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Vegetarian / Vegan Foods Thread


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Jake, I think you understand that I am not equating eating an apple to chugging a package of pixy sticks (as I used to do when I was 10). Sugar may be essential to the body's processes, but it is not an essential part of the diet. You can live just fine on complex carbs, protein, and fat. If you want an example of a diet which recommends fruits be eaten sparingly and some not at all because of their sugar, wiki the glycemic index. And avocados are the bomb. I purposely eat them because of their fat. And as far as I know, there are no nutrients you can get from fruit that you can't get from veggies, without the sugar (although they don't taste as good). So I just choose to skip the fruit and just get a couple good servings of veggies a day.

This is just my own theory but I really think the most important factor in diet is not eating high amounts carbs and fat together. When you eat a cheeseburger and french fries (although I might be the only person in this thread who does so), the blood sugar spikes, the carbs get used and some stored, and the fats in the beef get stored in the body as human fat. Our bodies are programmed through evolution to use energy sources in this order: carbs -> fats -> protein. When you skip the fries and bun, your body has no choice but to use fat as its fuel, so the animal fats get turned into energy. When you just eat plants with a reasonable amount of carbs from bread and potatoes, there aren't enough leftover calories to store anything.

Many different ways to get to the same end.

 

Have you had your bloodwork done recently?  I'm curious - I'm getting mine done for the first time ( maybe 2nd ) since Ive been vegan.

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Had my bloodwork done in late October because I turned 26 in November and wanted to use the health insurance before I got booted from my dad's plan.

 

Everything was in the normal ranges. I don't remember the exact numbers and I think I threw them away. If you were interested in the exact numbers, I could probably get a copy. The office is 2 minutes from my house. Would be interesting to compare them.

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i think it'd be interesting to get my bloodwork done as well, Jacob was there anything abnormal in yours since you became vegan? also have you ever tried going raw? I'd been watching some videos on it/reading a little bit, and have thought about it before but never tried. I'm curious to talk to someone who has.

 

and biglebowski, I don't know if you saw this, but I got an email about Gaslight Anthem coming to the Fillmore in March, so I'd be done to go to that show and hang out.

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Jake, we are in southeastern Michigan. I'm assuming it was the word "fillmore" that made you ask that about DC? There are Fillmore theaters all over the US I think.

 

I'll be there for sure. This will be show #8. Bouncing Souls will be awesome too. Just trying to figure out what the eff is wrong with my 45 club membership so I can preorder. I got my package in the mail but haven't gotten a single email. I've been trying to get in touch with someone but no luck.

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at one point I was about 225 lbs. I went on a strict vegan diet for about a year and worked out every day. after a year I went to just being a vegetarian and kept working out. Im down to about 135 right now. went to my doctor before i moved and he said I was the healthiest he'd ever seen me. Ive been meat free for just about 3 years. I don't miss it, ive learned how to get all the protein and whatnot that I need. I think thats the biggest problem, most folks don't know how to make up for the vitamins and nutrients that their body is no longer getting. 

 

after being educated about what was actually going in to my body, I know ill never go back. 

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at one point I was about 225 lbs. I went on a strict vegan diet for about a year and worked out every day. after a year I went to just being a vegetarian and kept working out. Im down to about 135 right now. went to my doctor before i moved and he said I was the healthiest he'd ever seen me. Ive been meat free for just about 3 years. I don't miss it, ive learned how to get all the protein and whatnot that I need. I think thats the biggest problem, most folks don't know how to make up for the vitamins and nutrients that their body is no longer getting. 

 

after being educated about what was actually going in to my body, I know ill never go back. 

 

What vitamins or supplements do you take, if you don't mind me asking. 

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Bought a juicer because people talked about juicing things like spinach and kale, peppers, avocados, etc. It was a giant waste of money. You could make 10 salads with the amount of kale it took me to get half a glass of juice. All the fruit I tried (I used to eat it sparingly, now not at all) juiced well as did celery and carrots. The amount of juice for those balanced out with the cost of the food and the amount needed.

 

Taste was no problem. I could drink straight spinach juice without anything fruity added. Still tastes better than whiskey and one of the keys to eating healthy on a diet with meat and dairy, is getting used to the fact that in order to balance out your intake of things like fat and sodium, sometimes you just gotta steam some broccoli and eat it plain, not cover up the plainness with salt, dressings, cheese, or whatever.

 

So I am just gonna regift the juicer to my sister for Christmas. It's a little weak to regift something you bought for yourself but she will get a ton of use out of it, while it has just been sitting on my counter. Plus it was about $160 if I remember correctly, so it is a nice sized gift. Think it was this one:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Breville-RM-JE98XL-Certified-Remanufactured-Extractor/dp/B005E0A1MI/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1355613365&sr=8-5&keywords=breville+juicer

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just finished watching Forks Over Knives. I read the China Study a few times during graduate school, but this was much less dense. I used to be a vegetarian for a few years, but I find myself switching back and forth. It's hard working with physicians I get access to contradictory new studies/clinical trials all the time. Anti-grain, then anti-meat, then back again. Personally, I always feel healthier when I'm doing plant based eating, so I'm back to being a vegetarian again. No meat this year! Day 3! Also, I love the Radical Face song that plays at the end of Forks Over Knives.

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  • 2 weeks later...

