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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookI have friends on the Lifeforce Plan that is an anti-candida detox that emphasizes animal sources of protein. So far I have had no lathargy due to low absorbable protein. But I read that genetics may play a factor in whether an individual can absorb adequate vegetable protein. I have no family line of vegans. I was a vegetanian at 11 years old for one year. I ate salads but little variety of vegetables and no beans. I ate cheese and nuts for protein. After about a year I started to have stiff joints in my hands. My family freaked out and insisted I start eating meat. The stiffness went away when I started eating meat. I was fine until 32 when I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and arthritis. So this research concerns me. I would prefer to be vegan but have been unsure about the research on vegetable sources of protein. I have been looking for recipes using beans but few exist.
So are most of you who are vegan and healthy from a vegan family line or were you like me, a SAD eater? I would have considered my diet very unhealthy considering but no where as bad as the average american.
Comments
Maybe you would find this page from my website interesting, it has a lot of info about why anyone with a human body is best off eating vegan.
Well, considering that the human body was intended to consume [at least some] meat, I personally feel that the only reason to remove it from the diet should be either (1) moral (ie, don’t want to support the meat industry), or (2) out of fear of polluting the body with artificial hormones, antibiotics, etc.
But since my family obtains meat as nature intended (hunting & fishing) and retains the utmost respect for animal life AND death, I have no moral or health concerns about eating meat:)
Interestingly enough, before turning to the raw diet, meat was just about the only food group that I could eat without suffering digestive problems. Though I know people for whom it’s the other way around. Guess it’s different for every body.
I had fibromyalgia for a while after my son was born and i never knew what was causing it. I also had depression and anxiety and suspected there was something in my diet that i was reacting to. I went raw in June of ‘07 and all those problems went away completely. I am not totally vegan but i only eat raw fish about 1-2 times per month, and homemade goat milk yogurt or raw cheese once or twice a week. Ideally i want to be vegan because i believe that there is no real physiological need for us to rely upon animal protein. However, i listen to my body and give it what it asks for.
What really helped me to understand what the human body needs was reading Spiritual Nutrition by Dr. Gabriel Cousens. He advocates a totally vegan raw diet for optimum health and to cure all manner of disease. It is important to understand that probably %95 of what you read about diet is based on misinformation and outdated nutritional information—that’s why your family thinks that you can’t be healthy without eating meat. Most people believe that, and it’s what their doctors tell them.
It’s entirely possible that your stiff joints were caused by the increase of dairy consumption since you were relying upon that for your protein. Many arthritis suffers notice that dairy products greatly increase their discomfort. I just spoke with someone at Dr. Cousens’ Tree of Life center the other day, and we both agreed that of all the animal products a human could eat, dairy is the worst and most dangerous to our system—it is completely unnatural to consume the milk of another animal and our bodies react strongly to it in a number of ways. Even if you do include flesh in your diet, you should at least try a month of living dairy-free and see how you feel.
You can get plenty of protein on a raw diet without eating meat. As Cousens explains in his book, we don’t need nearly as much protein as the average (American) human consumes. But if you are psychologically dependent upon it, that may trick your body into thinking it needs meat. Instead of just cutting it out, maybe you could try gradually reducing the amount of animal protein while increasing the nuts and sprouted legumes temporarily. After a while you may find that you feel just fine with primarily fruits and veggies and if you stick with that, i can tell you from experience that you will feel better all over.
One more thing i wanted to mention…getting processed foods out of my diet was the most important change i made. I finally realized that MSG was causing the majority of my symptoms and MSG is in most processed foods (often it is called something else—see www.msgfacts.org). If you are eating anything that has an ingredient list, it could be suspect. By the way, the most prominent symptom i have when i’ve eaten MSG is stiff, sore joints in my hands and feet.
Good luck to you! m7