Episode 10: What You Should Know Before Going Vegan
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Participant #1:
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Participant #1:
I'm Emily and I'm Hannah. We are best friends and dietitians. We have a goal of challenging nutrition, misinformation and fitness trends with an evidence based approach. Each episode we will dish up our thoughts about the latest facts on a popular health related topic. Where are the upbeat dietitians?
Participant #1:
Hi, guys. Welcome back. Hello, everyone. In this episode, we're going to discuss what a vegan diet is, what exactly that means? And is it actually any healthier for you compared to your traditional diet? Yes. I think the vegan diet is getting more popular these days. Would you say it definitely is. I feel like we've also gone. I like to think we've gone away from the entire ideology that it's like more of a fad diet, and it actually has much more practical senses to it. So that's really good. And people the reason they're buying into a vegan diet or practicing a vegan diet is for a multitude of good reason. So this'll be a good episode. Yeah. I feel like it's not just for weight loss anymore, which used to be, I believe probably a big reason why people would do a vegan diet. But we'll get to if that is even credible and the other benefits of being on a vegan diet. So first we'll kind of describe what a vegan diet even is because it's not the same as a vegetarian diet. What a vegan diet is a plant only diet. It does not have any kind of animal products in it. So right off the bat, you would eliminate your meat, eggs, dairy, fish as well as one that I often forget about. Kind of lump into the meat section. I guess there are some surprising non vegan foods, though that I didn't think about until quite recently. I was like, oh, yeah, I guess that would be a plant food, but things like honey, since that comes from bees, that sometimes I don't know. Emily, do you know if some vegans do have honey that I know of? They don't since it is pretty
Participant #1:
insects. We put it that way. Honey sometimes
Participant #1:
tune in next week for our animal science episode. I don't know. I don't either. But I know that the entire thing is bees help create honey. So therefore, it does not align with the vegan values. Yes. Although that's like the Bee's main purpose. But anyway, we're not going to get into that cool side of things. But another surprising one that you may not think of is gelatin, because that's from, like, bones, isn't it like bone, bone breakdown or whatever you might call it? Yeah. So that obviously is not vegan friendly. And then another one I recently saw when I was doing some research episode is like an egg wash, like on a croissant, for example, that croissant would no longer be a vegan friendly food. Yeah, that is really challenging, because how do you know if what you're eating? Thankfully, I feel like people are labeling things better these days. We talked about the gluten free labeling a couple of episodes ago, but for, like, vegans things are often labeled as vegan or not vegan. Yeah. So there are also different types of a vegetarian diet. The first one I'm going to talk about is the lactovo vegetarian diet. And this is when an individual not consume any type of meat, poultry or fish. But it's okay if they have eggs or dairy, and it's that lacto part, I believe. Yeah. The lactose, the milk and the OVO is the egg. Yes. So that's another. I don't know if I'd say popular, but another type of vegetarian diet. And then there's also the lacto vegetarian diet, which is no meat, poultry, fish or eggs, because it doesn't have that OVO. But dairy is okay. And then we also have the OVO vegetarian diet. And if you're following our pattern, eggs are okay because this has the OVO portion in it. But no meat or dairy is allowed on this diet. And then the last one, which is I think it's pretty popular pescetarian diet, which avoids all meats. And it's okay if they eat fish, though. So these are also different variations of a vegetarian diet. Vegan is different because it does not allow any type of animal products. But these different vegetarian diets I've often seen associated with different religions, different cultures, things like that. And it's good to educate yourself. I'd say, on these different diets understand what people are able to eat and whatnot? Yeah, definitely. There are differences. And if you're a dietitian, it's good to know these two. In case you do have someone you're working with that says they're a lacto vegetarian. You have no idea what that is. You obviously want to educate you're, not encouraging them to have foods that are not so that they believe in having. Yes. But kind of like we touched on a little bit. There are a few different reasons why one would do a vegan diet. We're not focusing on just veganism. Now, we just kind of wanted to clarify the difference between a vegan and a vegetarian, but one of the biggest ones is the health reasons that come along with it. So obviously encourages a lot of fruits and veggies. Also, a lot of fiber from those fruits and veggies and beans. Beans are one of the main protein sources, I would say. And so there are some benefits with that, including improved heart health. Cholesterol levels likely improve in a lot of vegans. I don't know about diabetes, to be honest, I don't know if that often would improve or not. I sometimes