Going vegetarian with no result

[escapee]

something about detox through juice fasting. I have done juice fasting twice for 5 days each and i must say there will be a third time ...

Juice Fasting

During a cleansing crisis, all of the chocolate bars, French fries, and potato chips enter the bloodstream, not a pleasant experience. But your body is finally able to rid itself of years of accumulated, damaging substances. During water fasting the process of catabolism is more intense than in juice fasting. Lowering the calorie intake intensifies cleansing. When the toxic residues enter the blood, they affect mind and body functions. Ketones, an intermediary metabolic product, may accumulate in the blood to high levels and cause ketoacidosis. Combined with high levels of urea, resulting from protein metabolism, this state can cause intense discomfort, headaches, back pain, dizziness, weakness and nausea; more commonly known as a cleansing crisis. The greater the quantity of toxins in the blood, the worse you will feel.

Enduring a cleansing crisis is the hardest part of the healing process. Unless called to a water fast, when in a cleansing crisis, sip melon juice, carrot juice, or herbal tea with honey and wait it out. Do not eat during a cleansing crisis. The body is overloaded with the work of removing toxins. Digestion will make matters worse. Using the enema kit and drinking juice will help. After the body rids itself of this toxic cargo, you will experience a wash of health!

[Andrew Brunelle]

Maybe you're not eating the right foods. There are so many ways to go vegetarian and choosing energy boosting foods like vegetables, seeds and nuts, and refraining from dairy as much as possible can definitely make it that much easier to see an energy boost. But as Steve said, there wasn't much of a boosst going vegetarian, but going vegan really did something for him. I can't tell you anything from personal experience except that when I gave up dairy for a month, I had much more energy. Maybe that's the root of the problem. I don't know what it's like to be you, though, but for me, dairy is my enemy.

[moltar]

I find apples to be really energy-boosting for me. Tangerines also. It's probably because they are sugary, so don't abuse those

[footprints]

Hi everyone, I just wanted to clear up the idea that "some important proteins can be found only in meat, they can't be replaced by proteins, for instance, in beans or nuts."

This is because people confuse proteins and amino acids. Basically, proteins are made of long chains of amino acids - amino acids are the building blocks. There are a total of 20 different amino acids, eight of which must be present in the diet. These are the essential amino acids. The other 12, non-essential amino acids, can be made within our bodies from the essential ones. Unlike animal proteins, plant proteins may not contain all the essential amino acids, and this is where the misunderstanding comes from. However, a varied vegetarian diet means a mixture of plant proteins are consumed and so as long as your diet is varied enough, you will still get all the essential amino acids that your body needs.

Hope that helps!

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Pavel Alasheev

I am asking for advice from my vegetarian/vegan forum-mates.


Well the problem is there are no results. According to Steve (and other vegetarian/vegan people) becoming vegetarian should greatly boost your energy. I didn't experience anything like that. In fact i possibly had a decrease in energy, cause i noticed that i need more sleep now than i used to before this experiment.

So now i'm in doubts whether to stay on this route, or go vegan, or go back to eating meat. Has anybody had similar experience? Any help is appreciated.

Hi Pavel

Keep at it. I would certainly encourage you to go vegan as dairy and humans dont mix. Cows milk is for calves as they say!

The energy boost you talk of comes not from one source but from many. You could be a vegan but unhealthy and live on gresy french fries evryday, afterall.

I think to get a clear picture of what your new lifestyle is generating is your best way forward.

#1) A vegan balanced diet is by far the most probable way (amongst the alternatives) to achieve a greater bodily well being, self healing, drug free body. (Read the The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health by T. Colin Campbell)



#2) A vegan lifestyle is one of the most compassionate and unselfish ways to avoid cruelty to non-human animals. (Read Animal Liberation by Peter Singer and/or The Case for Animal Rights by Tom Regan)

#3) A vegan lifestyle is perhaps the only way we are going to avoid the world climate change disaster that is facing us. Here are a few facts about veganism and meat eating and their impact on the environment.

It takes 2,500 gallons of water, 12 pounds of grain, 35 pounds of topsoil and the energy equivalent of one gallon of gasoline to produce one pound of feedlot beef.



5 million acres of rainforest are felled every year in South and Central America alone to create cattle pasture.