OH hey, long time no post here.

 

I wanted to say I got my bloodwork back.

 

I'm guesstimating everything because I don't have the report, but...

 

I had the cholesterol level of 105, or that of a 3 year old, but the doctor said it's totally fine.  

B12 ~ 350.  the safe range is 200-900mg, but it said something similar to "older adults with vitamin B12 levels between 200 and 500 pg/mL may also have symptoms."

 

I don't know my D level since the test came late, but my D level was low.  I don't think this is as related to veganism as much as I don't go outside much in the winter.  I don't take vitamins, but I'm going to start once I order vegan gummies.

 

I also had a low platelet count in my blood, but he said there was nothing to worry unless I start bruising or bleeding easily.

 

He said, due to my low cholesterol and low blood pressure that I was going to live for a very long time.

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I kind of flip flopping back into veganism (from veggie), campus food contains so much process cheese....so it causes me to have extreme constipation :(

 

My butthole tore (anal fissuring) and its from the spinach lasagna :'(

 

lol so vegan for the sake of my poor brown eye!

 

Now the task is going to be maintain enough mass that I can still be a bouncer \m/

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I went veg back in 2011 and I lost a ton of weight! I started mostly for health concerns. I found myself waking up with a ton of energy when I did it right and didn't miss meat at all. I only recently started eating bits of meat because a friend of mine and I used to explore different places to eat all the time, just for the fun, and I missed doing that since going veg cut into that a bit. I try to take the Henry Rollins approach to it. Eat veg whenever possible but on occasion I break. 

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I didn't even know there was a thread for this...I am slowly working my way into a vegan diet and I hope to be completely done with meat by June of this year...I wish I could go full force right now, but I just don't have the time to concentrate a lot on it right now because this is my last semester of college and my life is about to go batshit crazy on me...

 

I'm glad to know there is a thread to talk about this stuff though...I know no one around here gets it...I told my dad I was going to quit eating meat and he wanted to know why and "where are you getting all this animal rights shit"...

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I kind of flip flopping back into veganism (from veggie), campus food contains so much process cheese....so it causes me to have extreme constipation :(

 

My butthole tore (anal fissuring) and its from the spinach lasagna :'(

 

lol so vegan for the sake of my poor brown eye!

 

Now the task is going to be maintain enough mass that I can still be a bouncer \m/

 

ah that doesn't sound too good! i couldn't believe how much better i felt after i cut dairy out of my diet, so in my opinion it's totally worth it to at least do that. 

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I didn't even know there was a thread for this...I am slowly working my way into a vegan diet and I hope to be completely done with meat by June of this year...I wish I could go full force right now, but I just don't have the time to concentrate a lot on it right now because this is my last semester of college and my life is about to go batshit crazy on me...

 

I'm glad to know there is a thread to talk about this stuff though...I know no one around here gets it...I told my dad I was going to quit eating meat and he wanted to know why and "where are you getting all this animal rights shit"...

 

i know what you mean...i went vegetarian and then vegan in a family where everyone ate meat, every night! i know for me, i had to take my time easing into going vegan just to give myself time to get acquainted with the new diet and to find alternatives for some things.

 

i'm always curious to know what different things motivate people to change their diet. Did you have any?

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OH hey, long time no post here.

 

I wanted to say I got my bloodwork back.

 

I'm guesstimating everything because I don't have the report, but...

 

I had the cholesterol level of 105, or that of a 3 year old, but the doctor said it's totally fine.  

B12 ~ 350.  the safe range is 200-900mg, but it said something similar to "older adults with vitamin B12 levels between 200 and 500 pg/mL may also have symptoms."

 

I don't know my D level since the test came late, but my D level was low.  I don't think this is as related to veganism as much as I don't go outside much in the winter.  I don't take vitamins, but I'm going to start once I order vegan gummies.

 

I also had a low platelet count in my blood, but he said there was nothing to worry unless I start bruising or bleeding easily.

 

He said, due to my low cholesterol and low blood pressure that I was going to live for a very long time.

 

thanks for bumping up the thread man, i completely forgot about it! those look like pretty awesome results and makes me really curious to get my own done. if you don't mind me asking, how much did it cost? or was it something that was covered by your insurance?

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I think I'm going to try going vegetarian in the near future. Not really for any moral reasons or anything. I just like to challenge myself and want to see how I feel after doing it. Maybe for a month or two. Not really sure what I am waiting for.

 

Still going to keep the whey protein shakes but lose the meat, fish, and eggs.

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i know what you mean...i went vegetarian and then vegan in a family where everyone ate meat, every night! i know for me, i had to take my time easing into going vegan just to give myself time to get acquainted with the new diet and to find alternatives for some things.

 

i'm always curious to know what different things motivate people to change their diet. Did you have any?

 

There was a lot of different things, mainly being exposed to the treatment of animals in slaughterhouses. I knew as soon as I found out about it that I had to start taking steps to be vegan. I just can't be a part of something that is so awful and barbaric. My fiance and I also want to start being healthier people so this seemed like a great thing to do. My main reason is the treatment of animals though. 

 

I am really excited about it and can't wait till summer so I can cut out meat altogether. I think the hardest thing for me is going to be cutting out cheese, but Giant Eagle carries Daiya cheese so the next time I am down that way I am going to grab some and try it out. 

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