these diets can be a little higher in carbs, but we know that carbs are not the sole cause of diabetes, so I'm not quite sure about that one. To be honest. Yeah. Plus, oftentimes individuals aren't even eating enough fruits or vegetables. So it's really something that really helps with veganism is it really pushes for those fruits and vegetables and they're able to attain their recommended daily amounts. And that's something that I know, especially in America. There's a huge issue with because people are not needing their fruits and vegetable daily intakes for the recommended ones. Yeah. That would be one benefit of going vegan, and it probably is important to enjoy eating fruits and vegetables if you do decide to go vegan. I have heard of some vegans or vegetarians who just have those vegan approved. I don't know. Did you hear that? That was really loud? Probably. So I'm thinking of an example like Twizzlers, I believe, are a vegan food or maybe a vegetarian? I don't know. But I've heard of certain people following a vegan diet. Are they because I don't know if they gelatin. They were not. That's why I was thinking the gelatin. I feel like they are because I used to follow this girl who was a peak and she ate a lot of Twizzlers. But anyway, it is important that if you do follow this diet that you are not just eating foods that you would normally eat that are also vegan. But you are kind of focusing on having plenty of fruits and veggies and whole grains and beans and that sort of thing. That's kind of the whole point. Yeah. It's like you still should have a well balanced diet, but it's more so just figuring out what you can substitute and take out to meet your new dietary needs. Yeah. Exactly. Another reason why one might do a vegan diet is for food preferences. If you just don't like eating meat or other animal products. I had a patient once asked me if she should go vegan because she just didn't like meat. She said, like once in a while, she said, I'm like, you don't have to strictly go vegan and call yourself a vegan. But if you don't like meat, don't have meat, that's totally fine. But that would be another reason why you might do a vegan diet if you just don't like eating a lot of animal products. That's okay. Our next one, I think one of my favorite ones around the vegan diet is a lot of people will become a vegan for moral and belief reasons. And this comes down to a lot of the ethicalness of I don't know if it's a word ethicalness, the ethics behind consuming animal products. And also oftentimes they lump that with sustainability and trying to reduce their carbon footprint and reducing their consumption of animal products to try to better the state of the environment. And then also if they have something against consuming animal products. Yeah, that's totally fine. There is nothing wrong with doing a vegan diet. It's just the concern sometimes is if you're meeting your nutrient needs, which we will get to in a second, actually. But in terms of weight loss, like I kind of alluded to at the beginning of the episode, this diet may lead to weight loss. Often research does show that people who follow a vegan diet do have lower BMI, because sometimes those foods that are not vegan are often more palatable, and they can often be over consumed. That's not to say that every single vegan is losing weight or anything like that. Yeah. Exactly. And Additionally, with the fruits and vegetables, that's our biggest emphasis. There's more to the vegan diet than that. But that's kind of. One of the biggest components that we've seen is people tend to eat a lot more fruits and vegetables, and this will have the higher fiber content and increase their satiety, which is their feelings of being satisfied with the food in full and satisfied with their meal. And as we've seen with those foods, vegetables, beans, legumes, nuts and seeds. So oftentimes when they're eating more of these foods high in fiber and they might be eating more volumes of them, they can lead to weight loss because they're not consuming as many calories as they might with a meat that's very calorically dense but very small, and they might not reach the same satiety from that. Yes. Exactly. And also, people who are following a vegan diet are often just generally more conscious of their health in general. So they might also be more active just day to day. They might be making other decisions that do impact their weight more so than others who aren't vegan and just aren't quite as conscious of their healthy choices. I guess if that makes sense. Yeah. So to sum that up, it could be a possibility. Or there is some research that people who follow a vegan diet might have a lower BMI. But as we know, BMI is already a skewed topic. We can go into that in another episode of our issues with BMI, but it doesn't necessarily correlate with weight loss. There are just different components that you can change in your diet that you don't even need to follow a vegan diet. But by adding those higher fiber foods by being more aware of what you're putting into your body. Those actions can lead to weight loss. Yeah, the benefits of what you all just described more fruits and veggies, more fiber. But those are benefiting you on their own, even Besides, if weight loss occurs or not. Yes, that's true. It's a good point to make there's more to eating than weight loss. What? As we've said many times. So we're just going to keep drilling it into your brain.
