I had always wanted to be vegetarian for as long as I
can remember and knew I wanted to be vegan from the age of 16. I went
vegetarian at the age of 20 and my health was in general fine and I didn’t
really have any symptoms of ill health but my energy levels could have been
better and I wanted to make sure I could be as well nourished as possible. I
was also concerned about the very wide array of health problems in my family.
Going vegetarian didn’t appear to change my health for
better or worse. I would always read information from vegan organisations saying
‘Go veggie & feel great!’ ‘Go veggie and lose weight!’ and testimonials
from people saying things like ‘When I went vegan, I had so much more energy,
my skin cleared up, I was never ill….’ etc etc. I always wondered what I was
doing wrong and why I didn’t feel amazing.
 |
| tasty but not the way to be healthy as a vegan! |
In my job as a library assistant I would always find myself
picking up nutrition books and flicking through them (when I should have been
working!). I began to understand the importance of eating fresh, natural foods (rather
than veggie burgers and oven chips!) and avoiding excess refined carbohydrates
and sugar. I gradually began to eat a better
diet with more vegetables, more organic foods and more natural sources of
protein such as nuts, seeds, beans and lentils.
It took me a long time to get the hang of tofu! I read information from
unbiased sources and so I was aware of the weaknesses of the vegan diet and so
I supplemented vitamin B12, vitamin D and even long chain omega 3 fatty acid
supplements (from algae). I felt fine but always wondered why I didn’t feel fantastic.
One day my boyfriend at the time suggested to me that I
should perhaps pursue a career in nutrition and it was like a revolution to
me. For so long I wasn’t sure what I
wanted to do with my life but it made so much sense, because I was really
interested in it and wanted to learn more.
My first degree was in psychology and so I decided to train to be a
nutritional therapist, because I liked the person-centred nature of the
profession.
Prior to the course I never was particularly interested
in digestion, my interest was in maintaining optimum health and vitality. Little did I know the two were so closely
linked! Then in one of my lectures one of the lecturers said that feeling
uncomfortably full is a sign of low stomach acid and mentioned that adequate
stomach acid is necessary to correctly digest food, particularly protein, and effectively absorb
nutrients. This rang alarm bells with me
because I noticed that when I ate tofu I felt really uncomfortable. It felt like a brick in my stomach and I
would get an overwhelming craving for diet coke (which contains lots of acid)
after eating it. I went to see a student
nutritional therapist and my suspicion that I had low stomach acid was
confirmed. I undertook a programme to
increase stomach acid levels* and my health was transformed! I
finally had that feeling of vitality I had been reading about and felt I
deserved! There was no way I would have
discovered this from books in the library or information from animal charities
and I felt so glad that after 7 years I knew I could be healthy and have plenty
of energy as a vegan. And so the transition took me a very long time but I am now happy and healthy as a vegan and I only wish I could have made the transition sooner.
*this should only be done under the supervision of a qualified nutritional therapist.
 |
| protein deficient, really? |
Although I was symptom free after addressing my digestive issue I was still made to feel bad about my dietary choice. I was told that my diet was low in protein when in my food diary there was protein absolutely everywhere and body composition scales revealed my muscle mass was well above average.
I was also told that the vitamin B-complex I was taking was not high strength enough and that I needed to take a higher strength one and vitamin B12 drops on top of this. I agree that vegans should keep an eye on their vitamin B12 status but given that I had the energy to work full time, do a degree level diploma, go on my cross trainer several times per week and have ice skating lessons I feel it was unlikely that I was deficient or heading for pernicious anaemia. (I did not listen to this advice & later had a blood test which revealed that my B12 status was fine and my folic acid was too high!)
I was also advised to double my dose of omega 3 supplements because I was not eating any fish, but again, given that I was symptom free I didn't understand what the justification for this was supposed to be.
My mission is now to
be the person I wish I had known who would have helped me embrace plant-based
cuisine and devised a personalised nutritional strategy to help me maintain
optimal health whilst staying true to my ethics.
No comments:
Post a Comment