vegan is the ultimate, hard-core vegetarian. Someone who follows a vegan diet avoids eating, drinking, wearing, using, or otherwise consuming anything that contains animal ingredients or that was tested on animals. This means a vegan eats pretty much everything except dairy from cows, sheep, or goats, (or horses, if you’re ever visiting Mongolia), cheese, milk, butter, eggs, meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, or honey.
In this chapter, you discover the vast health benefits of a vegan diet, what vegan living entails, and how to deal with the common (and often ignorant) questions that people will likely ask you about your lifestyle choice.
You Are What You Eat: The Health and Food Connection
If you want to be vibrant, healthy, and full of energy, …show more content…
The fiber brush effect is one of the main reasons why vegans have less colon cancer.
As vegans avoid the modern, processed diet and go for the veggie-based one, they get abundant vitamins, phytochemicals (chemical compounds found in plant foods that have health-promoting properties), and fiber associated with lower cancer rates.
If you’re eating a whole-foods based diet, you’re already taking in more fiber than the average person. The vegetables with the highest amounts of fiber are artichokes, beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, carrots, eggplant, leafy green vegetables, mushrooms, potatoes with the skin, pumpkin, peppers, rhubarb, spinach, and sweet potatoes. High-fiber fruits include apples, avocados, bananas, berries, dried fruit, guava, kiwi, oranges, pears, and prunes. Whole grains, nuts, and seeds also are good sources of fiber.
The American Heart Association and the Institute of Medicine recommend that adults consume 14 grams of fiber for every 1,000 calories eaten. For vegans, this level is no problem to achieve: 1 cup of peas has almost 9 grams;
1 cup of black beans has 19 grams; 1 banana has 3 grams; 1
⁄2 cup of blackberries has more than 4 grams; and 1 tablespoon of shredded coconut
In this chapter, you discover the vast health benefits of a vegan diet, what vegan living entails, and how to deal with the common (and often ignorant) questions that people will likely ask you about your lifestyle choice.
You Are What You Eat: The Health and Food Connection
If you want to be vibrant, healthy, and full of energy, …show more content…
The fiber brush effect is one of the main reasons why vegans have less colon cancer.
As vegans avoid the modern, processed diet and go for the veggie-based one, they get abundant vitamins, phytochemicals (chemical compounds found in plant foods that have health-promoting properties), and fiber associated with lower cancer rates.
If you’re eating a whole-foods based diet, you’re already taking in more fiber than the average person. The vegetables with the highest amounts of fiber are artichokes, beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, carrots, eggplant, leafy green vegetables, mushrooms, potatoes with the skin, pumpkin, peppers, rhubarb, spinach, and sweet potatoes. High-fiber fruits include apples, avocados, bananas, berries, dried fruit, guava, kiwi, oranges, pears, and prunes. Whole grains, nuts, and seeds also are good sources of fiber.
The American Heart Association and the Institute of Medicine recommend that adults consume 14 grams of fiber for every 1,000 calories eaten. For vegans, this level is no problem to achieve: 1 cup of peas has almost 9 grams;
1 cup of black beans has 19 grams; 1 banana has 3 grams; 1
⁄2 cup of blackberries has more than 4 grams; and 1 tablespoon of shredded coconut