Ask HN: What are your experiences switching to a plant-based diet?
Just got my mind blown by "Game Changers" on Netflix and all the world-class athletes eating plants only. For those who love meat, how did you make your transition easier?
17 comments
Vegetarian since 2004 here. Not Vegan yet, but maybe one day. Never once ate meat on purpose since then.
I never loved meat, and I never felt the desire to eat it after I switched (actually, I only declared myself vegetarian after I realized I had no desire to eat meat anymore).
I used to live in a place where pretty much everything had meat on it, even the salad. Although vegans existed there, switching to vegan would add a lot of extra trouble to my life. Over the years the veg(etari)an population increased a lot, and so did my options. Now I moved to a city where pretty much every restaurant has a vegetarian option, and that's great.
Health-wise, I can't say it improved or got worse. It's just that you have a different set of problems to avoid. Before I had to worry about cholesterol and fat and salt and all these other "common" problems. Now I have to worry about B12, too much carb, lack of Iron and Calcium. Every diet has pitfalls to avoid.
I had one major problem with B12 back in the day. Now I get regularly tested for B12 levels and correct it before it completely destroys my life. Never had problems with proteins or iron. I love beans.
I eat a lot of carb, and I have a prominent belly to prove it. I never had a problem building muscle or getting stronger because of the vegetarian diet: I can easily get stronger every time I go back to lifting weights, and I also build cardio just fine when I exercise.
Got heavily bullied with "vegetarian jokes". I always hit them back with jokes about their defects.
The "less educated" part of my family got very confused when they found out I (male) had a girlfriend. After all, I was vegetarian. To them, it was an obvious tell that I'm gay. I'm still with her, even had some kids. Neither wife or kids are vegetarian.
I never loved meat, and I never felt the desire to eat it after I switched (actually, I only declared myself vegetarian after I realized I had no desire to eat meat anymore).
I used to live in a place where pretty much everything had meat on it, even the salad. Although vegans existed there, switching to vegan would add a lot of extra trouble to my life. Over the years the veg(etari)an population increased a lot, and so did my options. Now I moved to a city where pretty much every restaurant has a vegetarian option, and that's great.
Health-wise, I can't say it improved or got worse. It's just that you have a different set of problems to avoid. Before I had to worry about cholesterol and fat and salt and all these other "common" problems. Now I have to worry about B12, too much carb, lack of Iron and Calcium. Every diet has pitfalls to avoid.
I had one major problem with B12 back in the day. Now I get regularly tested for B12 levels and correct it before it completely destroys my life. Never had problems with proteins or iron. I love beans.
I eat a lot of carb, and I have a prominent belly to prove it. I never had a problem building muscle or getting stronger because of the vegetarian diet: I can easily get stronger every time I go back to lifting weights, and I also build cardio just fine when I exercise.
Got heavily bullied with "vegetarian jokes". I always hit them back with jokes about their defects.
The "less educated" part of my family got very confused when they found out I (male) had a girlfriend. After all, I was vegetarian. To them, it was an obvious tell that I'm gay. I'm still with her, even had some kids. Neither wife or kids are vegetarian.
>I had one major problem with B12 back in the day. Now I get regularly tested for B12 levels and correct it before it completely destroys my life.
If it's not too sensitive, can you elaborate on how it completely destroyed your life? Genuinely curious.
A cursory search suggests fatigue and poor cognitive performance can result from B12 deficiency. It seems likely that mental health issues can easily follow from that.
If it's not too sensitive, can you elaborate on how it completely destroyed your life? Genuinely curious.
A cursory search suggests fatigue and poor cognitive performance can result from B12 deficiency. It seems likely that mental health issues can easily follow from that.
I should have worded the sentence differently lol, it did not completely destroy my life. But I assume that if it kept undiagnosed it would at some point? I read some bad stories about it once I started researching the problem.
I had some really really really really bad mood problems, poor cognitive performance and extreme fatigue.
I had some really really really really bad mood problems, poor cognitive performance and extreme fatigue.
No worries, in retrospect it was an incorrect assumption on my part. That said, glad to hear your life wasn't completely destroyed! Definitely sounds like it wasn't pleasant.
For what it's worth, I've a similar story with respect to recently identifying casein in my diet as potentially problematic. My whole life I've simply ate moderate amounts of cheese sans any milk, until earlier this year I started consuming milk on a regular basis. Eventually consumption would result in an immediate mucosal reaction, which was usually followed by terrible effects on cognition and mood. It may explain why I was pretty much in the worst mental health state I've ever been in at the time.
Discontinued all milk/cheese a couple months ago, and now I've no more crippling panic attacks, with dramatically less hypomanic periods. Unfortunately there's multiple factors and dimensions at play, so I can't categorically say that was it, but it almost certainly played a considerable role.
