Is Being A Vegan Healthy Long Term?
That’s a question I’ve been trying to answer for years. More recently I decided to experiment with being fully Vegan AGAIN.
In case you didn’t know I’ve been Vegetarian or Vegan since 1996 but recently I gave up Dairy to go all the way Vegan AGAIN, to see if it would be better than before; I’ve gained a lot of knowledge and refined my diet so I thought being a Vegan again could get me some good results.
The TRUTH is, I have noticed some improvements, but I’ve also wondered if I might be going backwards in other ways.
I started watching a lot of videos, and reading a lot of articles promoting the use of animal products for improved health and they really got to me. You can read more about that HERE.
Anyway, I’ve continued on doing the Vegan Diet, and more recently, I’m feeling better than I have in a long long time.
So…. Can me feeling this good be attributed to Being Vegan ALONE?
I’m not sure, as there are a couple of other things I’ve changed recently, and I’m about to share those things with You.
- The first possibility of WHY I could be feeling better, beyond being Vegan is, I’ve NOT had any source of Caffeine in my body for the last 3 weeks.
- The second is I’ve cut back on the amount of Calories I was consuming.
- The Third possibility of Why I feel better could have to do with the fact that I’ve had some Vegan Protein Powder in my diet 3 times in the last week.
I’ll get into the specifics of these 3 things now; Other than the Caffeine because I think that’s pretty self Explanatory.
So…. I was expecting to lose a little weight as a vegan. This expectation is a result of my past Vegan Experience when I had a hard time gaining weight when I wanted to.
Even though I knew I could lose a little fat I was a little concerned the pounds might drop off too much and I might lose some muscle.
Thankfully, I haven’t lost any muscle or strength, but I’ve remained at close to the same weight; That weight might even contain a little more muscle mass.
Here’s a connection to the weight staying on. I’ve been eating more food than ever before. I wanted to stick to the high carbohydrate way of being vegan to avoid losing weight and also to keep my energy.
What I realized is, I wasn’t feeling hungry when I was eating and some days I was feeling like I wasn’t quite right.
So… I started to cut back on the amount of food. It’s important to note, I’m STILL Eating a pretty large amount of food, but I’m doing it less often and I’m feeling hungry every time I Eat.
I think eating when you really feel hungry is part of the key to really feeling good. I thought this before but now it’s really been reenforced.
So What About The Protein Powder?
Well… I stated that I was reading a lot of information about former Vegans and Vegetarians returning to a more Animal Based diet and promoting how great it was. One topic I consumed a lot of information on was related to SPECIFIC Amino Acids.
Meat and Even Dairy Consumers were going on about these specific Amino Acids being abundant in Meat but not plant sources. They really got me thinking.
Since reading the information I realized there is NOT much to fear if you’re Eating a healthful Vegan diet, as those amino acids are generally abundant enough in the plant sources, as long as your eating ENOUGH and a Variety of Vegan foods.
I also learned that some of those amino acids in TOO much abundance can have negative health consequences. (I’m going to cover MORE on this in future articles.)
So… All these things being stated I was VERY curious about what might happen if I had a little extra protein. (For many years I’ve really been convinced that you never have to think about protein as long as you eat enough plant based foods.)
So… I decided I would try some protein powder to see if I could notice any difference in how I felt.
I used Organic Sprouted Fermented Brown Rice Protein Powder, which is known to be one of the very best sources of protein powder available.
A serving size has about 25 grams of protein and I had at least 3 times that the first time I tried it. That’s more than 75 grams of protein.
Now I don’t know if it was a coincidence or not, because I have changed a few other things, as I already stated, but the night I took the protein powder, I felt some positive changes. My mood seemed to improve and my body felt a little more relaxed.
So… I used the same protein powder, a couple more times during the week, in about the same serving size.
I want to be CLEAR that research seems to show that TOO much protein can be bad for you, and that’s also for another article, but I think it is POSSIBLE that a little extra from a good source might be good for some people.
I want to experiment a little more with this and learn some more to be sure, but it is possible the extra protein has made a positive difference.
Just so you KNOW, I didn’t consume such a large amount of protein powder just because it seemed like a good idea. I read from someone a while back that having 100 grams of protein powder Every ONCE in Awhile was a good idea to improve your health.
There’s more to this, But… I don’t want to spoil the next article about protein so I’m going to save it.
Long story short, Now you know me a little better. You’re getting the straight facts from me. My hope is my transparency will help YOU decide what’s best for you.
And be it related to the protein powder or not, Being A Vegan for 76 days is feeling good; I’m going to continue with the Vegan Experiment, and I’ll keep you posted as I move forward.
What about you? Hate Vegans, Like Vegans, Enjoy being a Vegan? Share with me and others in the comments section.
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