| ampersand said: One of my very close friends is Vegan and I can say that she does not have nearly the stomach and digestive issues I do. She also has a great overall taste. |
That's an interesting observation. One I recently made myself, as it kind of happened "under the radar" for me. I thought I was healthy as a pescetarian (and thought I was healthy as an omnivore before that). While I didn't have any major health issues, the devil's in the details. I used to get occasional brief bouts of upset stomach a couple of times a week. No big deal, usually just a few hours, and it had happened my whole life, so it was normal to me. I realized after being on a strictly plant-based diet for a while that it doesn't happen to me anymore, I can't remember the last time I had an upset stomach. I'm not sure if it was a digestive issue (all meat/dairy/eggs are bad for digestion), or whether it was occasional mild bouts of food poisoning (food poisoning is far more common with animal products, much rarer with plant-based options). I used to be a lot more flatulent, and not being so may be due to digestive improvements too.
I used to get a white film on my tongue. I used to have to scrub it like crazy with my toothbrush to keep it under control. That's largely gone now.
My dental health is amazing, and I no longer get any plaque or tartar on my teeth, thanks to all the green tea I now drink. Green tea is naturally ant-microbial and anti-viral, and it kills the bacteria that causes plaque, so each day I swish some around in my mouth before drinking it, just to stay on top of that. Amla, which is powdered indian gooseberry, de-activates the bacteria that causes plaque, so I add some of that to my green tea.
Perhaps it would have been possible to get some of these benefits simply by reducing my consumption of meat and other animal products, but certainly not all of them (eating even small amounts of meat regularly reduce the bio-diversity of your gut bacteria, due to the toxic compounds created in the colon as they're digested). And it's simply easier to hit all the marks nutritionally with plant foods as (on average) they have far more nutrients per calorie, so by eating animal products (and especially eggs, as they are the worst offender here) you're choosing to get fewer total nutrients than if you ate that amount of calories in a mix of whole plant foods. Plants have a much wider variety of nutrients too, especially phyto-nutrients (an entire class of nutrients that have all sorts of great effects, especially anti-cancer effects, and are exclusive to plant foods).
I used to get cold scores like crazy, it sucked. I used to take a dozen pills a day to keep it under control, and took prescription anti-virals with me everywhere I went in case the pills failed to keep it in check. Meat/dairy/eggs are immuno-suppressing overall, whereas plant-based foods are immuno-boosting, so that makes perfect sense. But it's a joy to no longer fight cold sores every day of my life.
As an omnivore (and later as a pescetarian) I used to have a lot skin problems (not on my face, but on my butt and other parts of my body), and that has largely cleared up.
I used to get sick (cold and flu) several times a year, like most people. In the 20 months since going strictly plant-based, I have been sick only once. And I've stayed healthy despite a lot of work-related stress over that time, so that's been really enjoyable. :)
There have been other minor health improvements too, but those are the ones that stand out for me. Like I say, compared to most people I was already really healthy. Because of that I didn't go plant-based for health reasons. So the health benefits showing up were a real surprise, but have been great.
My experience is anecdotal, but obviously since it's my experience it's strong motivation for me to continue. While there's not one known disease related to failing to eat enough meat/dairy/eggs, there's a long list of diseases correlated to not eating enough whole plant foods, so my experience makes sense when one looks at the science. And since sometimes the first clue that you have a health problem related to eating animal products might be a heart attack or a stroke, it's not a good plan to wait for symptoms to show up to make a change.
Last edited by scrapking - on 29 November 2017
