Everyday I get comments about my lifestyle. Mainly negative, although those positive comments do come around every once in awhile and those make my days! However, people think that a vegan lifestyle is lacking in vitamins and nutrients. I'm not sure if im not being specific enough for them with my nutritional advice (and I give only advice as I am not a "qualified" nutrition expert). Maybe I should start saying plant based lifestyle rather than vegan so it doesn't sound so... extreme as some would say.
Nearly every vegan out there gets asked the questions- Where do you get your protein? Where do you get iron and calcium? How do you have enough energy to stay awake all day? How can you build muscle on a vegan diet?
All of these questions are valid because society has everyone convinced that meat, dairy and eggs are vital for our heath and development.
What many people don't know is that the meat and dairy industry pay TRILLIONS of dollars a year to the government. Hence why you see meat and dairy on the Canada's Food Guide. The meat and dairy industry pay to be where they are today, and they also pay to advertise their food.
But what fails to make it our general knowledge is how food is made and how it makes it to our convenient grocery stores and onto your table. Most people don't know what macro or micro nutrients are. When I do get asked those types of questions that I stated earlier I simply reply and say that all food contains carbs, fat, protein, and water. The ratios between the macro nutrients will vary depending on the type of food. Yes, a banana contains carbs, fats,protein and water.Another thing I tell people is that we have billions of cells in our bodies and if we are alive, and breathing then so are those cells in our body. Since we are humans we require food for energy- just like the cells that make up our body.
Carbohydrates are easily converted into energy and believe it or not our little tiny cells need that easy energy because our bodies insist on doing things the most efficient way possible so in the long run we can conserve energy. But like many people in the world they learn the hard way. And that is exactly what our bodies are doing when we consistently consume high animal fat and protein diets.
This pie chart shows the increasing rate of illness and disease. What this pie chart does not show is the increasing consumption of meat and dairy.
Time are changing, and times have changed. What meat and dairy was 100 years ago is not what it is today. Also the amount of meat and dairy we eat a day is outrageous, and it is damaging the health of our species and our planet (the thing that gives us existence).
The reason meat and dairy lead to illness and disease like cancer, diabetes, Alzheimers, arthritis, and heart disease is because those foods are lacking in vitamins and minerals that keep our bodies alkaline. Meat and dairy are very acidic and when our blood becomes acidic it is basically opening itself up to a toxic environment. Your body will be more susceptible to DNA mutations (cancer) and it will build up a plaque in your arteries due to the high saturated fat that is found in animal products. Just like carbohydrates, not all saturated fat is the same. Animal fats found in meat, dairy and eggs are different compared to a coconut oil, nut/seed or avocado fat. The saturated fat found from plants, nuts/seeds contains fibre, minerals, and omega-3's. Also the triglyceride's found in coconut oil are medium chain triglyceride's (MCT's) which do not require as much energy to be metabolize due to the size of the molecule. It enters the blood stream and is used as instant energy. Coconut oil is also high in lauric acid, vitamin E, and other minerals.
Avocado's are rich in potassium, vitamin E, Omega-3's and fibre along with many other nutrients and minerals. You can literally taste the difference. If you took a piece of meat with no added flavour/spice and chewed it it would taste very bland and it wouldn't be appealing at all. If you took a splice of ripe avocado or coconut meat and chewed it raw it would be loaded with flavour.
Also, by adding in more plants to your diet and with proper food combining the rate of absorption of protein, iron, calcium, and minerals are far higher than by eating a diet high in animal fat/protein. The dead animals that people eat may be high in protein but people often over look the type of protein. The protein found in animals such as whey, and casein aren't easily absorbed and metabolised by our bodies. The protein is being wasted because our bodies can't digest it efficiently and also those proteins create enzymes that initiate and promote cancer growth hence the increase if illness and disease.
So the point of this post is to open up the mind and give those plants more credit than they seem to get. They are a lot more powerful than any dead carcass could ever be.
So please -carbs from fruit, potatoes, rice, beans, and veggies are not bad carbs and they will not make you fat. Eat in abundance to thrive and live life to the fullest.
showshttps://www.cancer.ca/~/media/cancer.ca/CW/cancer%20information/cancer%20101/Canadian%20cancer%20statistics/Canadian-Cancer-Statistics-2015-EN.pdf
