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Monday, January 11, 2021

What is the Best Way to Prevent Dementia and Alzheimer’s?

 

Prevent Dementia and Alzheimer’s - I don’t think there is anything as widely faired as dementia. Most of us would rather go fast than have our brains wither away. A new study from York University therefore comes as welcomed news. It proves that learning one thing can help you halt, even prevent the onset of dementia.

Click Here for Help with Alzheimer’s, Other Types of Dementia and General Memory Loss



Prevent Dementia and Alzheimer’s - Learning This Halts Dementia

I don’t think there is anything as widely faired as dementia.

Most of us would rather go fast than have our brains wither away.

A new study from York University therefore comes as welcomed news.

It proves that learning one thing can help you halt, even prevent the onset of dementia.

Researchers recruited 158 people who had all been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment. They ensured that all the subjects were similar in age, education level, and their level of cognitive function.

They tested their memories every six years over a 5-year period.

The researchers calculated how long it took them to progress from mild cognitive impairment to full-blown Alzheimer’s disease and compared the two groups.

Interestingly, while it took the monolingual people 2.6 years to convert, the bilingual people took only 1.8 years.

But does this mean that bilingualism is a bad thing?

It’s actually the opposite!

The bilingual patients actually had more neurological brain damage than the monolingual people had at the time they were all diagnosed with the mild impairment.

Their cognitive function was similar when diagnosed with mild impairment, but that does not mean their neurological damage was the same.

Bilingual people have a larger cognitive reserve than monolingual people.

By cognitive reserve, researchers mean that more of our brains get used more often, building stronger neural connections that can serve us well when parts of our brains start to deteriorate.

Language has neuroplastic benefits. Neuroplasticity refers to the process whereby our brains build new physical connections and pathways between neurons and synapses in response to our environments. These synapses can also change permanently if we continue to learn and develop.

We use language all day long and thereby activate regions throughout our whole brains and constantly strengthen those connections.

If we speak and think in two or even more languages, we multiply that benefit.

Doing puzzles or number games can also have a similar effect.

This is why bilingual people function as well as monolingual people do even if they have much worse neurological damage.

In other words, their mild cognitive impairment would have been diagnosed years earlier if they had not built up this cognitive reserve through their bilingualism.

Learning languages and doing puzzles is good for the brain, but to really prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s, you need to load your brain with one “ingredient” it’s lacking. I’ll explain this in details here…

Prevent Dementia and Alzheimer’s - These Delicious Foods Stop Alzheimer’s Development

Occasionally scientists stumble onto information that is promising not only for people who suffer from diseases, but also for those who just enjoy good food.

A recent study concluded that some genuinely tasty foods may be able to control Alzheimer’s disease even better than drugs.

If you enjoy researching natural health topics and following a naturally healthy lifestyle, you have probably heard of polyphenols, the chemicals found in red wine, red grapes, berries, and several other food types. They are powerful antioxidants, which explains why naturopaths recommend them so liberally.

An increasing number of researchers have become interested in the ability of one of these polyphenols to prevent and slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. It is called resveratrol, and is a prominent ingredient in red wine, red grapes, pomegranate, dark chocolate, peanuts, and soybeans.

In September 2015, Neurology distributed an article in which a team of American researchers demonstrated that resveratrol might be an effective Alzheimer’s disease treatment.

Researchers divided 119 Alzheimer’s patients into groups that either received resveratrol or a placebo. The resveratrol group started with 500 mg per day, escalated by 500 mg every 13 weeks, for an eventual total of 2 g per day.

By the end of the year, the resveratrol group had approximately the same levels of amyloid-beta40 (Abeta40) in their blood and cerebrospinal fluid as at the beginning of the experiment. The placebo group, on the other hand, had substantially lower levels, an effect that usually accompanies the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

An MRI scan also revealed that the swelling of the brains of the resveratrol subjects had diminished considerably.

While some participants complained of nausea, diarrhea, and weight loss, resveratrol was relatively free of side effects.

The authors warned that they had used a special pharmaceutical-grade resveratrol and claimed that you would have to drink about 1,000 bottles of wine to obtain the same amount. For that reason, together with their relatively small number of participants, they advised that their findings should be further tested, rather than immediately acted upon.

The way in which resveratrol manages dementia is still being researched.