Participant #1:
Yes.
Participant #1:
So our next section is kind of one of the biggest sections with any type of diet where you restrict food groups or different types of foods. You have to think about what nutrients do I have to make up for, or find a new source to supplement my diet or find alternatives to make sure I'm meeting my nutrient needs. And with taking out animal products, there's a lot of room for nutrients that an individual could easily not meet their needs in vegans are recommended to do complementary foods to make sure they get complete proteins. But instead, just having a variety of different foods will likely lead to you getting all those essential amino acids in throughout the day. So there are nine essential amino acids that we have to eat through food, and oftentimes animal products are the ones that are known to have, like, all nine of them in them. And so you can meet those needs through one particular food. But like I just said, this science is showing that if we just eat as vegans, if we eat a variety of different foods with amino acids, and then we likely are going to end up getting enough of all of those essential amino acids to meet the needs. So basically having just a variety of different fruits and veggies and beans and legumes and soy products and quinoa, like having all the different varieties of amino acid containing foods will help you get in what you need. And one of the biggest things we've seen with vegans is not meeting their protein intake, since oftentimes people get their protein from meat sources and animal products. But this is a really great opportunity to learn about other protein sources like tofu Tempe beans are great quinoa quinoa, but it's really essential that you are aware of these other protein sources to ensure that you don't experience any loss of muscle mass. It will help with your energy levels throughout the day. It'll help with sanitity. Yeah, it's just really important that you're aware that you might not be meeting your protein intake, and you're making conscious efforts to do so to get those essential amino acids by having a balanced diet. And also you might get bored of eating the same thing. So it'll be good to have a variety of foods that'll help you get those essential amino acids because I haven't met many people that like eating the same thing every day. So it'll make fun eating more fun. Yeah, exactly. And we did already touch on this in our supplement episode, but they do have vegan protein supplements. If you do find it really hard to meet your protein needs through all these foods you are eating animal products. That can be difficult, I'm sure. But as we kind of emphasized in that episode, food first is going to be your best choice. But if you do feel like you would benefit from a supplement, they do have, like, pea powder proteins. And I guess that's kind of the biggest ones, but they do have plenty of vegan ones on the market. If you are in the market, one of those so kind of similarly, another nutrient that either vegans get blamed for being deficient in or one not be fearful of being deficient is like, oh, you're vegan. You don't get enough protein, do you? I'm sure vegans hear that all the time. I'm kind of speculating here, but another one I'm sure they hear sometimes is B twelve. And I guess for find reason, B twelve can be hard to get enough of through vegan food sources. It is often found in our fish eggs, dairy. Those are the main sources of B twelve, but it is also found in fortified cereals, fortified plant milks. Actually, nutritional yeast is kind of like all the rage right now. Vegan or not, that'd be another really good source of vitamin B twelve. Or again, if you feel like or if you know, if you have talked to someone who says that you are deficient in B twelve, that could also be supplemented as well if you really aren't getting enough through food sources. Yeah. And nutritional yeast. I've never had it, but I remember a lot of people that do supplement or add it to their diet regularly. They use it as almost like a cheese substitute. I heard it's actually pretty good, so definitely give that a try. If you need some B twelve or you want, I guess, a cheese alternative. I know there are a lot of cheese alternatives, but I don't know what the nutrient composition on those is, but I know nutritional use is definitely be twelve. Yeah, it's pretty good. So I have had it. It's good on vegetables as like a seasoning kind of thing in soups. It's really good, like