Would you go vegan or already make more veg... - Healthy Eating
Would you go vegan or already make more vegan/vegetarian choices? this is a multiple choice and please say what other is. 💚
107 VotersPlease select all that apply:
I'm a vegetarian and have been for over 30 years. As the saying goes 'for the health of the chickens' though aware that the egg and industries involve killing and cruelty even if you only buy organic free range.
Hi Jerry
After watching What the Health, Forks over Knives, Conspiracy, I was convinced that I should follow a vegan lifestyle. I became Vegan 98% or so because I still ate yogurt and occasional honey.
I did for almost a year, and I had to supplement B12. I made my own cheeses using nutritional yeast and so on and so forth.
After reading on dementia and how it is that we need docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) to maintain and improve brain function,and protect our brain neurons from inflammation. Although food staff like chia and flaxseed for example contain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), our body can convert it into a DHA but at a very slow rate!
To make the long story short, I am now pescatarian, and have been for the last 4 months. I shall review my health in a year's time and see how I fare on this diet.
Deva brand: Omega-3 DHA derived from algae. Fish eat the algae which is where they get the DHA.
At least you are getting your whole saturated fats from your own cheese. This is essential for brain function and the development of the brain in very young children. Some authorities are suggesting that the change to the polyunsaturated fats recommended over the last 50 years or so, is the cause of the increase in Alzheimers disease and the underdevelopment of the the juvenile brain.
I find the idea of losing weight interesting because I lost 2.5 st just by being a good boy. I'm wondering now what is possible going vegetarian or vegan. Or would the added complexity in maintaining an entirely different dietary regime be a bit too much without extra effort?
I thought the same as you but it’s really not difficult to be vegan. I personally have so more more energy and veganism is so mainstream now it might be worth you looking into as being vegan has never been easier.
Thanks, Agoodenough. Dio you need to take any supplements or anything else to maintain your diet or is it just a question of eating certain things and avoiding others. Some posts talk about B12 supplements ?????
thx
Hi yes I take B12 you get loads in the pot and I take them when I think of it so about 4 a week and they last ages. I also take iron sachets As I always have done even before being vegan, again maybe just a few times a week 🌱
I was married to a vegetarian for many years and can cook creative veggie meals. However, I eventually persuaded him that a land with no farm animals or game living in it would be a dreary place. Who will keep cows, pigs sheep and chickens if there is nobody eating them? They are well cared for in most instances and all have to go sometime....it is not a particularly sad ending if they know nothing about it.
The plight of the Dartmoor hill pony is an example of an animal who is disappearing; whose numbers have severely dwindled since EU rules prevented their sale for food in Europe....eventually no demand = no ponies roaming the moor, and that will be a sad day. There are no natural predators so they can’t just live wild, dying of starvation and disease. There is a balance to all these things after all.
"They are well cared for in most instances ...it is not a particularly sad ending if they know nothing about it."
unfortunately I think you will find those 2 statements are in the main untrue in modern farming practices particularly in the way that the majority of animals bred for food are intensively reared
I don't believe that your sad day will ever happen. There will always be kind souls among us who will take care of the animals without killing them. My neighbor saves horses and takes good care of them into old age. I adopt my dogs from the local pound to save a few. That's the world I want to live in. The 'balance' is within each of us.
I have really cut back on the amount of meat I eat but I am not very imaginative and husband is decidedly meat and two veg! I am slowly coming round to vegan, but I don’t find it easy but I will persevere thanks to your lovely recipes Jerry. I love looking at what other people cook and ideas for new meals xx
Great Poll Jerry. I am vegan but used to eat meat thinking animals knew nothing about the end and it was quick and painless which it is not. Now a very well known fact. The cruelty to these animals at the hands of the people in their last hours is sickening to anyone who dares to scape below the surface of the fairytale pictures of animals grazing in the fields. I would rather see less animals than see animals that are destined for a life of suffering just so we can eat it. 🙂
I'm pesco-vegetarian i.e. a vegetarian who eats some fish. I've had a gastric bypass and I also have a malabsorption syndrome so cannot get all the nutrients I need from a vegan diet alone. I have to eat 6 small meals a day to ensure I'm eating enough. I choose not to eat meat but I'm also wheat and lactose intolerant so most of my vegetarian meals contain legumes or low lactose products as the main protein source. I source my eggs from a small local farm where I know that the chickens are genuinely free range and are well cared for. I eat fish from sustainable sources using ethical methods e.g line caught and avoid those which contain high levels of mercury. I try to eat organic foods most of the time and if it wasn't for my medical conditions then I would certainly try going vegan. When I eat I'm nutrient focused and avoid things which are not beneficial to me so I can stay healthy.
Pescetarian is not vegetarian, it’s a tad frustrating when pescetarians label themselves as veggies. 
I so agree- it drives me mad when I tell people Im vegetarian and they ask if I eat fish!! how is a fish not a living creature -vegetarians do NOT eat anything with a face!
That's what my daughter always used to say, or nothing with eyes.
unless its a potato
Ha ha, that's what I always said.
