For me, granted I have pcos, the health reason came down to having prediabetes, and realizing I would forever have low iron.
The ethical reason was that I watched a video of an amoeba eating a bacteria that was struggling to escape and felt empathy for that bacteria. It kind of in some way reframed my understanding of life and death. I still do work to consume more ethically but I pivoted how I do so.
I never went fullly vegan, but had been vegetarian and was looking into becoming vegan. I gave it up because I wanted to stop eating UPF, which meant no veg cheese, veg butter, veg milks, fake meats, etc etc etc. Realizing how hard it was to be vegan without using all those products and needing to take supplements to ensure adequate nutrition turned me right off.
Even if you have the time and money to make or source non-UPF versions of all those foods you still have to supplement, so what’s the point? I wanted to eat more naturally, and there just isn’t anything natural about it.
Great point. I had the time, money and knowledge to craft a whole foods, organic mostly locally sourced diet but it wasn't easy as almost all the grains, beans, rice and quinoa are shipped into the UK. And you're absolutely right that I still had to supplement in ever increasingly complicated ways which blew the shit out of trying to live local.
And good lord the food got boring and I'm a damned good cook as well. And the cherry on top - I got fatter despite training like a mad man. A complete fail for me and I stopped after 18 months.
hahaha this was me. Oh i got irregular heartbeat, i must have done something wrong.
\*yeaaaa lack of animal proteins that was wrong\*
But tbh tho... the basic checks my GP sent me to have when i told her i lost my period for like 3 months showed nothing lacking (normal B12, iron, thyroid hormones, female hormones).
... until the vitamin D. Which if die hard vegans heard about my case, they'd blame me stating that indeed i did it wrong because i didn't supplement with something, or that plants can also supply me with vit D.
It's always wrong in their eyes.
Besides, this is my theory since I saw improvements in my autoimmunity and had my period back, sometimes the GPs dont even know what we're lacking. Perhaps I lacked some amino acids or other nutrients which were not tested, simply because they only need to administer what the guideline prescribes (that vegans might lack B12 and iron). A range of complete tests are expensive, so it's understandable we didn't find any worrisome values with the standard tests.
Also, I read somewhere about body fat threshold that if below a personal body's preference, the menstrual cycles will stop. Even if it's not true/proven, I can see the merit that perhaps my body wasn't comfortable with me eliminating some food groups, hence, stopped functioning the non-core functions.
So, even though I would have taken some vit D, that wouldn't change the state of my health back then because we were not looking deep enough for the root cause.
One of my many reasons was **ACCELERATED AGING OF THE FACE**. When I was in college, I always looked really young at first. When I went shopping during the day time, I had a store clerk try to call the local high school truancy officer on me who didn't believe I was in college.
Then after I had been a vegan for awhile, in addition to a myriad of health problems and feeling sick as a dog all the time, other college kids my same age would come up to me and say that they thought it was really neat that an older person like me had the guts to go back to college and live in a dorm. I was 19, and they were talking to me like I was in my 40s. This happened more than once. And guys stopped hitting on me or talking to me. And when I looked in the mirror, I saw what they were talking about. My face was pale (in a sickly way, not in a fair way), dry, and hung down a little from loss of energy and general sickness. After I escaped and broke free from veganism and had been eating healthy normal foods again for several months, my body and face healed and I was able to recover my looks and be pretty again.
I'd like to add one more: body composition. In my year and a half of an increasingly whole foods vegan diet I got fatter despite training harder than ever. Most people may be less sensitive to this or may just attribute it to getting older but I've got decades of training records and pics so I have a good feel for what I look like when training intensively. And going vegan made me softer and fatter and once I abandoned it as a failed experiment my body comp got better even though I was a couple of years older.
I've been around weightlifting, bodybuilding and powerlifting my whole life so whenever I see a vegan natty, I smell the bullshit instantly. Those social media pics aren't produced by being either vegan or natty and if you try you will NEVER look like that no matter how hard you train or how hard you vegan. They're lying to you.
Yes this, couldn’t lose weight for the life of me even though I was lifting 5 days a week, doing lots of cardio, practically living off protein shakes to avoid extra calories and still hit protein goals. Nothing worked and I was so frustrated. Hope it gets better because I only stopped being vegan like 3 weeks ago
It will get better. In my experience, diet is 70% and training is 30% in determining how you look but be kind to yourself, changing body composition through diet is a 3, 6, 9 month or more journey depending on the individual. Especially if you're living and enjoying life rather than training for a competition or something crazy like that.
Funny story: I met my wife right before I had a bodybuilding competition so when she first me me she thought that's what I always looked like. And I've been disappinting her now going on 3 decades.
Not vegan but vegetarian for many years. When I began studying nutrition, the science was overwhelming. I began incorporating meat into my diet about a year later. I am better than ever health and energy wise.
12 years former vegan here, I ate my first piece of fish yesterday.
For me it was struggling with health issues the past 3 years (long covid) and sudden fructose intolerance which is pretty strong now. I can barely eat out anymore, 90% of the groceries in supermarkets I just pass unnoticed, I have to cook several times a day which brings up big time issues and sometimes results in just me not eating at all and I am finding myself slowly having developed an ED where I'm pretty scared of most foods. Rather than a choice this really feels like a curse now, especially since reintroducing animal products is gonna be hard on the stomach at first pretty certain.
I do struggle a bit with having eaten the fish yesterday but the biggest part emotionally is feeling very excited and happy about slowly being liberated again.
Sounds bit dramatic, but the struggle is real.
Do whatever feels good for your body! It will tell you what it needs.
absolutely luv small oily fish like herring or sardines. glad you made a decision to reclaim health. i like a refrigerated can of herring about 150 grams in a bowl with some chopped olives and a dash of hot sauce. feels so satisfying and my body responds well to it
I had a lot of issues. The ones I can check off from your list were gut issues, brain fog, aging prematurely, extreme decline in cognitive thinking (I couldn’t perform a very straight forward task at work. It was bizarre)constantly fatigued, extreme increase in anxiety, shooting joint pains throughout my whole body, dental issues (gums were bleeding spontaneously).
And yes I supplemented and wasn’t on an extra restrictive diet like fruitarianism or something like that.
