Why you Can’t Meet Your Nutrient Needs on a Vegan Diet

Someone posted on FB today that she was horribly hungry no matter how much she ate on a vegan diet.  I experienced the same thing on a vegan and a vegetarian diet that I followed for 30 years.  I even went into therapy as a chronic over eater!  Turns out I was hungry because I was MALNOURISHED!  You cannot meet all of your nutrient needs on a vegan diet. You =can get closer on a vegetarian diet, bit not completely.

I went to 4 different sites online to see what they had to say about the subject. I took their recommendations for a daily intake on a vegan diet. They CLAIMED that these were 2000 a day meal plans!

Let me show you what I found!

Here was their suggestion;

When I plugged this info in to my Nutrition Program here was the results!

First of all it added up to 2980 CALORIES!!   AND at 52% calories from carbs it’s an easy way to gain weight. It also suggests a serving of soy in the form of Tempeh. Soy is highly toxic to the human body.  The other protein sources were beans and nuts.  These foods should be eaten in b=very limited amounts. The beans means you will always have gas, a sign of undigested food in the colon. This is a prescription for a clogged colon and an over growth of yeast.

So even at almost 3000 calories, did this way of eating meet your nutrient levels ?

NO, IT DID NOT!

First lets look at fats;

  This pattern of eating WAY more ply and mono-unsaturated fats is the main reason so many recovering vegans have high blood pressure!   75% of the fats we take in each day need toi be saturated; coconut oil, butter or ghee (for the whopping amount of Vitamins in it!)   The entire immune system depends of saturated fat, so does hormone production, keeping the body hydrated, cell wall integrity, brain health.  You cannot produce a baby with a decent IQ without saturated fats.  Our low fat diets have lead to an epidemic in learning disorders and depression.

This high calorie intake only met 85& of calcium needs.

It only gave you 88% of Vitamin A

It only gave you 14% of Vitamin B12. YIKES!

And only 90% of niacin.

AND Zero Cholesterol.   Cholesterol is important in the diet as it is your best defense to aging!

Benefits of Broccoli: Eating More May Improve Your Gut Health

The Difference Between Saturated and Unsaturated Fats (and Why It’s Important)

• By Dacy Knight, thethirty.byrdie.com
• October 15th, 2017

1. Eat enough fat. The proper amount is not going to make you fat, clog your arteries or give you cancer. The reason fat tastes so good is because your body needs it. Give your body what it needs.

2. Cook with saturated fats. They are the most heat-stable and will be relatively undamaged even with high-heat applications. Animal fats like lard and duck fat are actually mostly monounsaturated, this is a good thing. Coconut oil is great choices for all you vegetarians (but know that is not a nutrient dense as butter or ghee).

3. Monounsaturated for cold to low heat. Use these oils from vegetable sources for cold applications like salads, low heat applications like pouring over hot vegetables or, if you like, for light sautéing. Extra virgin olive oil is great, full of phytonutrients and antioxidants, but don’t waste it by overheating it.

4. Polyunsaturated for cold use. These oils are really best as supplements. You can add some to your salad dressing or smoothie if you want to, but it’s not really necessary.  Never heat polyunsaturated oils. Yes, they are sold as cooking oils in the supermarket but these oils are very delicate and will be damaged by heat or by light or air exposure. There is no good reason to buy vegetable oils that are sold for cooking.

5A. Avoid hydrogenated fats outright. Check food labels diligently. Even if the product says “0g trans fats,” it still, by law, can contain up to 0.5 grams per serving. Considering the fact that food processors can designate serving size any way they like, these numbers are truly meaningless. Look for the word “hydrogenated” on ingredients lists. If it’s there, this food is plastic. Don’t eat plastic.

5B. Skip spreads. Since saturated fats are not harmful, there’s no reason to buy processed vegetable spreads that employ different tricks to imitate the properties of the real stuff. Hydrogenation, interesterification, and the use of thickeners and blending fats and oils are all employed to make something inherently un-spreadable into something apparently spreadable. Just go for the real thing – butter. Better yet, boil the butter to make it into ‘ghee’ – it’s more stable, is free of dairy proteins and lasts outside of the fridge for months.

To sum it all up, names are more for convenience. Remember that no fat is entirely saturated, monounsaturated, or polyunsaturated. Every fat source is a mixed bag of all these types. We refer to animal fats as “saturated” and vegetable oils as “polyunsaturated” as a kind of shorthand. But many animal fats actually have more monounsaturated than saturated fats. Even olive oil contains some saturated fat and you can get omega-3s from butter. Remember not to take these labels as gospel. Good fat is good, bad fat is bad. There is still the need to be vigilant in what we eat, including avoidance of over-processed, nutrient-depleted faux foods and meat and dairy from sick animals. Choose fresh, choose organic choose 100% pasture raised and choose local. Avoid processed anything.

Why Researchers Recommend Eating Avocado Every Day (Yay!)

A new review of studies provides more evidence that the creamy fruit can protect against diabetes and heart disease. 

Amanda MacMillan

April 12, 2017

Here is some very good news for guacamole lovers everywhere: A new review of scientific literature suggests that eating avocado is a simple (and delicious!) way to prevent metabolic syndrome. Dubbed “the new silent killer,” metabolic syndrome is the term used to describe a combination of three or more risk factors for heart disease and diabetes (think high blood pressure, high triglycerides, and large waist circumference, for example). 

The review, conducted by Iranian researchers and published in the journal Phytotherapy Research, looked at 129 previously published studies examining the effects of avocado consumption on different components of metabolic syndrome. Most of the studies involved the fleshy part you’re used to eating, but some also included avocado leaves, peels, oil, and seeds, or pits.

