Do you need to cut out animal products to be “healthy”?
A vegan diet is plant-based without any animal products. Many argue that we should reduce our consumption of animals and animal products for our wellbeing and the health of our planet. Whether or not you choose to become vegan, eating more vegetables is never a bad idea. That being said, eating vegan doesn’t automatically make you healthier. Let’s take a closer look as to why.
Why Choose To Become A Vegan
Before discussing if a vegan diet is healthy, we must first look at the reasons why people choose this lifestyle.
Environment
Producing animal products requires A LOT of resources. By reducing production, we can reduce the impact we have on the environment.
Animal Rights
The production of animal products is a HUGE business. Like with any industry, you’ll find people put profit above the welfare of the animals.
There are countless examples of animals getting treated poorly.
Culture
Some cultures have either veganism or vegetarianism as part of their culture.
Social Influence
Many people become vegans because their favorite celebrity or influencer preaches it.
Health
Some become vegan because of health reasons. We will discuss whether or not that’s a good idea in this article.
Healthy Vegan vs. Unhealthy Vegan
Many believe that becoming vegan will automatically make them healthy. When really it depends on how you do it.
WildFit believes that your health is far more determined on how much of the good stuff you get in, rather than the bad stuff you remove.
If the consequence of removing animal products makes you eat more vegetables, fruits, and nuts, then there is a good chance that this will have a positive effect on your health.
If removing it results in an increase in grains and refined sugar, then it won’t have the same impact. Actually it can have the opposite effect.
Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor. You should always consult with professionals for medical and nutritional advice.
Is A Vegan Diet Optimal For Your Body?
If we look at human history, there’s no doubt that we’ve been eating meat for a long time. Meaning it has a place in the human diet.
With that said, if you became vegan for environmental or animal rights reasons, I’m not going to try and convince you otherwise.
Many of us (me included) consume WAY TO MUCH meat and a break from it wouldn’t be so bad. It would probably do some good.
If you intend to be a healthy vegan, then it will require research and a decent amount food preparation, but then again, so does healthy eating in general.
What’s your opinion the consumption of animal products? Comment below!
10 thoughts on “Is A Vegan Diet Healthy?”
Your article tells me nothing I don’t already know and I doubt that it will inform anyone with less knowledge than I have
Hi Ann.
What would you like to know more about?
It’s a shame when Veganism is reduced to a “diet”. It’s a lifestyle that doesn’t support the unnecessary suffering and cruelty towards innocent beings that, like you and I, want to live.
Cows Milk is meant for baby cows, the dairy industry steals the milk intended for the babies to make products that our bodies aren’t meant to process. Most people will agree animal abuse is wrong however they still pay and support it, with money, and ultimately at the detriment of their health and the health of our environment.
I agree with the obvious…yes we eat too much meat, companies strive for profit over quality, and cruelty to the animals is disgusting. I try to buy grass fed meat and organic when I can, but most of the time it is just too expensive. So we eat a little less, and I love making both some vegetarian and vegan recipies.
But…I have a neighbor who has turned extreme Vegan…She will pay a lot of money for products that replace meat, dairy, etc…most of that very expensive. I really do not believe that is healthy. Eat the real thing…just less of it!
She is also will make people feel so guilty because of the industry, the cruelty etc.
We need to do a lot of things for our health, our planet…how do you do that? That is a huge question. I am very grateful that I took the Wildfit course. It was excellent! I have returned to some things…ie cream in my coffee in the morning..I usually only have two cups! I have not forgotten though and will go to the facebook community more..I appreciate this email.
One thing I really wish that there was more is another recipe book! I had the one I got I had printed and love it…need another one.!!! I appreciate this email! Denyse
Personally, I would prefer to avoid eating meat because like a friend of mine said: “I prefer to hug animals than to eat them”. For one thing, I would prefer to let animals live in peace (nobody wants to be eaten, even animals). Another reason I would prefer to avoid eating animals is that in today’s world alas, I see that profits are more important than health. Animals raised for human consumption are often fed substances such as growth hormones and antibiotics that are neither healthy for humans nor for the animals who are forced to take them. Another reason I would prefer to be vegetarian is that animals raised for human consumption are often treated in absolutely abject ways!
