To ask if it’s possible to be a healthy vegan

[Mangetoutrodney]

I turned vegan a year ago (for ethical reasons) - I eat a predominately healthy diet (or so i think) but have lately been not feeling great- sometimes I feel empty. I take a broad spectrum vitamin aswell and a typical days food might be:

Overnight oats with mixed forest fruits, walnuts, oat milk & soya yohurt

Veg, lentil & quinoa stew for lunch

Tofu, veg & noodles for tea

I might have fruit or ryvita & houmous for a snack (or a bag or crisps )

I am trying to keep it balances & healthy- I eat lots of stuff like jacket potato with beans & vegan cheese, veg spaghetti Bol, Thai veg curry, mezze plates with houmous & roasted veg etc etc I also eat lots of avocados & try to get my oils from nuts & plants.

But I am feeling shit & i’m not ill - I exercise lots too, don’t really drink booze etc.

So is it being vegan? I really don’t want to go back to eating dairy as it took me a long time to give it up & it was a big decision. I have been veggie for 30 years.

But now I am questioning it- aibu to think it might not be healthy? Have thought about adding eggs back in to see if it’s protein

OP your diet looks excellent. I notice that your vitamins are menopace... could the issue be menopause? I'm also a menopausal vegan (3 years vegan, 30+ years vegetarian). Got my bloods reviewed by GP as a precaution and they are better than ever. I also take 'nothing fishy' DHA/ omega 3 capsules as it's hard to get the best type via plants sources. Recently I've started food grown magnesium capsules which have helped enormously with menopause symptoms and tiredness.

Take a B supplement as well as a multi vit. Take algae based vegan EPA and DHA (omega 3. Flaxseed and veg sources are ALA and need to convert to EPA - very inefficient). Check that your sources of calcium are not calcium carbonate but a more bioavailable form - eg in soya milk or nut milks. Eat plenty of sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds (iron and magnesium and zinc). Have plenty of oils - olive oil and coconut oil. Keep sunflower oils and veg oils to a minimum or ypur omega 3/6 ratio will be out.
Get blood tests done at GPs.

@ditto it has crossed my mind - I am 45 and def perimenopausal - am going to look at some of the other supplements that you & others have suggested! Menopace seems to help too

I agree with iron and B12 . When I am dieting and vegan I have them as get dizzy otherwise . You might need to eat a bit more too ? Are you slim /losing weight ??

Your diet sounds great to me. It's best to get your bloods done.

I believe that vegan diets are very healthy actually . I also second some blood tests and the reading post your diet looks very good

But I did get a lot dizzy spells when I went very heavily plant based

I also lost weight though

It's worth getting your Vitamin D levels checked.

Obviously it is. I've been vegan 15 years, my partner 22 years, and we know many other long-term vegans who are perfectly healthy. It's not even like we've all been eating wholefoods all that time; there's been plenty of junk involved! Though we're more mindful of it these days.

You could use Cronometer to check the micronutrient content of your food and then you can make sure you eat more of whatever you're lacking, if that is indeed the issue.

Make sure you either enter the exact ingredients, or use a generic equivalent food that has lots of data for it (e.g. the NCCDB entries, as they have been tested for 76 nutrients). Otherwise you'll appear to be getting fewer vitamins/minerals than you actually are.

Veg1 (made by the Vegan Society) is a basic cheap supplement with e.g. B12, D3 etc in. The lack of any of which are not inherently vegan issues; more to do with modern lifestyles/geography/farming methods etc.

I recently reintroduced eggs from a local farm into my diet and I feel great!

I do love the vegan diet, so am focusing on staying plantbased but with a couple of eggs as snacks every day.

If you're thinking about eggs while still sticking to vegan morals, and have any outside space, have you considered rehoming a few ex-farm hens that are destined for slaughter? www.bhwt.org.uk arranges pick ups all around the country and has advice on how to get started.

You'll get the double whammy of having saved chickens from the abattoir, plus regular fresh eggs. Just a thought as I'm going to be doing this in the next couple of months. 🐔

Both the NHS and the British Dietic Association state that a vegan diet is healthy and suitable for all life stages.

Personally I'd take the word of the experts over some randomers online and certainly over some ex vegan YouTubers who clearly have disordered eating but then try and blame veganism for their health problems.

It's actually not that hard to get all the essential amino acids on a vegan diet. Tofu is a complete protein. Beans or lentils and rice also make a complete protein as does hummus and pitta or peanut butter on toast. You don't even need to eat those things at the same time or even on the same day! As long as you're eating a varied healthy diet then you'll be getting all the essential amino acids.

I tried veganism and I got really sick - I ate as much of a varied diet as possible and did a great deal of research to make sure I was getting as many plant based vitamins and iron as possible, but I still ended up weak and sick. My doctor told me that it just doesn't suit some people who need a more varied diet. I was initially gutted to have to reintroduce eggs, chicken and fish but as soon as I did my health improved hugely - I felt like a different person. And now I think about it more, I agree with PPs that if you need to put man-made supplements into your body, or replace meat with processed replacements then it's really not that healthy after all. I also struggled with the concept when I learned that far from being good for the planet, a lot of vegan substitute foods are actually awful for the planet and doing a huge amount of harm so I realised it wasn't worth risking my health for something which it seemed I was misinformed about.

Vitamin B12 is hard to get as a vegan. I believe the only natural source is seaweed. I haven't been vegan for about 15 years though so maybe this is out of date information. As far as I'm aware everything else can be obtained in a plant based diet, so long as you're aware of what nutrients are in what and are getting a diverse range of stuff into you.

I'd just get a blood test done and see what comes back. Then you can easily rectify the problem.