What emerged as a pop culture diet from the West a few years back has found a strong holding among many Indians today. From wellness enthusiasts, to celebrities like Jacqueline Fernandez and R Madhavan, everyone who’s walked these vegan shores have a lot to rave about it. Health benefits aside, this diet is more of a lifestyle choice. Respect for animals and nature are the strong core values of this diet.
Going vegan means giving up animal products and animal-derived substances entirely. This eliminates all the meat, eggs, seafood and even dairy from your diet. You will have to rely on vegetables, fruits, grains, seeds, legumes and nuts for all your nutritional needs.
As obvious as it seems, there are tons of health benefits from such food choices, but there’s also an off side to it. So if you’ve been considering venturing out on the vegan side, here are a couple of things to understand and keep in mind, before you take the plunge.
Pros
- Promotes Weight Loss: Studies prove that people who don’t eat meat tend to be much leaner than people who do. Apart from that, vegetables and fruits are low in calories compared to meat and can yet keep you satiated for long.
- Lowers intake of unhealthy cholesterol and saturated fats: Animal products contain a lot of cholesterol and saturated fats. High intake of such foods increases ones risk of chronic illnesses like heart diseases. Vegan foods, on the other hand, contain a lot healthy nutrients and good fats that boost your immunity and work on your overall health.
- Decreases blood sugar level: The rich and simple carbs you’ll be eating when on a vegan diet can help improve blood sugar control, which in turn makes your body more responsive to insulin. This makes it a great option for diabetics.
Cons
- Losing out on a few nutrients: Eliminating all the meat and dairy from your diet means losing out on your supply of calcium, vitamin B12, omega-3 fatty acids, and other essential nutrients, which animal-based foods provide in great quantities. Even though you will find vegan food alternatives to restore your system with some of these nutrients, you will have to take special measures and plan out your diet copiously, so as to include them into it.
- Relying on supplements: If you fail to make up for your calcium, iron, omega-3 fatty acid, and vitamin B12 supply from vegan food, you will have to additionally invest in supplements to fulfill your requirements. Are you ready forke such expenses and efforts?
- Problematic when dining out: Meat-free food maybe easy to find in a country like ours, but it may be difficult to find food that’s dairy free. A little ghee or milk may always end up in recipes. This means you will have to analyse every order, to make sure it is completely vegan.
The bottomline is that going vegan is certainly a healthy choice, but will require you to invest time and effort to follow specific rules. Also remember that just because a particular dish is vegan doesn’t mean it is naturally healthy. A fried veggie burger is vegan but may not necessarily be healthy. Eat in moderation, and judge your food well, if you truly want to be healthy.
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