Is it a good idea to go vegan?

[SakuraChii]

Here are some of my problems
-I get tired easily
-My skin only does well when I keep up on using facial products and still isn't at its 100% best
- I PMS
-I have depression, anxiety and other stress related things.

I read some facts from this site and it talked about how going vegan can help with these problems and increased your health and life longetivity especially if you have been on an American diet. The only problem is that I love steak.

Updates

+1 y

The information you guys are giving me is a bit confusing. Can't you just take supplements or eat certain artificial foods to get the proteins you need from meat?

[Kiwedin]

A lot of the information people are telling you in the responses are very inaccurate, so I really want to clear up exactly you need to know about going vegan. First things first, a proper vegan diet is the healthiest diet for human beings. It sounds controversial to many, but it's the truth, vegans have the longest lifespans, have the least amount of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, and many other debilitating illnesses. A vegan diet is your absolute best chance at fighting disease and living a long and healthy life. All the concerns about deficiencies in protein, iron, calcium, etc. are not an issue as long as you follow a low-fat, whole foods plant based diet and supplement with B12 (methylcobalamin). Many people call this diet a High Carb Low Fat Vegan diet or HCLF for short. It includes eating unlimited calories from whole plant foods, while including but limiting overt fats (avocados, nuts, seeds). Eating above 2000 calories a day is always recommended. Definitely read How Not To Die by Dr. Michael Greger, it's all about nutrition and it'll help you learn more about why it's important to eat this way.
A vegan diet will definitely help you with these issues. Personally, I was able to cure my acne and completely get rid of my PMS symptoms (it's been 3 years since I've had cramps... don't even remember what they feel like hah) among other things.
Why it will help you:
-Every single cell in the human body runs on glucose, which we get most easily from carbohydrates. HCLF has been known to cure chronic fatigue syndrome due to the steady stream of glucose into the cells, providing more energy.
-Dairy products are often a trigger for skin problems, due the the exogenous hormones and somatic cells (pus) found in mammalian breast milk.
-PMS is caused by something called prostaglandins which increase in number when your estrogen levels are too high. Animal products, especially milk, are very high in exogenous hormones, which upsets the body's natural balance of estrogen and testosterone. Cutting out the animal products takes out those exogenous hormones you were consuming and results in normalized estrogen levels and therefore, better periods.

Feel free to message me if you want any help with going vegan or if you have any questions about nutrition, I've done more than enough research for the both of us and I'm getting my degree in Nutrition and Dietetics :). Hope this helps.

[nalaa]

It can help.

It helped me with tiredness, just eating more greens as the main part of your meal, so more iron and other nutrients. Also switching to Aluminium free deodorant helped.

It can def help with your skin as well, but it takes time. You should switch to all natural, organic vegan products. The usual ones create a dependency so your skin always needs them and they can sell your more of it.
If you want to cut out any animal product dairy will be most beneficial and help most with clearing up you skin

As for the other two. Def a good diet can help with making you feel good. It doesn't have to be vegan but I mean if it helps, it's certainly better for the animals and the planet. And I think "What you need to do is, eat more cheese and red meat and lather in butter" are words no doctor ever said.

Most people eat like 70% crap and a few fruits and vegetables thrown in there. But you should eat as close to 100% as you can get in good, unprocessed foods. Forget about oils, protein powder or refined sugar. Go for fruits, beans, nuts and grains instead. You can have a steak once or twice a month if you want. But I think once you kinda wrap your head around how absurd eating meat is, you won't desire it as much

[nalaa]

For period cramps by the way, Maca really helped me. Some people think it's gross but I think it's delicious and goes great with almond yoghurt or puffed amaranth in the morning

[SakuraChii]

How do you get around the expenses?

[SakuraChii]

I've also just started with eating fruits and a pastry bar for a snack, and I'm already starving.

[nalaa]

What expenses? I was saving money eating vegan.

I don't know what a pastry snack is exactly but it's probably not a good idea. If you have trouble finding things to eat there are plenty vegan youtuber that show you what they eat. There are also books. I liked the starch solution. It's mostly a diet book but it did have a meal plan with it and he tells you to eat as much as you want and starches a cheap. Eat to live, it's a more bean heavy version and beans are cheap as well

You don't have to buy everything organic, I don't, I just buy whatever is on sale. The Maca was a bit more epxensive but I have 1kg bag for 10 euro and it's lasted me 9 months so and still have a good bit left.
As for cosmetics, well I get home brand form my local drugstore they have a ll natural vegan range, tho not organic. But ya works for me. Their moisturizer 2,50 and it lasts me almost a yea I don't it's too much

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KoB4l60Sfo

[nalaa]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd40jDO880s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzeS_uQgB5E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lCnr180e5w

[nalaa]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJWls9Ge7Qo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNGLUD835yk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzSvd88LBLw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNyTzUQO51E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf-CsiqaMjI

[SakuraChii]

I like what your saying but I also want to keep what @redeyemindtricks said in consideration

[nalaa]

Well I think she is getting some things wrong or putting them as misleading half truths, but I mean it's up to you

[nalaa]

But do you really think you'd get more estrogen from soy milk than actual milk?

