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  • mermaidbeasty
    mermaidbeasty Posts: 1 Member
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    I’ve been transitioning since June and the only thing I need to let go of is cheese and honey:( My main question for anyone that can help me pleaseeeeee what are your macros like ?!! :)
  • MichelleSilverleaf
    MichelleSilverleaf Posts: 2,028 Member
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    AmandaDanceMore wrote: »
    blackthumbnails wrote: »
    Question... How did you guys eliminate cheese? Cheese is like the main thing I'm struggling with. :/ I also love sweets but that's another conversation. Haha.
    My brother has been vegan for well over 5 years now and he and I recently talked about the cheese thing, because I know that was a hang up for him. He said you just have to commit to doing it and do it. Keep in mind that cheese triggers similar things in your brain that hard drugs do. It is literally addictive. Keeping in mind WHY you want to kick dairy helps. And there are more and more great plant based cheese options on the market.

    Citation needed for that bold part.
  • AmandaDanceMore
    AmandaDanceMore Posts: 298 Member
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    MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »
    AmandaDanceMore wrote: »
    blackthumbnails wrote: »
    Question... How did you guys eliminate cheese? Cheese is like the main thing I'm struggling with. :/ I also love sweets but that's another conversation. Haha.
    My brother has been vegan for well over 5 years now and he and I recently talked about the cheese thing, because I know that was a hang up for him. He said you just have to commit to doing it and do it. Keep in mind that cheese triggers similar things in your brain that hard drugs do. It is literally addictive. Keeping in mind WHY you want to kick dairy helps. And there are more and more great plant based cheese options on the market.

    Citation needed for that bold part.

    These articles have been all over the web for a couple of years. Surprised you haven't heard it. Not surprised at all, honestly, when I heard. I know how I am about cheese. It's a Yale study, so it's legit.
    https://www.google.com/amp/www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/cheese-triggers-the-same-part-of-brain-as-hard-drugs-study-finds-a6707011.html?amp
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    mermaidbeasty wrote: »
    I’ve been transitioning since June and the only thing I need to let go of is cheese and honey:( My main question for anyone that can help me pleaseeeeee what are your macros like ?!! :)

    I usually get about 50-60% of my calories from carbohydrates, 15-20% from protein, and 20-30% from fat.
  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,370 Member
    edited December 2017
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    AmandaDanceMore wrote: »
    MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »
    AmandaDanceMore wrote: »
    blackthumbnails wrote: »
    Question... How did you guys eliminate cheese? Cheese is like the main thing I'm struggling with. :/ I also love sweets but that's another conversation. Haha.
    My brother has been vegan for well over 5 years now and he and I recently talked about the cheese thing, because I know that was a hang up for him. He said you just have to commit to doing it and do it. Keep in mind that cheese triggers similar things in your brain that hard drugs do. It is literally addictive. Keeping in mind WHY you want to kick dairy helps. And there are more and more great plant based cheese options on the market.

    Citation needed for that bold part.

    These articles have been all over the web for a couple of years. Surprised you haven't heard it. Not surprised at all, honestly, when I heard. I know how I am about cheese. It's a Yale study, so it's legit.
    https://www.google.com/amp/www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/cheese-triggers-the-same-part-of-brain-as-hard-drugs-study-finds-a6707011.html?amp

    So does holding babies, seeing rainbows and petting puppies (all of these trigger a dopamine response in the brain) ... are you saying that we need to give those up as well?

    Also, here the conclusion from the actual study (not the hyped headlines that everyone latched onto)"

    "CONCLUSION:
    The current study provides preliminary evidence that not all foods are equally implicated in addictive-like eating behavior, and highly processed foods, which may share characteristics with drugs of abuse (e.g. high dose, rapid rate of absorption) appear to be particularly associated with "food addiction."

    Please show me where that study draws the conclusion that cheese (or any other of the 'addictive' foods) are the same as cocaine?
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/scicurious/no-cheese-not-just-crack

    "Cheese is a delicious invention. But if you saw the news last week, you might think it’s on its way to being classified as a Schedule II drug. Headlines proclaimed 'Say cheese? All the time? Maybe you have an addiction,' 'Cheese really is crack' and 'Your cheese addiction is real.' Under the headlines, the stories referred to a study examining the addictive properties of various foods. Pizza was at the top. The reason? The addictive properties of cheese, which the articles claim contains “dangerous” opiate-like chemicals called casomorphins.

    But you can’t explain away your affinity for cheese by saying you’re addicted. The study in those stories, published earlier this year in PLOS ONE, did investigate which foods are most associated with addictive-like eating behaviors. Pizza did come out on top in one experiment. But the scientists who did the research say this has little to do with the delicious dairy products involved. Instead, they argue, the foods we crave the most are those processed to have high levels of sugars and fat, and it’s these ingredients that leave us coming back for another slice. The cheese? Probably superfluous.

    'I was horrified by the misstatements and the oversimplifications … and the statements about how it’s an excuse to overeat,' says Ashley Gearhardt of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who led the study. 'Liking is not the same as addiction. We like lots of things. I like hip-hop music and sunshine and my wiener dog, but I’m not addicted to her. I eat cheese every day. That’s doesn’t mean you’re addicted or it has addictive potential.'..."

    And on the actual study:

    "When the researchers measured ranked how frequently a food was 'problematic' for the participants, cheese wasn’t even in the top 10. It limped in at 16 out of 35, blown away by chocolate (number 1), french fries and pizza (numbers 3 and 4), buttered popcorn (number 8), and even gummy candy (number 12 — there’s no accounting for taste). When the second group was asked to rank foods on a scale of 1 to 7, cheese did a little better, at number 10. But again, it was outclassed by pizza, chocolate, chips, french fries and more."...

