A vegan diet promotes a fruits and vegetables eating routine as a lifestyle commitment which excludes all animal products – including eggs and diary.
Say goodbye to butter, milk, eggs, meat, poultry, fish and anything with gelatin that comes from animal bones. Fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes will be your best friends in the kitchen.
Why Vegan ?
Most people choose to be vegan for health issues, environmental or political considerations. Those that don’t follow this lifestyle eating plan for health matters do it because they feel they can help a cause and promote a more carrying world.
Benefits of being Vegan
Being a vegan and following a diet full of fruits and vegetables has a lot of benefits for your health. It can help you prevent heart diseases, lose weight and control or prevent the risk of diabetes, cancer and other chronic diseases.
Heath risks
Dietary guidelines for all vegans are meant to ensure that your body has all the nutrients it need to function properly.
- Fat – it is recommended that 20-30 percent of daily calories comes from fat. Healthy, unsaturated fat can be found in avocado, nuts and cold-pressed oils.
- Protein – Anything we eat has a certain amount of proteins. A vegan diet should keep the protein consumption in normal range.
- Salt – A healthy adult should consume 2,300 milligrams of salt per day. But it’s hard to measure how much salt we put in our food. Luckily because vegans don’t eat processed food the intake of salt should be lower than the quantity consumed by most people.
- Fiber – The daily fiber intake for an adult should be of 22-34 grams. Lots of fruits, veggies, whole grains and other legumes are high-fiber, so you should easily meet the recommendation.
- Potassium – This important nutrient helps decrease bone loss and reduces the risk of developing kidney stones. The daily amount should be 4,700 mg – that means 11 bananas a day. Most people don’t have enough
potassium in their bodies. In a vegan diet the intake of fruits and vegetables is increased so potassium levels will be higher than most. - Calcium – The recommended calcium consumption should be 1000-1,300 mg. Vegans shouldn’t have a problem meeting the standard with the help of dark green veggies, calcium-fortified soy milk and orange juice, almond butter, and soy yogurt.
- Vitamin B12 – A dosage of 2.4 micrograms is essential for cell metabolism.Fortified soy milk along with wheat gluten and soy products are good sources.
- Vitamin D – Vegans have failed the vitamin D intake level.15 micrograms a day of vitamin D supplement or foods is needed to lower the risk of bone fractures. Foods that contain vitamin D are typically animal-derived,
so it may be difficult for vegans to meet the standard.
Becoming a vegan is a big commitment. You can give up meat right away of you can do it step by step. There is no right or wrong. This is a long term lifestyle change that will require a lot of strength and creativity not to get bored and attracted back to the old eating patterns.