CARNIVORE TO VEGAN
The eye-opening truth of what happens when you go from...
OUTSIDE, frost was glistening on the grass, but inside the low-beamed country pub, a log fire blazed and, as a bottle of wine was poured, waiters delivered plates piled high with roast beef, chicken and pork, all topped with giant Yorkshire puddings. Except for one plate — mine — which held a small pile of chips, a few lettuce leaves and a tomato cut in half. That was my Sunday lunch. My husband and the friends we were eating with looked at me with genuine pity.
But I had no choice: chips and salad were the only items on the menu that were vegan.
I fared no better at a posh French restaurant, where I went to celebrate a friend’s engagement. There was a vegetarian menu on request, but the sole vegan item was a side salad. I ordered chips as well, and felt a strong sense of deja vu.
These were the times when I began to
that perhaps veganism wasn’t quite as healthy or as glamorous as it’s cracked up to be.
Until recently, you might have associated the word ‘vegan’ with joyless living and pasty-faced hippies living on lentils — but veganism, or plant-based eating, is now a popular lifestyle movement.
It’s attracted celebrity endorsements from the likes of Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton, who announced last year that he was going vegan ‘to live a healthier life’ and avoid damaging the planet. Model Elle McPherson, former US president Bill Clinton and singer Jennifer Lopez are just some of the famous faces who embrace the plant-based lifestyle .
Listening to some stars talking about their new diet, you might think veganism is a miracle cure. American actress Alicia Silverstone, star of Clueless, said: ‘Not long after adopting this way of eating, I ditched my asthma inhaler, stopped getting allergy shots, my body slimmed down, my moods balanced and my acne disappeared.’
MICHELLE Pfeiffer has said: ‘I really noticed a difference in my skin not too long after switching to fully vegan.’ And science seems to support the idea that a plant-based diet can be healthier. A major study published in 2016 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine reviewed 12 diet trials involving 1,151 people and found that people on a vegan diet lost ‘significantly more weight’ — around 5.5 lb more — than those on non-vegetarian diets, including the Atkins low-carb regimen.
A 2012 study found a 32 per cent lower risk of heart disease among vegetarians.
Meanwhile, a study published in the British Medical Journal last year found that eating red and processed meat increased the risk of premature death by any cause in people aged 50 to 71.
The researchers pointed out that our ancestors may have eaten meat only once a week, while we now consume up to ten times as much. A study published in the same journal the previous year suggested eating more protein from plant sources was associated with a lower risk of premature death.
But a vegan diet is no guarantee of good health. One expert, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals, said: ‘Veganism simply doesn’t work for everyone. Some people end up eating too many processed foods and carbs, and go short of essential nutrients. That’s not healthy.’
Dr Duane Mellor, a senior lecturer in human nutrition at Coventry University, adds: ‘For some, it can be a way to improve health. Certainly, a well-planned vegan diet can be healthy.
‘But if you look at some of the literature, it is mixed, suggesting that vegans are no healthier than those who consume animal products.’
‘It can have benefits, such as increased intake of fibre and a number of vitamins — some B vitamins from wholegrains and more vitamin C if more fruit and vegetables are eaten.
‘However, there is evidence that some vegans miss out on nutrients and there are a number of risks. For example, vitamin B12 is only found naturally in animal products.
‘B12 is vital for the brain and nervous system: a deficiency can result in anaemia, weakness, confusion, memory problems, fatigue and depression.’
A 2017 University of Bristol study found that men who ate a vegetarian or vegan diet were almost twice as likely to suffer from depression, possibly due to their diet lacking B12 or omega-3 fats (also linked to brain function).
AT 54, I’ve been a lifelong carnivore eating what I thought was a pretty healthy diet — plenty of home-cooked food and few sweets, biscuits or cakes.
But there were clues that my lifestyle wasn’t doing me any favours. My weight had been creeping up for years. Last September, at size 16, I was at my biggest ever. I had some IBS symptoms, often felt tired, and I still had pain and stiffness from a back injury that I’d sustained four years ago.
I also felt increasingly guilty about the welfare of farmed animals.
With the caveats about veganism in mind, I decided on a three-month, one-woman trial to see what effect veganism would have on my health — if I could stick to it for that long.
First I underwent health checks for some baseline readings. To my horror, my body mass index (BMI) was 30 — ‘obese’ — and my body fat percentage, at 35.3, was nearly 5 per cent more than it should be.
At 35 inches, my waist was an inch over the measurement that health guidelines indicate puts women at ‘very high risk’ of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and stroke — and meant I might have fat around my abdominal organs.
At 5.9, my cholesterol was also slightly high (it’s meant to be no more than 5), but with more ‘good’ HDL cholesterol and low amounts of ‘bad’ LDL, this level was unlikely to harm my health.
I also had the bacteria in my gut tested by Genova Diagnostics. There’s increasing evidence that a diverse gut microbiome is important for both mental and physical health — and that a plant-based diet can improve the variety of microbes.
My results revealed poor diversity and an inflamed gut. Miguel ToribioMateas, the independent nutritionist who analysed my results, suggested that a high-fibre diet full of antioxidants from fruit and vegetables should help.
Going vegan began to make even more sense.
I also consulted registered dietitian Sian Porter, who advised that a new vegan like me might struggle to get enough protein, especially ‘complete’ protein which includes all nine amino acids that our bodies need. Meat, fish, eggs and dairy contain all nine.
THERE are some vegan sources of complete protein, such as soya (tofu, mince and milk), buckwheat, hemp and vegan Quorn. Beans and rice, peanut butter on toast or chickpeas and pitta are combinations that would provide me with all the necessary amino acids.