on soup. It's pretty good. And that's coming from a true cheese lover. And then our next nutrient of concern with veganism is iron. And this is already a very common deficiency, as is especially in Americans, and especially in younger girls and women relate to their menstrual cycles and not consuming enough iron containing products. But most vegans are at the same amount of risk of iron deficiency as the average human. If or I guess maybe like a woman because they aren't receiving or they aren't consuming that iron from the meat products. There is iron and some vegetables. I know spinach is kind of one of the biggest ones. And this is a non heme iron source. I'm remembering my micronutrient metabolism, but basically there are two different types of iron, those heme and non heme. Am I saying that right? Or is it hem? I was thinking, I don't want to go through all that's. What I'm saying. It wrong. Someone infringing and Emily doesn't know she's talking about. You can't say words wrong. Some Archie somewhere is like, freaking out. So this heme is normally found in your meat products. And this is basically the form of iron that you're consuming is more readily absorbed into your body. But the Nonhem sources, like your plant products, stuff like that. We recommend you pair them with vitamin C because it'll change. It's not isotope. It's not a
Participant #1:
form. It'll go from
Participant #1:
iron to fair is iron. We promise we graduated from College. I might explain this in the worst way. I'm like, electron is changing. Basically, when you consume nonheam iron sources with vitamin C, it'll change the form of the iron and make it more absorbable in your body. So this, for example, could be, like, some Orange juice or, like, if you're having a spinach salad, add some Orange juice or like, a citrus fruit on top stuff like that. So that'll just help you obtain as much iron as possible. But vegan should be aware of this as well because of that lack of meat. Yes. Exactly. Oh, wow. That felt like a really complicated. I'm sorry for the complicated explanation. I guess take away. I'm still stuck on it. Let's just take them, like, one sentence of, like, exactly what they have to know. Yeah. Okay. So animal products, meat have heme iron do not need to add additional food to be readily absorbed. Non heme iron sources, like plants need vitamin C to transform the iron into a form that can be absorbed. Eat with citrus fruits or other vitamin C products, like Orange juice. Yes. Unless you're a non vegan, I could just be to hunk on me and do that. Yes, you're fine there. Okay. So that's all I got to know about iron. Vegan listeners. You heard it here. First final verdict on the vegan diet. It can be an absolutely good diet to follow if you're someone who is looking for the benefits Besides weight loss, benefits of again, maybe improved heart health, that sort of thing. Just looking to get more fruits and veggies in your diet. There are nutrients of concerns such as protein, vitamin B, twelve and iron, but those can be met through food. It's just important to be more mindful of those, since they aren't going to be as they're going to be a little more difficult to get in since you aren't eating any animal products. Okay. I thought that in good fashion. We would talk about this fruit vegetable for a bonus question. Yes. I'm excited. I haven't done any research. I haven't either. I guess we'll do it. I'm doing okay, so our bonus question today is about a vegan friendly food called tomatoes. Have you heard of them? Oh, man. Okay. Question is, are tomatoes a fruit or a vegetable? And I truthfully, have a lot of thoughts. Actually, I don't have a lot of thoughts about this. I don't know where I stand, so I'm Googling this in lifetime. I think I currently stand with it being a vegetable. I know that's controversial because, like, was it ten years ago or so? People are like, it's officially a fruit. But based off what I've seen in the descriptions, fruits contain the seeds, and they also have a flour, whereas vegetables do contain the seeds. But they don't have that flour component. And I'm looking at pictures of tomato plants because I've never. Well, I have grown tomatoes, but it was a long time ago, and I don't remember, and I'm not seeing like, there's the leaves. Well, they have the flowers as they're blooming before they become a full tomato. I think maybe it is a fruit then.
Participant #1:
Yeah. I think the seeds are kind of like one of the biggest things.
