Effective ways to go vegan gradually?

[Tom L.]

Hello everyone I hope this finds you well! I have decided that after a life of living on animal products that I need to change my life style and go Vegan, I was just looking for some helpful tips to be successful. Hope everyone has the greatest day!

Welcome! Animal products are a concentrated source of several nutrients- notably protein, fat, iron (from red meat), calcium (from dairy), and B vitamins- but they're not the only sources of these. Protein is easy to come by, especially if you eat mostly whole foods.

You might need to supplement with Vitamin B-12 if your other foods, such as breakfast cereal, aren't fortified with it. One thing I've noticed is that B-12 tablets have a ridiculous amount of it: something like 90 times the RDA. I'm not sure if it's harmful to take a whole tablet daily... but I take a fragment of a tablet every other day or so.

 

[Lou]

ou might need to supplement with Vitamin B-12 if your other foods, such as breakfast cereal, aren't fortified with it. One thing I've noticed is that B-12 tablets have a ridiculous amount of it: something like 90 times the RDA. I'm not sure if it's harmful to take a whole tablet daily... but I take a fragment of a tablet every other day or so.

The reason that B12 tablets have so much B-12 is because of how poorly our bodies absorb it. there are several article and videos that explain it better than I can - if I spot one I'll send you the link.

but in a nutshell, our bodies can only absorb about 1/4 or 1/3 of the RDA at one time. After that initial absorption the "gateway" for B12 absorption only allows for about 1%. I'm not good at math but just estimating - if you take something like 100 times the RDA once a day you can meet the RDA in one sitting.

The other thing is to get 33% or more of the RDA in 3 or 4 doses a day.

Ahhhh, here it is... perfect and just half a page.

Supplementing Vitamin B12 | NutritionFacts.org

The latest research on vitamin B12 deficiency, the best sources, and the daily recommended intake. Learn more in easy-to-follow videos.

nutritionfacts.org

 

[FredVegrox]

I would like to speak of what really works. If it does, it need not take long. Sure, I was vegetarian for years, before taking the steps to really be vegan. But, if I knew what I know now to do, I would have been vegan faster, earlier, and I really want that I would have been. I found delicious ways, that matters a lot for changing, but with finding those, including all the use of hummus that I made, it was still very important to find the healthy way, to go on with it, without wavering. And I found it a bit more than a couple of years of certainly being vegan, I just did not know if this was a healthy way for me. I wanted a healthy way, too. And I found it. I had been using hummus almost all along, before this, and what I found was using whole foods, avoiding modified things like white bread, or even wheat bread, but just having whole grain bread without added things that were not just natural, even preservatives, and still no animal products. It can be any vegetables (stalks, bulbs, tubers, leaves, flowers, and some of the fruits), fruits (the sweet ones are still called that rather than being called vegetables), grains nuts and seeds. Mushrooms are not plants, they are not real vegetables. You can eat them, but I don't.

 

[Vegan Rendering]

Hello,
I am an ex-vegan veggie. I am 26 years old and Autistic. I was vegan for about five years, before going back to veggie. I now go to and fro from veggie to vegan depending on how anxious/otherwise mentally unwell I am feeling. I have undiagnosed BED (binge eating disorder). I was on medication that caused this. I am still on a medication that probably doesn’t help my cravings and BED.
I have a good mindset and a bad mindset. On a good mindset, I’ll be vegan and want to take care of myself better and do more good for other sentient beings. On a bad mindset, I’ll just want to binge eat, not exercise, not take care of myself well enough, not do as much good and eat dairy.
Speaking of which, I am a dairy addict. I am possibly vegan for more time than not. I really, really want to go vegan for the animals and can be very hard on myself about this.
Dairy is physically addictive, due to the casein in it, which is in there to keep the baby calves coming back to feed from their mothers. When humans drink/eat dairy, it can have the same effect on us.
I’m thinking going vegan gradually might mean that I actually stay vegan. What are your tips on how to effectively go vegan gradually and stay vegan for life?
Thank you .

For appetite balance, high carb & low fat is what balances out:
Leptin(signals satiation)
Ghrelin(signals appetite)
Cortisol(stressor balance/reaction)
Those are three things that a high carb diet is the very best for and I attribute them to my best gains in diet stability.

Glucose is the primary fuel source of the brain, too. That is another one of the very best ways to go vegan for life.

500g carbs, 36g fat, and 80g protein is a good start for an adult male.

Sweet potatoes
White potatoes
White Jasmine rice
Soaked red & green lentils
Soaked oatmeal(with stevia and organic cane sugar)

Broccoli
Raw carrots
Peas

Ground hemp heart seeds

"Saltworks" pink himalayan salt (at least 1 teaspoon)

Iodine & selenium is something significantly/universally to take daily.

cronometer.com has a database of food with the macro and micronutrients so that you have the required nutrition for health markers figured to stick with it for life.

 

[VeganRendering]

I think the thing to look at is the connection to the very high amount and required harm reduction from eating vegan. A lifetime of checking ingredients and the other things that align to vegan values really matters.

