vegans/vegetarians?



I was vegeterian for about 5 years, however then introduced chicken and turkey back into my diet. I do not or have no eaten red meat sources now for about 7 years. I don't even remember what they taste like. I've thought about going veg. again, however do not see any major health drawbacks to having some low fat, high protein chicken here and there to give myself some variety. However I do not think I will ever eat red meat (beef, pork, etc) again. There are too many soy vegeterian alternitives out there that I do not even miss it.
 
I'm not vegetarian, however eat very little meat (ie near-vegetarian).

I have done an elementary nutritional analysis for vegetarian cyclists on a cycle tour (ie riding every day, can't stock up the cupboard/fridge etc), based on experience from having participated in tours where the diet was soley vegetarian.

Protein is not the main worry - as long as you pay a little bit of attention, just by getting your energy intake you will most likely meet your protein needs. The two major areas that people will likely experience defiency in, especially if they are not used to a vegetarian diet, are iron and calcium. I have personally experienced anemia from iron deficiency, which is when I fisrt became interested in the nutrition of vegetarian diets.

Fortunately, for me here in Japan, soy contains large amounts of both iron and calcium. For those who eat dairy, dairy will keep your calcium intake high. Chocolate also contains good amounts of both iron and calcium.

Bread contains a decent amount of iron.

If you are concerned about iron, it is important to remember that the iron contained in meat (haeme iron) is absorbed differently by the body than the form found in non-meat food (non-haeme iron). Drinking tea or coffee during meals can significantly reduce the uptake of iron. Conversely, vitamin C can significantly improve the uptake of iron.

So, during meals, don't drink tea or coffee, but drink fruit juice, eat fruit, sweet vegetables (eg peppers/capsicum), or even take a Vit C tablet.
 
Born and raised vegetarian and switched to a vegan diet at 33 years of age -- cycling for the past 10 years. I'm always amazed at how well the industries which sell protein-rich foods have saturated the "common knowledge" of the public with the idea that everyone is somehow protein deficient no matter how much protein they consume. Most are over-consuming and many to dangerous levels. Noted nutritionist, Dr. John McDougall has stated repeatedly that if you're getting sufficient calories and not consuming a diet of pure candy and junk food, you're getting enough protein.

As for calcium and iron, it's not uncommon for people new to a vegetarian diet to find themselves iron deficient but this isn't due to the diet itself. It's often due to the belief that they now need to suppliment their protein intake so they begin to consume a larger part of their diet from dairy. They do this due to the misconception that a vegetarian diet is protein deficient which, as Ric/Stern, Dr. John McDougall and even the World Health Organization, National Research Council, Food and Nutrition Board and many others show, is pure fallacy. It's refreshing to see the number of people posting on this thread who show an understanding of true human needs for protein. Calcium deficiency in the skeletal structure has been linked to high-protein diets in a number of studies. Even when supplimental calcium is taken at a level of 1400 mg daily, a high-protein diet will likely result in a negative calcium balance. Not that osteoporosis is purely a calcium deficiency but notice that sufferers of this disease usually consume a standard western diet and it is considered a far more rare disease in areas where both calcium consumption and protein consumption are below that found in standard western diets.
 
I am a refined vegetarian...

I only eat animals that consume vegetables. This prevents me from eating chicken or turkey as they consume other animal products (offal from processing plants is in their food).
 
Weisse Luft said:
I am a refined vegetarian...

I only eat animals that consume vegetables. This prevents me from eating chicken or turkey as they consume other animal products (offal from processing plants is in their food).
And poultry litter is an ingredient in what feedlots give to livestock. So this still offers an avenue for offal to be introduced into the feed of cattle, pigs and sheep. As you probably know, this is how the prions responsible for new variant CJD enters the human food chain.
 
Beastt said:
And poultry litter is an ingredient in what feedlots give to livestock. So this still offers an avenue for offal to be introduced into the feed of cattle, pigs and sheep. As you probably know, this is how the prions responsible for new variant CJD enters the human food chain.