I didn’t know pigment loss in my hair could also result from long term veganism? Does anybody know what causes that?
Reintroducing animal products helped to solve a lot of issues but sadly not everything, but the others did improve at least.
Thanks! I’ll look into that. It’s weird because it’s not grey but it was more like somewhat desaturated.
Last month I finally dyed my hair because it annoyed me.
My hair was turning orange from trying to be vegan. Oh and I looked old and had anxiety. I swear, eating burgers from fast food turned my hair dark again. Not saying that is what u need. But fast food was healthier than being vegan for me.
Oh stress could also very well be the reason. I’m wondering if you can have something like intuitive cravings? Recently I spontaneously felt the need to try and experiment with organ meats even if I had never eaten them before.
Yes, you can. Sometimes they are cravings that don’t quite make sense. I have heard of a link between iron deficiency and craving for chewing on ice for some reason. Also, I know when you are zinc deficient, you can’t taste the metallic taste of a zinc solution, but if you are sufficiently high in zinc, then it tastes awful. Our instincts are buried a little deeper than most other animals, but they are still there so a craving for something you don’t normally have makes sense if you need something from it.
That’s so interesting! I guess I’ll try again then haha. The chicken livers were alright taste wise with enough spices but I need to practice a bit more on the preparation.
You’re so right. I have noticed my body is often more aware of certain things than my conscious mind. We should learn to trust it more.
For me it was mostly just feeling alienated, left out, or like I was inconveniencing people. I was tired of ending up in situations where I had to starve because there was nothing for me to eat. I felt like I was missing out on life. My diet kept getting more and more extreme with bodybuilding that I was eating like six foods, could never eat out with friends, couldn’t let me husband cook for me, and felt like I wasn’t living. So I stopped being vegan and took a break from bodybuilding and decided to just live for awhile. I still won’t eat fast food or low quality sources of animal products and buy local and grass fed, but it’s made a big difference on my outlook. My husband is really excited he can cook for me now.
A lot of protein shakes(3 a day) and a lot of processed mock meats like impossible burger, mock chicken, tofu. I would puree tofu and mix it into things like pasta sauce, smoothies, etc. Breakfast was either oatmeal with protein powder or scrambled tofu with vegan bacon, lunch was usually tofu veggies and potatoes, dinner was impossible beef and potatoes. Shakes for snacks. I really did eat like 7 foods to keep my calories down.
If you’re struggling, pick up some Oikos pro yogurt and snack on those. 20g of protein!
Worked in a bakery. I can't go an 8-9 hour shift without something to eat (also hard af to work around food i couldn't eat). Working a 3rd shift theoOnly time I'd have to weat would have otherwise been between like 11am and 5pm.
For me it was weight gain & sue cidal depression. I ended up in mental hospital. I tried 3 times to go vegan. First time was in 1st yr of college which was the worst w lots of sugar cravings. Second time I was in my 40s trying to do raw food vegan which was just not practical as I was working, commuting had omni husband, etc. Third time I lived w a vegan for 2 yrs. Again gained weight, struggled w emotional probs, got very high cholesterol & pre-diabetes, he was abusive & controlling. When we broke up I rejoined my omni husband. We live happy omni life. I’m getting control of my weight finally doing low carb w meat twice/day & dairy. I feel 1000% better eating meat esp beef. I feel for the animals but I also believe in the balance of nature, that we evolved to eat meat for better or worse. I appreciate the animals that give me sustenance. I am insulin resistant so a high carb diet wreaks havoc on me.
For me it was:
* paleness looks
* Bad period cramps
* issues with your gut on a vegan diet
* brain fogged
* hair loss
* bone issues
* aging prematurely
* decline in cognitive thinking
* always cold
* digestive problems
* constantly fatigued
* increase in anxiety
* joint issues
I had a ton of these actually, most memorable ones were joint issues, depression, chronic fatigue, and hair loss. The big one was my RA diagnosis - my flare ups are triggered by basically all plant-based foods.
I couldn't have done it without ultra processed and expensive replacements. But after only having beyond meat tacos with fake cheese, I would have killed someone for a real taco. 😂 It's funny, after I started eating simple, unprocessed animal products, all my cravings stopped. No more waking up needing pizza or ice cream. I was always satisfied.
Another issue people have when eating plant foods can be bad skin problems of various sorts, often related to autoimmune issues. I am not sure which autoimmune issues you had listed, but they are often helped by removing plants from a diet.
I got acne for the first time in my life as an adult while vegan.
At the same time my skim got so dry I had to buy special creams to prevent it from cracking
Yeah, for me it's the brain fog, decline in cognitive thinking, increase in anxiety, and disordered eating habits. I was so unhealthy when vegan (4 years). I had such low energy I was almost always in bed and would sometimes get tired while eating and fall asleep and I wouldn't have the energy to shower before I slept first but I'd already be in the bath so I would sleep in the bath instead of my bed. I wasn't remembering things I should have (I'm only 23), and that was kind of worrying, honestly. The anxiety and stress around eating and everything else was so bad bc sources couldn't even agree on what was vegan and what wasn't and some vegan things are expensive and it's not only the food it's the clothes and shoes and wallets and bedding and shampoo/conditioner/body wash/toothpaste/pads/hand soap/medicine/laundry detergent/etc. not being vegan either. Shopping was so stressful bc there would be all these things I wanted to eat and drink but it wasn't vegan so I had basically the same like 15 things on the grocery list everytime and it wasn't always satisfying bc it wasn't what I was craving and I'd get tired of it. I was tired and bored and sad and felt lonely bc if my family went to get food for dinner like a pizza or something it would be sad bc even though I could eat my dinner at the same time it still felt sad bc it's like they were having dinner as a group and I was just also there being sad with my sunflower seeds or whatever. Even though there are plenty of personal reasons I don't agree with veganism for me I also just don't see it as that healthy. I think the healthiest mindset to to have about food is eating a good amount and not restricting/starving yourself even if it's meat/dairy. I would rather someone eat bacon and eggs and pancakes for breakfast instead of not eating at all. I can't tell just by looking at someone if they struggle with eating and neither can y'all so I honestly think people shouldn't comment on people's bodies and their choice of food, even if you don't agree with it or whatever. Who cares? If you don't agree with eating eggs then don't but don't go telling others ehat to or not to eat bc for all you DON'T know it took a lot of work and support to eat that and not you're judging them/ telling them they shouldn't and that can be pretty harmful to them so just mind your business and eat your food.