Porter said that based on my desired BMI of 24.9 (or roughly 11st 7lb), I had to get from 55g to 73g of protein a day.
She said omega-3 fats are nutrients that vegans might struggle to get enough of. Oily fish are the richest source, although chia, hemp, linseeds, vegetable oils and walnuts provide it. Porter suggested I take supplements made from algae.
More problematic, she thought, are vitamin B12, iodine and selenium. A clinical review published in the BMJ in 2014 stated that 11 per cent of vegans are deficient in vitamin B12, compared with around 6 per cent of meat eaters under the age of 60.
Iodine is found in milk and fish and we need it to make thyroid hormones that regulate metabolism.
A recent study by the University of Surrey found that the majority of milk alternatives have only 2 per cent of that found in cow’s milk.
Our bodies need selenium to build enzymes that defend cells from damage. It’s found in seafood, dairy, meat and eggs, but also in some Brazil nuts. Just three nuts a day will provide enough.
Iron is another nutrient that vegans can run low on, said Porter. She said to make sure my daily diet contained fortified breakfast cereal, chickpeas, kale, beans, lentils, raisins and apricots.
‘A carefully planned vegan diet, with the necessary supplements, can be healthy, but it is not a guarantee of losing weight,’ Porter warned. ‘A vegan cake is still a cake. There are a lot of vegan processed foods and vegan foods generally often contain the same calories as non-vegan foods.’
Miguel Toribio-Mateas had a similar warning: ‘A vegan diet is not automatically a healthy diet. Plenty of junk food is vegan.’
With all this advice ringing in my ears, I bought myself a spray supplement containing B12, iodine and selenium, and decided to make a real effort to include enough iron-rich foods in my diet. Finally, I could get started.
To be honest, I was still worried about how I was going to live according to the vegan code. My two children, aged 16 and 13, love spaghetti bolognese and burgers, while Chris, my husband, would happily eat meat at every meal and is a keen cook, turning out a constant supply of stews, casseroles, roasts and various animals in sauce.
In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to eat vegan at home. Yes, it was a bit lonely, but I tucked into lots of cereal and smooththink
ies, stir fries, curries, veggie burgers, salads and bean chillis, with nuts and fruit as snacks.
Eating out was trickier, partly because I found it embarrassing to announce that I was a vegan.
Friends regarded my experiment with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion. One friend begged: ‘You aren’t going to stay vegan, are you? I mean, it’s weird.’
Others became angry and defensive, announcing: ‘Well, I like chicken and I’m not giving it up.’ Another asked, over the phone: ‘Are you thin yet?’ The answer was ‘No’.
For almost two months, my weight remained stubbornly the same. And instead of developing a much anticipated healthy glow, my skin broke out into large painful spots.
Dermatologist Dr Stefanie Williams tells me that she’s seen this happen to a number of patients when they swap to a vegan diet.
‘A diet rich in vegetables is good for skin, but good skin also requires high quality protein and this “veganacne” may be a reaction to a high carb, high GI diet,’ she explained.
So I stopped excitedly ordering a vegan cake every time I found one in a cafe, slowed down on the (delicious) vegan mayonnaise I’d found — and eventually my clothes started getting looser.
But my diet was so filling that I struggled to eat enough to meet my goals: one day my total protein was a pitiful 26g.
And even on good days — when I ate seeds and green veg and soya milk — I struggled to make half of the recommended daily amount of 1,200mg calcium.
So I bought some more supplements and, after 90 days, headed back for my assessment. To my joy, I’d shed almost a stone (roughly 3in off my waist and hips).
It might not sound a lot — around 6 per cent of my body weight — but a US study published in the journal Cell Metabolism in 2016 found that losing just 5 per cent can improve your body’s sensitivity to insulin, in turn lowering the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It also cuts fat from the liver.
My body fat percentage had dropped to 33.8 per cent — and all without ever going hungry. And my vitamin B12 and iron were at healthy levels. However, other tests showed a mixed picture.
My cholesterol had dipped marginally, but the loss was my ‘healthy’ HDL cholesterol. And my triglycerides — other fats linked to heart disease — had risen slightly, too (though was still within the healthy range).
Toribio-Mateas suggested the changes to triglycerides might be due to the high levels of carbohydrate in my new diet.
As for my gut bacteria, going vegan has done ‘absolutely nothing’ to improve my results, he tells me. ‘Some people seem to have a genetic reason for low diversity, so you might be one of them,’ he suggested.
HOWEVER, my skin settled and my nagging back pain totally disappeared, perhaps due to the weight loss. My digestion was better and I felt more energetic. I had the confidence to go back to the gym and was thrilled to wear clothes I thought I’d never fit into again. People told me I looked much healthier.
Keen to lose more weight, I’ve kept to my vegan diet and in the past month I’ve lost another 5lb. I still have another stone to go, so will stick with the general principles of my diet.
I’ve come to prefer soya milk and, to my enormous surprise, can’t face the idea of eating meat.
However, I can’t promise never to eat cheese, and I’m thinking of adding organic, sustainably sourced fish to my diet because the health benefits appear undeniable.
At its heart, veganism is a moral diet — it was not created to be healthy but to prevent animal suffering. We’d all benefit from a diet richer in vegetables, pulses and fruit, but at the risk of incurring the wrath of more militant vegans, if health is your sole concern, then there’s evidence that moderate amounts of animal foods might make it even healthier.
And if you go vegan without good advice, planning and a few supplements, and assume you will automatically become thin, young and forever healthy, you might be in for a disappointment.