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Starting a Vegan Diet - Guide


Matt

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I've been vegetarian since 2007 and vegan since 2012.


 


It hasn't been all smooth sailing.


 


I did develop issues, and it was my own fault for not really paying enough attention to my diet and not getting blood tests done.


 


One of the more recent issues I faced was a Zinc deficiency. I developed acne every day, had 3-4 viral infection ins a row. Burst eardrum (lost my hearing for months) and never figured it out for months.


 


I started taking Zinc picolinate and I've not been sick once in over a year now - even though I have lots of nephews and nieces who bring all sorts of viruses here.


 


I also just feel much better and I rarely ever get pimples again. :)


 


I wrote a fairly long article yesterday which goes over some of the basics for people who are looking to start a vegan diet.


 


some of the points in the article include:


 


- What is a vegan diet


- Choosing the best one


- Why people go on a vegan diet


- the main benefits and risks


- supplements


- which foods you should eat and what to avoid


- blood tests


- and other tests you should get done to measure progress.


 


Most people who are already members here will know all the stuff I've covered, but I'm just sharing in case someone happens to stumble across this.


 


The article is still being developed and expanded over time. It'll probably be about 2-3 times the length it is right now by the end. I just need to find the time between this and other things.


 


If you have any comments or suggestions to add to my article, I'd appreciate your thoughts.


 


Also if you think it's a decent article, please share it   blush.png


 


And check out my other recent articles!  smile.png


 


Here's the article   


 


Matt


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wow looks like a great resource. Could be a good info source to link out to as well.

 

And thanks :)  

 

Everything related to diet, veganism, raw food and all that is really competitive now. 

 

I think I might need to either get good at Pinterest or hire people to create infographics. I guess it might be a good idea to embed some into the post.

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Matt, I believe it's very good to warn people about the potential dangers of the vegan regime. For example in the past, when there was little info and far fewer dedicated products (like decent-tasting soymilk), my attempts failed miserably (excessive weight loss and worse), whereas I recently tried again with all the armamentarium of present knowledge and it's all right, I'm even gaining weight right now, and will need soon to cut calories. Very good also to suggests a list of basic blood tests.

 

Just a few observations (things which maybe you are also planning to include):

 

  • From the ethical point, eggs can be all right but from the nutritional point, I believe they are definitely non-vegan, maybe the ethical context should be made more clear
  • Honey is a pretty debated borderline food, some say it's vegan, others deny it. Some vegan organization even pronounced that it's up to the individual to  decide, so free choice in this matter.
  • Cancer: maybe it's worth citing that a healthy vegan diet provides an abundance of plant-derived chemical compounds whose effects are often protective against cancer (and CVD and so on)
  • Reccomandations to ingest seaweed to elevate iodine content may be damaging in the unfortunate cases where seaweeds contain too much iodine (the sources are not checked, Michael Rae mentioned his problems with seaweeds). You even cite a hugely variable interval, which shows the practical problems of eating seaweeds as a source of Iodine (potentially useless or worse than useless).
  • Maybe mentioning that for some people, due to genetic variations, a vegan diet may be not really feasible, common problems beyond the possible deficiencies you cite are usually due to poor beta carotene to retinol conversion, bad ALA conversion, intolerances to some phytochemicals and so on
  • Maybe mentioning that a transition is strongly suggested, even as a cautionary principle.

A book for beginners which you may reccomand among others and has a pretty interesting, original and practical format is the very recent one from Ray Cronise and Julieanna Hever (2nd edition, 2018)

 

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Thank you for all the suggestions mccoy.

 

I was also going to just have a little browse around some vegan forums to get an idea what people are talking about as well.

 

I want to keep the article quite focused and not go off on too much of a tangent. Some of these I've already thought about, and I'm figuring out whether I want to create smaller articles which are specific to some of those "issues" you raised (depends on my keyword research) or whether or not I want to include them in the article.

I remember Michael's issue when he mentioned it on the old CR lists. I'll add a bit more info and cautious to my suggestion there. Thanks!

 

I'll check out the book!  :)

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