You started out with a nice sentence outlining the distinctions. Particularly that veganism is about more than diet.
However, things went a bit downhill later. While pasta sometimes has egg in it, sometimes it does not – it is best to ask. And frankly, while vegans do generally have to pay attention to the ingredient lists, that’s not necessarily a bad thing – we could all stand to be more aware of what we’re eating.
Lastly, veganism is only “guilty by association” of being New Age; they don’t always go together.
And I’m not sure what “American” has to do with it; the Vegan Society was founded in Britain.
My veggie-burgers are 100% ground pork, so they’s better be
I cannot imagine going vegan it looks like too much work for the food. However, being conscious about your food is always good and more greens and less meat is better.
As stated by others, just take a look at your food to make sure you’re eating a well-balanced diet, and a multivitamin with B12 just in case wouldn’t hurt. (A lot of cereals/bread products are fortified with B vitamins, but if you’re eliminating a lot of store-bought processed foods, you might miss that.) The Happy Herbivore cookbooks are good, as are Appetite for Reduction and Veganomicon.
A big :rolleyes: to the concept that doing something small to reduce suffering is worthless. By those guidelines, you should either say “fuck it” and be totally selfish, or kill yourself now because you are unworthy of continuing to exist and use up our planet’s resources since you’re not curing a major disease. Giving a few dollars to charity is not meaningless to those who are helped by your dollars and the dollars of others, pooled to do good. Saving a dog from euthanasia in a pound is not meaningless to that dog. Do what your conscience guides you to.
Full disclosure: I am a vegetarian, but not a vegan. My consumption of dairy and eggs is fairly low, and at least for my home usage, I try to get those products from humanely-raised animals whenever possible. I cook meat for my husband, as he’s an omnivore, but he happily eats vegetarian or vegan meals at home too. I don’t preach to others (exception: threads where someone asks for advice); this is just what I believe, and I know it is not acceptable or practical for everyone.
Well, diets don’t work in the long term. Ok, you may lose a few pounds, but to keep them off you need a Lifestyle Change. Going Vegan, or Vegetarian, or Pescatarian, or Michael Pollans “Fooditarian”, or like I did “No fast or junk food tarian” all work. Now, actually Pollans rules “Eat food*. Not too much. Mostly plants." (it’s important to know his definition of what is “food”) is likely the healthiest, but it’s hard to do. It does fit nicely into what you liked, which is fewer processed foods. Give it a try. Read his books.
But you can certainly eat tons of processed junk which is completely vegan. HFCS is vegan, for example.
If you want healthy and easy to commit to, then I think Pescatarian works best.
Right, you could largely to wholly eliminate processed foods (which I agree can lead to feeling kind of crappy) at the other extreme from veganism too. Atkins and the paleo diets are pretty doggone unprocessed. My skinny girly ex-GF took to paleo with the zeal of a convert when she realized that having steak and eggs for breakfast rather than a “healthy” bran muffin or granola bar totally cured her mid-morning hypoglycemic fugues.
What was the old home ec mantra? Do your shopping around the edges of the grocery store, generally stay out of the aisles (i.e., you’ll be hitting the fresh produce, and, if you want, fish, meat, and dairy sections and avoiding the factory-made “products.”).
I’ll have to look those over. I know that I’ve had success in the past, at least temporarily, eating foods that showed up better on the glycemic index, but of course that meant I was eating more nutrient dense leafy greens and a lot less processed foods. And of course, there’s proponents and opponents to any plan for eating.
Let us be clear here. There are no health benefits from going vegan or vegetarian. They are health benefits from cutting down on calories, eating less junk and processed food, and eating more fruits & veggies. One can do that and still eat some meat, but yes, it’s easier to do so for most dudes by cutting out meat entirely.
Would you be surprised to learn that a Twix bar and pound cake are low on the glycemic index and potatoes and parsnips are high? Carrots and potatoes have about the same high GI as sugar and white bread. But potatoes are ranked as being very high on the satiety index.
Here’s another article by Aragon regarding the glycemic index I think you’ll appreciate.
Vegan / vegetarian food can certainly make you fat. For a while, I replaced a lot of dairy with coconut milk. Only problem is, coconut milk has an *unbelievable *amount of calories and saturated fats. I’m slightly amazed that it didn’t kill me outright. Now, I mostly replace dairy by… eating something else that isn’t supposed to have dairy. Well, and some soy milk (which, by the way, is another thing that is processed out the wazoo).
Another consideration pro-Vegan is the antibiotic issue. Each winter I am plagued by sinus infections and bronchitis that WON’T go away. I’ve had to get some times as many as five courses of antibiotics to finally rid myself of the green gunk.
Cattle ranchers pack their animals in feedlots prior to slaughter. The animals are fattened on whatever bulk foods the rancher can obtain cheaply. Because the animals are stressed out and under such crowded conditions, their feed is liberally laced with antibiotics. Now, supposedly the antibiotics are halted for a period of time before slaughter, to minimize the antibiotic residue in the meat. However, antibiotic use is increasing in the United States, as more and more bacteria are becoming resistant. MRSA is in the rise. How often do we hear of E. coli contaminating certain meat supplies?
Chickens are raised in factory farms. PETA can educate you on the lovely accommodations of chickens. To minimize animal loss, the chicken farmers feed them antibiotics. And we are all cautioned about possible salmonella contamination of eggs, egg products, and chicken meat.
Cows get antibiotics and sometimes growth hormones.
If I do return to Veganism, it will be because of these factors.
~VOW