A team at Oregon’s Health and Science University reviewed the literature in the journal Brain Research Reviews, and concluded that resveratrol activated sirtuin proteins, which also happen to be activated by low calorie diets.


These proteins have been shown to protect the brain cells of mice with Huntington’s disease, a disease that causes dementia and the degeneration of brain cells.

Another study by researchers at the Litwin-Zucker Research Center for the Study of Alzheimer’s Disease has established that resveratrol does not inhibit the production of Abeta, but rather promotes its intercellular degradation. In other words, resveratrol kills the Abeta between cells, instead of allowing it to form plaque inside them.

Pure resveratrol supplements are available from natural health stores, and you can further stack your diet with the foods that contain it. Who knows, altogether you might manage to obtain enough of it to protect your brain cells from age-related decline.

Prevent Dementia and Alzheimer’s - But there is only one method I know of that drastically improves brain function in both healthy individuals as well as people suffering Alzheimer’s and other type of dementia. Learn more and try it out for yourself here…

Prevent Dementia and Alzheimer’s - High Blood Pressure Causes Alzheimer’s

Research continues in the field of Alzheimer’s disease prevention, and new information comes to light almost weekly.

While geneticists are looking for pre-programmed links to developing the disease, other scientists have found that lifestyle indicators bear much of the risk as well- and those can actually be controlled.

For instance- there is a very strong link, newly discovered, between Alzheimer’s and high blood pressure.

In a recent study out of VA San Diego Healthcare System, researchers recently confirmed what others had suspected but had no proof of until now. Scientists there found that high blood pressure is directly linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

In the study, scientists looked at health indicators for people aged 55 to 100. What they found was that for those with hypertension in the middle-age group, (defined as age 55-70), a specific biomarker that is tied to Alzheimer’s disease is present. As the vascular damage increases, so does the biomarker.

The study looked at pulse pressure, which is found by subtracting diastolic (bottom) pressure from systolic (top). The higher the pulse pressure was in the participants, the higher the concentration of amyloid beta or p-tau proteins in their spinal fluid.

These are the biomarkers that are found to be responsible for cell death in the brain that leads directly to Alzheimer’s.

Reasons to act immediately to reduce high blood pressure mount almost daily, as the new study reveals. There are easy, drug-free ways to do it that don’t involve dangerous side effects or drastic lifestyle changes.

For more ideas to prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s, watch this video -  What you can do to prevent Alzheimer's | Lisa Genova



In 3 simple steps, blood pressure can be brought down completely to normal with this all-natural plan that anyone can do…

 

This post is from the Brain Booster Exercise Program created for the purpose of helping to reverse Alzheimer’s, boost memory. It was made by Christian Goodman Blue Heron health news that has been recognized as one of the top-quality national health information websites.  This is an all-natural system that utilizes the power of exercises to slow down, prevent, or even reverse memory loss and boost your brain with energy and power. These exercises work to deliver as much nutrition and oxygen to your starving brain as possible and begin the restoring of the damaged brain cells.

 

To find out more about this program, click on Prevent Dementia and Alzheimer's


Sunday, January 10, 2021

3 Tips from 7 Experts on How to Build Lean Muscle on a Vegan Bodybuilding Diet

 

This article is for those who are as curious as I was back then about plant-based fitness. I put together an expert panel to address the following question: How to Build Lean Muscle on a Vegan Bodybuilding Diet? Read on to find out more.


Click HERE to Find Out How You Can Build Muscle & Lose Fat By Eating Plants


PLANTS BUILD MUSCLE: 7 BRILLIANT (AND SLIGHTLY BADASS) EXPERTS EXPLAIN

I’m not entirely convinced going vegan is for everyone.

I am convinced we would all benefit by eating more plants and less meat. Our collective health, humanity, and planet would start to revitalize.

“But, Chris, why would you say going vegan isn’t for everyone?”

Careful observation, research, and a healthy dose of common sense. As it turns out, there are hundreds of individual differences in biochemistry, genetics, blood type, etc. Although the percentage of people who react unfavorably to a vegan or vegetarian diet is low, it matters to have integrity when talking about these things.

I don’t think a diet exists that’s perfect for 100 percent of the population.

I am also convinced that it’s possible to gain size and strength from eating a plant-based diet with proper training.