The researchers concluded that avocados have the most beneficial effects on cholesterol levels, and that consumption of the creamy fruit can influence several different measurements: LDL (bad) cholesterol, HDL (good) cholesterol, triglycerides, total cholesterol, and phospholipids.

That’s not all, though. “The lipid-lowering, antihypertensive, antidiabetic, anti-obesity, antithrombotic, antiatherosclerotic, and cardioprotective effects of avocado have been demonstrated in several studies,” wrote the authors, and most of those studies recommend eating the fruit on a daily basis. In other words, avocados can help fight pretty much every aspect of metabolic syndrome.

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“This is just yet another study to show that avocados truly deserve superfood status,” says Health’s contributing nutrition editor, Cynthia Sass, RD, MPH. Sass was not involved in the review, but says it includes an “impressive range of studies.”

Sass points out that avocados can help stave off belly fat, the most dangerous type of fat to carry. And even though they’re high in (healthy) fat compared to other fruits, it’s hard to go overboard and eat too much. “Fortunately avocado is very satiating,” she says. “It’s almost like they have a built-in stop-gap.”

Research also shows that people who eat more avocados weigh less and have smaller waists than those who don’t, even when they don’t consume fewer calories overall. “This is yet another example of how not all calories are created equal,” Sass says.

RELATED: 18 Superfoods for Your Heart

Plus, avocados are a good source of antioxidants, fiber, vitamins, and minerals, in addition to their heart-healthy monounsaturated fats. And, as the review notes, they’re generally safe and better tolerated than  medications.

Want to add more avocado to your regular diet? Besides using the fruit to make guacamole and super-trendy avocado toast, you can also whip it into smoothies, add it to omelets and salads, and—with a little seasoning—use it as a topping for sandwiches, soups, fish, chicken, pizza, you name it. Avocado can even be used as a replacement for butter in baking recipes, and its creaminess makes it a good base for desserts like ice cream and pudding. (For more ideas, check out 25 Amazing Avocado Recipes for the Avo-Obsessed.)

“If you’ve never tried avocado in these ways, trust me, you’ll love it,” Sass says. “Avocado blends well with both sweet and savory ingredients, and provides the satisfaction factor that makes dishes decadent. Incorporating more avocado into your diet is like having your cake and eating it too!”

Oh, and while the study looked at several parts of the plant, Sass recommends sticking with the flesh for now. “We don’t yet know enough about the safety of eating pits and peels,” she says.

Moderate fat consumption may lower risk of death, global study finds

• Low carb, low protein
• Moderate fat (35% of overall caloric intake is healthiest! 
• 75% of fat intake should be ghee or butter, and animal fats.
• The remaining 25% should come from the poly- and mono-unsaturated fats in veggies. NOT from olive and veggie oils as they are rancid by the time you buy them and should never ever be heated.
• ALL Carbs need to come from fruits and veggies!

Contrary to most dietary advice handed out for decades, consuming moderate amounts of fat appears to reduce the risk of premature death, a major global study has found.

Research involving more than 135,000 people across five continents has shown that fat consumption representing about 35 per cent of daily caloric intake was associated with a lower risk of death, compared to lower fat intakes.

Moderate amounts of saturated fat, found in butter and cheese, may actually help protect against heart disease and stroke.

Researchers also found that dietary fats, including saturated, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, are not associated with major cardiovascular diseases or increased risk of heart attacks.

However, a diet high in carbohydrates, in which carbs represent more than 60 per cent of caloric intake, was linked to higher mortality rates.

Overall, the study showed that avoiding a high-carb diet and consuming a moderate amount of fat, along with fruits and vegetables, can lower the risk of premature death.

The Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study was led by researchers at the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences in Hamilton, Ont.

For an average of seven-and-a-half years, the study followed more than 135,000 people from 18 countries and various economic and cultural backgrounds. The collected data produced two reports, published Tuesday in The Lancet.

While the PURE study’s findings about dietary fats may seem surprising, Canadian researchers say the latest results are consistent with several other studies conducted in western countries over the last 20 years.

Mahshid Dehghan, the lead author of the PURE study and an investigator at PHRI, said that for decades, dietary guidelines have focused on reducing total fat consumption to below 30 per cent of daily caloric intake.

She said those guidelines were developed about 40 years ago using data from some western countries that showed average fat consumption represented more than 40 per cent of daily caloric intake.

But overall fat consumption is significantly lower today in North America and Europe, at 31 per cent, she said. Dehghan added that in some countries, reducing fat intake actually led to other dietary problems.

“A decrease in fat intake automatically led to an increase in carbohydrate consumption and our findings may explain why certain populations such as South Asians, who do not consume much fat but consume a lot of carbohydrates, have higher mortality rates,” Dehghan said in a news release.

Richard Bazinet, a professor at the University of Toronto’s department of nutritional sciences, said that in the past decade, researchers have been getting “some really conflicting evidence” on how fat consumption impacts our health.

The PURE study is a “very large piece of evidence” that shows saturated fat is not as bad for us as previously thought, he told CTV News Channel on Tuesday.

“A lot of people around the world haven’t been able to reproduce the findings that saturated fats are a major culprit (for disease),” he said.

The PURE study also found that:

• People who ate three to four servings (between 375 and 500 grams) of fruits, vegetables and legumes per day had the lowest risk of premature death.
• Although most dietary guidelines recommend a minimum of five daily servings of fruits and veggies, researchers say higher intakes did not result in many additional health benefits.

“Most people in the world consume three to four servings of fruits, vegetables and legumes a day,” Andrew Mente, a PHRI investigator and McMaster University professor, said in a news release.

“This target is likely more affordable and achievable, especially in low and middle income countries where the costs of fruits and vegetables are relatively high.”

Researchers say the PURE study further demonstrates the importance of dietary moderation, and provides “robust, globally applicable” evidence that can be used to inform nutrition policies.