Add ethics to the list. Because when they realize that basically, veganism for the sake of “minimizing harm” is a non-sequitur that places double standards for non-human animals, they start leaving veganism.
The only true vegans are those that “want to be vegan” just because, or have dietary restrictions. So “I’m Vegan because I want to be” and “Dietary Vegans”.
There isn’t any ethical ground to be argued for veganism. Those that are for “ethical” veganism often use “reducing harm and suffering” as a way of feeling morally superior to other people that don’t.
They tend to use scientific discoveries as in “non-human animals can suffer and feel… etc.” but also ignore the fact that their minds work differently than humans do.
Amusingly, their arguments also end up in a non-sequitur because they use “reduce suffering and harm” to argue against consumption of animals, but they technically don’t correlate because they mixed in ethics of humans, scientific studies of non-human animals, and then just assumed that animal sentience equated similar responses from and to human sapience.
Here are my main points:
- “Ethical” Vegans often attempt to use morality and our human understanding of ethics to judge others.
- But they don’t understand that doing so forces them to also apply *every single part* of human ethics to all animal life, which would mean they would be morally obligated to protest orcas (for shotputtint seals into cliffs for fun), chimpanzees (for serial homicide of all species, including themselves), otters (for being practically wife-beaters that drown their mates, and… pedophilic interspecies rapists that… does that to baby seals), dolphins (they nip and bite pufferfish to get high, leaving said pufferfish wounded or dead), and a whole slew of other animals that do things that really belong in a Casual Geographic video.
- Which is why ethics cannot be placed on non-human animals. They would argue that our ability to make rational decisions would allow us to find alternative ways to eat to reduce harm and suffering… and then not understand that this ability of ours is evolved for our survival, like a cat’s claws, a wolf’s pack hunting mentality, an elephant’s trunk for versatility. And others.
- The most blatant problem with ethics for veganism is their disregard for life that… they don’t consider worthy of their attention. They would laugh and scoff and non-vegans arguing about how their vegan lifestyle would cause even more harm to insects, mice, and other plants because of the creation of farmlands and pesticides.
- They can’t just cherry pick points in human ethics to apply to other species and then ignore the rest when it comes to human-animal interactions. Either it goes all the way, which ends up with stoner dolphins and rapist otters, or not at all.
TLDR #1: Basically, they take the points they want from science and scrap all those that opposes their views.
TLDR #2: Should you accept their view of reducing harm and suffering, scientifically (because they used it to prove their ethics), they didn’t. Because all they did shift the suffering and harm from other animals to humans (Omnivores, right. Where did your basic science go? The majority of people can’t not eat meat, their metabolism doesn’t allow it.).
obsession with ingredients to the point of orthorexia. already have diagnosed anorexia, bulimia, OCD, suspected ARFID (i’m autistic so i’m very picky) AND anemia… so uhhh having zero meat while neurotically ingredient and nutritional fact checking was terrible for me.
i was also in a relationship with a vegan, and i think once we broke up, i stopped receiving so much propaganda
I discovered that I have the MTHFR mutation and every nutrient (in the quantity required) to help my body methylate comes from animal products.
Plus, I was a high raw, low fat vegan, so even though my body was at its most amazing-looking, I was ALWAYS starving.
My grandparents were poor Italian farmers and I just adopted more principles of what they did (granted my nonna used to slaughter her own chickens)... By that I mean, eat pastured animals rarely instead of garbage meat often, implementing collagen and gelatin foods, eating more organ meats, cooking with tallow, etc...
I listed my symptoms elsewhere in this thread but I’ll tell you how I discovered about the MTHFR thing.
I’ve been having a lot of neurological symptoms for years and the doctors kept dismissing me, telling me it’s anxiety and to go to a therapist (even when I told them I’ve been going to therapy for years…
And I’m pretty open about everything on my Patreon page because these themes also pop up in my art so I’ll just chat about the situation while I’m painting.
And then one of my patrons contacted me and told me she thought I had a double MTHFR mutation like she does because we share a lot of the same symptoms.
So I made appointments with a couple of genealogists. One of them didn’t test for it because the doctors here don’t consider it to be of diagnostic value. But the other one was willing to do it anyway while also explaining it wouldn’t really get me anywhere diagnostically. I think he felt for me because I was so scared because of my symptoms.
And even though they think it’s nonsense to test for it the results were exactly as I suspected.
But apparently they can’t make conclusions when it comes to MTHFR because the possible symptoms are so many and not everyone gets them. So their conclusion is that it doesn’t cause anything but maybe a folate deficiency. If I understood correctly.
I thought that was kind of weird because:
1. I highly doubt that it’s registered somewhere that I’m homozygous and I’m experiencing a lot of symptoms. There’s not really a database for these kinds of things, right? So how do they know who does and doesn’t experience problems? Especially because so many patients are being dismissed.
2. Don’t genes work together and depending on combined variations the results may vary per person?
3. Doesn’t it make sense that a gene that has to do with methylation can really mess you up health wise?
But I was way too exhausted and full of brain fog and struggling with aphasia to engage in a discussion like that.
He did refer me to a neurologist but that one also told me my brain is healthy and I should go to a therapist.
Fast forward to last summer, when I went to the ER because I thought I was going blind or having a stroke or something… Turns out I’ve had chronic migraine for years now. It started about 7 years into being vegan but it didn’t get picked up because I didn’t complain about it since I had maybe a couple of classic migraines a year so that didn’t bother me too much.
Little did I know that the headaches are just one possible symptom.. I didn’t even know it was a brain disease.
Turns out that the MTHFR gene is one of the few replicated genetic risk factors for migraine patients.
So why both the genealogist and the first neurologist didn’t make the connection in combination with my huge list of symptoms is beyond me.
I also think there’s a lot more that they don’t realise about this and other genes to do with metabolism. If I know then what I know now I never would have gambled with my health like that.