Despite the prevailing archaic belief we need to eat meat to build muscle, I know this from personal experience.

The good news is, it’s getting harder and harder to defend that outdated noise when guys stronger than Arnold in his prime are vegan. And I mean this literally. Two examples off the top of my head are world-record-holder strongman Patrik Baboumian and 300-pound NFL defensive lineman David Carter.

The problem is, most people aren’t aware that vegan athletes are performing at this level. VegetarianBodybuilding.com and our other friends mentioned in this article are trying to change that.

Interest in veganism is indeed on the rise, but the bodybuilding and fitness community at large remains skeptical and hesitant. This is mostly attributed to the profoundly effective and pervasive meat industry marketing machine.

You don’t have to look far to catch a glimpse at how powerful, even hypnotic, advertising can be. It has been over a half century since the disastrous health risks of smoking cigarettes was first suggested by scientists, and it’s just now finally dying off – sort of. There’s still over 42 million smokers in the US alone.

We will see a similar trend with meat eating, I believe.

Just like with the health risks of smoking catching on, many of us are waking up to the health risks of eating animal-based products.

With an emphasis on the way meat is being produced.

I caught wind of how truly unhealthy most of our food in the US is just a few years ago. And only then did I realize what was possible in the gym with vegetarian bodybuilding.

This article is for those who are as curious as I was back then about plant-based fitness. I put together an expert panel to address the following question:

Q: What are your top 3 tips for building muscle while using a vegan bodybuilding diet?

I hand-picked some of my favorite experts on the topic (I even make a cameo appearance); each one provides their three top tips for vegan bodybuilding.

Brenda Carey, founder of Vegan Health & Fitness Magazine:

TIP 1: First of all, work out with intensity and frequency.

TIP 2: Don’t get sucked into marketing hype about supplements. If you’re doing #1, you will get results.

Supplements are, at best, a waste of money. At worst, they can wreck your health.

TIP 3: Learn the nutritional content of your foods. Eat higher protein and less fat (and mostly, if not all, whole unprocessed plant foods that you prepare yourself – or find a very trustworthy source to prepare your foods the right way).

That means no oil, no chips or candy. Smoothies, salads, stir-frys, soups…

Robert Cheeke, best-selling author of “Shred It!” and “Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness,” two-time champion bodybuilder, and founder/president of Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness:

TIP 1: Effectively establish your true daily caloric expenditure. Determine what your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is, and combine that number with the number of calories you burn through physical activity.

A simple way to establish these figures, which evaluate your caloric expenditure based on gender, age, height, weight, and activity level, is to use a BMR calculator and a Harris-Benedict calculator. These calculators are easily accessible online.

For example, my BMR is 1,740, meaning I burn 1,740 calories just lying in bed and doing nothing else. When I factor in the calories burned throughout the day during my physical activities, from running errands to working out, my caloric expenditure nearly doubles at 3,230. That means in total, I expend more than three thousand calories each day.

Therefore, just to maintain weight, I should eat roughly 3,230 calories per day from nutrient-dense whole plant foods. The reason we establish this figure is so we can construct a nutrition program to aid in building muscle based on real metrics, to put ourselves in a position to succeed.

If I were to grossly under-eat in relation to my true caloric expenditure – say, consuming 2,500 calories per day while burning more than 3,200 a day – it is unlikely that I would put myself in an adequate position to build muscle.

“To effectively build muscle, we need to eat a surplus of calories beyond our minimum caloric requirements necessary to maintain weight, in order to gain weight (muscle).”

For these calories to go toward muscle gain rather than fat gain, we’ll need to ensure we eat nutrient-dense whole plant foods, not processed or refined foods, and of course, combine that effort with an exercise program, preferably one of resistance weight training.

TIP 2: Create a nutrient-dense whole plant-food nutrition program to follow with consistency, accountability, and transparency.

Once you have established how many calories you expend each day, you’ll want to construct a nutrition program that exceeds that figure and aim to have the majority of your calories consumed coming from whole plant foods.

In my case, since I am burning 3,230 calories a day, I aim to consume about 3,700 calories per day, combined with resistance weight training, in order to repair, recover, and build muscle tissue damaged from exercise.

