_cyano ... _B-12.html

True, but it is also a quite common vitamin deficiency among meat eaters. It's just a bitchy vitamin to deal with. Both my mom and aunt have to get a shot of B12 every other month - and they have meat for every single meal.

Anyways; lacto-ovo vegetarianism and a good literary source on nutritional facts is the place to start. I'm not vegan nor do I plan to become vegan. I need my eggs and my cheese.

Just a heads up though; plenty of hard cheeses (actually, almost all of them) are made with animal chymosin/rennin, which is substracted from calf stomachs. Read the label and look for microbial rennet instead.