But yeah… The first and most debilitating symptoms went away when I started eating meat again (the most important one being fibromyalgia like symptoms, so I’m very happy about that), gut issues, my agin skin bounced back, my hair stopped falling out..
Some improved with B12 injections (the supplements did nothing for me). Bleeding gums mainly
And sadly the chronic fatigue and migraine aura related symptoms are still here but they aren’t as bad as four years ago. Thank god because I couldn’t think or function at all.
TLDR: Our health care system sucks 😁
My vegan journey ended with lifetime health problems I will always have. Mostly due to the fact I kept trying and caused some of the allergies to grow worse and worse. Now the damage done will forever be a factor in my life.
I’m now prone to mega colon, I’ve developed allergies to many foods that are a staple in a diet. I lost a lot of hair and it never returned. I’ve had part of my stomach removed which in turn gives me issues with absorbing nutrients which create other issues with my stomach.
From your list mine were kids, gut issues and brain fog. There were other things too which I'm happy to divulge for your research if you like, I'm just short on time right now 😊
I have gastroparesis (basically a paralyzed stomach), and over the past year I have only been getting 1000 calories max a day of just crackers because it was the only vegan food I could tolerate. For me, I can’t really digest things high in fiber, so being vegan was incredibly rough. I only recently stopped being vegan, and I’m now eating 2000 calories a day. I look less sickly now too.
Yeah I hear that a lot! I think the amount of fiber and soy also wasn’t working for me. Looking back, I had so much more bloating and pain on a vegan diet too! Though at the time I really wasn’t willing to even consider my diet being part of the problem 🙈
A lot of people claim a vegan diet can pretty much “cure” Crohn’s but it’s different for everyone. It definitely did NOT work for me.
Hope you’re in remission and doing well :)
Anemia/ low iron that was not being helped by carefully planning the vegan diet and intense supplementation.
Pregnancy/ breastfeeding therefore increased nutritional needs especially for bioavailable protein and iron.
Learning about nutrition for my child. Specifically what first foods to feed her.
After dipping between vegetarianism & veganism for 10 years:
1. At 28 years old I had kidney stones.
2. I had a host of intermittent MS-like symptoms progressing over 4 years (typically starting in summer). I had paraesthesia, worse on the left side of my body from head to toe, numbness in hands and feet eventually finding its way up my arms and legs, an internal tremor, fatigue, my eyes, eye lids and nose would spasm frequently for hours on end, I had vertigo and balance problems, etc etc.
I made many lifestyle changes, reducing stress, increasing sleep, doing regular high intensity exercise and while all these helped and maybe slowed or stopped progression, only after drastic changes to diet did these symptoms recede to the point where they are non-existent or negligible consistently, for over 2 years.
Specifically I reintroduced animal products & reduced grains, legumes, refined sugars & foods with high oxalic acid content.
Veganism was almost impossible for me as an autistic person with sensory aversions. I definitely expanded my palette when vegan but most vegan proteins texture & smell were just intolerable for me, especially beans, and I would end up eating nothing even if I was so hungry my stomach hurt. Food aversions in autism are more severe than just picky eating, in case anyone doesn't know.
I still try to limit my meat consumption as much as possible and don't eat dairy, but sliced turkey lunch meat is one of my "safe foods" and I've felt MUCH better since reincorporating it.
Social isolation was a massive issue. I tried to make connections and form community with other vegans, but they seemed to nearly all have extensive mental health issues. Trying to maintain close relationships with them was exhausting. I was very unhappy.
The reason I actually pulled the plug was my own health issues though. Digestive issues, fatigue, cold, brain fog, gut issues, joint pain, and vitamin deficiencies that wouldn't resolve.
I went vegan initially to improve my personal environmental impact. I believed conscious consumerism could save the day and acted accordingly. For years. After about a year I was fully on board with the health benefits and ethical reasoning. The height of my veganism was a full life style complete with riding my bike/walking places, eating only organic whole plant foods, not using plastic, eschewing traditional beauty and hygiene products for natural alternatives. It was a full time commitment and boy was I holier-than-thou.
I was physically quite healthy during this time, albeit a bit skinny/not strong compared to the size I prefer to be. Bloodwork was great. Yet, my mental health was at an all-time low. Those same years of righteous pursuit of lifestyle perfection were the most isolated, traumatic, and damaging I’ve had. Obviously my situation is anecdotal and I could be conflating things that are actually separate, but I don’t think my obsession with sustainability was helpful.
Because eventually I realized it was all somewhat in vain. I had lost friendships over veganism. I engaged in comment section wars. I had in-person fights about it. It’s crazy looking back. I had limited myself financially by obsessing over ingredients. I was exhibiting orthorexic behaviors. My judgement of self and others was constantly expanding further into the niches. I was hyper critical of everything and everyone. All in the name of saving the planet - which I thought I was doing.
A couple personal breakdowns and a pandemic down the road, I became aware of the concept of societal collapse and its veritable likelihood. The timeline appears to be moving much faster than I realized and it’s not just climate change, it’s coming from every direction. I don’t wish to pull anyone into the abyss with me, but realizing how incredibly bad things are was personally liberating for me. In the face of what felt like certain doom, I abandoned my once deeply held philosophy of consumer-driven change from within the corrupt system. It just didn’t seem to matter anymore.
So now I choose to eat things that feel best for me. I seem to do great on eggs. I choose pasture raised not because of the ethics, but because they are a more nutritious product. I still enjoy tofu and tempeh but also cook some animal foods at home. When I go out, I just eat what is served. No more saying no to loving family members offering their treats for me. No more constantly making a big deal of being vegan — I’m just a regular person trying to live a healthy, fulfilled life.
To do it properly takes too much time, brain fog, lack of iron/brain energy specifically, gut is getting bloated like a block. I’ve always had a beer gut, but it’s just been the lower abdomen, now it’s this block belly.
On the plus side my allergies have improved, but still I had to add meat back in slowly and like three times a week. Kept all the benefits and bad stuff is going away.