Since the surplus in caloric consumption beyond expenditure (in my example, about 500 extra calories per day) is coming from whole plant foods naturally high in nutrient-rich carbohydrates and low in fat and protein, I am unlikely to have these extra calories hang around as fat, but rather go toward repairing and growing muscles.

“Five hundred extra calories daily is significant enough to see some changes in lean muscle growth over time, perhaps as soon as four weeks after starting your program.”

If you fear that this additional caloric consumption beyond your requirements to maintain weight might cause fat gain, simply add some fat-burning cardiovascular training in the morning a few days a week to put your mind and body at ease.

TIP 3: Build an exercise program and create a routine that leads to new habits. What goal setting and achieving really comes down to is creating productive and efficient positive habits.

Whether we’re talking about burning fat or building lean muscle, your likelihood of achieving success weighs heavily on your ability to create the habits necessary to attain the results you’re striving for.

“To effectively build muscle, you’ll want to focus on performing compound, multi-joint, free-weight exercises, using barbells, dumbbells, and your own bodyweight (such as pull-ups, push-ups, squats, lunges, and dips).”

My preference is to focus on one or two muscle groups per workout and train hard with free weights for 60-90 minutes. My current routine looks like this:

Monday = Chest
Tuesday = Back
Wednesday = Rest
Thursday = Legs
Friday = Arms
Saturday = Shoulders/Abs
Sunday = Rest

Most importantly, be safe and have fun. My motto is to train hard, eat well, smile often, and lift others up. It if isn’t fun, you’re unlikely to stick with it. If you find meaning and joy in your pursuit of elevated levels of health and fitness, you will look forward to exercising often.

Following these three tips with consistency, transparency, and accountability will help you build lean muscle on a whole-food, plant-based diet and help you achieve your goals. I wish you all the very best in health and fitness. Let’s get shredded!

Debbie Baigrie, founder of Natural Muscle Magazine:

TIP 1: Drink at least three plant-based protein shakes daily.

TIP 2: Always keep cooked beans on hand and eat them with brown rice for a complete protein.

TIP 3: Other great foods to eat for building lean muscle are:

  • Quinoa
  • Almonds
  • Tofu
  • Chia seeds
  • Lentils
  • Hemp seeds

Chris Willitts, founder of VegetarianBodybuilding.com and Mindful Muscle:

TIP 1: Although I derive protein from multiple food sources, my primary whole-food protein sources are quinoa, tofu, black beans, and veggie burgers.

I also utilize combinations of incomplete proteins to make up a complete protein meal, such as peanut butter and sprouted bread or beans and Brazil nuts.

I get 40 to 50 percent of my protein from vegan protein shakes to keep my carbs at bay (unless I’m bulking up).

And don’t assume you need a gram of protein per pound of body weight as suggested by many mainstream bodybuilding magazines. Some need less, while others need more.

Be willing to perform the diligence of learning about your body instead of blindly assuming what works for the latest bodybuilding expert will automatically work for you.

“Try starting with less protein at first, and then write a meticulous food journal for a period of three to six months to nail down the optimal amount of protein intake for you.”

Naturally, you will need to adjust your intake of protein as your fitness goals change as well.

TIP 2: Get enough quality calories. Eating only plants all day every day won’t cut it; you need calorie-dense foods, as well. If you want to build muscle, it doesn’t matter if you’re a vegetarian or meat-eater, you have to eat like a horse.

Ask any bodybuilder who’s trying to pack on mass. They will tell you that most of the time they eat until they’re full, and continue eating slightly beyond that point until it’s mildly uncomfortable.

TIP 3: Train hard! And be mindful of what your body is telling you. No book or magazine article can tell you what’s the best method of training, but your body can if you learn how to listen.

“Most of us require dynamic change in routine/exercises to stimulate the body for growth, while others respond better to slow and steady methods.”

I can’t tell you what will work for you. But I know of a process that will guide you there. Start with one credible strategy, remain consistent, and journal about your experience. Then allow enough time for change to take place without interrupting the process with the next cool thing you read in a magazine. Eventually you will discover the right path for you.

And even that path may change over time. The main thing is to get dialed-in to what your body is telling you. Meditation and mindfulness practices will fine-tune this ability.

Samantha Shorkey, first-ever vegan WNBF bikini pro and founder of the Jacked On The Beanstalk blog:

TIP 1: Not to go down the annoying, “where do vegans get their protein from” path, but vegan or not, I can’t stress the importance of getting enough protein in your diet.

