A Guide To A Vegan Diet And Nutrition

Although some people may perceive a vegan diet as extreme, people who follow this lifestyle choice do so for many different reasons.

This may include:

• Concerns for animal welfare,
• Health,
• Environmental Concerns or,
• Religious/Spiritual beliefs.

However more thought does need to put into the foods eaten as, diary, eggs, fish and in some cases honey are now excluded from the diet. Vegans do need good sources of essential fats in order to maintain good hormonal health as the saturated fats from animal produce has now been totally excluded (saturated fats are not as bad for us as you may think!) However I do not want to get into the whole for and against arguments of a vegan diet. This section is more about vegan nutrition i.e what special considerations need to be considered for maintaining optimum health and fitness. Also some myths will be dispelled, such as the most common one  (this one is usually spread by hardcore bodybuilders who have not researched the vegan diet enough).

It constantly amazes me how some people are ready to jump to certain conclusions about how other people live there lives but this is because they have not researched the topic. From my own personal point of view I respect other peoples choices to make such a commitment and the strength of their convictions. However certain nutritional elements can be quite difficult if not impossible to obtain. But we live in an advanced age where fortified cereals or supplements can help (such as Vitamin B12 – see the article below). Personally I choose to eat a diet that is comfortable and acceptable for me, again it comes down to individual choice.

IT IS YOUR DECISION AND NO ONE ELSES

As I mentioned, special considerations must be made when following a vegan diet but maintaining fitness or even gaining muscle is impossible! A vegan lifestyle could be a very healthy one if proper care and attention is made to the foods eaten.

The Vegan society points out that:

“Decades of experience, culminating in more than a million vegans today, have shown that appropriate vegan diets support good health at all stages of life and reduce the risk of heart disease. This has been confirmed by independent scientific studies.”

And goes on to add that:

The Vegan Society recommends a highly varied diet including both cooked and raw foods as the proven basis for vegan health, particularly for infants. Remember I am not a nutritionist or dietician so this page is intended only to inform you and allow you to make your own decisions. If you decide that a vegan lifestyle is right for you then read the articles on this site to help you make the right nutritional choices. If you are considering becoming vegan you might find it hard at first to make these changes and feel overwhelmed with all the information you need to learn but at the end of the day it does not have to be hard and hopefully the information that you will find here will help you understand that you can get a great physique from going vegan.