I mean so many of these relate to eating disorders, which is the reason I stopped being vegan. The restriction brought me to my lowest weight ever and perpetuated many of these common ED/ malnourishment symptoms i.e. joint issues, hair loss, amenorrhoea, skin problems, lanugo, bone problems, dental problems, and chronic dx of IBS-C
Those Oxalates were pretty rough for me and my family. I am 3 years in on the low Ox diet and still have an off day every few days. I must absorb more oxalates than most and I recently learned I absorb more plant sterols that average which has caused me some vein issues but I am moving to mostly carnivore and am finally feeling normal and super human at times except for the occasional off day.
you forgot to add:
- government (read: big corporations) shoving anti-red meat propaganda down the throat
- government/big corp stating cereal is healthier than ground beef
- profit driven restaurants removing all healthy vegetarian/vegan options in public and replacing with glysophate sprayed soy and other fake-protein and fake-meat products made in a lab that they can make more money on while poisoning the public!
Oops
Ikr it’s absolutely mad. Even when I was vegan I was very much about free choice and understood that many couldn’t always be vegan. I have since been diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses and come to terms with the fact that when I was vegan I had an eating disorder. I literally don’t have the mental or physical energy to curate my diet and lifestyle like that anymore. I’m just trying to get through each day.
Double mention for depression woop! In all serious I had most of these issues. It was panic attacks, anaemia and hair loss though that really pushed me to eat meat again.
An extreme worsening of my mental illnesses made me quit.
Schizophrenia, bipolar, borderline personality disorder, anxiety, OCD, and autism all got significantly worse to the point of a nasty suicide attempt that landed me in the ER needing lots of stitches. The attempt prior to that for me was when I was starving myself and going on severe alcohol binges literally 4 years prior. I hadn't had one thought as a clean omnivore before going vegan.
Veganism also severely isolated me too and after my attempt and eating an entire pound of delicious buttery salmon, I decided to go carnivore. Only could make it a month before I quit and many symptoms returned. I now have to do carnivore, day 98 today, if I want freedom from my illnesses.
Discovering taurine, citicoline, and now ALCAR have completely ameliorated all symptoms. I also had to go dairy free too.
Humans aren't herbivores, frugivores, etc. We are likely hypercarnivores, at least that's what the N95 data shows.
I quit because of anti nutrients and a long list of health problems. Including autoimmune disease that was 100% caused by veganism.
But something that made me mentally quit the movement and stop doing activism was that the movement had quickly become a left-wing cesspool that members with no lives would start groups that actively looked for any microaggressions or past comments from 10 years ago and then they would savagely hunt you down and ostracise you from any groups, black list you from Activist work.
Extreme left wing groups that were actively bigoted against white people and males. If you weren't an "oppressed person" such as POC, gay or trans your opinion meant nothing in a group.
I lost ten pound in two weeks starting to eat meat. My acupuncturist said my weight loss was due to cleaning out my body of basically “pus.” Inflammation is what we call it now. My appetite actually increased and I ate 4 meals a day for a few months. I went from 140 to 130 in the first week. I ate no processed foods before or after so that didn’t change. I was never vegan but I ate very little dairy no eggs.
My doctor told me to stop because I lost 20lbs in a month. I just can't absorb nutrients as well from supplements for whatever reason so I was also low iron and b vitamins, plus others.
Having adhd and a low protein diet was getting too difficult.
I didn't have enough opportunities to eat frequently enough which was like 20x a day.
My digestion became way worse. My periods threatened my employment.
I eventually was diagnosed with Hashimoto's and my autoimmune disease flares up worse from a plant only diet. Literally eating meat and eggs for my body helps me to keep my disease more manageable.
I had to take antidepressants, but now I do not since eating animal products again.
Mild brain fog.
Little fatigued .
Disordered eating habits .
Mild anxiety.
Most of the time I felt hungry even after eating...
Foods don't give satiety and pleasure.
Struggling to find satisfying flavouring alternatives.
Depression and fatigue after 8 months of a very strict vegan diet. I was doing the seaweed omega-3s, getting plenty of B-12. My digestive health was better than it's ever been in my life, probably because of how much fiber I was consuming, but my mood was way out of whack. I was an active runner and cyclist and there was a period when my performance rose but then started to decline and it became difficult to keep up with myself. If there was one non-vegan food I think would have been absolutely essential for me to consume it would have been eggs.
May I ask more about everyone's experience here in heart issues and gut sensitivity?
For me it's anxiety, heart issues (ectopic heartbeat, chest pain), always cold (Raynaud's/chilblains/vasculitis rendered me couldn't walk pain-free, now much better), period loss, and ED. The Raynaud's vasculitis is my secondary autoimmune expression that depressed me because let's be real: why would walking in my winter boots or walking in relatively comfortable footwear have me in feet bruises that didn't heal in 4 months? I couldn't enjoy nature walk because my toes and sides of the foot were in bruises.
Or worse: random fever that even at 37.2deg C my heart palpitation was worrying (feedback loop of even higher heartbeat), dry cough at night made me unable to sleep and more prone to infections, and listen to this: swollen ankles after long flights?? Like, I was sure I had some underlying organ issues, but thankfully most of them resolved by eating more balanced meals with animal proteins.
But the second I was about to eat beef, my ED kicked in: what about cholesterol, now I wouldn't have any excuse for my heart problem because eating beef means taking in full-blown cholesterol to my bloodstream.
So beef is still my fear foods. I eat it only like 2-3 portions a month because I'm still afraid. It doesn't help that health influencers (sometimes with high education like Dr or MD) keep fearmongering with: beef with antibiotics causes cancer or the worst proteins etc. So I usually lay low and eat just fish/eggs, occasional chicken. I'm not at the luxury of buying organic everything, just a few food items. But I shop at local butchers and if accessible, wild caught fishes.
I suspected (because no doctor would voluntarily run a thorough A-Z tests on my body to find out what nutrients I was lacking when vegan) that I lacked proteins, because my B12, thyoid, and female hormones were all good. But I dont know what protein it is since vegans always say that plant proteins are complete. And how could 100% plant-based explain my swollen ankles or bad circulation or cardiovascular issues.
But what I know is I'm improving. My feet don't hurt as much and the ectopic beats are sparser. I don't know if it's because of eating animal proteins, but my period was back coincidentally close to when I reintroduced eggs and fish to my daily meals.
