TVP is a great protein source for vegan athletes. It has tons of protein with relatively few overall calories make it one of the best vegan protein sources overall. Side note: Soy curls are made out of TVP, it’s just a different shape. Unfortunately, some people have issues with TVP and gas. That doesn’t mean that TVP is unhealthy, but it’s inconvenient. Let’s go over why...
Studying appetite accurately is fairly difficult to do, so there’s not a lot of research about it. However, having a lack of appetite as a vegan, particularly a new vegan, is a commonly reported problem. So while I can’t give you any clear answers from research, I can summarize the most common things that cause a limited appetite in vegans. Vegans Typically Eat Way More Volume When you first go...
Adopting a vegan diet often goes one of 2 ways. Either you eat too many calories if you rely on vegan processed and prepared foods (junk for the most part). Or, you might not have much of an appetite if you focus on whole foods because of the big increase in fiber that’s typical. This is potentially dangerous if you’re significantly under eating, and can lead to things like fainting. So if...
There’s a lot of research showing that a high lysine and low arginine diet is effective at preventing herpes symptoms like cold sores from appearing. Dairy is great for getting a lot of lysine without arginine, but is not an option on a vegan diet. I’ll walk you through the best plant foods that maximize lysine intake while minimizing arginine. Lysine and Arginine: Amount Needed...
Meat withdrawal is what can happen when you stop eating meat, although it varies from person to person. When you’ve depended on something for most (if not all) of your life, and suddenly take it away, there are going to be consequences. In the case of meat withdrawal, there are both potential benefits and negative side effects from suddenly going off meat. I’ll give you an overview of...
Beano is almost certainly not vegan. For a long time, their products stated that they contained fish. It appears that those statements have been removed from their products and website, but there’s still no clearly statement that it’s vegan friendly. Ingredients in Beano Even if that is no longer an issue, there’s still another potential issue in the ingredients for Beano:...
When I first went vegan I wanted to track my food intake to see if my new diet would result in any deficiencies and health problems. This is a smart thing (in my mind) to do for any new diet, whether it’s going vegan, or other uncommon diets like keto. Two of the most popular options are Cronometer and MyFitnessPal. Both have a similar set of basic features, allowing you to track your diet and...
Refresher: Antioxidants essentially cancel out free radicals, which can damage cells and contribute to aging Studies have shown that antioxidant supplements have no positive effect on disease (some have a negative effect). So get antioxidants from foods. Your RDA depends on your caloric intake. For a 2,000 calorie diet, it’s around 10 mmols per day, keep that in mind as you read on. Get...
TVP (Textured vegetable protein), similar to soy curls, seems like a great food for vegans (or anyone really) at first. But is it good or healthy for you? Let’s go over the main ways that TVP may or may not be good for you. TVP Nutritional Profile Nutrition is the starting point for whether a food is healthy or not. Lots of vitamins and minerals? Probably healthy. Ton of sugar or trans fat...
For diets that aren’t too popular (keto, vegan, etc.), it’s always a good idea to track your nutrient intake to make sure you’re not missing anything important, which could lead to health problems. Cronometer is one of the most popular food tracking apps. It also has fitness tracking built in if you’re trying to lose or gain weight. It’s available both on desktop and mobile. I first heard about...