trigger warning: eating disorders
Vegan/ABC diet starting tomorrow
I’m going to do this even if it kills me:)
Sigh, I get tired of seeing thinspo posts in the vegan tag. I know it’s a tricky issue and I tend to stay away from it mostly because arguing with people in the pro ana/mia movement is fraught with triggers and emotion for me. However, it breaks my heart that people are damaging their bodies and sometimes they just don’t know any better. Do some research, you can get a healthy, fit body without having to starve yourself. I wish I had listened to someone before I fucked myself up.
The ABC diet is one of the most horrific “diets” out there. You won’t succeed, you’ll end up binging at some pojnt as your body desperately tries to save itself by forcing your brain to tell you eat. You’ll be stuck in a loop of self-hate, disappointment and frustration until you DO become educated on what is best for your body.
Eating and exercising healthfully will also lead to weight loss and a fit body. It also is absent from frustration, damage to your mental and physical health, hunger, shame and disappointment. You’ll experience pride and improvement in cognitive function amongst numerous other benefits.
Go vegan for the animals. Go vegan for health. Go vegan for ethics. Go vegan for the planet. Don’t go vegan in an attempt to get a thigh gap.
CUMULATIVE EFFECTS OF CONSUMING DAIRY
How does this impact humans who consume cow’s milk and dairy?
Obesity (over 50% of Americans and rising), heart disease, cancer, allergies, digestive problems, diabetes, asthma, desensitization to antibiotics, behavioral problems, and the constant ingestion of dioxin’s, herbicides, pesticides (and anything else the cow eats that is not good for any critter), that winds up getting stored in HUMAN fat… is not healthy by any measure.
Those who resist believing the truth should understand that MOST of the world’s population CANNOT tolerate the lactose in cow’s milk. Up to 95% of the black population, around 53% of the Hispanics, etc.) So much for cow’s milk being “natures perfect food” for humans! Mother nature knows better.
Common sense question: Where was this massive “milk is a must” before refrigeration, pasteurization and mass transportation? Back when cows gave only 1-4 pounds a day it was quickly made into BUTTER and cheese! Now that those same cows have been tweaked and shot-up with Posilac to produce up to 55 or more pounds of milk per day… almost all year long… it is suddenly (after many thousands of years) a daily “staple”. NOT!
photo credit - Curious Calf (by blakelipthratt)
OTHER ‘STUFF’ (re: cow’s milk)
Fat and cholesterol.
Lots of it. Per the dairy influenced USDA “food pyramid” all milk, dairy and meats should represent no more than 8% of the diet. Statistically, by volume of sales in a nation of 281 million Americans, it works out to almost 40% of the diet for MILK AND DAIRY.. without the meat.
The milk of each of the over 4,700 mammals on earth is formulated specifically for that species. There are special lactoferrins and immunoglobulins (cow specific immunizing stuff) that in humans serve as allergens.
LEUKEMIA
According to Hoards Dairyman (Volume 147, number 4)… 89% of America’s dairy herds have the leukemia virus. (more at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/notmilk/message/835)
DIABETES The protein lactalbumin, has been identified as a key factor in diabetes (and a major reason for NOT giving cows milk to infants).
CROHN’S DISEASE Mycobacterium paratuberculosis causes a bovine disease called “Johne’s.” Cows diagnosed with Johne’s Disease have diarrhea, and heavy fecal shedding of bacteria. This bacteria becomes cultured in milk, and is not destroyed by pasteurization. Occasionally, the milk-borne bacteria will begin to grow in the human host, and the results are irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn’s Disease.
MAD COW DISEASE There may also be prions (pronounced PREons) in the milk and meat. This is crystalline substance that acts like a virus… with an “incubation” period of from 5 to 30 years. The end result is MAD COW DISEASE! HOMOGENIZATION Large fat molecules cannot get through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream. The cream no longer rises… because homogenization breaks up those large molecules into small ones that DO get into the bloodstream! This becomes an expressway for any fat-borne toxins (lead, dioxin’s, etc.) into your (otherwise) most protected organs.
photo credit: Under baby’s fringe (by just.like.that.)