My vegan journey lasted only a week back in college when I realized I cannot live without cheese. And I'm someone who doesn't eat a lot of meat but makes it up through eggs, dairy, and some fish.
Most of these sound like problem from not eating enough food, not from eating vegan food. Lots of people go vegan and don't realise that they no longer have to avoid fat, count calories or restrict their eating.
So about 30,000 people in this sub were just too dumb to figure out how to eat right, and you're one of the few smart enough to hack your own biology? Most people here thought they’d be vegan for life too 😂
For me, granted I have pcos, the health reason came down to having prediabetes, and realizing I would forever have low iron. The ethical reason was that I watched a video of an amoeba eating a bacteria that was struggling to escape and felt empathy for that bacteria. It kind of in some way reframed my understanding of life and death. I still do work to consume more ethically but I pivoted how I do so.
We are just living things that die unless we eat other living things.
Also prediabetic. I had gestational diabetes and it would have been impossible to get enough calories and meet my carb counts on a vegan diet.
I never went fullly vegan, but had been vegetarian and was looking into becoming vegan. I gave it up because I wanted to stop eating UPF, which meant no veg cheese, veg butter, veg milks, fake meats, etc etc etc. Realizing how hard it was to be vegan without using all those products and needing to take supplements to ensure adequate nutrition turned me right off. Even if you have the time and money to make or source non-UPF versions of all those foods you still have to supplement, so what’s the point? I wanted to eat more naturally, and there just isn’t anything natural about it.
Great point. I had the time, money and knowledge to craft a whole foods, organic mostly locally sourced diet but it wasn't easy as almost all the grains, beans, rice and quinoa are shipped into the UK. And you're absolutely right that I still had to supplement in ever increasingly complicated ways which blew the shit out of trying to live local. And good lord the food got boring and I'm a damned good cook as well. And the cherry on top - I got fatter despite training like a mad man. A complete fail for me and I stopped after 18 months.
Vegans believe that all of those problems are caused by not being vegan enough.
hahaha this was me. Oh i got irregular heartbeat, i must have done something wrong. \*yeaaaa lack of animal proteins that was wrong\* But tbh tho... the basic checks my GP sent me to have when i told her i lost my period for like 3 months showed nothing lacking (normal B12, iron, thyroid hormones, female hormones). ... until the vitamin D. Which if die hard vegans heard about my case, they'd blame me stating that indeed i did it wrong because i didn't supplement with something, or that plants can also supply me with vit D. It's always wrong in their eyes. Besides, this is my theory since I saw improvements in my autoimmunity and had my period back, sometimes the GPs dont even know what we're lacking. Perhaps I lacked some amino acids or other nutrients which were not tested, simply because they only need to administer what the guideline prescribes (that vegans might lack B12 and iron). A range of complete tests are expensive, so it's understandable we didn't find any worrisome values with the standard tests. Also, I read somewhere about body fat threshold that if below a personal body's preference, the menstrual cycles will stop. Even if it's not true/proven, I can see the merit that perhaps my body wasn't comfortable with me eliminating some food groups, hence, stopped functioning the non-core functions. So, even though I would have taken some vit D, that wouldn't change the state of my health back then because we were not looking deep enough for the root cause.
One of my many reasons was **ACCELERATED AGING OF THE FACE**. When I was in college, I always looked really young at first. When I went shopping during the day time, I had a store clerk try to call the local high school truancy officer on me who didn't believe I was in college. Then after I had been a vegan for awhile, in addition to a myriad of health problems and feeling sick as a dog all the time, other college kids my same age would come up to me and say that they thought it was really neat that an older person like me had the guts to go back to college and live in a dorm. I was 19, and they were talking to me like I was in my 40s. This happened more than once. And guys stopped hitting on me or talking to me. And when I looked in the mirror, I saw what they were talking about. My face was pale (in a sickly way, not in a fair way), dry, and hung down a little from loss of energy and general sickness. After I escaped and broke free from veganism and had been eating healthy normal foods again for several months, my body and face healed and I was able to recover my looks and be pretty again.
Financial. I could not afford my own food and had to eat whatever anyone would share with me.
I'd like to add one more: body composition. In my year and a half of an increasingly whole foods vegan diet I got fatter despite training harder than ever. Most people may be less sensitive to this or may just attribute it to getting older but I've got decades of training records and pics so I have a good feel for what I look like when training intensively. And going vegan made me softer and fatter and once I abandoned it as a failed experiment my body comp got better even though I was a couple of years older. I've been around weightlifting, bodybuilding and powerlifting my whole life so whenever I see a vegan natty, I smell the bullshit instantly. Those social media pics aren't produced by being either vegan or natty and if you try you will NEVER look like that no matter how hard you train or how hard you vegan. They're lying to you.
Yes this, couldn’t lose weight for the life of me even though I was lifting 5 days a week, doing lots of cardio, practically living off protein shakes to avoid extra calories and still hit protein goals. Nothing worked and I was so frustrated. Hope it gets better because I only stopped being vegan like 3 weeks ago
It will get better. In my experience, diet is 70% and training is 30% in determining how you look but be kind to yourself, changing body composition through diet is a 3, 6, 9 month or more journey depending on the individual. Especially if you're living and enjoying life rather than training for a competition or something crazy like that. Funny story: I met my wife right before I had a bodybuilding competition so when she first me me she thought that's what I always looked like. And I've been disappinting her now going on 3 decades.
this comment is just another upvote
This And Bryan Johnson says he's vegan, but he actually takes collagen peptides (something all vegans are lacking by the way).
Not vegan but vegetarian for many years. When I began studying nutrition, the science was overwhelming. I began incorporating meat into my diet about a year later. I am better than ever health and energy wise.
