Vegans Amino Acids

What kind of difficulties did you face when deciding to go vegan?

What are your primary sources of nutrition, particularly protein and essential amino acids?

For protein, my main sources are legumes (beans, peas, lentils, garbanzo beans/chick peas, etc.). I usually have these at least three or four times a week; they’re naturally low in fat, sodium, and are a good source of iron (lentils are my favorite – they’re fat free, sodium-free, contain 20% of daily iron, and taste the best in soups).

I wouldn’t know how drastic of a change it is to jump from vegetarian to vegan. I made the leap from meat eater to vegan and was sickly for about a week (I despised soy milk, but now I love the stuff). If you aren’t too crazy about dairy products, the shift will probably be unnoticable.

Difficulties I faced in becoming a vegan was becoming more accustomed to the different types of ingredients I couldn’t eat (for example whey, gelatin, lactose, honey, lecithin, sodium caseinate, sodium stearoyl lactylate). Refined sugars and bleached flour are also big no-no’s, so try to find products with evaporated cane juice and unbleached flour instead. For help, you should probably reference this list of animal-derived ingredients:

http://caringconsumer.com/resources_ingredients_list.asp

I thought junk food and snacking would also go downhill for me, but fear not, there is a wonderful list of suggested food items of all types for vegans:

http://www.peta.org/accidentallyVegan/

It was also difficult getting the people I knew used to my new diet. You may hear your fair share of “We can’t eat out anywhere!”s from friends and family. Also remember that being a vegan means no fur, leather, suede, or wool (so give away those leather belts or suede sneakers and opt for canvas instead).

Good luck on your new vegan lifestyle! :]

Fred Busch talks about Protein, Amino Acids and Vegetarian

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