Benefits of Vegan Lifestyle – Is Vegan Diet Healthy?

Vegan is a diet practice where a person avoids consuming any animal products. Most individuals practice such lifestyle for simple reasons like eating vegetarian food, putting a stop to killing animals, achieve healthy weight loss, protection against chronic diseases and reduce carbon footprint. Compared to any other diets, a vegan diet is proven to be most useful to maintain a healthy body.

Is Vegan Diet Healthy?

For many people, Vegan is an advanced version of a vegetarian diet where people shun consuming animal by-products. The person commits on eating plant food by relying on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, beans, seeds, and nuts.

Apart from this, there is also a pledge not to consume processed foods that have too many carbs, sugar, or salt even though they can’t qualify as vegan foods.

As we know that a vegan won’t consume poultry, meat, fish or dairy, some people take a step ahead by not drinking milk, butter, honey or food items that contain gelatine as it comes from animals. It leaves the whole diet plan solely depend on consuming unprocessed plant-based food.

People who are obese or facing any chronic disease should try practicing a healthy vegan diet as its natural and proven to cure many health issues.

Benefits of Vegan Diet for Weight loss

Studies show that vegans tend to be healthier and have lower BMI’s compared to other people consuming animal-based products and processed foods. Vegan diet weight loss is highly useful as most of the food contains fiber and water that cleanse the body and reduce fat deposit in the body.

All this becomes further effective when the person also stops consuming processed food. Such food contain unwanted calories which makes you fat. All this creates a sufficient calorie deficit which helps you lose weight.

Another factor which makes vegan diet apt for obese people is lack of availability of vegan dishes at restaurants. It restricts outside eating practice and forces person to prepare home cooked meals which contain less oil, salt, sugar or any preservatives.

Vegan Diet Benefits and Disadvantages

Some nutritionists believe that practicing vegan diet can lead to vitamin and mineral deficiency. People who are suffering from chronic diseases can also face adverse effects of this dietary lifestyle. All these statements are not proven. But, for those who like to follow a vegan diet should know about the advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of Vegan Diet:

• Nutritionist believes that vegan diet is sufficient to lower down cholesterol and decrease the risk of heart disease. As the food consists of healthy fiber and water, it helps remove toxins, lower down the LDL levels, diabetes, and hypertension which is higher among non-vegetarians.
• A vegan diet contains fruits, vegetables, legumes, beans, and whole grains that promote healthy body mass without accumulating fats in the body. Many doctors believe by consuming a balanced diet; a person can attain plentiful of dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals, protein and anti-oxidants that helps in reducing body fat percentage and detox system naturally.
• The vegan diet promotes self-control as there is a commitment to consume fresh food and slow down the practice of eating any processed foods.
• As most of the food consumed in this dietary method is high in fiber, the person will feel full for a longer time and won’t eat cheat foods.

Disadvantages of a vegan diet:

• Going Vegan can be a massive change for a person eating non-vegetarian food. The cooking process is also complicated as n animal products like milk or butter are used to cook vegan food.
• To suffice the protein intake, many vegans consume soy which is not always favorable for health. Some reports say that consumption of soy products can lead to hormonal imbalance.
• For those who have diabetes or osteoporosis should consult doctor or physician before going vegan.  There are many vegan health risks attached to this diet.
• People who travel a lot may find difficulty in maintaining a vegan diet. Most restaurants don’t serve dishes without using animal products.

Environmental benefits of veganism

From an ecological point of view, veganism is a full proof way to get less carbon footprint. It is the most efficient way to control animal killing, animal abuse and avoid consuming genetically modified products. As vegan is all about adapting plant-based products, it helps in boosting organic farming and increase green life around us.

How to Adopt a Vegan Lifestyle?

Before you plan to vegan, try and understand the lifestyle and eating habits of this diet pattern. There are many drastic changes a person is required to make when going vegan. While you will be facing daily struggle, there will always be a challenge to remain committed.

Before adopting this new lifestyle, it’s advisable to take baby steps. First, introduce different kinds of fruits and vegetables in daily eating habits. Try out new recipes and learn to make easy meals.

The next step is to replace dairy and poultry products with vegetables and soy. Overall you should remember why you have adopted veganism and how it will be beneficial to overall health and environment.