It's really crazy the effect diet can have in some situations. Things you think nothing of can ruin you.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1399-5618....
For what it's worth, I've a similar story with respect to recently identifying casein in my diet as potentially problematic. My whole life I've simply ate moderate amounts of cheese sans any milk, until earlier this year I started consuming milk on a regular basis. Eventually consumption would result in an immediate mucosal reaction, which was usually followed by terrible effects on cognition and mood. It may explain why I was pretty much in the worst mental health state I've ever been in at the time.
Discontinued all milk/cheese a couple months ago, and now I've no more crippling panic attacks, with dramatically less hypomanic periods. Unfortunately there's multiple factors and dimensions at play, so I can't categorically say that was it, but it almost certainly played a considerable role.
It's really crazy the effect diet can have in some situations. Things you think nothing of can ruin you.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1399-5618....
Look up debunking of that program to make sure you are getting a balanced perspective. I’m not saying a plant-based diet it not going to improve your health, I’m saying that the show has an agenda, so balancing that out with an opposing view is important.
I was vegan for 2-3 years. Because I ate more bread, I gained 10 lbs. It was miserable to eat out, having to double check what various ingredients were and finding I could usually only eat fries. I stopped because I was feeling unhealthy, but I was young and I think I could do better these days. Specifically, I think I was actually deficient in SALT, since when I feel the same way these days salty foods fixes it immediately. Interestingly, it is hard to get enough cholesterol as a vegan so I was eating a silly number of avocados
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Easier? It was effortlessly easy. I guess I thought I'd miss meat, but never have, not once. Just a habit I guess, like a lot of things.
Well, I went vegan not for dietary reasons, but because it dawned on me that treating animals as if their lives have no value except to serve humans, as if their suffering doesn't matter, is irrational, cruel and wrong. That was 25+ years ago, have had no health or other problems. Have never really worried about my diet at all – a balanced diet and all that, I mean, I just eat what I feel like. I only think about it when talking about it like this. Good luck!
p.s. Some other commenters mentioned B12, I read about that in the beginning as one thing you don't get in a vegan diet, but as it's added as a standard supplement to soy (and other) milks these days, I haven't had to worry about it.
Well, I went vegan not for dietary reasons, but because it dawned on me that treating animals as if their lives have no value except to serve humans, as if their suffering doesn't matter, is irrational, cruel and wrong. That was 25+ years ago, have had no health or other problems. Have never really worried about my diet at all – a balanced diet and all that, I mean, I just eat what I feel like. I only think about it when talking about it like this. Good luck!
p.s. Some other commenters mentioned B12, I read about that in the beginning as one thing you don't get in a vegan diet, but as it's added as a standard supplement to soy (and other) milks these days, I haven't had to worry about it.
Before you make any life altering decisions and stick to them dogmatically to your potential detriment it's best to investigate extraordinary claims. Especially when it's in a compelling narrative like a movie.
https://elementnutri.com/myth-busting/the-game-changers-debu...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq4Apc2Xk7Q
IMHO: Vegetarian is well established (millennia old cultures have been veg for 100+ generations) and good to go. Eating eggs, milk products, honey and fish is, all things considered, just fine and dandy.
On top of that if we all just stopped eating beef the world would be a lot better place.
https://elementnutri.com/myth-busting/the-game-changers-debu...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq4Apc2Xk7Q
IMHO: Vegetarian is well established (millennia old cultures have been veg for 100+ generations) and good to go. Eating eggs, milk products, honey and fish is, all things considered, just fine and dandy.
On top of that if we all just stopped eating beef the world would be a lot better place.
I had a mostly vegetarian diet for 4 years.
Very hard to get enough proteins to build muscle.
Hard to lose fat without losing muscle.
I'm not saying it's impossible as there are vegan athletes proving it, but I found it significantly harder.
Your best bet is something like soylent or supplement.
After a very stressful period I started experiencing stomach problems, immune system problems, lack of sleep, depression. I tried changing a bit of everything and moving my diet to meat, eggs and vegetable made a huge difference; while I think it was mainly stress related, somehow a more varied diet helped me.
In the end I think it's better to worry about finding your balance more than following some ready made recipe.
Your best bet is something like soylent or supplement.
After a very stressful period I started experiencing stomach problems, immune system problems, lack of sleep, depression. I tried changing a bit of everything and moving my diet to meat, eggs and vegetable made a huge difference; while I think it was mainly stress related, somehow a more varied diet helped me.