Do you get dietician support in planning your eating? (Not always terribly knowledgeable about vegetarian/vegan diets but can be)
Not now no. I did after my gastric bypass but I'm an ex-nurse with a special interest in nutrition so there's not much they can tell me that I don't know concerning my own diet or my health conditions and the best way to deal with them. I tend to micro manage things because I also have anxiety and depression and an eating disorder. I attend meditation classes at my local Buddhist centre and practice daily at home which helps me with those. I record everything I eat on a daily basis at Sparkpeople.com which helps me keep my diet balanced and to control my weight more easily.
It can be useful to have someone to talk things through - not because they know more than you, but because they are not you! (Especially if mental health issues are in play) That said, I am not sure whether dieticians have the communication skills training to fulfil that role.
I was in counselling for 2 years and can call my counsellor any time I need to see her if I need to talk. I probably make it sound worse than it is but I just find planning ahead is better for me so I plan what I'm going to eat the following day the previous evening (with a protein/fruit/vegetable smoothie as a substitute if I don't feel like cooking or eating much). Otherwise I find my diet gets very chaotic which is not good for my health or my anxiety. And definitely not a good idea with the ED.
I am sorry, but I do like my roast dinners and salads
I have been a vegetarian since a teenager. I think at one point for a while at uni I was a vegan. I have health issues including ME and struggle to maintain a good diet. I do worry about going vegan, if I would be able to have a good diet, good meal choices etc. With the extreme fatigue I get I struggle anyway preparing and cooking food.
I'm vegan and I'm watching social networks and have seen a trend that you might be part of. With so many people going vegan or vegetarian, and so many of them who have taken antibiotics, there's a growing number who encounter gut issues. There are ways now to heal the gut and re-introduce the good bacteria. If you want to know more, just msg me.
I am 70 and don`t have my own teeth so can`t eat many foods. I limit my animal protein to one serving a meal, about like a deck of playing cards. I really don`t want more than that and sometimes sub non animal protein when I can.
What a good (and often overlooked) point about the importance of dental health on diet. Can make such a difference. I have real concerns about the trouble we have coming down the tracks as so many who have grown up without good dental care enter older age.
I've been a lacto-vegetarian (no eggs) for 55 years. My whole family (parents, brother and 2 sisters) became vegetarian back in the 1960's, one by one. My two children (now in their 40s) and two of my six grandchildren (age 4 to 26) have also been vegetarian their entire lives. My brother has since become vegan and the rest of us original five have nearly cut the dairy out completely. None of us supplement with B12 or anything else unless a green food powder (wheat grass, spirulina, chlorella) occasionally added to a smoothie is considered a supplement. Our parents are now 93 and 100 years old and we are all in very good health. Perhaps the occasional dairy has helped, but I now understand that dairy cows often have an even more miserable life and death that beef cattle. I'm probably around 98% vegan now but my goal is to become 100%.
What many non-vegans don't appreciate is that many vegans choose to be vegan for many reasons. Each reinforces the others. Dairy is cruel. It's also terrible for our health. As long as you are occasionally tested for B12, you don't need to supplement. My well water has B12 in it so I don't need it either.
enjoying the wide range of vegetables is part of eating vegetarian food but I enjoy a little fis sometimes variety
This is a great poll, Hidden . Thanks for posting it!
I have found going Vegan alot easier than I thought it would be. My main achilles heel was omitting dairy and I thought it would be difficult, how wrong I was. I make my own nut milk/oat milk with great success and at present buy vegan cheese.
I love my new lifestyle.😀
I agree completely. When I began the fake dairy was great. I've moved on from wanting everything to taste like it has butter or cheese in it. It took a while but there are so many marvelous natural flavors in plants, I just don't miss it anymore.
I love the food I eat and actually have a more varied diet now than I did before I became Vegan. I love the cauliflower and chickpea stew, Vegan Nut Loaf and Gut Healing Soup that I make.😀
I do not follow vegan diet.but vegetarian STRICT,NO EGG OR FISH
I completely agree with DartmoorDumpling on this, and I'm very surprised that so many people think that veganism is either good for the environment, cruelty-free, or both. It is neither, as I've tried to describe in other posts, and the argument that the world would be a better place if we were all vegan is based on specious reasoning. I suspect people think this way because we've all become so utterly disconnected from the land that we no longer understand how it works.
Still, for those who find they feel better eating vegan or vegetarian, I'm not going to argue with that, and since properly-managed farmland (with animals) produces an abundance of vegetables, it's a good thing to have plenty of people around who eat nothing but veg.
I can understand the vegans wanting to avoid animal cruelty which I think should be an important consideration in our food production but we must remember that man is an omnivore with a digestion system designed for a wide range of whole foods. Many vegans and vegetarians are eating substitute foods produced by the profit making food industry; Soya is a case in point. You can read about it at: healthscams.org.uk/soy-food...
We should be eating the food we have been provided with avoiding the factory produced items so far as possible. "You can drive Nature out with a pitchfork but she will ever hurry back to triumph in stealth over your foolish contempt". Epistles
I am pescatarian. I've never liked meat other than poultry anyway. I follow a mainly vegetarian diet, but don't wish to become vegan.
