Vegan food health advice

[GABaracus]

Ever since having a minor heart attack on March 16th of this year at 38, I have decided to go vegan.

I was thinking about it beforehand actually (I had been trying to eat healthier) but now I’m adamant at being on a plant diet. I’ve tried a bunch of things and have largely been pleasantly surprised at how tasty some of it actually is.

I don’t smoke nor have I ever drank (I don’t like alcohol) and if I’m indeed overweight? It’s not by more than half a stone currently.

What I’m trying to get my head around at the moment though is the whole bad “saturated fat” content of some of this vegan food (which I’ve been advised to avoid).

Even though it importantly doesn’t feature any Cholesterol, some of that saturated fat is still quite high, even higher than its non vegan equivalent.

How do I (for example) get the kind of protein I would have gotten from meat?

Also, can I still drink things like “whole fruit” juice and baked vegan foods like the snacks etc? I’m hearing different stories about baked foods and no’s against fried food, which is obvious.

Any advice would be much appreciated. I want to be able to eat vegan healthy, but at the same time not unnecessarily limit my options and spoil my enjoyment of the food during my new healthier lifestyle.

[Activity2004 Administrator]

Welcome to the group. Thank you for introducing yourself.

Please take a look at the Vegan Topic under the Topics Section for ideas and suggestions. Go to: healthunlocked.com/healthye....

[Kitten-whiskers Administrator Vegan star]

Good morning,

So sorry you had a mild heart attack, must be very frightening. I am Vegan - you will find lots of helpful info on healthunlocked.com/veganfoodsforlife.

Dealing with stress is also a part of keeping healthy along with keeping fit and eating a well balanced diet.

As for protein, I tend to get the majority from snacking on unsalted pistachios, but if I ever feel a top up is in order, then I drink a vegan/GF plant powder, but i don't feel normally that i need to.

I personally rarely drink fruit juices because of the level of sugar in them, and I am very selective when it comes to the snacks and ready made meals on the supermarket shelves because a lot of them are not particularly healthy, you will find that on the vegan forum we do a lot of cooking from scratch - its healthier and much cheaper.

I personally do supplement with the occasional liquid Iron and zinc with copper, no need for vitamin B as the nutritional yeast is a great source for us vegans

Take care

Debs

[AnimeHoe]

Hey!

I was the same as you! I already had the thought in my mind about going vegan, because of other health problems, then I found out at 24 I have a rare gene mutation that has caused me to have dilated cardiomyopathy! You can guess how upset I was.

Long story short I pulled my finger out and went on the heart disease reversing diet by Dr Greger and after 3 weeks I reversed my heart disease. The diet is just a whole foods plant based diet, it is very strict don't get me wrong, but once you get on the wagon you don't have to be strict forever. If you one day fancy a cake, or donut, or biscuits, then go for it. Or if you fancy a takeaway 🤷‍♀️ as long as you predominantly stick to the whole foods it should do you the world of good. I can't find the link, but if you search nutritionfacts.org and for Dr Greger you should find it. 100% recommend getting his ebooks How Not To Die, it has a whole section on heart disease.

Also there is a lot of youtubers out that who are vegan and whole foods, they're the picture of health a few are Simnett Nutrition, Jon Venus, Niahm.

When it comes to fruit juice and smoothies, I'll drink gallons of it. On this diet as long as the sugar comes from fruit, don't worry about it. As long as it's natural sugar it can't be bad.

Protein is in everything, even fruits and vegetables, in ever meal I always make sure to have in either, oats, a type of beans, chickpeas, falafel, hummus, tofu, lentils, and rarely a meat substitute. Once you get the hand of those cooking it's so easy.

Once you eat whole foods you don't need to worry about saturated fat, because it won't be in anything you eat, whether you go whole foods or not I'd recommend cutting out oils. Dr Greger also touches on this in Nutritionfacts.org

Hope my rambling wasn't too much! If you have anymore questions please ask! I have done a lot of research into this over the past years so I consider myself pretty knowledgable! Good luck!