Date:   7/15/2002 12:50:45 PM ( 22 y ago)
Hits:   2,178
URL:   https://www.curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=76918

By all means you should experiment to see if veganism is right for you. Just because it makes your friend feel better doesn't mean it will help you. A couple of things to keep in mind:

Your friend may have been helped simply by the reduction of fat, not necessarily the absence of animal protein. It is very possible to be a meat eater and adhere to a low fat diet. Fat and protein do not need to be mutually exclusive.

Many vegans on a low protein, low fat diet will develop failure to thrive symptoms over the long term due to low EFA, vitamin B, and Zinc. Others do very well as they must get just enough amino acids and fats and thier calorie intake is high enough to spare protien and prevent catabolism. The vegans who do the best eat sufficient calories (2,000-2,500) to insure enough protein, vitamins and minerals. See vegan/vegetarian diets by McDougall and Robyn Landis. They are NOT low calorie diets and yet they result in wieght loss. Low calorie vegan diets are a prescription for ill health as they result in muscle and organ wasting. If you are going to be low fat vegan, eat a lot of calories so you will prevent muscle ande organ wasting.

Also, it is worth noting that elevated dietary protein (22-28% of total calorie intake) has therapuetic effects on metabolism, lowering chelesterol and reducing insulin resistance as per two studies done by Bernard Wolfe. These therapuetic benefits are not part of a traditionally vegan diet with its total absence of animal foods. A vegan who wanted to get such benfits would have to eat a lot of soy to get high enough protein intakes, which is its own double-edged sword. Soy if full of anti-nutrients and can have negative effects on hormones. Despite Barry Sear's attempt to appease the vegetarian crowd by releasing the Soy Zone - numerous studies show that soy is not the wonder food we once thought it was.

Only your body will tell you if the benefits of reduction in fat and animal foods will outwiegh the potential dangers of insulin resistance, and vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

Also, I would be very wary of taking dietary advice from the likes of Sears, Shultz, Wyle etc. All of thes men are overweight with the abdominal paunch - a very high predictor of insulin resistance. Either they don't follow thier own advice, or thier advice is not appropriate for thier own needs. If you can't get your diet right for you, how can you tell someone else what to eat?

Veganism may give you newfound health or send you down hill. Only you can find that out by experimenting to see what foods, in which amounts and combinations make you feel good etc.

Kind Regards,

Scott

 

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