Now that being said, I have to say that about 20 years ago, I WAS a vegetarian. I read the books and I was a member of an organization called the “Natural Hygienic Society” (it is now called The Natural Health Society) and I attended their conferences. I was an enthusiastic supporter of a vegetarian lifestyle…that is until I started having problems such as MASSIVE hypoglycemia, hair loss (my hair was falling out by clumps like if I was undergoing chemotherapy!), bruises and cuts that refused to heal (I had purples scars), brain fog all the time, I was bloated all the time and my body turned into the most disgusting stinky fart manufacture you could have ever imagined! (I ate legumes like kidney beans, black beans and all the likes for proteins) AND before I started being vegetarian, I weighted 145 lbs. After about a year of vegetarianism, I went up to a wooping 185 lbs!!!! 50 freaking pounds of disgusting fat clung to me! And it was right around my waistline (I had what I called a “self-floatation device. If I had been thrown off a boat, I would have floated with that yucky fat). I now believe I was on my way to becoming diabetic! Lovely! To say that I was depressed and discouraged was a gross understatement. I started praying to God because I could no longer live like this. To make a long story short, I obtained my miracle. One day, while I had to wait for a contractor to come to our tenant’s house, I was walking around lost in my thoughts and one of my feet hit their bookshelf. A book fell open and I caught it with my hands. I was a bit surprised. When I looked in the book on the page where it was open and I started reading, I also started bawling! It was describing the symptoms I had! This was the book “The Zone Diet”!!! I bought the book, read it and restarted eating chicken and fish. The results were nothing short of miraculous: within a matter of DAYS the brain fog was gone! I stopped eating legumes and the bloating and gases disappeared. Within a matter of a few weeks, the scars healed and so did the bruises, my hair stopped falling and finally, the excess of fat that had clung to me for so long melted like if I were a snowman in spring!
Today, I am still a meat eater although I stay away completely from commercial beef (I only eat organic buffalo meat occasionally). Salmon and fish are my preferred sources of protein although I eat, frankly, I think too much chicken even though it is labeled “organic”. I eat duck eggs which I buy from a lovely lady at the Farmers’ Market who raises her ducks in Sonoma in a totally natural way (they roam free on her farm). My fruit and vegetables come mostly from the Farmers’s market. I eat A LOT of vegetables (my husband teases me and says to me he wonders in between me and a cow who eats more greens). Dandelion greens and other bitter leafy vegetables are part of my daily “livet” (I refused to use the word “diet” as I eat to live, NOT TO DIE!) as well as cucumber, bell peppers, purple cabbage, jicama, etc. I also enjoy eating organic or at least pesticide-free fruit.
A few years ago, I managed to eliminate ALL refined sugar from the substances I eat. I eliminated milk products too. I also almost completely eliminated all grains from my food (no more cereals, pastries, bread, rice). I occasionally eat a pizza made with dough but that is also something I intend to eliminate as I know it is not the healthiest. As you can imagine, legumes have been OUT of my lifestyle for many years. I don’t care about what anybody says regarding the health benefits of eating legumes: I am a woman with dignity and turning into a disgusting fart manufacture is NOT FOR ME! No amount of soaking and rinsing has worked for me so no more beans for me, thank you very much!
I now weigh 140-145 lbs (I am 5 foot 7) which is A LOT healthier than 185 lbs, I exercise regularly and I am A LOT healthier than back then when I was a vegetarian with all those health problems.
Despite all those challenges, I am still open to the idea of becoming a vegetarian again but IF and WHEN I embarked on that journey, I would definitely consult with a health professional who could guide me to become a HEALTHY and VIBRANT vegetarian. I will NEVER again allow myself to go through the hell I went through back then, EVER! PERIOD!
I think being vegan is very good for you, the healthy way. Too many lives are taken for convenience’s sake, and antiquated culture/traditions. I think some vegan products are not very good, but then again, they are also convenience products. I would rather have vegan convenience products (that don’t kill anyone) once in a while, amongst a myriad of other nutrition sources, including a lot of lower oxalate fresh greens, fruits, nuts and seeds, as well as whole organic cereal (not sprayed or artificially grown with unnatural chemicals).
I think it is funny that with the break down of so called family values, some of the long standing traditions of gathering around the well roasted, well stewed (or sometimes even raw) carcasses of animals still has the hold it had, when nearly no one hunts for food. I feel we should all, within the possible become gardeners for our own sakes and grow some of our own food, and pay local gardeners for the rest, as much as humanly possible.
Good points in the article and agreed that everyone would benefit for a lower consumption of animal products. One distinction is worth mentioning: a vegan diet is motivated mostly by ethical reasons such as saving animals and the planet and it is not really concerned with the health aspect of the person who takes on such a diet, usually them choosing to consume many processed vegan products; a whole foods plant based diet also entails abstaining from any animal derived products, however, the motivating factor for making such a dietary change is usually the person’s own health therefore they will usually choose nutritionally dense whole foods and very little processed products therefore this is a healthier version of a vegan diet.
I have never had an issue with eating meat. A high % of the animal kingdom do. We are simply part of that. What I do object to is the way animals are reared and treated to feed a small % of the worlds population that don’t have regard for what it is, where it came from or have gratitude for the food in front of them. I don’t have regard for the food manufacturers who are destroying he human race with food that is not good for us and is blatantly destroying the world through stripping it of essential resources.
I have moved significantly to plant based which has resulted in amazing health results. Yes I still have a small amount of animal protein, but I spend more on the small amount I buy from reputable sources than the amount I used to spend on a lot more.
Thank you so much for sharing Heidi.
This is a brief and a really nice article. I want to be a healthy vegan, transitioning from vegetarian diet. It is very interesting to see that you understand a lot about why being vegan is healthy and you accepts that you don’t follow it. I am just curious to understand why people even after understanding it don’t try to change, like if I may ask what stops you to become a vegan if you understand all this? Thank you.