| Rogerioandrade said: It´s ok if you think differently, but everything I said I learned directly from them, and them being true vegans. I´d rather trust in statements from people who actually follow a true vegan lifestyle than from dubious internet articles. Just as a side note, they´re vegans for religious and phylosofical reasons, not for health-related reasons. |
I wouldn't suggest you trust random internet articles over anecdotal evidence from trusted friends, but I would suggest you trust well designed and respected scientific studies with good methods and controls over anecdotal evidence.
However, you suggested that someone considering going plant-based should expect tonnes of doctor's visits and to take piles of supplements. That has been the opposite of my experience. And unlike your friends, I have a health and wellness approach to being on a plant-based diet, which perhaps explains their different experience (as they may not be avoiding processed foods, or embracing whole foods, to the degree that I am).
I'm on a strictly plant-based diet, and the only supplement I now take is vitamin D. When I was an omnivore I took a pile of supplements: I directly consumed vitamin C, vitamin D, a calcium-magnesium combo, lysine, and I indirectly supplemented vitamin B12 by eating factory farmed animals who were given B12 supplements. As an omnivore I ate far less food, in the interests of weight management. By ditching all the meat, dairy, and eggs (all of which are calorie-dense foods) I now get to eat more food in total, I get more nutrients per calorie, and the two together means I get a substantial increase in my nutrient consumption. A varied plant-based diet covering all the bases (fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, and legumes), combined with consuming more nutrients, has allowed me to ditch all those supplements. And there's no shortage of evidence that getting nutrients in one's diet is far more effective than getting them from supplements, and that some supplements may do more harm than good (if you're even getting what the bottle says you're getting, which you often aren't as there's a lot of fraud and very little oversight in the nutritional supplements industry). The only reason I still take vitamin D is that it's not even a vitamin; despite its name it's actually a hormone and it's almost impossible to get it in diet (the only way I'm aware of to get vitamin D in one's diet is to eat mushrooms that have been exposed to UV while they grew).
As for doctor's visits, I haven't even so much as had a cold since I went entirely plant-based, let alone a symptom that suggests a nutrient deficiency (despite all the nutrient deficiencies I had when I was an omnivore), so I've had no reason to visit the doctor since the switch.
You can create a bad omnivorous diet, or a bad vegan diet. The only difference is that it's far easier to create a good vegan diet, as a whole food plant-based diet means more total food consumed (for a given amount of calories) and the opportunity to get not only more nutrients but a wider array of nutrients in your body. It's fact that animal foods on average have more calories, and it's fact that plant foods on average have more nutrients per calorie, so you can't help but get more nutrients on a varied whole-food plant-based if you keep your calories the same.