In the end I think it's better to worry about finding your balance more than following some ready made recipe.
bought a copy of the vegetarian flavor bible as a kitchen reference
i have found it beneficial to graduate from a “recipe mindset” into cultivating an intuitive, integrated command of tasty, flavorful combinations
flavor bible has been a wonderful tool for training this intuition
i have found it beneficial to graduate from a “recipe mindset” into cultivating an intuitive, integrated command of tasty, flavorful combinations
flavor bible has been a wonderful tool for training this intuition
If you decide to go to a plant-based diet, do check out vegetarian cuisine from Northern region in India. The cuisine has been perfected since more than 2000+ years.
It's surprisingly easy. It turns out that whatever you eat consistently for a few weeks starts to seem like "food". I've been vegan for 20 years and switched overnight after reading "Diet for a New America" by John Robbins (the combination of animal welfare, health, and environment really sold me). I used to be a huge meat-eater but within a few weeks I didn't really miss it at all.
Vegan for 10 years. Feel great when eating whole food plant based, get sick much less (and shorter durations) than before. Only thing I stumble on is junk food temptation, so many unhealthy but tasty vegan options now.
If you want to eat healthy, download the free app: Daily Dozen (a non profit made it) - it's super simple and gives you basic guidelines how to do it right each day.
If you want to eat healthy, download the free app: Daily Dozen (a non profit made it) - it's super simple and gives you basic guidelines how to do it right each day.
Vegan for 2+ years here, went from daily meat eater to entirely plant-based overnight because I can't do slow transitions lol. I used to have some digestive issues that the plant-based diet did wonders for, heartburn and nausea used to be daily occurences and are pretty much completely gone now - likely due to cutting out dairy which appears to be the biggest offender for issues like these. It's been easier to keep a stable weight which is probably because eating plant-based kinda forces you to cut out a lot of junk and convenience food since they're not that widely available yet. On the other hand there are a lot of meat and milk/cheese replacements available nowadays that should make the transition a lot easier.
Expect some gastrointestinal discomfort in the beginning, especially if you consumed a lot of meat and dairy before. From what I understand your gut flora needs time to adjust to the new diet, and your body likely isn't used to the amount of fiber and plant-based proteins which can cause some bloating and other issues for the first couple weeks, but this subsides and goes back to normal if you keep at it. I second the suggestion of checking out local cuisines from cultures with a vegetarian history, I've found that especially Asian cuisine offers a lot of variety and flexibility.
As for the effects beyond diet itself, I went through a hardcore activism phase when I just made the switch (and pissed off everyone around me :D) - but I've found that no matter if you do it for ethical, environmental, or health reasons, people usually don't really want to hear about it anyway. Let others open up the conversation, and direct them towards further resources (like Netflix documentaries) if they show interest. Vegetarian and vegan jokes get pretty boring pretty quick, nowadays I don't even register them anymore lol.
Bottom line, and back to diet, don't be afraid to try new foods and dishes, and make it your goal to find out what works for you - some swear on whole-foods plant-based (check out Dr. Greger for some good resources on this) while others are fine with a "junk food vegan" diet. It would be a good idea to get your blood levels checked (as with any other dietary change), you might need to take some extra precautions for B12 (at least) and possibly Vitamin D and iron but supplements are cheap and easily available so it shouldn't be too much of a hassle. Take as much time as you need, you're already taking the right steps towards better health and a more sustainable diet.
Expect some gastrointestinal discomfort in the beginning, especially if you consumed a lot of meat and dairy before. From what I understand your gut flora needs time to adjust to the new diet, and your body likely isn't used to the amount of fiber and plant-based proteins which can cause some bloating and other issues for the first couple weeks, but this subsides and goes back to normal if you keep at it. I second the suggestion of checking out local cuisines from cultures with a vegetarian history, I've found that especially Asian cuisine offers a lot of variety and flexibility.
As for the effects beyond diet itself, I went through a hardcore activism phase when I just made the switch (and pissed off everyone around me :D) - but I've found that no matter if you do it for ethical, environmental, or health reasons, people usually don't really want to hear about it anyway. Let others open up the conversation, and direct them towards further resources (like Netflix documentaries) if they show interest. Vegetarian and vegan jokes get pretty boring pretty quick, nowadays I don't even register them anymore lol.
Bottom line, and back to diet, don't be afraid to try new foods and dishes, and make it your goal to find out what works for you - some swear on whole-foods plant-based (check out Dr. Greger for some good resources on this) while others are fine with a "junk food vegan" diet. It would be a good idea to get your blood levels checked (as with any other dietary change), you might need to take some extra precautions for B12 (at least) and possibly Vitamin D and iron but supplements are cheap and easily available so it shouldn't be too much of a hassle. Take as much time as you need, you're already taking the right steps towards better health and a more sustainable diet.
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Just get pre-made veggie burgers as a transitioning phase. Slowly but surely you will adjust your cooking, and it'll be easier to make your own burgers, which then becomes a side dish.