Truth is, if your body can’t find enough to sustain itself, it takes it from your muscles, not your body fat.

“And if you don’t give your body enough protein, it will actually cannibalize its own tissue to get what it needs.”

TIP 2: Don’t consider nuts a main source of your protein. Yes, there is some protein in nuts, seeds, and nut butter.

And yes, they’re good for the heart and nutritious, but they’re also super high in calories, and a caloric surplus = fat storage. So consume them sparingly unless you want a layer of flab covering your hard-earned, plant-built muscles.

TIP 3: Just because you’re vegan doesn’t mean you can eat as much fruit as you want, either. Fruits are still carbs, which get used as your body’s main source of fuel, and yes, they are essential for providing energy and mental clarity.

But all carbs get broken down into glucose (sugar) and is either used immediately for energy, stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles (for easy access), or turned into fat for longer-term storage.

Eating too much fruit (like any carb source) will overload your system with energy it cannot use, and in turn, make you fat. So make sure to eat fruit earlier in the day or before your workouts to ensure you can burn them off.

Fraser Bayley, co-founder of Plant Strong Fitness:

TIP 1: Consume enough calories from predominantly whole foods.

Very often when switching to a plant-based diet or someone struggling to build muscle, people grossly underestimate how much more food they potentially need.

Make sure your total caloric intake is high.

Muscle will grow in an environment with a caloric surplus of predominantly whole foods, and you need to take into account how active you are with that, too.

If your energy expenditure is high, you will need more total calories to maintain a caloric surplus – which is the perfect anabolic environment for muscle growth.

It doesn’t mean add more protein necessarily; sometimes, you need to add more plant based fats and carbohydrates, which is usually the case.

TIP 2: Make sure you intentionally have some diversity in your eating regiment. Nothing says poor results like one-dimensional food choices.

If you want to maximize your amino acid profile uptake, maximize your phytonutrient/mineral/vitamin balances, which all assist the body in optimizing hormonal function, and in turn, help the body maximize how it uses nutrition.

Then get a bit more diverse! Add in chickpea-based meals, quinoa-based meals, rice-and-bean-based meals, etc. Use other variants of foods like tempeh, tofu, hemp seed, and a range of fruits and veg. Combine different nuts and seeds and mix them through a couple of staple recipes.

You don’t have to cook up 1000 different meal options, but you do want to add a colorful, diverse range of nutrition to each meal to really cover all your bases for maximal muscle growth.

TIP 3: Pay close attention to your own biofeedback. What I mean by this is that the kinds of foods you eat, the size of the meals, and when you eat them all have a variety of effects on your own unique physiology.

For example, if I personally eat too late in the day or my meals are too large, it can impact my sleep patterns, leaving me feeling very unrested and under-recovered.

This then slows my recovery from training the next day and affects my performance in the gym, which affects the nervous system and anabolic response for muscle growth in a negative way. Not ideal.

So play around with your meal timing; see what foods add energy and which ones leave you feeling bloated or tired. It could be as simple as removing a certain kind of bean and using chickpeas or sweet peas instead.

“All these little cues and signals the body sends us are so important in figuring out what foods/portions and timing we thrive on most. This creates a positive hormonal environment for muscle growth, fat loss, and recovery.”

Marzia Prince, IFBB Pro, former Ms. Bikini Universe, and founder of The Healthinista Blog:

TIP 1: It is often the main topic of conversation for many people that vegetarians and vegans “don’t get enough protein” on a plant-based diet.  But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“According to the World Health Organization and the American Dietetic Association, a vegan or vegetarian on a well-planned balanced diet has no trouble meeting their protein requirements.”

And if you really think about it, how many people do you know with a protein deficiency?

I know that I have never met anyone that was ever deficient in protein.

In bodybuilding and fitness world, the standard amount of protein is one gram per pound of bodyweight. You need to divide that number up according to how many meals you are eating a day.

Taking in the proper nutrients every two to three hours ensures that your muscles will always be fueled and nourished, providing the best opportunity for growth and achieving desired results. Remember not to exceed too much protein per meal. Your body can only assimilate what it needs at that time.

Like any of the macronutrients, if you eat too much, it will store as fat. So be careful on your macro portions. My favorite plant-based protein sources are vegetables (especially leafy greens), beans and rice, quinoa, amaranth, and plant protein shakes.

