There is a lot of contradictory information out there on what you need to eat to be healthy and I can tell you from years of personal experience and studying a myriad of different videos and articles on the subject that it's actually a hell of a lot more simple than it is portrayed in the mainstream media as well as the alternative media.
If you want to look and feel your best you can easily do so on a high carb low fat vegan lifestyle. There have been countless studies done on the positive effects of a plant based diet on disease prevention and reversal not only on individuals but entire populations. Great doctors that come to mind are John Mcdougall, Walter Kempner, Caldwell Esselstyn, T. Colin Cambell, Dean Ornish and Neal Barnard.
Ever since going vegan since March 2011 I've had much less health issues than ever before in my life. I haven't even been the healthiest vegan as I've indulged in plenty of fatty vegan junk foods over the years as well as plenty of coffee. Regardless of that the average percentage of calories from fat in my diet over the years has been less than 10% since my staples are rice, corn, bananas, sugar, potatoes and other fruits and starches depending on the situation or what I'm feeling like having.
You may be surprised to see sugar in that list and you probably think that it's unhealthy. Sugar is a supplement to me as it helps me to perform at my best on the bike and it's great for adding flavor to starches as well as fruit smoothies. What is the main fuel source for all the cells in your body? GLUCOSE. Therefore it is a no brainer that you will get instant fuel when you consume sugar as it hardly has to undergo any processing in your body to be converted to a fuel source.
Sugar is simply carbohydrate so it is a nutrient. It is essential to power us through our daily lives just like water and air are essential. Am I saying you should pour sugar over all your food for every meal that you eat? No, but what I am saying is that it is fine to add to your diet when you want a boost in athletic performance, intellectual performance or just a flavor boost. Sugar is found in pretty much every plant food in the forms of simple and complex carbohydrate.
The great thing about sugar in natural whole plant foods like rice, corn, potatoes, bananas and dates is that it is accompanied by a plethora of other phytonutrients and thus you get the complete package. I've found that by mixing refined and whole plant foods you get a great balance of health and performance. When you add some refined foods like white rice, bread, pasta and sugar it becomes much easier to get the glucose that you need as opposed to just eating strictly whole foods.
I would like to share my diet with you that I'm doing a consistent basis as of writing this article. I simply eat the foods that I enjoy most and I never really get tired of them. Not only do they keep me healthy but they keep me in tip top shape and they are incredibly affordable. Just think of all the additional money you save by not having to visit the doctor anymore!
So a typical day for me would look something like this:
As you can see it's a very simple and very lean diet as 91% of the calories are coming from carbs and only 2% from fat. Do I eat like this the whole year? Definitely not as I do have variety throughout the year but this is just an example of how you can mix whole and refined foods and get all the nutrients you need as mangoes and pak choi are extremely nutirent dense, especially if the mangoes taste great.
Why should you even listen to what I have to say? Who the hell am I to have so much confidence in the results this lifestyle brings? I've raced my bike at elite level for over 10 years and have been able to compete against pro tour riders without taking any performance enhancing drugs or supplements besides sugar. I hardly ever get sick either and if I do it's just a mild cold that clears up by itself in 3 days. This is usually due to experiencing some stress or eating sub optimal foods for an extended period of time.
Yes you can be vegan and eat unhealthy pretty easily. If you just lived on Oreos, olive oil and Lays salted potato chips you would probably die pretty soon.
What I recommend is eating your daily fruits and vegetables and having starch form the bulk of your calories. When you eat this way you get so fucking lean long term and your blood tests will be excellent. This is a photo of me after finishing a 12 Km hill climb race 2 weeks ago.
As you can see, I look like I should be competing with Chris Froome in the Tour de France but the reality is that I am only training 10 hours per week with 2 high intensity sessions per week to keep my fitness at elite level. The diet keeps me lean and NOT the training. There are plenty of riders who burn double or triple my weekly calories and are still fat because they hit the bacon and eggs instead of the mangoes and rice.
If cycling isn't your thing and you are more into strength sports then there are also plenty of athletes who have god-like physiques on a vegan diet:
So I hope you enjoyed this article and it challenged your beliefs. If you are feeling like it doesn't make sense it's normal but it all will make sense soon enough when you give it a go and get similar results! I didn't go into any studies or detailed science in this article because the goal was just to make it an easy and entertaining read. There's plenty of that on the web so just do some research :) May you live a long, strong, healthy and happy life for the rest of your days.