another successful pube trimming week down South for me. feel like Kojak now... but that's Severn Trent water's issue...
Nah I felt mostly good for many years, I started getting symptoms recently over the last 4 months that have made me re-evaluate my position on the subject. I ate my first meat in 8.5 years last week, tasted nice. I'm still going to be mostly plan based though. I going for more tests to figure out what are causing the symptoms, but I think it may be a mild b12 deficiency despite the fact that I supplemented. @Lieutenant Dan
Any diet is as good as another if it's done correctly , but most people don't manage that aspect of it. For example you'll get meat eaters that eat nothing but ****e thinking its healthier than a vegan diet which it isn't if the vegan diet is properly planned and vice versa. Ultimately it's very difficult to obtain the correct amount of nutrients if you're just winging it and there's multiple fake healthy foods marketed like granola, yogurts and even breads. I don't follow a strict diet anymore because I've learned through trial and error and imo fasting and then eating a wide range of foods is key and mixing it up basically. You can't just eat nothing but meat or veg you need to enjoy as many healthy foods as possible without eating too many calories which is actually very easy. Fat ? I eat loads all these low fat foods contain guess what? Loads of sugar which is the killer not fat.
I did manage the vegan diet very carefully, and was persuaded because the science suggests that it should work in theory as every essential nutrient is available via plants, so long as you supplement correctly which I thought I did, but as I've suffered recently I've grown concerned that it may not be manageable long term for many people for reasons we're not aware of yet. We do not have cultures and societies with large percentages of the population who have successfully made it work over the course of a lifetime. But unfortunately we do have a massive amount of people who suffered while on it for many years. I was eating a mostly whole foods diet and monitoring nutrition daily, and I still don't know what is causing my issues yet, it may not be related to diet, but the suffering has made me reevaluate my position on many things, and I decided to switch back.
I often wondered if the vegan diet was the cause of thyroid problems, but I don't think there is any evidence as such but always something worth bearing in mind if feeling extremely fatigued.
I got annual blood tests done, recently I've had quite a few and still getting more done. Thyroid, inflammation, cholesterol, everything seems to be ok so far. While eating a wholefoods diet, I rarely ever seem to get sick. I cannot remember ever getting that sick as a vegan, which is why I will remain mainly whole foods plant based. But there are these symptoms and my concerns about the uncertainty regarding this subject. The only thing that concerned me on my blood tests was B12 that was very low normal, and some studies link the levels I have with health problems. Thankfully I am not anaemic. Based on blood test I'm in mostly perfect health, but of course the symptoms are concerning. I am having a Methylmalonic acid test soon which is the best test to confirm b12 deficiency, and once I get my blood I'll start a high strength b12 supplement and see if it changes much. Since I've started eating animal products, I will see how that impacts me over the next few weeks since I cannot supplement until after my bloods have been taken.
I had a low B12 but on it's own it was not cause for concern, because of other tests that make it up appearing ok. I'm not vegan, but I rarely have any dairy, so no cheese (luckily I hate the stuff) no milk, replaced with 'Moma' oats and olive spreads (never have butter) currently using 'Pure'. I like all meats (lamb especially) but the only one I have had for a while is chicken (or turkey) due to cholesterol levels and I'm trying to stay away from statins, even though they were trying to push them on me. Wish you all the best, hope the changes work out for you.