    A really important distinction between how food and drugs use the reward systems in the brain, and why this comparison is so misleading:

    "But cheese and cocaine do have something in common other than both starting with the letter “c.” Cheese, like other foods, stimulates the reward system in the brain. 'We know there are these areas of the brain, reward circuits involved in keeping us alive,' says Joseph Frascella, a neuroscientist at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Md. 'They are systems that signal to us when something we do is good, like eating, procreating or drinking water when you’re thirsty.' These systems are necessary to let us know what our bodies need and teach us to seek it out.

    And these are the same systems in the brain that addictive drugs exploit. “Drugs of abuse hit these same pathways and they tend to do it much more effectively,” Frascella explains. “So you get that rush, that high, and the brain says, ‘wow that’s good for us, do it again.’”

    But while cheese might be able to give you good feelings, when it comes to addictive properties, the cheddar cannot compare. “Addictive drugs do things that food doesn’t do that make them more addictive,” says Peter Kalivas, a neuroscientist at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. “To put [those foods] on par with something like cocaine is pretty inflammatory.”"

    * * *

    “Understanding how food is rewarding and how it might overlap with addictive drugs is an interesting question,” Kalivas says. 'Studies like this, to me, kind of state the obvious. Food that’s palatable, people will find more problematic'....”
  • fuzzylop72
    fuzzylop72 Posts: 651 Member
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    AmandaDanceMore wrote: »
    These articles have been all over the web for a couple of years. Surprised you haven't heard it. Not surprised at all, honestly, when I heard. I know how I am about cheese. It's a Yale study, so it's legit.
    https://www.google.com/amp/www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/cheese-triggers-the-same-part-of-brain-as-hard-drugs-study-finds-a6707011.html?amp

    If you actually read the study, you'll see that it's design is pretty bad (with the popular press articles about it being even worse).

    http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0117959
  • AmandaDanceMore
    AmandaDanceMore Posts: 298 Member
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    Goodness! I was asked to cite the study, I did. I think it is an eye opener and something to bare in mind, as vegetarians who want to go vegan but say "BUT CHEESE!" It can help you realign your perspective. I never said it was as addictive as cocaine (I said it triggered the same things). Take it or leave it.

    And petting puppies and holding babies and looking at rainbows isn't causing cows to be separated from the calves and the male calves to be raised and slaughtered for veal....so, ya know. Consequences.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    AmandaDanceMore wrote: »
    Goodness! I was asked to cite the study, I did. I think it is an eye opener and something to bare in mind, as vegetarians who want to go vegan but say "BUT CHEESE!" It can help you realign your perspective. I never said it was as addictive as cocaine (I said it triggered the same things). Take it or leave it.

    And petting puppies and holding babies and looking at rainbows isn't causing cows to be separated from the calves and the male calves to be raised and slaughtered for veal....so, ya know. Consequences.

    The initial claim ("Keep in mind that cheese triggers similar things in your brain that hard drugs do. It is literally addictive.") doesn't have anything to do with the consequences to others when we choose to eat cheese. You're conflating two completely different things here.

    The first is an argument to avoid cheese because it is addictive and represents a potential harm to self.

    The second is an argument to avoid cheese because it creates negative consequences for others.

    So when someone says that petting puppies is as potentially addictive in the same way as eating cheese, switching suddenly to the second argument doesn't make much sense. If the consequences to *others* are why we should avoid cheese, why not lead with that argument?

    It's stuff like this that leads people to sometimes make negative conclusions about the intellectual honesty of vegans. Leading with an argument that cheese is harmful and switching to a completely different argument when the claim is discredited isn't an overall help to our movement.
  • VeganAmandaJ
    VeganAmandaJ Posts: 234 Member
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    Me! I've been vegan for almost 8 months, coming up on 8 months this Friday! I would love more vegan friends. = )
  • kitzykarly
    kitzykarly Posts: 32 Member
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    I went vegan overnight in 2013 or so, but got acute kidney failure in January and was put on a renal diet. I tried staying vegan, but quickly realized there was no way to meet the protein needs without going way over on potassium and phosphorous, so began eating meat again (though I kept with my vegan toiletries and clothing ethics).

    Now I'm ready to resume my previous way of eating, and have returned to mfp to straighten out my diet. I'm not 100%, as hubby is not so good at checking labels, and if he bought it, I'll eat it (as long as it has no meat).

    I'd also like to have veg friends so I can stalk diaries and get ideas! And my diary is open for all!
  • RckyMtnGirl
    RckyMtnGirl Posts: 12 Member
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    I was for 3 years, fell off the wagon when I moved in with my super carnivorous boyfriend, (I went to vegetarian) and am now starting over again. I loved not feeling horribly guilty about everything I ate (compassionately and nutritionally). The only thing I’m struggling with is trying to keep the costs down. My boyfriend agreed to try it with me and so far the vegan split pea soup and vegan cornbread were our biggest successes. The thing I’ve found most helpful is all of the free apps available now to help. 21 day vegan kickstart is awesome
  • Coconut0527
    Coconut0527 Posts: 6 Member
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    Feel free to add me if your vegan, I'm not completely but my boyfriend is so I've tried a lot of vegan options with him and I actually see myself buying more vegan stuff than regular ones lol anyhow I'd like to get to know more vegan people

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