Any vegans in the house?

[DailyDi]

Mom is experimenting with a vegan diet. But she didn’t choose much in the way of proteins. 
She has bad teeth so nuts are a no go. 

[Little Sherri]

I'm not vegan but I have a friend whose wife went vegan in an attempt to mitigate some health issues she thought might be from eating meat. She's a great consumer of internet conspiracy theories and health/wellness advice, and she dove in with both feet. Soy and other beans will become your mom's best friends, if she plans to be scientific about her protein, B12 and calcium intake. But a couple of my friends' kids have gone either vegetarian, or vegan, and their approach has been largely "eat French fries, rice, other potatoes, and fake meat substitutes", which is arguably less healthy than a balanced diet that includes some animal products such as eggs and cheese. 

But I get the ethical considerations, and everyone can make their own choices, I'm not judging. There has never been more variety available on the market in terms of vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, nut free, dairy free, egg free, etc. 

[ValentinesStuff]

Creamy peanut butter is your friend. Along with beans.

Make sure she monitors her blood chemistry, it can be easy to get a deficiency in something like iron. Also talk to either her doctor or a nutritionist at the hospital/office, NOT an online forum.

[bottlestop]

Not me, but I have a brother that has lost weight and stayed healthy with this philosophy   https://www.forksoverknives.com/

[DAQ]

My grandpa had to go soft food diet after a bowel blockage  a year ago. He LOVES pecan pie, so we used a coffee grinder to powder the nuts. Just an option.

[FretaBWet]

I had gone vegan for one full year. It was something my late husband wanted to try. I told him there's no way I'm signing up to prepare two completely different menus so if he really wanted it that badly I would be forced to go vegan along with him. He wanted it that badly so we went vegan together. I won't eat tofu so I didn't buy or use it at all.

You should realize that vegan is much more difficult to acheive than vegetarian. Vegan means no animal products so no milk, eggs, cheese or fish. It's a very constricting diet. I will tell you that over the course of a year we both lost weight and were healthy. I will also tell you that you will have to remain vegan for life if you choose this route or suffer the consequences.

After a year of being vegan I had to live in a hotel in Wisconsin for 3 months for my job so we both went. The hotel was in a small city. Anyone from there will tell you there are not a lot of options for eating out vegan in the land of dairy and cheese. We ended our vegan diet and started eating meat again. The result was we both inflated like two balloons. It wasn't so bad for me because I was working and very active but my late husband was on disability so he got very heavy very fast. Your body will make the necessary changes to accommodate a vegan diet but going back creates problems. Good luck.

Hugs,

Freta

[ValentinesStuff]

Don't forget, vegan also means no leather, feathers, or any sorts of animal products.

[DailyDi]

50 minutes ago, ValentinesStuff said:

Don't forget, vegan also means no leather, feathers, or any sorts of animal products.

She's a dietary vegan only, not an actual "meat is murder" vegan.

23 hours ago, ValentinesStuff said:

Creamy peanut butter is your friend. Along with beans.

Make sure she monitors her blood chemistry, it can be easy to get a deficiency in something like iron. Also talk to either her doctor or a nutritionist at the hospital/office, NOT an online forum.

He blood is tested every 3 months as it is. Is that often enough?

I'll bring it up at her next Dr's appointment if she sticks to it. History says she'll be asking for cake by Tuesday.

[ValentinesStuff]

37 minutes ago, DailyDi said:

She's a dietary vegan only, not an actual "meat is murder" vegan.

He blood is tested every 3 months as it is. Is that often enough?

I'll bring it up at her next Dr's appointment if she sticks to it. History says she'll be asking for cake by Tuesday.

I would think so. Just pay attention to see if there are any abrupt physical changes.

[Cute_Kitten]

I hear tofu is a good source of protein, but that's coming from Dr. Google so who knows how reliable it is. 

[~Brian~]

6 hours ago, FretaBWet said:

I had gone vegan for one full year. It was something my late husband wanted to try. I told him there's no way I'm signing up to prepare two completely different menus so if he really wanted it that badly I would be forced to go vegan along with him. He wanted it that badly so we went vegan together. I won't eat tofu so I didn't buy or use it at all.

You should realize that vegan is much more difficult to acheive than vegetarian. Vegan means no animal products so no milk, eggs, cheese or fish. It's a very constricting diet. I will tell you that over the course of a year we both lost weight and were healthy. I will also tell you that you will have to remain vegan for life if you choose this route or suffer the consequences.

