Junk Food Vegan - Hair Nutrition

[SpawnofSatan]

Hi everyone,

I'm really excited to be here!

I am a newbie vegan, specifically a junk food vegan for the most part. My goal is to only sometimes be a junk food vegan and live the raw life however with my current life style and **** poor time management I am not there yet.

Anyway, I'm noticing my hair is falling out obviously because I am most likely not eating right. Could you guide me to what I should ensure I get into my diet so I can spare myself from being the next Professor X

Look forward to speaking with all of you and partaking in the community more!

 

[Vanille]

Lack of vitamin B12 can cause it too, are you taking supplements? (and the right dose?)

 

[SpawnofSatan]

I do... inconsistently. I am taking 1 pill "a day". The 250mcg. Currently I might about 160lbs and working on getting physically active

 

[Lou]

Let's start off with this: your hair loss might not be the result of your diet. You should ask your doctor about this.

IMHO raw food veganism is difficult to do right. and if you are now a junk food vegan - then that is probably too ambitious a plan.

My advice is just to be a regular vegan first. then maybe step up to a WFPB diet and then to RT4 before going all raw.
I'm no expert on Raw - but i have researched it and tried it and my conclusion was that you have to eat a lot of calories to get the min amount of protein. If you look at the raw food vegans on youtube and their "what I eat in a day" videos they are eating something like 3000+ calories a day. But they are all sort of athletes and have no trouble burning that all off.

The General Consensus is that Vitamins A, B, C, D, and E are all important for healthy hair. Iron and Zinc are probably important. Oh, and of course protein.

All those vitamins and minerals are found in almost every multivitamin. If you don't take one - start. Most vegans who eat a healthy diet don't really need one. but that does not apply to junk food vegans. A, E, Iron, and Zinc are not water-soluble so they can build up and there are toxicity concerns. But I don't think anyone has ever poisoned themselves with taking Just a multi.

I don't always eat right so I take a DEVA Tiny Tablets multivitamin. It is sort of a minimalist's approach to vitamins and minerals. It's cheap and it does not have a lot of anything, just a little bit of everything. I think it has just enough to prop up my nutrition when I do skip meals. If you think you need more, DEVA also makes a more standard Vitamin and Mineral supplement.

Our culture/society does put too much of an emphasis on protein. And its become sort of a joke to ask a vegan where they get their protein. But I've analyzed my own nutrition and if I don't eat right - I don't get enough protein. Too few calories or too little nutritionally dense foods can result in too little protein.

I've sort of become a broken record on this but I think you should analyze your own nutrition. I have found CronOmeter to be very useful. There is a bit of a learning curve but it doesn't take long to figure it out.

 

[Lou]

I do... inconsistently. I am taking 1 pill "a day". The 250mcg. Currently, I might about 160lbs and working on getting physically active

if your only source of B12 is a pill, then 250 is probably too little. The thing about B12 (and I learned this by hanging out here) is there are absorbability issues. There is a youtube video that explains it pretty well. I can't find it but maybe someone else has it bookmarked. I wouldn't mind watching it again.

But to simplify it, and this is just from my memory - it's like only 1 mcg can be absorbed at 100%. after that first 1mcg, only 1% gets absorbed. So eating fortified foods 2 - 3 times a day should work. or taking a pill that is 1000mcg.

 

[Vanille]

if your only source of B12 is a pill, then 250 is probably too little. The thing about B12 (and I learned this by hanging out here) is there are absorbability issues. There is a youtube video that explains it pretty well. I can't find it but maybe someone else has it bookmarked. I wouldn't mind watching it again.

But to simplify it, and this is just from my memory - it's like only 1 mcg can be absorbed at 100%. after that first 1mcg, only 1% gets absorbed. So eating fortified foods 2 - 3 times a day should work. or taking a pill that is 1000mcg.

I didn't take any pills as a vegetarian, no hair loss happened. I started taking B12 when I started with veganism a few weeks back, but the dose was too light (50 mcg) I didn't feel like I was lacking but went to the drugstore and asked for advice, just in case (this was like a medical drugstore, not a commercial one) Note that I already ate meat substitutes almost daily (that contain added B12), now since 2 weeks I drink soy milk daily and some soy yoghurt before going to work (after years of no breakfast so this is good lol) since a few days I use 1000mcg pills, we need around 2500mcg so that pill + added B12 in food and drinks and I should be fine.

It's also possible you have hormonal issues, saying this as an (ex) thyroid patient.

Another tip the woman at the drugstore gave me: don't experiment with supplements. Ask advice, get your blood checked if you think you might be lacking something. Yes you can in fact get sick from getting too many vitamins... That doesn't count for all vitamins but careful with multivitamins.

 

[SpawnofSatan]

Let's start off with this: your hair loss might not be the result of your diet. You should ask your doctor about this.

IMHO raw food veganism is difficult to do right. and if you are now a junk food vegan - then that is probably too ambitious a plan.

My advice is just to be a regular vegan first. then maybe step up to a WFPB diet and then to RT4 before going all raw.
I'm no expert on Raw - but i have researched it and tried it and my conclusion was that you have to eat a lot of calories to get the min amount of protein. If you look at the raw food vegans on youtube and their "what I eat in a day" videos they are eating something like 3000+ calories a day. But they are all sort of athletes and have no trouble burning that all off.

The General Consensus is that Vitamins A, B, C, D, and E are all important for healthy hair. Iron and Zinc are probably important. Oh, and of course protein.

All those vitamins and minerals are found in almost every multivitamin. If you don't take one - start. Most vegans who eat a healthy diet don't really need one. but that does not apply to junk food vegans. A, E, Iron, and Zinc are not water-soluble so they can build up and there are toxicity concerns. But I don't think anyone has ever poisoned themselves with taking Just a multi.

I don't always eat right so I take a DEVA Tiny Tablets multivitamin. It is sort of a minimalist's approach to vitamins and minerals. It's cheap and it does not have a lot of anything, just a little bit of everything. I think it has just enough to prop up my nutrition when I do skip meals. If you think you need more, DEVA also makes a more standard Vitamin and Mineral supplement.

Our culture/society does put too much of an emphasis on protein. And its become sort of a joke to ask a vegan where they get their protein. But I've analyzed my own nutrition and if I don't eat right - I don't get enough protein. Too few calories or too little nutritionally dense foods can result in too little protein.

I've sort of become a broken record on this but I think you should analyze your own nutrition. I have found CronOmeter to be very useful. There is a bit of a learning curve but it doesn't take long to figure it out.

Thank you so much for this. I will definitely look into CronOmeter to start as a basis. I really appreciate this!!

 

[SpawnofSatan]

I didn't take any pills as a vegetarian, no hair loss happened. I started taking B12 when I started with veganism a few weeks back, but the dose was too light (50 mcg) I didn't feel like I was lacking but went to the drugstore and asked for advice, just in case (this was like a medical drugstore, not a commercial one) Note that I already ate meat substitutes almost daily (that contain added B12), now since 2 weeks I drink soy milk daily and some soy yoghurt before going to work (after years of no breakfast so this is good lol) since a few days I use 1000mcg pills, we need around 2500mcg so that pill + added B12 in food and drinks and I should be fine.

It's also possible you have hormonal issues, saying this as an (ex) thyroid patient.

Another tip the woman at the drugstore gave me: don't experiment with supplements. Ask advice, get your blood checked if you think you might be lacking something. Yes you can in fact get sick from getting too many vitamins... That doesn't count for all vitamins but careful with multivitamins.

I will definitely go get some blood work done! Thank you!