[rjroy3]

You're better off eating whole foods than you are going vegan. The benefits that come from veganism is solely from finally eating enough vegetables for your body, when before you probably weren't even eating 1/10th of what you should be. Keep eating your steaks, but add a lot of fruits, veggies and some rice to your diet or potatoes. Just cutting sugar from your diet will help your skin, your tiredness and some of the stress you're feeling. Most sugar we should have in a day is 25g. Average can if of soda has almost double that.

[104755555]

Hey listen people are rarely healthy and the idea you need meat is a myth just try no meat for a week and you will feel great. It's been life changing for me it cleAred my skin and had a lot more energy and even less stress I felt calm and peaceful and better about life. Eating meat is not meant for the human body we aren't predators we are adapted for plants it's obvious because eating meat correlates with high cancer. Just try it it's really not good to kill animals and karma hits us with what it does to our bodies

[spuitkaas]

-I get tired easily
That can only be related to food if you had a shortage of iron. Going vegan is actually not good then since you don't eat meat and meat is the biggest source of iron. A lot of vegetarians /vegans have iron shortage.
-My skin only does well when I keep up on using facial products and still isn't at its 100% best
You're 16 so ofcourse your skin isn't always great. I'm 19 and still have a bit of acne. It's all genetic and so hormonal and so there's nothing you can do. Studies have proven diet makes no difference to acne.
- I PMS
Diet doesn't change that either. I really recommend you to take the pill. I also was struggling with a lot of menstrual side effects and the pill has really helped me.
-I have depression, anxiety and other stress related things.
The only thing that can change that is yourself. Sometimes a little help is needed in form of therapy or antidepressants, but not eating meat, eggs etc won't change a thing.

As you might have noticed I don't believe in going vegan at all. I understand that you don't want animals to suffer or the environment or something like that but I believe it has absolutely no health improvement effects. Maybe it will give you that placebo effect, because if it works, then it works, but that's totally up to you.
Good luck.

[nalaa]

Diet can have a massive influence on PMS and depression. I think instead pumping more medicine into her body, trying a dietary approach is def a sensible option.
"Let food be thy medicine "

[spuitkaas]

@nalaa I read your opinion and I totally not agree with most things you said so I think it's best to not discuss this.

[nalaa]

Ok I mean sure, I suppose the fight or flee option applies to conversations as well

[redeyemindtricks]

I make most of my living helping people construct diet/exercise/medicine programs, and I'm mostly going to throw my weight behind what @spuitkaas is saying here.

Her point about anemia (lack of iron) is well taken. More generally, YOU SHOULD GET BLOOD WORK DONE. It is absolutely not normal for someone yr age to suffer from the lack of energy you're describing, so, there is probably *some* imbalance, and you should identify exactly what it is before you start "treating" it with random "solutions" that may well make things worse. If you are indeed anemic, then, as @spuitkaas points out, switching to a vegan diet is absolutely the worst thing you could do.

A couple of other things:

• If you have PMS that's actually PMS -- like, PRE-menstrual syndrome, with the nasty cramping -- then taking most birth-control pills will probably make yr symptoms WORSE, not better. Unfortunately.
Take a look at my opinion (mho) on this

[redeyemindtricks]

thread:
www.girlsaskguys.com/.../q1913939-period-sex-question
If you have symptoms that are anything like the SECOND type that I described there, then, taking a combination BC pill (estrogen + progestin) will actually make yr PMS symptoms worse, not better. It's going to be a shitty situtaion to navigate, with no easy solution, but... yeah.
If you have cramping that resembles the first description, then, yeah, bc will help you.

Also, a vegan diet tends to be high in estrogen. If you have the type of PMS and cramping that's characterized by that second set of symptoms, then, a vegan diet will almost certainly make it worse.
In that case, (1) don't go vegan, (2) google the term "phytoestrogens", look up lists of foods, and avoid those foods at all costs -- since those foods are going to exacerbate the problems you are talking about.

Another thing that doesn't get mentioned, nearly as often as it should, is the importance of ethnic background.
People of

[redeyemindtricks]

South Asian, East Asian, and Middle Eastern descent are, in general, MUCH better at processing carbohydrates, and MUCH more able to thrive on vegetarian and vegan diets, than are other people. If you don't have any of these types of ethnicity in yr bloodline, then, you probably just won't do as well on this type of diet -- because you don't come from a line of people that has spent 10,000 years eating bulgur wheat, rice, soy, lentils and/or other plant foods for a majority of its diet including protein needs.
I mean, there are lots of studies to show this. You can have 2 people eating the same high-carb diet, 1 white person and 1 Asian or Middle Eastern person, and the white person will become pre-diabetic after a couple of years and the other person won't. It sucks, but, it is what it is.

