Healthy vegans

 The Internet is full of videos and articles on veganism and health. If you want to learn about veganism and perhaps even give a plant-based diet a try, then now is a great time.  Unfortunately, there are bad videos as well. One category I keep running across is that of the sort which takes the anecdotal account of a "vegan" who tried the diet and became emaciated and sick. If you saw the pictures, you would think the person in question was from a third-world nation.  Any one of the people under consideration in these videos are simply victims of bad diets. This can be the case for carnists as well as vegans. 

However, these stories are just that, anecdotes. The vast majority of people who become vegan live perfectly normal and healthy lives. Please be careful what you watch. There is nothing wrong with getting both sides of the story. However, there is so much junk out there that it is sometimes difficult to know what to watch or read. My encouragement to those who wish to learn more about veganism (or any subject, for that matter) is to gather material for research from expert resources as much as possible. 

Personally, I typically find books to be one of the best resources. True, there are bad ones, but often they are better researched and it is much easier to find critiques and reviews of the book by people who are more qualified than the typical youtuber. My point is, if you are going to research, you are going to need to put some work into it.  Don't do what I see being done all the time and jump on each train as it races by. 

As far as eating goes, don't fall into the common trap of assuming everything that doesn't have an animal product listed on the label is good for you. A vegan diet consisting of crackers and Oreo cookies will leave you just as unhealthy as a typical American one. Being vegan is a choice about ethics, not just diet. But a diet that is ultimately unhealthy for you will make ethical choices more difficult than they have to be. Not to mention the bad press such a diet could potentially cause.

A final word of advice to those choosing a plant-based diet for the first time: you will, you must eat more. Plants are typically mostly made up of water. Therefore, you will have to eat more of them to both stay full and give you body all of the calories it needs to function normally. In fact, I would recommend that if you are on a healthy plant diet you stop counting calories (Except, maybe, for the purpose of making certain you are getting enough, not for the purpose of making certain you are not eating too much). Just eat and eat well. 

By healthy, I don't mean animal analogs (think Beyond Meat and the Impossible Whopper). They are great for those wanting to transition to an all plant-based diet, but not for the long haul. They are highly processed and high in salt and calories. If you stick to plants in their native form, cooking with them just as they are, you will have no problems that cannot be fixed with variety and perhaps quantity.  

That's all.