After a year of being vegan I had to live in a hotel in Wisconsin for 3 months for my job so we both went. The hotel was in a small city. Anyone from there will tell you there are not a lot of options for eating out vegan in the land of dairy and cheese. We ended our vegan diet and started eating meat again. The result was we both inflated like two balloons. It wasn't so bad for me because I was working and very active but my late husband was on disability so he got very heavy very fast. Your body will make the necessary changes to accommodate a vegan diet but going back creates problems. Good luck.

Hugs,

Freta

@FretaBWet

This is why I am "hesitant" to change my diet so wildly.  For example, I can do intermittent Fasting (IF) for a while, but one thing I don't like is that we have a mealsite downstairs.  It always seems to serve BEETS/Brussels and veggies that I don't EAT at all:  They seem to get this stuff either donated or they ORDER it, and they seem to serve the same veggies 3=4 times a month, the ones I DO like don't taste good, or they taste like Roofing Felt!  It gets so bad that I will open a meal, and THROW anything that smells or tastes bad - My brother Mike says I "Hate ALL Vegetables" which is not true:  I just cant seem to be able to use Farm Share veggies to the potential I should, because I don't have anything I can make with them, and i would have to use things like leeks, and other veggies I don't even recognise.

I LOVE Corn, Peas, Carrots, Broccoli, Celery, Potatos, chicken, turkey, Salad (Macaroni/potato/chef/green) and many other things:  Its just that I am NOT a gourmet cook, and I don't have the money I used to, and I don't have the ability to be making dishes with fresh out of ground veggies.  The mealsite seems to use the same darn ones, so I just get "turned off" when I see something that is cold/hard/discolored/unappetizing.

Mike says all he is gonna do is clear the kitchen of everything, load the fridge with veggies, and that is all I will eat, but the way veggies are selected for dinner service is just the same things OVER and OVER and OVER, and there are times when I wish my mom would make me a meal that she is awesome at, and I miss "home cooking" sometimes  

My brother wants to do Keto again, but I don't want to, for the simple reason that Like Veganism, you end up making DRASTIC changes, dumping carbs and sugar for salts, and other things, and that is a MAJOR change, and I would NOT want to be like @FretaBWet in, that she STARTS a new diet, and then loses weight, and is healthy, then as she says, finds that she can't realistically do it one day, and eat a mainstream diet, and then she blows up like a BALLOON and messes her up!  That would be AWEFUL!

Brian 

[~Brian~]

3 hours ago, Cute_Kitten said:

I hear tofu is a good source of protein, but that's coming from Dr. Google so who knows how reliable it is. 

@Cute_Kitten

I remember TRYING Tofu once:  It was something that someone told me was "good" and i ate some.  She told me that tofu does NOT have any flavor, and that you ADD something tp GIVE it flavor, and you then can eat it.  I tried it, and it tasted like eating one of my apartment's CEILING Tiles, and I could not really envision a situation where i would eat it, although i have had Stuffed Peppers and Eggplant before, and liked it, so its not like i have not tried it - Mom wanted us to try anything at least once, so I so think that helped me to like things I didn't as a younger kid

Brian

[Dubious]

I'm mostly vegetarian at home.
I need milk and eggs.  (My main source for protein.) 

But I do need pepperoni on my pizza. 
I have tried vegan pizza, and they are never any good. 

I stopped with meat mainly cause of the prize, so I will eat when offered. 
 

[FretaBWet]

The human body is an amazing biological self adjusting and somewhat self repairing machine. When you start eating any diet whether it's keto, low carb, vegetarian or any other diet your body will self adjust to the new regime. If you stay on the diet over a reasonable amount of time your body will physically change to make the best use of what you are eating. The problem begins when you make a major change in your diet and then go back to your old eating habits. Your body is tuned to the foods in your current diet and isn't able to handle the shift back to the old diet. Just as your car runs awful when it's out of tune so will your body. It will eventually adjust back to your original diet but in most cases your body will add more weight then you were originally. That's why people that go on a strict diet and then give it up end up even heavier.

Hugs,

Freta

[Stroller]

One of my daughters has been vegan for years, and I was vegan myself for about a year a long time ago.  The key things to remember to include in your diet are proteins and fresh veg.  If you do that, the only thing you may be short of is vitamin B12.  You can get that from supplements or from yeast products.  Good protein sources are pulses such as lentils, split peas, tofu.  There's some in wholemeal bread too, but I wouldn't rely on that entirely.

The main problem with following a vegan diet is that you have to be able to cook.  Fast food is unlikely to cut it. Hope this helps.