One-half of the Earth's land mass is grazed by livestock.[1]

35 pounds of topsoil are lost in the production of one pound of grain-fed beef.[5]

64% of US cropland produces livestock feed.[6]

Only 2% of US cropland produces fruits and vegetables.[7]

Pounds of edible product that can be produced on an acre of prime land:
Apples 20,000
Carrots 30,000
Potatoes 40,000
Tomatoes 50,000
Beef 250
[8]


Water Consumption

The number of gallons of water needed
to produce one pound of edible product:
Apples 49
Carrots 33
Potatoes 24
Tomatoes 23
Beef 2,500
[9,10]





Meat, poultry and dairy products contain the major source of pesticide residues in the western diet.[25]

95% of human exposure to the potent carcinogen dioxin comes from consuming meat, poultry and dairy.[26]

The EPA issued more than 1,000 warnings against eating fish from chemically-contaminated waters in one year.[27]

Nearly half of all fish sampled by Consumers Union was contaminated with bacterial from human or animal feces.[28]

99% of US non-vegetarian mothers' milk has significant levels of DDT. Only 8% of US vegetarian mothers' milk has significant levels of DDT.[29]



Resource Distribution

Resources used in the production of livestock:

33% of world's fish catch [30]
38% of the world's grain harvest [31]
50% of all the water used in the US [32]
60% of Brazil's grain harvest [33]
70% of US grain harvest [34]
80% of US corn harvest [35]
Almost half of all energy expended in US agriculture [36]
14% of all cattle are fed back to cattle as part of protein-fortified feed.[37]
Approximately 8 million pounds of poultry manure are fed annually to California's beef cattle.[38]

50% of all the antibiotics used in the US are fed to animals, and 80% of them are used to promote growth, not to treat disease.[39]

12-16 pounds of grain and soy are needed to produce one pound of grain-fed beef.[40]

All 17 of the worlds major fishing areas have reached or exceeded their natural limits due to overfishing.[41]

$3.7 billion subsidized animal feed grains in 1995. They are the USÕs most heavily subsidized crop.[42]


World Hunger

5 million children in the US go hungry every month.[43]

Approximately 40,000 people die each day worldwide due to hunger or hunger-related causes.[44]

If Americans reduced their intake of meat by merely 10%, 100,000,000 people could be fed using the land, water and energy that would be freed up from growing livestock feed.[45]

10 billion people could be sustained from present croplands if all ate a vegetarian diet.[46]







