It is the start of 2018 and many people are making their New Years Resolutions. As per usual diet is always a hot topic of choice, with many wanting to loose weight and get healthier.
I was inspired by 
I decided around two and a half years ago to make the switch to vegan. The change was overnight and I did not transition slowly like a lot of people do. I was motivated by health reasons at the time, having battled with chronic asthma for so long.
After a month I was feeling better than ever! There was no going back for me.
I know that having a non vegan meal once in a while is not going to drastically hamper my health. However, during this first month of being vegan I realized there was much more to it than that.
I got some more info, watched documentary's, spoke to fellow vegans etc and realized this is not just a diet, it's the best way to do the least amount of harm to the animals and our planet.
Watch these Docco's:
These are the "big three" documentary's I recommend everyone check out. They each cover a different aspect of veganism, namely health, animals and the environment.
What the Health
In my opinion this is the best documentary on diet and health ever released. It felt so refreshing listening to doctors, who are not funded by multi billion dollar industries, talk so passionately about a plant based diet.
There are so many documentary's out there with conflicting opinions on what you should and shouldn't eat. In the end people are left confused. This creates the "everything in moderation" approach, which is just so wrong. If food is healthy we should be able to eat it in abundance. If it is not we should not eat it.
Imagine if we applied the "everything in moderation" argument to cigarettes and other drugs. It just does not make any sense.
What the Health does a great job of exposing the lies by the meat and dairy industry. There was a big backlash after this docco was released, just as I predicted. I think that is good as it means people are starting to pay attention.
There is a lot of good info on the documentary's website, such as meal plans, data base studies etc.
Cowspiracy
From the same directors of 'What the Health' comes Cowspiracy. This focuses on the environmental impact of a meat based animal based diet.
I love the way Kip Anderson told this story. It was in a way also his story of how he found the truth out for himself and how big corporations try their best to hide it from us.
This is a great documentary to show to your friends and family members. It is also has no graphic imagery.
I really wish schools would show students this instead of Al Gore's 'Inconvenient Truth'. I think the latter just leaves people confused about what we should do to combat climate change, whereas Cowspiracy gets straight to the point. Perhaps Al Gore's docco is more popular as people feel they don't need to take action after watching it.
Eathlings
I have to be honest, I have not watched this from start to finish. I skipped through parts and got the gist of what it is about.
This documentary is very graphic and hard to watch.
I know what goes on in an animal slaughterhouse. I've seen the YouTube video Farm to Fridge and I don't feel I need to watch this also. I am already vegan and I'm not going back to eating meat, milk and eggs.
With that said, it could be a very powerful thing to watch if you have not seen any of this stuff before.
What You Should Know
The sad truth is that most people who try out veganism, do not stay vegan for long.
This is because they don't get the advice they need to make the lifestyle sustainable. I mean most people would consider going vegan when they see what happens to the animals before they end up on your plate, BUT this type of vegan activism is a short term approach.
People get hungry and if they don't know what to eat they will quickly binge out on non vegan food.
This is some of the best advice I can give to new vegans out there:
- Eat enough food
It is vital that you get enough calories from vegan food to avoid going for something else. A sufficient amount of calories is 2500 for females and 3000 for males. You might be worried that all this food is going to make you fat. Don't worry. It is not the amount of food we eat but the TYPE of food. You could eat 1000 calories from donuts or 1000 from bananas, which one do you think is going to make you fat?
I will do some post on this in the future, but know that if you focus your diet around high carb low fat vegan food (as shown in 'What the Health') your weight will not be a problem long term.
- Don't be afraid of vegan mock meat.
They might not be as healthy as rice, veggies and beans but they are great transition food. If you have eaten a certain food for so many years it makes sense that you have become accustomed to the taste of it.
These foods are designed to mimic the taste of certain meat products and will help weave you off of them and onto plant foods.
- Carbs are your friend
Do not be afraid of carbohydrates. I see most people fail on a vegan diet because they restrict their carb calories. This is a fatal mistake.
Every cell in the human body runs on carbs (glucose or fructose). When we don't get enough of it daily our body will search for it wherever it can. Allow me to explain this in a bit more detail:
When people go on low carb diets and FAIL (like they always do), they binge out on food rich in sugar. These foods are usually also high in fat because their bodies recognize foods like donuts and chocolate as high sugar foods. This is where they have been getting their sugar for years, so why stop now right?
I get my sugar from rice, pasta, fruit, potatoes, corn etc etc. There is no way I can fail on a vegan diet for this reason because I am always satiated after a meal. Since I went vegan I stopped craving junk food high in fat because my body does not need sugar from these sources anymore. Let me know if you want me to explain this stuff in more detail in a future post.
The Asian people were living on high carb plant based diets for centuries and had the lowest rates of obesity and diabetes. Go to the East African populations of Kenya and Ethiopia and you will see a similar thing.
I don't know why the west has become so sugar/carb phobic, but I have a few theories:
It could be clever marketing by the meat and dairy industry. It could be "medical professionals" trying to cash in on the paleo and atkins low carb trend. Lastly, it could also just be because people like to believe good things about their bad habits. They want to believe that they can go on eating their bacon and eggs, as long as they don't eat toast and ask for no sugar with their tea. What a joke!
I EAT LIKE A KING
The best meals I have ever had were vegan. I don't worry about restricting calories anymore because I know that I am eating the correct food designed for humans.
For those looking for vegan recipes there are thousands online. Here are some websites I can recommend:
Forks Over Knives Recipes
Nutriciously
HCLF Recipes on Pinterest
What about PROTEIN?
This crazy obsession with protein needs to die a quick and painful death.
Every whole plant food has all of the essential amino acids you need. So unless you only eat oil and refined sugar, you will be getting some protein.
The World Health Organization actually said back in the 1970s that we need around 2.5% of our total daily calories coming from protein. They upped this to 5% just to be safe. If you eat a sufficient amount of calories from whole plant foods you WILL get enough protein. There is nothing to worry about.
What About B12?
Most people believe that B12 comes from animals. This is a lie. B12 is a bacteria found in the soil.
It is true you can take in Vitamin B12 by eating animal products, but it is risky and I'll explain why. The animals get their B12 from the soil and our soil has become very depleted. You can no longer be sure how much B12 you are getting if any at all.
The problem has become so bad that farmers have started injecting their cattle with the vitamin, just to say their meat has b12 in it. How crazy is that? This proves what an unreliable source of the vitamin meat has become.
I prefer to get the vitamin from a direct source, so I take an injection once a month. The needle I use is very small. Unless you are obese an insulin needle will do. The reason I take an injection and not a spray or sublingual, is because the injection has been proven to be the most effective way to boost your vitamin b12 levels.
I learnt how to do the injection by watching a YouTube video and you can too.
Vegan Athletes
More and more athletes are going vegan. Just because you run, cycle, play hockey, lift weights or whatever does not mean you can not do it on a vegan diet.
I am fitter than I have ever been eating just plants. I cycled over 10 000km this year.
Look at the Kenyan marathon runners. They eat a high carb plant based diet and are some of the fittest athletes in the world. Nobody is going to tell them they are not getting enough protein.
Click on this link for a list of the more well known professional vegan athletes.
Send me your questions
I will do more post during #veganuary so let me know what you want me to write about. I would be happy to answer your questions in the comments or in a future post!