Hello, I've just began a new Vegan diet (about 3 months now), but I am perfectly aware of the fact that I may not be getting enough nutrients especially since I'm a college student and we don't have a vegetarian station, so I literally end up eating a salad, potatoes, brown rice and tofu everyday. Can you recommend a good multivitamin (I'm a girl so I know I need extra iron), it's just hard to choose a good one.
@beholdthereal-deactivated201208Hi there :) I’m not sure where you’re from but I’m situated in Australia so my recommendations might not be of any use. I also don’t personally take a multivitamin at the moment.
So if anyone who reads this has some suggestions for a multivitamin (and if you can let me know where you’re located so I can update this post), then please respond!
First and foremost, I’m not a health professional and can only relay what I’ve learnt via my own journey - so please double check anything you’re not certain of!
Your most important one (well they’re all important but it’s the one I’ve had most issues with) and the one you’re most likely to become deficient in, as you know, will be iron (and B12). You can always keep an eye on your levels with blood tests and there are good vegan iron supplements out there - Deva does one that has both iron and B12 in it. Just make sure you don’t supplement with iron without your doctor’s support, you can make yourself sick/ get iron toxicity.
One of the key things to remember with multivitamins is to not get ones with gelatin capsules (as gelatin isn’t vegan) and to avoid D3 as most D3 sources is cholecalciferol which is sourced from sheep’s wool.
Vitamin D2, (ergocalciferol) is usually sourced from mushrooms & yeast. It’s not known whether D2 is as effective but for now it’s the best bet if you can’t get into the sun for 15 minutes or so a day. Black and asian people tend to need up to ten times longer to get the same amount of D3. Vitamin D levels can also get tested by blood too, if it’s something that might be an issue for you.
Supplementary Vitamin D, if ever required is probably best taken in a form something like this.
Finally, try and boost your diet with a bit of variety. I’m not a fan of multivitamins so I’m probably the worst person to ask about them! but I feel that if you can afford to get multivitamin tablets, then maybe you can afford to get a few extra veggies a week to help get those nutrients. I’m not familiar with your eating situation - whether you’re able to take snacks or prepared lunches to college but if that isn’t possible, then perhaps aim for a super nutritious breakfast and dinner instead.
I know your funds are limited but there’s probably some foods that will help you get what you need that are within budget. Things like spinach, or baby spinach leaves or kale in your salads. Add things like black, navy, lima, pinto or navy beans to your rice dishes. Lentils too! Quinoa is also a good source of iron, phosphorous and calcium and you can eat that instead of rice dishes for some extra nutrients. Buy beans and grains in bulk if you can spare the cash up front, you’ll save money in the long run.
Eat as many raw fruits and vegetables as you can - they retain the most nutrients (cooking destroys some and your body digests it differently to raw foods) but be aware you have to eat more of them to get the nutrients required. If you can get to farmer’s markets then you may be able to save some money there too. Eat fruit and veggies that are in season, it’s always cheaper. Maybe smoothies for breakfast too, if you can afford it. I’m not sure if bananas are cheap where you live but a banana based green smoothie would be a good start to your day and high in nutrients and calories for energy.
Also adding nutritional yeast to your food will boost your B12 intake. I’m not sure how much it costs where you live but you just need a tablespoon or two a day added to a meal so a bag lasts a little while.
Good sources of Omega 3’s are walnuts, linseed and soybeans. Fruits like apricots and figs are high in calcium (though can be pricey?) If you try and get a good variety in foods then every you should be getting a bit of every nutrient you need (like zinc is tofu, lentils, some beans etc).
Variety is key! Just swap that rice and those potatoes for other things occasionally and experiment. And please forgive me if I’ve suggested foods that aren’t affordable, as I said, I’m not sure where you live and how much things cost so I’m just throwing out some ideas.
If all else fails, I’m sure that someone will be able to recommend a great multivitamin and I’ll post their message! Sorry about the long response, I’ve got a terrible habit of not being able to keep things brief!
Best of luck and awesome work on making 3 months vegan! :)
x
BACTERIA
Cow’s milk is allowed to have feces in it. This is a major source for bacteria. Milk is typically pasteurized more than once before it gets to your table… each time for only 15 seconds at 162 degrees Fahrenheit.
To sanitize water one is told to boil it (212 degrees F) for several minutes. That is a tremendous disparity, isn’t it!