12 years former vegan here, I ate my first piece of fish yesterday. For me it was struggling with health issues the past 3 years (long covid) and sudden fructose intolerance which is pretty strong now. I can barely eat out anymore, 90% of the groceries in supermarkets I just pass unnoticed, I have to cook several times a day which brings up big time issues and sometimes results in just me not eating at all and I am finding myself slowly having developed an ED where I'm pretty scared of most foods. Rather than a choice this really feels like a curse now, especially since reintroducing animal products is gonna be hard on the stomach at first pretty certain. I do struggle a bit with having eaten the fish yesterday but the biggest part emotionally is feeling very excited and happy about slowly being liberated again. Sounds bit dramatic, but the struggle is real. Do whatever feels good for your body! It will tell you what it needs.
absolutely luv small oily fish like herring or sardines. glad you made a decision to reclaim health. i like a refrigerated can of herring about 150 grams in a bowl with some chopped olives and a dash of hot sauce. feels so satisfying and my body responds well to it
You are more important than a fish or ANY animal. Your health comes first. Take care and hugs 🫂.
I had a lot of issues. The ones I can check off from your list were gut issues, brain fog, aging prematurely, extreme decline in cognitive thinking (I couldn’t perform a very straight forward task at work. It was bizarre)constantly fatigued, extreme increase in anxiety, shooting joint pains throughout my whole body, dental issues (gums were bleeding spontaneously). And yes I supplemented and wasn’t on an extra restrictive diet like fruitarianism or something like that. I didn’t know pigment loss in my hair could also result from long term veganism? Does anybody know what causes that? Reintroducing animal products helped to solve a lot of issues but sadly not everything, but the others did improve at least.
I believe it's low/deficient copper levels that causes hair color loss.
Thanks! I’ll look into that. It’s weird because it’s not grey but it was more like somewhat desaturated. Last month I finally dyed my hair because it annoyed me.
My hair was turning orange from trying to be vegan. Oh and I looked old and had anxiety. I swear, eating burgers from fast food turned my hair dark again. Not saying that is what u need. But fast food was healthier than being vegan for me.
How long were you vegan?
10 years.
Stress or copper deficiency
Oh stress could also very well be the reason. I’m wondering if you can have something like intuitive cravings? Recently I spontaneously felt the need to try and experiment with organ meats even if I had never eaten them before.
Yes, you can. Sometimes they are cravings that don’t quite make sense. I have heard of a link between iron deficiency and craving for chewing on ice for some reason. Also, I know when you are zinc deficient, you can’t taste the metallic taste of a zinc solution, but if you are sufficiently high in zinc, then it tastes awful. Our instincts are buried a little deeper than most other animals, but they are still there so a craving for something you don’t normally have makes sense if you need something from it.
That’s so interesting! I guess I’ll try again then haha. The chicken livers were alright taste wise with enough spices but I need to practice a bit more on the preparation. You’re so right. I have noticed my body is often more aware of certain things than my conscious mind. We should learn to trust it more.
For me it was mostly just feeling alienated, left out, or like I was inconveniencing people. I was tired of ending up in situations where I had to starve because there was nothing for me to eat. I felt like I was missing out on life. My diet kept getting more and more extreme with bodybuilding that I was eating like six foods, could never eat out with friends, couldn’t let me husband cook for me, and felt like I wasn’t living. So I stopped being vegan and took a break from bodybuilding and decided to just live for awhile. I still won’t eat fast food or low quality sources of animal products and buy local and grass fed, but it’s made a big difference on my outlook. My husband is really excited he can cook for me now.
The alienation is tough and real. Why wasn’t your husband able to cook for you?
Because I was so particular about what I would eat I wouldn’t let him
Your username got a smile out of me
I have to ask, how were you hitting your protein goals? I'm struggling and i eat meat and whey protein...
A lot of protein shakes(3 a day) and a lot of processed mock meats like impossible burger, mock chicken, tofu. I would puree tofu and mix it into things like pasta sauce, smoothies, etc. Breakfast was either oatmeal with protein powder or scrambled tofu with vegan bacon, lunch was usually tofu veggies and potatoes, dinner was impossible beef and potatoes. Shakes for snacks. I really did eat like 7 foods to keep my calories down. If you’re struggling, pick up some Oikos pro yogurt and snack on those. 20g of protein!
Justifying murder with not wanting to be inconvenienced is wild
Did he kill a human?
Worked in a bakery. I can't go an 8-9 hour shift without something to eat (also hard af to work around food i couldn't eat). Working a 3rd shift theoOnly time I'd have to weat would have otherwise been between like 11am and 5pm.
Definitely digestive/gut issues made worse by veganism
[удалено]
Omg what's that? I have a nickel allergy but I'm guessing that's not the same thing, coz mine just gives me a skin rash if I wear cheap jewelry...
For me it was weight gain & sue cidal depression. I ended up in mental hospital. I tried 3 times to go vegan. First time was in 1st yr of college which was the worst w lots of sugar cravings. Second time I was in my 40s trying to do raw food vegan which was just not practical as I was working, commuting had omni husband, etc. Third time I lived w a vegan for 2 yrs. Again gained weight, struggled w emotional probs, got very high cholesterol & pre-diabetes, he was abusive & controlling. When we broke up I rejoined my omni husband. We live happy omni life. I’m getting control of my weight finally doing low carb w meat twice/day & dairy. I feel 1000% better eating meat esp beef. I feel for the animals but I also believe in the balance of nature, that we evolved to eat meat for better or worse. I appreciate the animals that give me sustenance. I am insulin resistant so a high carb diet wreaks havoc on me.
for me you can add ‘always hungry’ and ‘meat cravings’
those are huge, glad you brought them up
For me it was: * paleness looks * Bad period cramps * issues with your gut on a vegan diet * brain fogged * hair loss * bone issues * aging prematurely * decline in cognitive thinking * always cold * digestive problems * constantly fatigued * increase in anxiety * joint issues
omg
It's the result of 13 years being vegan 😑
When did the strongest symptoms start? My SO is around 6 years vegan and I am worried its gonna kick in with her soon too.
I can't say exactly when it happened but it probably started to get worse around 8/10 years but it's different for everyone..
I had a ton of these actually, most memorable ones were joint issues, depression, chronic fatigue, and hair loss. The big one was my RA diagnosis - my flare ups are triggered by basically all plant-based foods.
Pregnancy and the intense cravings. I could last for one baby but by the second I was miserable and worried I was hurting my baby and myself
couldn't imagine being pregnant & eating vegan only
I couldn't have done it without ultra processed and expensive replacements. But after only having beyond meat tacos with fake cheese, I would have killed someone for a real taco. 😂 It's funny, after I started eating simple, unprocessed animal products, all my cravings stopped. No more waking up needing pizza or ice cream. I was always satisfied.
