Vegan Diet

Eating meat is a necessity for many people, but if you look at the products in shops and restaurants, you can guess that the interest in excluding some types of food from the animal kingdom is increasing. If you do a vegan diet, you eat foods exclusively from the plant kingdom- not meat, fish, seafood, dairy products, eggs, or honey.

The health benefits of eating large amounts of vegetables are many. You can find more on this matter under the vegetarian diet section (LINK), and the health risks are small as long as you avoid getting a deficiency disease. It can be difficult to get vitamin B12, which is only found naturally in animal foods. Even iron (actually iron in ionic form) can be challenging to get insufficient amounts if you eat a vegan diet. This is because the iron in animal foods is found in a variant that is easier to absorb than vegetables. Vitamin B12 is required for the nervous system to function and form new red blood cells in the blood. Iron is found in the hemoglobin in the red blood cells, and it is precisely iron that the oxygen we breathe in binds to be transported to all the body’s cells. If you get an iron deficiency, oxygen transport decreases, and you become exhausted, dizzy, and suffer from shortness of breath.

Getting enough amounts of all vitamins and minerals is a prerequisite for survival. Therefore, it can be good to be aware of the symptoms that the deficiency diseases result in and take supplements if a deficiency occurs. You can also actively choose products enriched with vitamins and minerals to reduce the risk of a deficiency.

Protein deficiency is something you often worry about unnecessarily if you eat a vegan diet. The cells of plants, like those of animals, also consist of protein. Examples of plants that have a relatively high protein content are legumes, quinoa, and nuts. If you train to build a large muscle mass and worry about not covering your protein needs by eating a vegan diet, you can look at the gorillas’ physique. They are our closest living relatives after the chimpanzee, and they only eat plants.

For example, people with very high energy consumption, such as children and young people who grow and people who exercise a lot, may find it challenging to get enough energy if food is excluded from the diet. Being on an energy deficit if you are not overweight is not recommended. It can, in the worst-case, contribute to problems with injuries and missed periods –often in relation to doing sports. If you want to try eating a vegan diet despite high energy consumption, it may be wise to help compose your meals.

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