Keep in mind that at room temperature the number of bacteria in milk DOUBLE around every 20 minutes. No wonder milk turns rotten very quickly.
PUS
ONE cubic centimeter (cc) of commercial cow’s milk is allowed to have up to 750,000 somatic cells (common name is “PUS”) and 20,000 live bacteria… before it is kept off the market.
That amounts to a whopping 20 million live squiggly bacteria and up to 750 MILLION pus cells per liter (bit more than a quart).
1 cup = 236.5882cc 177,441,150 pus cells ~ 4,731,600 bacteria24 oz (3 glasses) = 532,323,450 pus cells ~ 14,220,000 bacteria(the “recommended” daily intake)
The EU and the Canadians allow for a less “tasty” 400,000,000 pus cells per liter. Typically these levels are lower… but they COULD reach these levels and still get to YOUR table.
- Dave Rietz
photo credit: dirt roads. (by Erin Rena)
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frankencois.: hungry for change: a food matters film.
I’m watching this at the moment! JINXIES.
PROTEIN IN MILK
Milk can be thought of as “liquid meat” because of its high protein content which, in concert with other proteins, may actually LEACH calcium from the body. Countries that consume high protein diets (meat, milk and dairy) have the highest rates of osteoporosis.
THE ‘WHOLESOME’ PROTEIN MYTH
87% of milk is water. That makes it VERY expensive water.
Broken down into its basic groups… WHOLE MILK is:
WATER FAT CASEIN OTHER PROTEIN
87% 3.25% 4% 1% 4.75
(note: that is 3.25% “milkfat” which includes the 87% water.)
80% of the protein in milk is casein. Casein is a powerful binder… apolymer used to make plastics… and a glue that is better used to makesturdy furniture or hold beer bottle labels in place. It is inthousands of processed foods as a binder… as “something” caseinate. Casein is a powerful allergen… a histamine that creates lots ofmucus. The only medicine in Olympic athlete Flo-Jo’s body was Benedryl,a power antihistamine she took to combat her last meal… pizza.For the whole Flo-Jo story: http://www.notmilk.com/deb/092198.html
CALCIUM
Calcium? Where do the COWS get calcium for their big bones? Yes… from plants! The calcium they consume from plants has a large amount of magnesium… necessary for the body to absorb and USE the calcium.
The calcium in cow’s milk is basically useless because it has insufficient magnesium content (those nations with the highest amount of milk/dairy consumption also have the highest rates of osteoporosis. Proof? How about a controlled study of 78,000 nurses over a period of 12 years?
Read more about it at: http://www.notmilk.com/deb/030799.html
Cows milk has three times the calcium as does human breast milk. No matter, neither are very usable because in order to be absorbed and used their MUST be an equal quantity of MAGNESIUM (as exists in the greens that cows eat to get all the calcium they need for their big bones). Milk has only enough magnesium to absorb around 11% (33mg per cup) of calcium.
Per the USDA 8 ounces (one cup) of cows milk contains:
Calcium, Ca mg 291.336
Magnesium, Mg mg 32.794
The USDA recommends 1200mg of calcium per day. The USDA recommended three cups of milk a day only have 900mg of calcium. Some argue that only 1/3 of the magnesium is necessary. Mother nature seems to suggest it should be one to one. If the ratio for proper absorption were 1/3 magnesium to one calcium then no more than 300mg of that 900mg of calcium is usable. If, in fact, it is a one to one ratio… only 98.38mg of calcium is usable.
It is not a matter of how much calcium one ingests… but how much one does not lose.
photo credit: moody sky (by Dan65)
FAT IN MILK
Whole milk 49% of the calories are from fat.”2%” milk 35% of the calories are from fat.Cheddar cheese 74% of the calories are from fat.Butter 100% of the calories are from fat. Most folks suspect that butter is all fat. Most folks have no concept of the just how much fat is in the rest of milk and dairy. Perhaps the 54% of Americans who are obese need to comprehend that milk, ice cream, cheeses, yogurts, and all the OTHER products that use milk derivatives (casein, whey, lactose, colostrum) are most likely a significant cause for their weight and health problem.
