Vegan Resources

[Adam Strange]

I’ve been an intentional vegan for almost a year and I’m still trying to sort out what is good for me and what is not.

I cut out dairy and meat and eggs and fish (and I hate tofu) and supplemented with B-12 and iron and I generally feel pretty good. I assume my arteries are not being irritated now so much as when I was having bacon and eggs for breakfast and steak for lunch, because my teeth aren’t plaquing up at all.

I was on vacation in Chile for a week where it was practically impossible to find a decent vegan meal, so I ended up eating salmon (I love salmon) every day and I felt distinctly worse. I mean, I felt immediately better and more alive, but it was the kind of feeling I get when I’ve been punched. Probably not good in the long run.

I have been flirting with veganism for a while, and I’ve found that in my own case, it was difficult to get adequate amounts of protein from the foods I was eating. Even with lentil soup and lots of chickpeas, I wasn’t getting enough. I now have almond milk and 21 grams of protein from protein powder shakes (non-dairy, no soy, no eggs) in the morning and that seems to have fixed things.

Esselstyn says “no oils at all”, but I haven’t managed that yet. I’m still feeling this out.

So far, I seem to be heading towards a diet which consists of all-plants; whole food (no processing) vegetables and fruits, with some grains (quinoa and oats) and legumes, protein powder (from Plant Fusion), tree nuts, green tea and coffee.

It probably helps that I’m Si-PoLR, because a gourmet probably couldn’t do this.

[timber]

I’ve been an intentional vegan for almost a year and I’m still trying to sort out what is good for me and what is not.

I cut out dairy and meat and eggs and fish (and I hate tofu) and supplemented with B-12 and iron and I generally feel pretty good. I assume my arteries are not being irritated now so much as when I was having bacon and eggs for breakfast and steak for lunch, because my teeth aren’t plaquing up at all.

I eat a lot of eggs and bacon and meat and my teeth hardly ever plaque up at all. They only get plaquey if I eat a lot of carbohydrates and sugar and drink juices. I have brushed my teeth pretty much two times a day everyday all my life. My parents spent nearly 10,000 on them so I feel I owe it to that effort to keep them clean and healthy until old age. Not to mention the struggle of braces, and elastics and wideners (god damn).

I only drink water and milk for about 5 months now. The Canadian Food Guide came out with a new guide this Jan. and they removed all juices from the reccomended doses. The official highest nutritional guide now ONLY recommends drinking water. They also cut back on dairy, and added fresh meat sources like hunted meat haha.

Its not hard once you get used to it. I love juice, so if I have a glass here or there I don't beat myself up about it. I also love apple juice which I juice myself with a juicer I own. But.. only water.

[timber]

imho the vegan diet is not for me and its not for the majority of North Americans. News flash, North America, the physical land continent itself, outside of the food belts is pretty agriculturally desolate. Not to mention umm, it freezes solid for 5-7 months out of the year.....this diet is seasonally dependent as well as globilization dependent. There are reasons it was challenging to colonize the west and in part because they're wasn't a ton of food growing everywhere. The Boreal, Pine, Cedar-Hemlock, Deciduous, Swapland forest, Desert, and Sage-Brush desert landscapes have limited calorie sources. Meat and fat is the only way to get high value nutrition. eg. research Pemmican (berry, nuts, congealed in animal fat as bars)

The vegan diet is sustainable for tropical and sub tropics, as well as places vegan options are locally abundant.

Plus, vegan diets don't provide the proper sources of food energy during the winter. When I'm working in the bush for 10-13 hours a day in half nighttime darkness in -30 centigrade I NEED high calorie, high animal fat foods to keep my furnace burning.

Sorry for the useless post in your thread.