Participant #1:
Then I think of, like, cucumbers are cucumbers of fruit. I thought I was very convinced I was a vegetable. For me, it's like savory and sweet, like it's as simple as that. I know botanically. That's incorrect. I know that some food scientist is, like wanting to punch me in the face right now for saying that, but if it's savory, it's vegetable, if it's sweet, it's a fruit. That's why I also kind of think it's a vegetable. But I know again, botanically, that isn't correct. But when I talk with patients and clients, I always say, be sure to get plenty of vegetables, like tomatoes and broccoli and carrots. I would never say, make sure you get X servings of fruits a day and then lift off tomatoes is one of them. Please eat two tomatoes per day to meet your recommended daily allowances. I wonder if anyone eats a tomato like an Apple. I'm sure someone has. I don't know if we'll keep this part in, but remember, were you in my class? I think it was senior year when one particular classmate of ours just started eating an onion, like eating an onion. I was not in that class. I think you were. Maybe you weren't in my group, though. I forgot what class it was. But we were in like, it was during class we were in that I should re tell the story. We were in a cooking class. We were like preparing food. We were just like, in class and lecture like, he's ready to eat an onion. Okay. I was imagining I'm like what I would have noticed that we were in a cooking class and it was upstairs in stone in that one room. Remember that class that we got the food science class you're talking about? We were partners for that, but it was like senior year. It was like, not in the beginning. So I forget what we were doing. It was just like a one day thing. Wait, I know what you're talking about. It might be 436. Nutrition and assessment. Yes, because we are doing all the different experiments. Yes. But anyway, the one group had an onion to do something with. I forget about making a meal or what? He just, like, ate it like an Apple. He's like, oh, yeah. I love onions. Just started eating it. I'm more afraid of it. We were not in the same lab. Okay. I remember we were in lecture. Granted, I don't know how much we went to lecture, but we might cut that. No, I think we did go to lecture. Luck. I remember showing up sweaty there from my fitness class. Oh, yeah, your fitness class. I forgot you did that. Yeah. No, I did not witness that. I think that would be a memory solidified in my mind if I where I was standing and where he was standing. And, like, my thought process that I went through while he did that. Anyway, back to tomatoes. I think I'm going to say it's a vegetable because I'm going to have to agree. I understand that there's a little flour I'm kind of seeing, like, the little green things that, like, spike. Maybe that's a flower. I'm going to look up tomato flour and see what comes up. Yeah, I do not know. Oh, yeah. It's like the little yellow ones. You've definitely seen them before. Like on a tomato plant. Oh, my gosh. It's like what happens before they Bloom. Well, now I'm convinced vegetables have flowers. That's all it took for you was just a flower to convince you that it's a vegetable or a fruit. Well, I understand the seed argument is I think I've heard that vegetables, like, the entire being, is a seed, whereas fruits have little seeds in them. I don't know if that's actually true, but that's just what I've heard. But then I was always. Go ahead. Sorry. I was just always convinced that all these vegetables have these little seeds. So therefore, all fruits are vegetables, and all vegetables are fruits, them together as produce and leave it at that. I know this one blogger has her title, Tomato Plant Flowers to pinch or not to pinch. That's what I was wondering, too. Gardennologist org into that one. More like harvesting. I don't know why you can leave the flower alone. She really knows her niche. She is like, she's got it. Good for her. Yeah, I think I'm going to stick on it's a vegetable. I'm going to agree. Correct. But it doesn't feel right. Yeah. No, it's nothing like a blueberry or Orange or an Apple, which are definitely fruits. Well, I guess if you're talking about sweetness, cherry tomatoes can be pretty sweet. That's true. But I just don't as sweet as, like a grape. I mean, like, green grapes aren't very sweet. I guess that's sour. That's true. You're swaying me. I'm not trying to. This might be one of our few, actually, before one of our few episodes where you just don't have an answer. It's just we don't know and that's okay. That's okay. That's what science is for him to admit. When you don't know life lessons. We do not know if a tomato is a fruit or vegetable, but we are open to new facts. Yeah, we are all learning so much through this whole Tut experience. Is anyone calling our podcast yet? Please let us know. We call it TUD. We're definitely calling it. Okay, that's enough of that. Thank you, guys so much for listening to episode nine. And we look forward to seeing you next week. Yes. Have a great week. Until then. Yeah. Okay. Bye