[1] Lester Brown, et al., Vital Signs 1994 (Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, 1994), pg. 32.
[2] Robert Repetto "Renewable Resources and Population Growth," Population and Environment 10:4 (Summer 1989) pg. 228-29 cited in Rifkin, Beyond Beef (New York: Dutton Press, 1992).
[3] Myra Klockenbrink, "The New Range War Has the Desert as Foe," New York Times,Aug. 20, 1991, pg. C4.
[4] Ibid., pg. 3.
[5] Ibid., pg. 3.
[6] US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Statistics 1989; p. 390, table 554, "Crops: Area, Yield, Production and Value, United States, 1986-99" (Washington, DC: GPO, 1989).
[7] Ibid.
[8] Tom Aldridge and Herb Schlubach, "Water Requirements for Food Production," Soil and Water, no. 38 (Fall 1978), University of California Cooperative Extension, 13017; Paul and Anne Ehrlich, Population, Resources, Environment (San Francisco: Freemna, 1972), pg. 75-76.
[9] Ibid., pg. 13-17.
[10] Georg Borgstrom, presentation to the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1981, cited in John Robbins, Diet for a New America (Walpole, NH: Stillpoint, 1987), pg. 367.
[11] Losos, et al., The Living Landscape (Washington, DC: Wilderness Society and Environmental Defense Fund, 1993), pg. 20.
[12] Ibid, pg. 10.
[13] Norman Myers, The Primary Source: Tropical Forests and Our Future, 1992, cited in Brown et al. as per note 7.
[14] Lewis Scott, The Rainforest Book (Venice, CA: The Living Planet Press, 1990).
[15] Alan During and Holly Brough, Taking Stock, Worldwatch Paper #103 (Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, 1991), pg. 25.
[16] Jim Mason, "Fowling the Waters," E Magazine, Sep/Oct 1995, pg. 33.
[17] EPA workgroup report 1994, cited in Jim Mason, note 15.
[18] Natural Resources Defense Council and International Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, Hog Wash: Factory Farm Giveaways in Clean Water Act Proposals, July 1995.
[19] Ibid.
[20] San Jose Mercury News, Sept. 6, 1994.
[21] Pimental, et al., Handbook of Pest Management in Agriculture, 2nd ed. (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1990).
[22] David Pimental, Cornell University, as quoted by Lisa Y. Lefferts and Roger Blobaum, "Eating as if the Earth Mattered," E Magazine, Jan/Feb 1992, pg. 32.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Environmental Working Group and Physicians for Social Responsibility, "Tap Water Blues," Oct. 1994.
[25] Lewis Regenstein, How to Survive in America the Poisoned (Herndon, VA: Acropolis Books, 1982), pg. 173.
[26] EPA study cited in USA Today, Sept. 13, 1994.
[27] RachelÕs Environment and Health Weekly, #450, July 13, 1995.
[28] Ibid.
[29] "A Brief Review of Selected Environmental Contamination Incidents with a Potential for Health Effects," prepared by the Library of Congress for the Committee on Environment and Public Works, US Senate (Aug 1980), pg. 173-174.
[30] Carl Safina, "The WorldÕs Imperiled Fish," Scientific American, Nov. 1995.
[31] Lester Brown and Gary Gardner, State of the World 1996,W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1996 pg. 93
[32] Frances Moore Lappe, Diet for a Small Planet, 10th Anniversary edition (New York: Ballantine Books, 1982), pg. 69.
[33] Brown, Lenssen and Kane, Vital Signs 1995, Worldwatch Institute, 1995, pg. 137.
[34] USDA, Economic Research Service, "World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates, WASD-256," July 11, 1991, tables 256,-7, -16, -19, -23.
[35] USDA, Agricultural Statistics 1989; pg. 31, table 40, "Corn: Supply and Disappearance US, 1974-1988."
[36] USDA, Economic Research Service, "World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates, WASD-256," July 11, 1991, pg. 17.
[37] Amended Petition Requesting the Food and Drug Administration to Halt the Feeding of Ruminant Animal Protein to Ruminants, The Foundation of Economic Trends, Washington, DC, June 3, 1993.
[38] James W. Oltjen, "Potential Sources of Water Contamination from Confined and Grazing Animal Operations," Animal Agriculture: Impacts on Water Quality in California,University of California, Davis, October 1994, pg. 10.
[39] Gurney Williams III, "Swearing Off the Miracle," Vegetarian Times, Feb, 1994.
[40] USDA figures as cited in Frances Moore Lappe, op. cit. note 35, pg. 70.
[41] Lester Brown, op. cit, note 1.
[42] "Eating into the deficit," US News and World Report,March 6, 1995, pg. 73-78.
[43] Colin Greer, "Something is Robbing Our Children," Parade Magazine, March 5, 1995.
[44] Patricia Allen, "The Human Face of Sustainable Agriculture," Issue Paper No. 4, Nov. 1994, University of California, Santa Cruz, Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems.
[45] Lester Brown, as quoted by Resenberger, "Curb on US Waste Urged to Help the Worlds Hungry," New York Times, 14 Nov. 1974, adjusted using 1988 figures from USDA, Agricultural Statistics 1989, table 74, "High Protein Feeds," and table 75, "Feed Concentrates Fed to Livestock and Poultry."
[46] Council for Science and Technology, How Much Land Can Ten Billion People Spare for Nature?, Feb. 1994, pg. 13.
[47] Lester Brown and Gary Gardner, op. cit. note 34., pg. 4.


If that doesnt make you feel better as a vegan, then I'm not sure what will!

[Pavel Alasheev]

Hi Stephen, thanks for your suggestions. I've almost made up my mind to go vegan.

[escapee]

Pavel , Welcome to the non-cholesterolan family !

[elai]

I've have been vegan for at least 5/6 months & I also eliminated wheat from my diet which had the total side effect of nearly prohibiting all junk food known to man except lays plain potato chips and a few other minor exceptions. (You'd be surprised how many things used anything wheat based as part of their seasoning)

To tell you the truth, I actually didn't notice that much of a difference. All in all I felt a little bit shittier. As if my body couldn't take as hard of a "hit" of mistreatment (stress, low sleep, exercise, etc) than before. My bodyfat didn't really change, actually, nothing changed (and I'm somewhat overweight too, not obese).

Before that although, our family's diet was a middle-eastern/north amercian (think a mix of hindi and mediterranean diets w/ an emphasis on basmati rice) vegetarian family (eggs & milk) that occasionally ate seafood and very rarely ate any land based meat. The thing is although compared to the vegan diet I had previously, we ate pretty healthy already. Pop tasted like poison and we went through fruits and vegitable like Hoover vaccumes (I was known to idley eat a box of mandarin oranges without realizing it.) and rarely if ever ate any junk.

