Dad says being VEGAN is UN-healthy!? I need FACTS!?

Question

My dad just told me that being a vegan is really bad for you since humans need meat to be healthy...

He said cutting out meat isnt good for me and that i should try and eat it every other day.

He says i also need to eat dairy products for calcium?

(Even though i drink Soy... Thought im not sure if i get calcium from that? Do i?)

He said that people who diet, (Im not trying to, i just want to be healthy and do something for the planet!) Always have a 'cheat-day' where they eat chocolate etc. Cause if they dont they will become ill from lack of fat...

Is all that true? Is my dad right? Should i stop trying to go Vegan?

Answer 1

go to goveg.com and read about it.  show the website to your dad and have him watch the "meet your meat" vid.

Answer 2

How old are you? A Vegan diet is hard to follow until you can cook for yourself and buy your own food, or have supportive parents.

At 17 your old enough to follow a balanced vegan diet, just do your research. YA is helpful, but a lot of what you read here is c**p. Borrow a few books from your library and get a cookbook or two.

Answer 3

"Plant foods provide athletes with all the nutrients tat they ned to stay healthy and strong, minus all the saturated fat, cholesterol, and contaminants found in meat and dairy products that can slow them down.  Carl Lewis, perhaps the greatest Olympic athlete ever, says, "My best year of track competition was the first year I ate a vegan diet.""

"Dr. Neal Barnard explains that "a healthy vegan diet give important advantages over a meaty diet, which is why many Olympic and professional athletes are vegetarians.  A healthy vegan diet will give you the strength and stamina you need to leave those sluggish meat-eaters in the dust.""

"Clint Eastwood: I try to stick to a vegan diet -- heavy on fruit, vegetables, tofu, and other soy products."

"According to Dr. T. Colin Campbell, nutritional reasearcher at Cornell University and director of the largest epidemiological study in history, "The vast majority of all cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and other forms of degenerative illness can be prevented simply by adopting a plant based diet."

"Eating a high protein diet is like pouring acid rain on your bones."

"drinking cow's milk has been linked to heart disease, some types of cancer, diabetes, and even osteoporosis, the very disease that the dairy industry claims its products are supposed to prevent!"

"Dr. T. Colin Campbell of Cornell University, arguably the foremost epidemiologist in the world, states, "Quite simply, the more you substitute plant foods for animals, the healthier you are likely to be.  I now consider veganism to be the ideal diet.  A vegan diet -- particularly one that is low in fat -- will substantially reduce disease risks.  Plus, we've seen no disadvantages from veganism.  In every respect, vegans appear to enjoy equal or better health in comparison to both vegetarians and nonvegetarians."

And if you need more evidence than that, there plenty of healthy vegans on this forum, my self included, who can personally attribute to the healthiness and efficacy of a vegan diet.

I, for one, will never switch back to meat, ever.

Answer 4

OK, feel your front too teeth. Now, go one set to the outside of those. Now, one more set. These are the "canines". See how sharp those teeth are. That is because they are fangs. People are omnivores and we have the teeth to eat meat.

Depending on how young you are, you are probably putting yourself at risk for osteoporosis. Soy "milk" has very little digestible calcium. You are also probably putting yourself at risk for other bone diseases because you are probably not getting enough vitamin D.

Being a vegan is not healthy and is not natural. I don't care what the hippies on here tell you, it is not healthy and it really doesn't do anything for the planet.

Edit: See. The hippies can't stand for the truth to be spoken, so they mod me down. Humans are omnivores and are designed to eat meat as well as vegetables. It is as simple as that.

Answer 5

First of all, I don't care what teeth i have, considering it is proved that  our digestive systems were not designed to actually digest meat. I choose to be vegetarian. I have been all my life. Vegan isn't the same as vegetarian. I have clear skin, i'm healthy and meat isn't exactly good for you or anywhat healthy. Yes, you should get protein but you don't need meat to get protein. However, vegan's aren't unhealthy providing they take supplements or tablets which give them the nutrition they need, but in my opinion, tablets do jack all. Yes you do need dairy, but you don't necissarily need meat. Vegetarian's aren't unhealthy either. People tell me i'm missing out on loads but at the end of the day i'm also missing out on risk of stomach ulcers, heart desease, gallstones , kidney stones for starters ,cancer.  People tell me i should eat meat because people did that billions of years ago when the cavemen were aroound, well to be frank they had a shorter life expectancy and they weren't as opinionated and intelligent as we have evolved to be and they didn't kno. So once we've thrown some veg in the pot we've obviously lived longer, because back then you can imagine them being a bit wild like animals. Also, There really is nothing you can get from a meat diet that you can't get from a vegetarian one. Other things contain protein i.e veg, milk, cheese, egg whites, nuts, berries and loads more so don't fret. Other People say to me about how if we didn't kill animals then there'd be no space for crops, because there'd be too many animals and how we'd all be dead.  I agree, but in my defence there are too many humans due to population explosion, aswell, i know this because there is a food shortage, but that does not mean we should kill humans? so why do you have to kill animals? Besides, you're moanin about killing them when people are mass producing them anyway by injecting stuff into them for breeding purposes. And where do u think the food comes from to feed these animals? If we all went veggie, there'd be enough food to feed billions of people.  Think about it. Besides, what makes animal testing wrong and eating meat right? Animals are killed, and suffer unecissarily, and for no important means. I do not pick on people who are meat eaters, but i've been attacked my whole life because i am Veg. So sorry for being so passionate about things, but that's the kind of young woman i am. I am 13, 14 in one hour:D. I've also been told that i am wrong in not eating animals because i eat eggs, and an egg is a potential life? Listen people, It wasn't going to grow into a chicken because the eggs you buy at stores are not fertilized. Chickens will lay eggs even if there is no rooster around. If no one eats them, they go in the trash. It is the same as eating chicken p**p, has no brain, feels no pain. The end. :} Take care xox. I wish people knew more about this subject. Plus i'm fed up of the lacto veg and pollo-veggies, stop makin **** up, you aint a pure veggie if you eat meat or any dead animal, its like sayin you are half vegetarian!.

