What are the Real Health Risks when you are Vegan?

Question: i'm 17 and vegan 4 2 months. i eat free range eggs at home. i try to eat properly and i take calcium pills and centrum. what are the real health risks in it?

Answer: I am a qualified Vegan Nutritional Therapist. My parents have been vegan for 20 years. They look extremely young for their ages. My mother is almost 60 and people think she is my sister and I am 26 years old! The vegan diet is a very healthy diet IF MANAGED PROPERLY. Dairy and meat are linked to many diseases. You can look up all the scientific evidence for that in the links I'll send you. If you want to be a HEALTHY vegan, make sure you don't eat junk food like white rolls, white rice, white pies, white sugar. All refined foods rob you of nutrients you could have had if you rather went for the WHOLEFOODS.

There is a vegan FOOD PYRAMID that you can look up. I'll send you the link. WHOLE GRAINS should be the most in your diet. Whole wheat bread, brown rice, millit, oats, etc. Look for a list of whole grains on the internet. Fruit and vegetables (fresh) should be the next highest in your diet. Then legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas, etc). Tofu is nice if you fry it in vegetable stock and a little olive oil. Then nuts and seeds. You should get yourself some flax seed oil and use that every day over your salad. It must not be heated. It has essential fatty acids in it.

Try different nut spreads. Almond spread, peanut butter, etc. Eat lots of fresh foods and make alfalfa sprouts. Tahini has loads of calcium and so do alfalfa sprouts. Always have a VARIED diet. Don't always eat the same foods. To get sufficient protein, combine grains and legumes. For example peanut butter on whole wheat bread is probably a complete protein. So is beans on brown rice. Or lentils on brown rice. You have a 17 hour amino acid pool in your body, so you don't have to worry too much about protein if you follow the food pyramid. For cooking, only use extra virgin olive oil. It's the healthiest oil for cooking. For iron, eat lots of green leafy vegetables, like spinach. For vitamin B12 you can use B12 or complex supplements every now and again. Your body uses B12 over and over, so you don't have to be on supplements for the rest of your life. My parents never take B12 and their B12 levels are normal.

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