TIP 2: Besides proper plant-based nutrition, you need to have a consistent workout routine that incorporates weights. I train with weights five to six days a week at the gym to build lean muscle and feel strong.

Since I don’t compete anymore, I use the winter for my off-season and I eat more calories while I train, and I treat the summer as my stage and eat cleaner plant-based foods and less cheat meals to look leaner in a bikini. I play with my macros. Trial and error is the best way till you find what works for you. Progress pictures don’t lie!

TIP 3: Water! To this day, I still train clients who don’t drink enough water, and it blows me away they are even still alive. I had this client tell me she drinks two cups a water a day and then gripes about why she can’t lose fat and make gains.

Dehydration occurs when the amount of water leaving the body is greater than the amount being taken in.

The body naturally loses water through breathing, sweating, and using the restroom.

You have to replenish the body with a significant amount of water to make up for this loss. Our bodies are about two-thirds water, so that means every cell in your body needs water from head to toe.

Being 2 percent dehydrated for your body can have serious mental and physical functions. Being 15 to 20 percent dehydrated is lethal. Dehydration will reduce a person’s protein synthesis, which is required for building and repair.

That is why being hydrated is very important to fitness and fat loss. Chug it. I always suggest to my clients to aim for a gallon a day.

It’s Time to Get into Action

The well-informed suggestions by these experts will help build a solid foundation in vegetarian bodybuilding and plant-based fitness. Each expert clearly expressed a unique voice, experience, and path, and yet you can sense congruency within our collective experience.

“This is true in life, there can be different paths to the same destination. Now it’s time to discover your path.”

The collective community presented here are more than willing to help you on your journey to healthier bodybuilding. I encourage you to visit their respective websites and VegetarianBodybuilding.com on a regular basis.

Most importantly, do something right now/today to keep the momentum going!

For more ideas on how to build lean muscle on a vegan bodybuilding diet, watch this video - EATING FOR LEAN VEGAN MUSCLE | FULL DAY OF TASTY MEALS

 


Author Bio:

 

Chris Willitts (creator of V3), is the founder and owner of Vegetarian Bodybuilding.

 

V3 Vegetarian Bodybuilding System is a mixture of science and author’s advice, providing users with optimal diet and exercise. This system is designed for vegans and vegetarians only.

 

A lot of research has been put in this program. Furthermore, a lot of professional bodybuilders and athletes tried and tested the program, praising its progressiveness and efficiency.

 

The program is about taking control of your own body and health according to your potential and needs. And worry not; you’ll get plenty of proteins with this system. It will boost you with energy, and you’ll feel just a strong as any carnivore would (perhaps even stronger, depending on how much you invest in your exercise). It avoids vitamins deficiency and provides you with a lot of proteins, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. 

 

Instead of saying things like “I think a plant-based diet is good for athletes and bodybuilders,” the V3 Vegetarian Bodybuilding System claims “I know a plant-based diet is good for athletes and bodybuilders, and I have results to prove it.”

 

To find out more, visit the website at V3 Bodybuilding – How to Build Lean Muscle on a Vegan Bodybuilding Diet


Friday, January 8, 2021

VEGAN FACTS - WHAT VEGETARIAN ARTICLES DON’T TELL YOU

 

Vegan Facts - What Most Vegetarian Articles, Websites, and Books Forget to Mention. Many of our standard dishes taste like baby food and branches unless … you can cook like vegan-chef-jedi. Yes, then vegetarian food can be quite amazing. You wouldn’t want me to cook vegan food for you though. It’s also worth mentioning that dining out can be an arduous task if you live in the Midwest. The good news is bigger cities in the U.S. (or California) are quite accommodating towards plant-based dining.

Click HERE to Find Out How You Can Build Muscle & Lose Fat By Eating Plants


What Most Vegetarian Articles, Websites, and Books Forget to Mention

Many of our standard dishes taste like baby food and branches unless … you can cook like vegan-chef-jedi.

Yes, then vegetarian food can be quite amazing. You wouldn’t want me to cook vegan food for you though. It’s also worth mentioning that dining out can be an arduous task if you live in the Midwest. The good news is bigger cities in the U.S. (or California) are quite accommodating towards plant-based dining.