Oh yeah and someone said that its ok to animal test just because they are killed for meat anyway, how can they say this when they are the ones who eat the meat?>:(

Answer 6

Well, your dad seems pretty opinionated, I can understand a little I guess: he's a little scared about you contemplating a diet that he fears might do you harm. He doesn't understand much about vegans by sounds of things. However, while I applaud that he has kind intentions for you,  I don't think this means he has the right to make blaze statements, such as that "being a vegan is bad for you", or that people who are dieting "always have a cheat day", without backing them up with evidence (evidence that is extremely flimsy at best, by the way).

Visit veganhealth.org: it's written by a qualified vegan nutritionist, and goes into every aspect of vegan nutrition. Well planned, there is evidence that vegan diets are actually superior in many respects to omnivorous diets. It might be up to you to teach your dad about vegan nutrition, and hopefully, he too might be able to enjoy some vegan foods and meals with you as a result.

No, don't stop trying to become vegan. Just make sure you're well informed about it.

Answer 7

peta.com

and

peta2.com

im a vegetarian.

ive been feeling better since i went veg.

& before i got preg. i lost a few pounds even!

&& vegetarian-ism cleared up my skin a whole lot!

<33

Answer 8

Point your dad in the direction of "Becoming Vegan" by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina, and "The China Study by T. Colin Campbell.  Or better yet, read them yourself so that you can discuss your choice intelligently (your dad is probably not the only person who will challenge you seeing as how most people don't know much about it.)  Check out John Robbins's "Diet for a New America" and "The Food Revolution" also.

The first book is written by two registered dietitians and is pretty much the bible of vegan nutrition.  It's an excellent resource.  The second details the world's largest dietary study and the conclusions the researchers drew about the role of animal foods in disease.  The Robbins books will address the dairy/calcium/osteoporosis myth quite thoroughly.

Veganism is not a "diet."  Your dad is right that people who deprive themselves to try to lose weight often can't stick to it because they're cutting out too much.  You can go vegan and not only get all the vitamins, minerals, protein, etc... that you need, but also all the heart-healthy fats you need to keep yourself satiated.  And also, all the flavor and variety that you want.  If you do it right, you won't feel deprived and won't need to "cheat."  (BTW, you can have chocolate, just not dairy milk chocolate...)

You and your dad should also know that the American Dietetic Association says that well-planned vegan diets are perfectly healthy.

Answer 9

Here is a a pretty good website (which is apparently approved by the FDA):

http://www.vegparadise.com/basics.html

Answer 10

If done correctly, being vegetarian or vegan is perfectly healthy.  If done incorrectly, it could be bad for you.  So make sure you get all your food groups and everything.  As long as you are eating a broad variety of vegan foods, getting protein from beans and nuts, etc., you should be fine.

Answer 11

Tell him a vegan diet did Carl Lewis good!

Also, there's chocolate that doesn't have milk in it.

Anyways, here's a site to help be a healthy vegan:

http://www.veganoutreach.org/health/stay...

Answer 12

Your dad is probably concerned about you not getting enough protein because people generally get their protein from meat.

However there are many other ways to get protein and other vitamins from other food.

Answer 13

no you don't need dairy products for calcium. soy milk is good, yes you get calcium from that, check the nutrition label. here are some other good sources of calcium:  tofu, molasses, calcium enriched orange juice, tahini, almonds

http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/calcium.htm

look around that site for iron and protein sources, they aren't hard to obtain in a vegan diet

what he said about fat is completely wrong. i've been vegan for two years and i've never cheated or got ill. you can get fat from avocados and NUTS (i thought everyone knew about that one). oh also cooking oils

go vegan

Answer 14

well, Vegen is healthy get the right amount of protien and amino acids ......but it is hard and there is nothing wrong with eating meat but dont eat red meat more than twice a week.

Answer 15

It's possible to have an unhealthy vegan diet, if you eat too few calories or eat mostly carbs and junk food. Vegan diets are very healthy when they include fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, and grains.

The American Dietetic Association is one of the nation's leading nutrition experts. It says: "Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence." http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada...

You don't need to eat dairy products for calcium, and you don't need to cheat in order to be healthy. My boyfriend (who's Indian) has been vegan since birth and he's very healthy and athletic. There are plenty of good vegan sources of protein, iron, and calcium. Here's a list: http://www.tryveg.com/cfi/toc/?v=08sourc...

I hope this helps!

Answer 16

No i have been vegan for 3 years and it never hurt me