 

[FredVegrox]

It may seem my development to being vegan over years of being vegetarian is some advantage for effective change. But it was only time it took for me to learn more. Learning to do this is what really matters. I think it should all be there to learn at once, I just didn't get that. So I say I would have changed, with all the information together for it to start with. I believe that too. I did not have prejudiced resistance I see many others have. But rather I am open to learning, and I still am, as much. Now in very recent times I know it is most important to get a great variety of foods from plants. I need to increase it more myself, even still. It should come near to a variety of 30 different foods from plants, each week, to have a much healthier way. It is not how much that matters, seasonings count and having the same amount of those as other items is not needed. It is a challenge for me, carrying my groceries back a long way, and eating it all just myself, to have enough food for such variety. I still have increased the variety I have significantly.

 

[FredVegrox]

This is the last meal I was making, with quinoa (that never turns out as a pretty picture when I stir it to mix it, still I have a really tasty meal), it is with carrot, broccoli, asparagus, celery, kale, cabbage, olives, lentils, various nuts and seeds, guacamole, hummus, and medium salsa, I added seasonings and some dry seaweed to it. What more can I add to make it tastier? Don't tell me mushrooms.

 

[Tom L.]

@FredVegrox I love soy sauce... but I really don't think it would pair well with the flavors you already have in that dish. Thinking about what you posted just above has me salivating! If you wanted to try it, you could set aside a few spoonfuls of the dish and add just a few drops of soy sauce to see how it tastes. But maybe it just needs a bit more of something you already added?... especially hummus, seaweed, guacamole, or salsa?

 

[FredVegrox]

I wasn't really asking what could make it better because I wanted it better than it is. This is the best stuff I think I am having, I am thinking there is nothing that would make it better. I don't want more salty things, I already occasionally add seaweed for the benefit of minerals it would provide. And I try now using yet more vegetable foods for a better variety. Yes, guacamole is tasty, as well as healthy, the hummus and medium salsa in it beats all. There was a time, several years ago, that I got nutritional yeast as it seemed to provide vegans something they wanted. But I was already using what makes this great sauce, and I decided it was not doing anything for my meals or anything since I had these things I like more. So now it really is all entirely from plants. Well, I think the seaweed could count, it would for sure if it was Ulva, which I want to find and try using.

 

[Veet Karen]

Going vegan gradually can be a great thing. Some people say I could be vegan if it wasn't for the cheese and I say ok then go vegan and still eat the cheese. I was vegetarian for 29 years then gave up eggs and then dairy 4 years later.

I like to look at it as not giving up but replacing - so i always suggest replacing things like butter with avocado or a good quality vegan butter or cheese with a tahini sauce spread as that has a similar umami flavour. Things like that.

Is any of this helpful?

 

[Pizza party]

to be honest, hardest bit is making sure it's nice and healthy. –– getting enough B12 D is tricky for me, even if I consume the RDA of that stuff double that I still sometimes have a deficiency.
One thing I don't have a problem with is getting enough fruit in my diet and I eat more vegetables;
so that is difficult for me, sometimes eat shrimp or oysters, but I cut the line with exploiting any plausibly conscious or sentient beings. ~ So basically I avoid harming complex life. – still by myself I go 100% vegan.
since I don't need to compromise.

 

[Lou]

sometimes eat shrimp or oysters, but I cut the line with exploiting any plausibly conscious or sentient beings. ~ So basically I avoid harming complex life. – s

I gave up seafood last. and I do not hold any against the bivalve vegans. although I'm not sure oysters or shrimp don't feel pain.
Then also there is the concern for the health of the ocean. I doubt that the harvesting of shrimp has any benefit. Maybe oyster farming does.

 

[silva]

to be honest, hardest bit is making sure it's nice and healthy. –– getting enough B12 D is tricky for me, even if I consume the RDA of that stuff double that I still sometimes have a deficiency.
One thing I don't have a problem with is getting enough fruit in my diet and I eat more vegetables;
so that is difficult for me, sometimes eat shrimp or oysters, but I cut the line with exploiting any plausibly conscious or sentient beings. ~ So basically I avoid harming complex life. – still by myself I go 100% vegan.
since I don't need to compromise.

Are you relying on supplemented foods, or supplements? Cyanocobalimin has the benefit of being stable--if a supplement says it's 2000 mcg, it's 2000 mcg. Methycobolamin is not stable, and even if within the expiration date can deteriorate and not the amount labeled--however--it is the form those with a certain MTHFR gene trait need. Wish I could link all this better, but it's all I've learned through the years.
What test are you getting that leads you to think you're deficient? Have you had B12 shots?

Testing for Vitamin B12 Deficiency | NutritionFacts.org

Many doctors mistakenly rely on serum B12 levels in the blood to test for vitamin B12 deficiency. There were two cases of young, strictly vegetarian

nutritionfacts.org

 

[silva]

I've probably said this here before, but it's worth repeating. I would highly recommend not making changes in personal products at the same time as giving up animal products in foods. I've heard people talk of having hair and skin problems and blaming them on diet when it's very well may be the change of those products. I remember answering a question in a forum from someone on the verge of going back to her old way of eating because her hair became a disaster. I asked about whether she changed shampoo because I had just gotten Natures Path because it's vegan and my hair was a horrid oily mess! Turns out that was exactly what she did!
Make first changes food or personal products, but wait and see before the changing the other