That said, I have plant-based dishes I enjoy a lot and I’m super-glad I went green.

Do I like them as much as I used to like meat? It’s close, but it’s just not the same.

There are some bad-ass veggie burgers out now though.

Also, some of the new vegan protein powders on the market (e.g. Garden of Eden, PlantFusion, etc.) are impressive and taste just as good as anything out there.

“But here’s the deal: I didn’t become vegetarian/vegan for pleasure and to make my life more comfortable. I did it for better health and moral reasons. And like many things in life, there’s give and take, and a price to pay for what we want.”

I’m all in. I’m willing to sacrifice a little flavor for eight more years of vibrant life and a better planet. I know my furry friends are grateful, as well.

Sometimes I miss meat, but then I remember what I’ve seen in videos and how grossly animals are treated. When I remember this, my mind plays a trick on me, and the idea of eating meat makes me literally nauseous. I’m not saying this to be dramatic, this is precisely what happens.

I wasn’t always this way when I started to become vegetarian, but the more exposed to the images of the inhumane slaughtering of animals I became, the more this switchover happened.

Managing Expectations

I wrote this article for the person considering a plant-based diet because I wish someone had tactfully, and unapologetically, told me in the beginning:

That vegetarian food may not taste as good at first* (even though there are some great recipes).

Eating out isn’t nearly as fun in most parts of the country.

The return on investment in terms of health and “spiritual currency” is worth it.

*I acknowledge that others feel differently. I think the biggest majority (not all) of that group aren’t being honest with themselves for the sake of making the case for a vegetarian lifestyle.

I think it matters when people tell us the complete truth.

It shows authentic confidence when the time comes to explain our lifestyle to others.

This can go a long way, because when we also disclose/address the negative side of things, it feels less like a sales pitch and gains trust. It also better prepares us for the journey ahead and can lend itself to a higher chance of success.

Besides, isn’t the vegetarian/vegan lifestyle supposed to include this brand of truth?

Feedback from our Audience

Troy T. Seman wrote the comment below in response to this article and I felt is was worth sharing another view that both compliments and deviates from my own. But that’s the point, we can always learn from one another and don’t need to be afraid of views that challenge our own:

I really enjoyed that you were honest with people. I would add to the list certain social aspects of eating vegan and mention that food is cultural.

There is a HUGE social aspect to how and what we eat. Humans bond over food. This means you’ll probably develop social ties to other vegans, and ironically, some vegans can be the cruellest people [towards other humans].

I did vegan for a year. Yes, the food didn’t taste as good. Eating out is a  total b—-!  Vegetarian restaurants tend to close early. And, Mom feels bad when you bring all your own food even at holidays. 

The social aspect of being vegan, I feel, really needs to be communicated to people.

I spent a couple years trying foods and making vegan dishes before I took the plunge but nothing really prepared me for what was to come. Your family and friends will be put out or simply won’t want to go to restaurants with vegan options, or won’t want to make special food at gatherings and it’s a pain to bring enough of your own food to share.

So food is social. Food is cultural. That is an aspect to the vegan discussion that often gets left out.

Anyway. I digress. Thank you for your honesty!

For more ideas related to vegan facts, watch this video - Vegan for 30 Days: What They Don't Tell You

 


Author Bio:

 

Chris Willitts (creator of V3), is the founder and owner of Vegetarian Bodybuilding.

 

V3 Vegetarian Bodybuilding System is a mixture of science and author’s advice, providing users with optimal diet and exercise. This system is designed for vegans and vegetarians only.

 

A lot of research has been put in this program. Furthermore, a lot of professional bodybuilders and athletes tried and tested the program, praising its progressiveness and efficiency.

 

The program is about taking control of your own body and health according to your potential and needs. And worry not; you’ll get plenty of proteins with this system. It will boost you with energy, and you’ll feel just a strong as any carnivore would (perhaps even stronger, depending on how much you invest in your exercise). It avoids vitamins deficiency and provides you with a lot of proteins, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. 

 

Instead of saying things like “I think a plant-based diet is good for athletes and bodybuilders,” the V3 Vegetarian Bodybuilding System claims “I know a plant-based diet is good for athletes and bodybuilders, and I have results to prove it.”

 

To find out more, visit the website at V3 Bodybuilding – Vegan Facts

 




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