Vegan is no longer a foreign word these days, even becoming a popular lifestyle trend. Demand for vegan products is increasing and thusly the supply of vegan-focused products in the supermarkets and restaurants.
However, vegan nutrition can be divisive. Some swear by it, but others have no understanding for it. There are some advantages to the vegan diet, but listening to one’s body is important.
One can have several reasons to opt for an overall vegan lifestyle. First, there is the ethical reason of avoiding mass animal consumption and the cruel treatment of animals. Second, the ecological reason of avoiding factory farming. This method is used to clear forests, consume vast amounts of resources such as water, and pollute the climate with greenhouse gases such as methane.
Last but not least, the health-focused reason. Maintaining a vegan diet does not mean that you are automatically healthier, because eating only potatoes and rice is vegan, but certainly not a well-balanced diet.
Nevertheless, vegan nutrition usually goes hand in hand with a healthier lifestyle. For those who decide to be vegan, many live more consciously and make healthy decisions.
What is veganism anyway?
If one eats vegan, one goes without any animal products: no meat, no milk products, no fish, no eggs etc. According to this understanding, veganism is a purely vegetable diet. However, this lifestyle usually goes beyond nutrition. Many vegans also do without leather, wool, beeswax, or other products with an animal source.
If such a diet is well planned and well thought out, it would be healthy and appropriate to prevent or treat diseases.
The advantages
Health benefits play an important role in a vegan diet. “If such a diet is well planned and well thought out, it would be healthy and appropriate to prevent or treat disease,” says the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND).
Vegans are at lower risk of heart disease than omnivores and vegetarians, have lower cholesterol levels, are less overweight, have lower blood pressure, and have a reduced risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity or gallstones.
The disadvantages
But where there are advantages, there are always disadvantages. Even if everything is done “right” in vegan nutrition, nutrient deficiencies can still occur. Above all, a vitamin B12 deficiency emerges frequently for vegans.
This is a vitamin which is found mainly in animal products such as liver, kidneys, clams, scampi, chicken eggs, brain, calf and beef hearts, oysters, salmon, and beef. A deficiency supply of iron, vitamin D3, zinc, and omega-3 fatty acids can also occur.
However, these concerns can be controlled with a targeted supply of nutrients.