I think the main benefit that people get from going the whole vegan vegetarian route is that it has the side effect of removing junk too. I've heard from natrual paths that vegans are some of the sickest people they get and just by eat fish they feel much better and they can think better. The natrual path I went to said that really being vegan is not a bad idea the closer you are to a tropical/equator area and a really bad idea in the nearer you are to an arctic/eskimo area. (like me) The Pavlina's have mostly lived in the hot desert areas of Las Vegas & California where palm trees probably don't have as hard of a time growing than lets say, New York, Russia or Canada. The Pavlinas also live on an extensively researched and expensive organic diet and have far more time to devote to their food prep than the typical person.

Recently I have started integrating seafood back into my diet and really, I do feel a little bit better to be honest. So really, I think being vegan really depends on your climate, your body and your needs. I still don't have anything milk or egg based and before I went on the whole vegan thing I didn't really like plain milk anyway. It made me feel shitty.

I think if you avoid junk, eat not for emotional reasons but for nourishment and mostly follow what your body tells you you'll feel much better. The only thing you have to watch out for several natural tendencies of people to eat something compulsively because back in the feast or famine cavemen times, it was a good idea to do so. Those are basically the junk food flavors that many people love, things high in fats or glucose. Healthy food can taste as good and often better, but still there is something distinct about junk food that lends their addictive qualities.

PS: I have read that the people of Okinawa are some of the longest living, healthiest people in the world and it's because of their diet (okinawans that move away from okinawa tended to have the same mortality rates as the rest of the populace they moved in with). They have very high concentrations of people who are 100+ compared to the rest of the world. Guess what, they don't have a vegan diet and it actually uses alot of fish and various other good things.

[Parenting Games]

I was vegan for a month. In the first 2 weeks, I lost 8 pounds. But as soon as I noticed this, I started eating more food, and using more olive oil in my food, and gained those pounds back in the next 4-6 weeks.

You'd be surprised how much more pizza you can eat when you have no cheese on it. Its obviously the cheese that's filling you up, because w/o cheese, I could put away twice as much pizza.

I don't call myself vegan, and I'm sure "real" vegans wouldn't call me one even though I hardly ever eat dairy, and probably only eat meat once a week or so. But I did learn to cut back on certain foods as a result of my vegan trial.

The "instant weight-loss" thing you hear about with pro-vegan stories obviously didn't work for me though (see 1st paragraph). I think that just goes to show that, for me at least, weight loss is more about the psychology of your eating habits than the than the actual food you eat.

[andyspinks]

I don't think going vegan or vegetarian is some magical way of increasing your energy levels. To get those sorts of effects it needs to be done with a decent amount research and planning. I don't think its a good idea to just take the meat out of your diet and replace it with tofu or something else. I think you need to look at your intakes and start to think of each meal in a weekly context - making sure you cover all the important bases each week.

As I explained in detail in a similar thread: New Vegetarian Feels Tired in Mind and Body

I was vegetarian for 5 years -> carnivore 1 year -> vegetarian 8 months -> now vegan.

The second time I went vegetarian I have felt much healthier, energetic and positive about my diet. I attribute this to the time I've spent researching vegetarian / vegan diets and planning out my weekly meals. I really think it can make a big difference if you are well informed in what can be a big change in your diet.

One last thing: veganism != deprivation. Veganism has introduced me to more diverse foods (and tastier) than living in China for a year.

[escapee]

I was vegan for a month. In the first 2 weeks, I lost 8 pounds. But as soon as I noticed this, I started eating more food, and using more olive oil in my food, and gained those pounds back in the next 4-6 weeks.

In term of weight loss ,
I find that combining a 30 mins walk/jog ~ 3-4 times per week and vegan diet work the best for me. If i sit on my chair all day for weeks , my weight will remain the same.

I find it alot easier to manage my weight with vegan diet . With my previous mixed diet (meat, vege & grain), I have to work so much harder (juice fasting, strenuous workout & etc ) to contain the "uptrend" , and it definitely gets harder with AGE .......

[neurolempicka]

One way to find out about what your body likes and dislikes is by thinking back to your childhood. What did you like and not like? When you were a child you had a natural dislike for foods which harmed you, since you were not used to them yet. They say that taste is aquired, but when you are a child you have obviously not aquired tastes completely but act more as a blank slate for what the body wants. Point in case, people who are gluten-intolerant often become addicted to gluten as time passes by.

I for one hated bread and milk, but loved meat. I loved fruits and vegetables too. I think this might have something to do with my Asian heritage; and I do believe that heritage can determine what kind of foods you tolerate. Today I am a vegetarian for ethical reasons but I am wondering how healthy this can be, as my digestion and health has deteriorated. Taking B-complex vitamins and Omega-3 pills helps, though. Since I am an adult I can now decide what I want to eat, and I no longer eat bread or milk. On the rare occasion that I do, I react badly, especially to milk.