Might be in some third world countries but done accidently. It is NOT practiced here. Pigs will NOT eat it and it has no value to ruminants.

Swine are by far the CLEANEST animal with poultry the dirtiest due to the typical processing techniques. Poultry also are fed a diet high in hydrogenated oils. Swine cannot tolerate hydrogenated oils and as such, have the lowest percentage of cholesterol of any animal fat.

Arterial plaque only became a problem after the advent of hydrogenated oils. Before then, lard, butter and tallow were the only solid fats used in food.
 
i've been vegan for years and pre ride i usually just have a bowl of whole grain cereal and some scrambled tofu (garlic, onion, nutritional yeast, some spices). i've actually lost a lot of weight this year just from eliminating the vegan junk food that i ate so much in the past.
 
Weisse Luft said:
Might be in some third world countries but done accidently. It is NOT practiced here. Pigs will NOT eat it and it has no value to ruminants.

Swine are by far the CLEANEST animal with poultry the dirtiest due to the typical processing techniques. Poultry also are fed a diet high in hydrogenated oils. Swine cannot tolerate hydrogenated oils and as such, have the lowest percentage of cholesterol of any animal fat.

Arterial plaque only became a problem after the advent of hydrogenated oils. Before then, lard, butter and tallow were the only solid fats used in food.
If what you say is true then here is a short list of places you should contact to have them correct their material;

At the larger feedlots the animals are fed a diet designed for only one purpose -- to fatten them up as cheaply as possible. This may include sawdust laced with ammonia and feathers, shredded newspaper, "plastic hay",(85% ethylene / 15% propylene), processed sewage, inedible tallow and grease, poultry litter, cement dust and cardboard scraps. Artificial flavors and aromas are added to trick the animals into eating the mixture.
Giehl, D "Vegetarianism," Harper and Rowe, pgs 119-120
Hightower, J., "Eat Your Heart Out," Crown Publishers, pg 99
Hunter, B., "Consumer Beware," Simon and Schuster, pgs 113-114
Lappe, F. M., "Diet for a Small Planet," Ballentine, pgs 67-68
Schell, O., "Modern Meat," Vintage Books, 1985
Singer, P., "Animal Liberation," Avon Books, Pg 148
Mason, J. and Singer, P., "Animal Factories," Crown Publishers, pgs 29-30, 48-49, 72
Sussman, V., "The Vegetarian Alternative," Rodale Press, pgs 173-174

“In parts of the country where cattle are raised near poultry production areas, it is not uncommon to feed them (the cows) poultry litter – basically excreta, bedding, spilled feed and feathers.” … “But there is concern that the spilled feed (containing cow parts) as well as partially digested feed might end up back in the cattle troughs, resulting in the same potential cycle of infection that caused the British outbreak of mad cow.”
http://www.nealhendrickson.com/mcdougall/030600pumadcow.htm

The allowance of feeding poultry litter to cattle should be immediately banned. Ruminant byproducts shall not be allowed in poultry feed. When prohibited ruminant protein material is fed to poultry, the BSE prion may pass through the bird unchanged and be present in the litter along with spilled feed. When this litter is fed back to cattle the prion would be present to infect cattle.
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:...ies/5.pdf++BSE++"poultry+litter"++offal&hl=en

Given that poultry manure/ poultry litter containing droppings, feathers and waste feed is a potentially high-risk material, FAO recommends that the feeding of poultry manure/ poultry litter should be banned in countries affected by or at risk from avian influenza, even if correctly composted, ensiled or dried with heat treatment.
http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/subjects/zh/health/diseases-cards/avian_issues.html

Ruminant protein has been banned from cattle and sheep feed in Canada and the United States since 1997. Currently in Canada – as well as in the United States – feed manufacturers and livestock producers can feed rations containing ruminant protein to non-ruminants – mainly pigs and poultry. However, there are fears that pig and poultry feed containing ruminant protein could be accidentally fed to cattle or sheep of poultry litter containing spilled poultry feed could be fed to cattle or sheep and spread the disease.
http://foodhaccp.com/msgboard.mv?parm_func=showmsg+parm_msgnum=1016602

What you're saying concerning the introduction of hydrogenated oils and the connection to atherosclerosis would indicate that heart attacks and stroke were unknown as little as 50-years ago. This, however, simply isn't true. Having said that, it is true that the prominence of the problem has increased several fold since the introduction of hydrogenated oils into the human diet. But it's also important to note that over that same time period, the consumption of meat products has also seen a marked increase in western diets.

