It is my opinion that a vegan diet is the most natural and beneficial diet for the human body. I know everyone does not accept that, but that's my opinion. So if that is the case it is worth while understanding why people fail when attempting a vegan lifestyle.
Before I go further I would not want ANYONE reading this to think I am trying to present a holier-than-thou treatise on veganism. I was not a vegan all my life, and far from it. As you may read below I partly chose and then was forced into the lifestyle.
1. The ah-ha Moment, or lack thereof: The number of vegans relative to non-vegans is small. If you are not motivated from inside yourself then you are likely to fail. One answer is to watch documentaries around what drove you to become a vegan in the first place. But if you cannot drive this inside yourself then it is going to be tough.
To go vegan also it is helpful of those around you being supportive- family, friends, colleagues. However it is quite likely some or all of these may seem antagonistic. This is particularly true if you have gone vegan for animal rights issues. People who are not vegan are unlikely to have seen the latest slaughterhouse footage even though easily accessible on the web, and even if they have may not relate to it.
For each of us it needs an ah-ha moment. Mine was 40 years ago watching some turkeys struggling after they had being spilled after a lorry overturned one Christmas. That was the last time I ate meat or fish.
But even that did not stop me consuming dairy & eggs. For that I needed my Rheumatoid Arthritis ah-ha moment in May 2015. For my body, every step of recovery has been around the benefits of a whole food plant based lifestyle. That recovery is not over. I was in pretty dire shape and my recovery will take me the rest of my natural with many hard fought battles. Not least of which is chasing knowledge.
2. Sufficient Calories: As I have posted elsewhere getting sufficient calories is a big reason. Our society is focused so much at getting less calories as a weight management tool, to the point of becoming increasingly paranoid on the subject that some people moving to a vegan lifestyle understandably continue with that mindset.
However in a vegan world the opposite is true. That is you should ensure you get a minimum number of calories rather than a maximum. Weight management wise this is a safe process because, simply put, a vegan diet is low in calorific value giving you ample headroom to eat more without putting on weight. Nutrition-wise it makes sense because by sufficient calories needs must add variety to your diet and through that it becomes almost impossible to have a nutritionally deficient diet, no matter what kind of nutrition you are talking about.
It is fine for me to reassure people about the above: it is very different psychologically when you are overweight and have spent many years dieting and everyone is telling you all the time count your calories. However if you cut back on your calories too much you will end up with, at the very least low energy levels. You are likely to feel depressed. And there ends a vegan lifestyle. I can point to any number of youtube videos of people recording "why I stopped being vegan," and this being at least part of the story.
3. Other Health Issues: By the time we get to the age of 40 hardly anyone has escaped health issues. This is true not least because after the age of 30 the bodies ability to create enzymes begins to reduce and reduce. Without sufficient enzymes the potential for chronic conditions gains more ground in the body.
Of course many people go vegan with the hope it will solve health issues. I can attest that had I simply gone vegan then my arthritic conditions would not have been solved. The more complex the health issues the more focused the process of going vegan needs to be.
There are many people who have, for example, followed Dr John McDougall and found their way out of arthritic problems. But in my heart of hearts I feel that the Paddison Program is as close to the ultimate on how to escape from arthritis. But it is hard work. Many people fail on the Paddison Program because it is hard, very hard. Tough Love and all that.
Also when health issues get serious many people are on medication. Getting medication reduction (if ever feasible) right should not happen too soon (or even too late). Specific advice from people who are going through the same illnesses, similar processes can yield the best advice. But I have seen many people jump the gun. Then they have no much needed support from the medication, their diet is not helping sufficiently and they end up in a downward spiral.
But there are some health issues that even a straightforward good quality whole food plant based diet cannot easily solve. I am thinking here of things IBS and Candida.
The fact is in many cases nutrition, good nutrition for aimed at health recovery is in its infancy. Though there is much that is known there is so much more that is not known.
4 Patience: If I have one objection to the Veganuary scheme is its timescale of one month. I can see why it is done that way, but for my mind three months would give most success.
Gut flora rules the brain when it comes to choosing what we eat. Every cell of the intestine system is entirely replaced in a space of about three months. I think of this as the amount of time it takes to fully change what a person loves in food.
Take someone who has eaten a lot of meat for a lifetime and often they will hate the idea, the taste and look of vegetables. Whilst some people who move towards a vegan lifestyle get used to it quite quickly there is no doubt a lot of people find the change difficult. I think much of this is driven by what the gut flora demands of the brain. As the diet changes and gut flora consequently changes, what tasted awful at first gradually gains a sweetness.
In my own body I have seen that transition with my yellow porridge. When I first started I used sweetened almond milk, then moved to unsweetened, then to water with salt and then to just water. I then added a little turmeric (with black pepper) and then increased to a heaped teaspoon. Now I crave that porridge as if it is an addiction.
My favourite home made juice is cucumber and celery. That was first tasted at the very beginning of my vegan lifestyle. Now I find that so incredibly sweet and fresh. But that was definitely not the case when I first started when it felt a little bit sour and dull.
And finally...
To those who use non-vegan diets to resolve health issues. I totally applaud you. From where I stand I don't think you have a final safe solution. But the fact is getting out of a hell hole of obesity, arthritis and many other chronic conditions is an almost impossible thing to achieve. There are so many people, including doctors who argue "diet has no effect".
So I applaud you if you have taken that step of finding a diet that has helped you, whatever that diet is.
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