[redeyemindtricks]

Finally, there is little or no evidence that "organic" foods are anything except... well, expensive.
www.health.harvard.edu/.../organic-food-no-more-nutritious-than-conventionally-grown-food-201209055264

[spuitkaas]

@redeyemindtricks no idea about what kind of 'human race' is able to process one thing better than the other, but I do agree with you on the organic food thing. It's just more expensive.

[spuitkaas]

Asker, for your question in the update, protein might be solvable with other food, but the problem lays with vitamin B12 and iron. Iron is not something you can take from a supplement, since it's really hard for your body to process it that way. Same with vitamin B12. I mean apricots contain a bit of iron but to get your daily dosis you have to eat about a whole bag of dried ones, which contain a lot of sugar.

[redeyemindtricks]

"no idea about what kind of 'human race' is able to process one thing better than the other"

Keep people apart for 10,000 years, differences are bound to emerge -- and they have. Here's one of the studies on glucose tolerance, for instance:
care.diabetesjournals.org/content/36/6/1789.full

Also, certain aspects of this are common knowledge -- for instance, the fact that lactose intolerance is a largely East Asian problem.
It's weird that people understand *that*, but then don't believe that there could be other, more wide-ranging, ethnic differences in nutrition.

On the other extreme, the Inuit (Eskimos) of northern Canada -- whose native diet has included ZERO carbohydrates for the last six thousand years or so -- are pretty much guaranteed to become diabetic if they eat ANY amount of sugar or white starch on a regular basis.

[BarbaraP]

No. If going vegan makes someone feel healthier it's because they didn't eat enough vegetables and fruits before. Just eat clean, you'll notice the change! Lots of fruits, vegetables, legumes, some meat and fish. Avoid greasy stuff because of your acne, only eat good oils (olive oil, almonds, nuts, greasy fish). Processed sugar can make you very tired and white carbs have the same effect. So that's definitely something you (everyone) should avoid. If you do, your skin will most likely look better. Your diet needs to be balanced or you will not nurish your body properly and therefore feel tired all the time. How you cook food is also important... cooking your vegetables for over 2 hours will destroy everything that's good for you. Make sure you drink at least 2 L of water everyday, it's basically the most important thing. You could also need a blood test to make sure you're not anemic or something else.

[Coffinspire]

I've researched it a while ago just to see if there actually were any benefits to being a vegan, and I found none. Animal fat helps our bodies to absorb nutrients. While veggies are healthy, there are simply not enough calories to fuel the body, you'd have to eat literally all day putting maximum effort into eating/digesting rather than other things. For example, most herbivorous animals eat literally all day everyday, while carnivorous animals eat maybe 1-2x a day. What I found that helps is literally meat, veggies and fruit (water, coffee and tea) with a bit of exercise (maybe not actual exercise it could be a good house cleaning or something)

[AzureGirl]

If you think it will help you then I would suggest giving it a try. And if you decide you don't like it or it isn't for you then you can always just stop and go treat yourself to a nice juicy steak.

[sparkly-crystal]

authoritynutrition.com/.../
Humans are omnivores. We function best eating both animals and plants.

[4465loveyou5577]

But we're not (even remotely) omnivores in the sense that most people consider us to be.

[fueledbythc]

The trick is putting natural or organic foods into your body. Vegan is great but nothing wrong with enjoying a nice juicy piece of steak and it won't make you unhealthy. It's more of processed foods and refined sugars that makes you unhealthy.

[normalice]

tends to result in iron deficiency, but if you figure a workaround for that, by all means go for it :-)

[4465loveyou5577]

Sweetie, don't listen to these brainwashed idiots who have no clue what they're talking about, you can do just fine without eating meat.

If you want to know more PM me :)
<3 <3 <3

[genericname85]

it´s never a good idea to do it just like that. you have to research quite a lot if you don´t want to end up getting any vitamin deficiencies or overall malnutrition..

[Mesonfielde]

Without protein you'd probably just end up even more tired.

[4465loveyou5577]

And since when do vegans not get protein -_-

[Mesonfielde]

@4465loveyou5577 since protein is primarily in meat.

[4465loveyou5577]

Actually all the protein you ever ate came from a plant :)
The only reason it's in the meat is because the animal ate it -_-

[Mesonfielde]

@4465loveyou5577 And the animals consumed it, digested it and their metabolism reconstructed it.

Last time I checked, we had ONE stomach, not FOUR. We are not bovine. Our primary source of protein is meat, not grass.

