Plant based news

Options
So, I just watched a short video on "Why you should become vegan" they stated fish, beef, milk all have problems with them. Fish have carcinogen and heavy metals and beef and milk are fortified with steroids and hormones. Currently, I am on a mission of whole foods "diet" but I incorporate Alaskan sockeye every few days, but now I'm not sure if I should include fish, siiiiiigh. There are just so many great perspectives on food and I guess I'm just venting on how I have pink glasses on for a lot of them, lol. Anyone have some good go to food education resources, not bunk websites? :)

Replies

  • SalmonSister
    SalmonSister Posts: 37 Member
    edited January 2018
    Options
    @cwolfman13 totally felt a bit fear mongering going on, it was interesting but had a hard lean
  • ThinGoldLineNS
    ThinGoldLineNS Posts: 265 Member
    Options
    I've adopted the whole foods/plant-based diet (on Jan 1st) mostly for health reasons. I've read a lot of personal stories (even from athletes/super-athletes) crediting their eating habits to their success. I've lost nearly 5 pounds since the 1st of the year, without working out. I can hardly wait to see what will happen when I start hitting the gym again!
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,391 MFP Moderator
    edited January 2018
    Options
    If there is ever bias, it's going to be in a documentary related to advocating for one specific diet. Every diet out there can be healthy. And considering the healthiest people in the world eating a diet high in rice and fish, you are doing fine.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,391 MFP Moderator
    Options
    I've adopted the whole foods/plant-based diet (on Jan 1st) mostly for health reasons. I've read a lot of personal stories (even from athletes/super-athletes) crediting their eating habits to their success. I've lost nearly 5 pounds since the 1st of the year, without working out. I can hardly wait to see what will happen when I start hitting the gym again!

    So you have to consider part of this might be power of the placebo or switching from a low nutrient diet to a high nutrient diet. Because you will hear that same exact thing for every diet out there, whether it's plant based or keto.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Options
    Harvard Nutrition website: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-eating-plate/

    Marion Nestle is reasonable -- book What to Eat, and so is Walter Willett (Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy). I am not going to say I agree with everything they say, but good sources.

    David Katz: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/science-compared-every-diet-and-the-winner-is-real-food/284595/ (this basically says all kinds of diets can be healthy if you keep certain things in common, and the diet fighting is unhelpful as is, IMO, trying to find the perfect one)

    For vegan nutritionists who take an honest look at the evidence (unlike the one-sided take in many of the movies) but are, of course, ethical vegans, I recommend Virginia Messina (http://www.theveganrd.com/) and Jack Norris (http://jacknorrisrd.com/).

    Biggest issue with fish is (1) environmental/scarcity (check sites like this http://www.seafoodwatch.org/ if you are concerned with that (and good for you)), and (2) mercury (and wild caught salmon isn't really a mercury issue because that's more ocean based fish -- I think trout is pretty good too, and smaller fishes, etc., it should also be discussed in the link I gave). Wild caught salmon is not in season now, though, although you will find it frozen (the fresh stuff has all been previously frozen anyway, probably, they flash freeze it when caught, but I'd be skeptical of places claiming to sell it fresh now) and of course smoked.
  • daraalt
    daraalt Posts: 30 Member
    Options
    As a vegan,i can admit, yes there are documentaries out there with an agenda. But there are many truths in there. for me, i did it for the animals. i'm an animal lover. why eat animals when you don't have to? why support an industry that kills things? this is a hot topic and it really is up to you to do what you feel is right. not because the documentary told you. going vegan must be done for the right reasons. please do your research if you're going to eat fish.
  • okohjacinda
    okohjacinda Posts: 329 Member
    edited January 2018
    Options
    Although I am transitioning into being vegan, I don't suggest others do it unless they want to for either ethical reasons or health reasons where eating meat/dairy/eggs physically harms them (which it did for me).

    You have to really be dedicated if you want to live this lifestyle because there are a lot of people against it and it can often hurt your social life if friends or family want to go to somewhere like Wild Wing Cafe or Outback Steakhouse etc. or get name-called because to a lot of people its seen as weird, hippy, or extreme.

    But to answer your question, if you go on YT, there are so many. Some in particular I found intriguing and took some knowledge away from them are: Vegan 2017-The Film, Raw Vegan Diet Documentary, and Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead (but I think that one is only free on Netflix).
    I learned a lot of information from those documentaries and even though most are going to have an agenda that pushes more towards the topic at hand, there are some great valid points and things I didn't know about that I think a lot of people need to know in these documentaries. If you look past what they're trying to convince you to do and look at it in an objective way, you can really learn a lot.

    And also, I looked at these documentaries after deciding to become vegan, so they didn't really sway me either way just so you know.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Options
    Are there any "problems" with plants?