Even during the Korean war it was noted that 77% of American soldiers autopsied showed signs of atherosclerosis. Korean soldiers of the same age showed no such buildup of plaques in their arteries. However, after a large group of Korean soldiers were placed on the U.S. Army diet, they too began to show unmistakeable signs of developing atherosclerosis.
Enos, W., "Pathogensesis of Coroonary Disease in American Solldiers Killed in Korea," Journal of the American Medical Association
Collens, W., "Atherosclerotic Disease: An Anthropologic Theory," Medical Counterpoint, pg 54
Taik Lee, Kyu, "Chemicopathologic Studies," Archives of Internal Medicine
Hausman, P., "Jack Sprat's Legacy - The Science and Politics of Fat and Cholesterol," Richard Mauk Publishers, NY, pgs 28, 196

Hydrogenated oils are part of the problem. They are not all of the problem. Cholesterol plays a major part and a great number of studies have concluded that blood syrum cholesterol is a major factor in risk of heart attack and stroke. Eat what you wish and think what you wish. But thinking a diet is healthy doesn't make it so.
 
Vegan actually. Sounds good yes it is the best thing you can do for yourself. I usually eat quite a bit of fruit. You probably have lost more body fat by now. Yeah if you are vegan or vegetarian it is better to be with someone who eats the same.
 
Not a vegetarian and don't see myself becoming one, anytime soon. However, I do limit my meat consumption to once a week. Try to eat more seafood, which is also technically meat but a lot healthier. Generally, I stick to a healthy and well-balanced diet.
 
I like that I read that you dropped meat altogether.
I was a vegetarian for a year back in 2012 to 2013; then in 2013 I started eating just really small amount of meat, mostly fish, and sometimes chicken. But, now I dropped chicken, too, and the only meat I am sticking to is fish, just because it has great nutrition values - good for my nails and hair, and skin in general.
I remember once I dropped meat, I felt healthier, too. Also, lost some weight. So, I am well aware of the stages you were going through. Good job for you!

As for food prior to cycling, I usually eat some of my mum's home-cooked food, Serbian cousine, but like 2 hours before cycling. I take one banana with me, or on apple, on the go, too.
 
babybunny said:
(Snip)

I never understood the vegan way though. Why no milk and eggs? Is it purely for health reasons or ethical ones? Cuz I figure if a chicken lays an egg I might as well eat it or else it'll go to waste. Same with milk.
It is often ethical, in my experience. Mostly around the way that larger dairy and egg farms treat their livestock. I'm also an ovo-lacto vegetarian. I often carry a couple of apples in my jersey pocket. As for what to eat before a ride? That depends on how far I plan on traveling that day.
 
I am a vegetarian for more than two years and i am cycling moderately, never did more than 120 km at once. But I realized my strength is much bigger and stamina as well. I don't feel fatigue like before. All in all i feel great. Also i am an amateur long distance runner and same thing happened in that field. I guess my body has problem to get the best from meat. I always felt so heavy after having any kind of meat except fish. Now i eat a lot of nuts, rice, quinoa, hemp seeds, veggies, fruit, legumes,flax...
 
I've tried before but it just didn't work out for me. I quit after 2 weeks. I got to have my meat!
 
p38lightning said:
Vegan.......Does that mean that you are a resident of Las Vegas?
Haha, so it can be, but there are people that abusively use the word with some diet related meaning, something similar to being vegetarian I believe.
 

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