Plant base diet?

s_petkauskaite wrote: »

janejellyroll wrote: »

I've been vegan for about ten years. I would say that a plant-based diet can be really good for you, but so can lots of ways of eating.

I would disregard most movies about plant-based eating -- they're generally not reliable sources of information. If you're interesting in learning more about ways of eating that don't include animal products, I would recommend a science-based resource like "Vegan for Life" by Jack Norris and Virginia Messina.

Thank you, I will look in to that! What's the reason you became vegan, was it hard & did it change your life in any way?

I went vegan for ethical reasons, I found I could no longer support unnecessary animal exploitation. It can be challenging at first because you're learning how to read labels to identify animal products and figuring out new things to eat, but after the first few months it wasn't really a big deal anymore. Depending on how you socialize with people and what you like to do, it can change your life somewhat. For example, if you're going out to eat with friends, you might have to do a bit more work to figure out places you can get a good meal (this is much easier in some parts of the world than others). If you're at work and they bring in a meal, you might still have to have your own food, etc. I consider these to be relatively minor things.

re: the movies - I'd agree wth janejellyroll. The movies really seem to be nothing more than propaganda, at best. Lots of half truths and sometimes outright falsehoods, sadly.

I'd say this about the plant based diets: it's a diet like any other. And IMHO, each person has a diet that works best for THEM.

I have a couple disorders, both of which involve a lot of gut based issues or dietary challenges, and as a result, I've met a lot of people who have altered their diet to try and feel better/get healthier. And what I've seen is that NO diet works for EVERYONE. But that ALL diets will have at least a few people that do amazingly well on them.

I know folks on vegan diets that were SO much happier and healthier on them, and I've known some on vegan diets who grew sicker and weaker and had to stop (and sometimes, these were folks eating almost identical diets in terms of nutrients and vitamins). I know folks who did great on paleo diets, or high protein, or low protein, or low carb, or anti-inflammation diets, or low histamine diets, or low glycemic index diets...the list literally goes on.

And some folks in all of these feel SO much better. And some folks in all of these feel much worse.

So for this diet, I would honestly say if it's interesting, you should totally give it a try, but also pay attention if you are not feeling great on it (as an example of why a vegan diet might not work for someone, you have to have a healthy gut to properly break down some of the plant based sources of some nutrients. If you don't have the right gut bacteria, it can make it so you actually have less nutrients you can break down properly).

But as an interesting aside that supports the idea that each person may need their own personal diet, a study a couple years back in Israel were studying blood sugar levels, and were trying to figure out what the range was on how much someone's blood sugar rose after eating certain foods. The results were completely unexpected, because some foods that everyone 'knows' raise blood sugar actually had the opposite effect in some people. And some foods that don't raise blood sugar caused some people's to spike. The researchers concluded that we actually still have a lot to learn about how the body works when it comes to food and how the body is processing it, and that it may be far more individual than we have previously thought. :-)