- Dave Rietz
photo credit: kissyface (by normaltoilet/ LSImages)
CANCER FUEL
Of those 59 hormones (in milk) one is a powerful GROWTH hormone called Insulin- like Growth Factor ONE (IGF-1). By a freak of nature it is identical in cows and humans. Consider this hormone to be a “fuel cell” for any cancer… (the medical world says IGF-1 is a key factor in the rapid growth and proliferation of breast, prostate and colon cancers, and we suspect that most likely it will be found to promote ALL cancers). IGF-1 is a normal part of ALL milk… the newborn is SUPPOSED to grow quickly! What makes the 50% of obese American consumers think they need MORE growth? Consumers don’t think anything about it because they do not have a clue to the problem… nor do most of our doctors. (See http://www.notmilk.com/igf1time.txt for a time line)
QUANTITY
Each bite of hard cheese has TEN TIMES whatever was in that sip of milk… because it takes ten pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese. Each bite of ice cream has 12 times … and every swipe of butter 21 times whatever is contained in the fat molecules in a sip of milk.
photo credit: ¿Que me ves? / What!? (by Davichi)
Yes… milk is Mother Nature’s “perfect food” …for a calf… until it is weaned. Everything you know about cow’s milk and dairy is probably part of a Dairy industry MYTH. Cow’s milk is an unhealthy fluid from diseased animals that contains a wide range of dangerous and disease-causing substances that have a cumulative negative effect on all who consume it.
MILK’S BASIC CONTENTS
*ALL* cow’s milk (regular and ‘organic’) has 59 active hormones, scores of allergens, fat and cholesterol. Most cow’s milk has measurable quantities of herbicides, pesticides, dioxins (up to 200 times the safe levels), up to 52 powerful antibiotics (perhaps 53, with LS-50), blood, pus, feces, bacteria and viruses. (Cow’s milk can have traces of anything the cow ate… including such things as radioactive fallout from nuke testing … (the 50’s strontium-90 problem).
photo credit: Cow #2770 (by EudaldCJ)
POLLUTION
There are around 9.2 million dairy cows in the United states. Each dairy cow ingests around 330 pounds of feed (perhaps 50 pounds) and water (around 280 pounds or 33 gallons) per day. Allowing for the best dairy production of 55 pounds of milk per day (over ten times what mother nature designed the cow to produce) that means that what remains becomes “slurry”.
That means around 275 pound of urine and feces per day… per cow, for a daily total of 2.53 BILLION pounds of pollution. Per year… that amounts to around 923 billion pounds of UNTREATED pollution entering our streams, rivers, lakes… and drinking water systems.
Cows are hot-blooded mammals. Like all other mammals they pass gas. Somewhat like elephants their compartmented digestive system is rather inefficient… which leads to the creation of MORE gas. During a Discovery Channel documentary on elephants a parting quip was that the average adult elephant passes enough methane gas per day to run a car about 20 miles.
Cows are not much better. The English New Scientist (page 5 -31.8.96) mentions that cattle produce around 48 kilograms (105 pounds) of methane each per year and that more bubbles out of the animals’ manure. Dairy cows eat more because they produce milk. With 9.2 million dairy cows times a minimum of 100 pounds of methane gas per year… that amounts almost a billion pounds of methane gas released into the atmosphere each year. With around 100 million beef cattle… pigs, sheep, and other “factory farmed” animals it should not be difficult to fathom the extent of this problem.
This means that “Beef is a greenhouse-intensive food” and a major cause of global warming (with dairy a significant part of the problem).
Another major point is:
“Milk is a very strong pollutant: it is about 400 times more polluting than untreated sewage. To put it another way, 1,000 gallons of milk has the same polluting potential as the untreated sewage from a town of 7,000 people.” Morlais Owen. Chief Scientist for Welsh Water. North Wales Weekly News. 24.3.88.
- Dave Rietz
Photo credit: Got any wire cutters? (by *Michelle*(xena2542)-on/off flickr)
I watched this via their website a while ago and it’s worth watching, I think it cost about $5 to live stream it if you have the money spare. It focuses more on health and nutrition than the animal cruelty aspect but there’s plenty of other info out there on those aspects too!
Interesting video on Steve Jobs and his health history and ultimately, why he died.