[4465loveyou5577]

Uhuh, two questions:
1. Since when do all herbivores have 4 stomachs?
2. Since when is Grass the only kind of plant food?

[spuitkaas]

@4465loveyou5577
- ruminantian animals have 4 stomaches. That includes sheep, cow etc.
- grass is the main thing they eat (including hay which is grass as well). Maybe something else like corn, but we can't digest uncooked corn either.

[4465loveyou5577]

@spuitkaas but that doesn't include all herbivores and 1/4 cup of raw corn has 152 calories, so yes you can digest it.

[Mesonfielde]

@4465loveyou5577 Calorie counting doesn't take it into account WHAT it is you are eating, and that just denies any and all elements of biochemistry and studies of nutrition.

[4465loveyou5577]

All that was meant to do is refute the claim that we can't digest raw corn.

[4465loveyou5577]

And the biggest problem is this; everyone thinks that because humans are omnivores, it means that it should get nutrition in equal or near equal quantities from both plants and animals. IT DOESN'T!!! You see, first off if you're going to argue between whether humans are carnivores or herbivores, you have a much better case for arguing that humans are herbivores. And this is where things get VERY dicey for anyone arguing that humans are 50/50 omnivores because contrary to popular belief, 50/50 omnivores don't have an even mix of carnivore and herbivore traits, they have a lot more in common with carnivores. People also like how chimps, our closest relatives eat monkeys and other meat. But still 95% of their caloric intake is still from plant matter and of the intake they get from animals, the vast majority of that is from insects. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba1rHgJR7kQ
And they still have more adaptations to meat consumption than we do.

[4465loveyou5577]

So we're not omnivores in the sense that we should get half of our nutrition from plants and half from vertebrate animals, we're omnivores in the sense that we should get ~96% of our nutrition from plants and the remaining 4% from insects :)

[Mesonfielde]

@4465loveyou5577 You might prefer bugs, but I'll stick with chicken, lol.

[4465loveyou5577]

Actually I prefer neither, but what you eat wasn't the topic of this discussion; it was whether or not you need meat to get enough protein, which you don't.

[4465loveyou5577]

Way to show everyone how mature you are LOL

[spuitkaas]

@4465loveyou5577 it's actually one of the principles to be a ruminantian. Here you have a copied piece from a dictionary.
'ruminant - any of various cud-chewing hoofed mammals having a stomach divided into four (occasionally three) compartments'
You are officially an omnivore if your diet consists out of meat for more than 5%. That's why chimps are really omnivores and that's why humans are too. We can digest meat, our body looks like an omnivore from the inside. Maybe you should look things up more before saying things.

[4465loveyou5577]

@spuitkaas
Only about 5% of a chimps caloric intake is from meat and they're still better adapted to meat consumption than we are and the only reason we can digest meat properly is because we cook it and any herbivore could eat cooked meat just like any carnivore could eat cooked plants. Also, our bodies are nothing like an omnivores.
renovegans.compassionatewashoe.com/.../...more.jpg
I did check my facts before posting, perhaps you should have done the same :)

[spuitkaas]

@4465loveyou5577 yeah just like we can't digest cellulose either. Our bodies actually look way more like the one from omnivores than herbivores. Last time I checked I didn't have 4 stomaches and a really long digestive system. We actually can digest raw meat, just not as good as cooked meat. However we can't digest things like grass at all. The thing is that our whole digestive system is based on cooking. Whether it's meat or vegetables.

[4465loveyou5577]

@spuitkaas
#facepalm
Many herbivores can't digest cellulose and have only one stomach. You know why? NOT ALL HERBIVORES EAT GRASS!!! Those that eat mostly fruits and seeds have only one stomach and can't digest cellulose either. Also, while the herbivores that eat grass have small intestines 16-20x the length of their body those that eat fruits and seeds have one that's 8-12x the length of their body. Ours is 9x the length of our body.

[TatyanaTheEmpress]

I don't know, maybe, but I think it's better to go vegetarian

[Pat8707]

"I get tired easily"
Well, no then. Why do you think vegans are so weak?

[Jayded1]

Vegan won't help with any of that. Only a vegan would tell you that, haha.

[ConsultantIsBack]

That's like saying should I cut off my dick
Probably shouldn't do that lmao

[Sunflower19]

OMG Lol!!

[bubbletrouble]

Veganism should probably be something temporary for your case

[Anonymous]

You can try but their a thing called steak salads that are healthy!

[Kiwedin]

Steak salads aren't healthy lmao. The salad part is, not the steak part.

[Anonymous]

Well. If you want a long life, did you know that Christians live almost 15 years on average longer then other people?

[Other_Tommy_Wiseau]

i don't hate myself, so no.

[TheSpecticularRoss]

yes if you eat mostly raw vegetables

[apple24]

I wouldn't dare!