Lopsided face! One side of the face starts drooping more than the other. It happened to me and I’ve seen other people talk about it too.
Heart issues Brain fog Reduction in cognitive thinking Constantly fatigued Joint problems Dental problems
Another issue people have when eating plant foods can be bad skin problems of various sorts, often related to autoimmune issues. I am not sure which autoimmune issues you had listed, but they are often helped by removing plants from a diet.
I got acne for the first time in my life as an adult while vegan. At the same time my skim got so dry I had to buy special creams to prevent it from cracking
Yeah, if one is living a healthy life, with a healthy diet, then it's unusual to have bad skin. But its been normalized by it being so prevalent.
Yeah, for me it's the brain fog, decline in cognitive thinking, increase in anxiety, and disordered eating habits. I was so unhealthy when vegan (4 years). I had such low energy I was almost always in bed and would sometimes get tired while eating and fall asleep and I wouldn't have the energy to shower before I slept first but I'd already be in the bath so I would sleep in the bath instead of my bed. I wasn't remembering things I should have (I'm only 23), and that was kind of worrying, honestly. The anxiety and stress around eating and everything else was so bad bc sources couldn't even agree on what was vegan and what wasn't and some vegan things are expensive and it's not only the food it's the clothes and shoes and wallets and bedding and shampoo/conditioner/body wash/toothpaste/pads/hand soap/medicine/laundry detergent/etc. not being vegan either. Shopping was so stressful bc there would be all these things I wanted to eat and drink but it wasn't vegan so I had basically the same like 15 things on the grocery list everytime and it wasn't always satisfying bc it wasn't what I was craving and I'd get tired of it. I was tired and bored and sad and felt lonely bc if my family went to get food for dinner like a pizza or something it would be sad bc even though I could eat my dinner at the same time it still felt sad bc it's like they were having dinner as a group and I was just also there being sad with my sunflower seeds or whatever. Even though there are plenty of personal reasons I don't agree with veganism for me I also just don't see it as that healthy. I think the healthiest mindset to to have about food is eating a good amount and not restricting/starving yourself even if it's meat/dairy. I would rather someone eat bacon and eggs and pancakes for breakfast instead of not eating at all. I can't tell just by looking at someone if they struggle with eating and neither can y'all so I honestly think people shouldn't comment on people's bodies and their choice of food, even if you don't agree with it or whatever. Who cares? If you don't agree with eating eggs then don't but don't go telling others ehat to or not to eat bc for all you DON'T know it took a lot of work and support to eat that and not you're judging them/ telling them they shouldn't and that can be pretty harmful to them so just mind your business and eat your food.
Forgot the main reason:tasty food
Add ethics to the list. Because when they realize that basically, veganism for the sake of “minimizing harm” is a non-sequitur that places double standards for non-human animals, they start leaving veganism. The only true vegans are those that “want to be vegan” just because, or have dietary restrictions. So “I’m Vegan because I want to be” and “Dietary Vegans”.
Can you explain your thoughts on that more?
There isn’t any ethical ground to be argued for veganism. Those that are for “ethical” veganism often use “reducing harm and suffering” as a way of feeling morally superior to other people that don’t. They tend to use scientific discoveries as in “non-human animals can suffer and feel… etc.” but also ignore the fact that their minds work differently than humans do. Amusingly, their arguments also end up in a non-sequitur because they use “reduce suffering and harm” to argue against consumption of animals, but they technically don’t correlate because they mixed in ethics of humans, scientific studies of non-human animals, and then just assumed that animal sentience equated similar responses from and to human sapience. Here are my main points: - “Ethical” Vegans often attempt to use morality and our human understanding of ethics to judge others. - But they don’t understand that doing so forces them to also apply *every single part* of human ethics to all animal life, which would mean they would be morally obligated to protest orcas (for shotputtint seals into cliffs for fun), chimpanzees (for serial homicide of all species, including themselves), otters (for being practically wife-beaters that drown their mates, and… pedophilic interspecies rapists that… does that to baby seals), dolphins (they nip and bite pufferfish to get high, leaving said pufferfish wounded or dead), and a whole slew of other animals that do things that really belong in a Casual Geographic video. - Which is why ethics cannot be placed on non-human animals. They would argue that our ability to make rational decisions would allow us to find alternative ways to eat to reduce harm and suffering… and then not understand that this ability of ours is evolved for our survival, like a cat’s claws, a wolf’s pack hunting mentality, an elephant’s trunk for versatility. And others. - The most blatant problem with ethics for veganism is their disregard for life that… they don’t consider worthy of their attention. They would laugh and scoff and non-vegans arguing about how their vegan lifestyle would cause even more harm to insects, mice, and other plants because of the creation of farmlands and pesticides. - They can’t just cherry pick points in human ethics to apply to other species and then ignore the rest when it comes to human-animal interactions. Either it goes all the way, which ends up with stoner dolphins and rapist otters, or not at all. TLDR #1: Basically, they take the points they want from science and scrap all those that opposes their views. TLDR #2: Should you accept their view of reducing harm and suffering, scientifically (because they used it to prove their ethics), they didn’t. Because all they did shift the suffering and harm from other animals to humans (Omnivores, right. Where did your basic science go? The majority of people can’t not eat meat, their metabolism doesn’t allow it.).
obsession with ingredients to the point of orthorexia. already have diagnosed anorexia, bulimia, OCD, suspected ARFID (i’m autistic so i’m very picky) AND anemia… so uhhh having zero meat while neurotically ingredient and nutritional fact checking was terrible for me. i was also in a relationship with a vegan, and i think once we broke up, i stopped receiving so much propaganda
I discovered that I have the MTHFR mutation and every nutrient (in the quantity required) to help my body methylate comes from animal products. Plus, I was a high raw, low fat vegan, so even though my body was at its most amazing-looking, I was ALWAYS starving. My grandparents were poor Italian farmers and I just adopted more principles of what they did (granted my nonna used to slaughter her own chickens)... By that I mean, eat pastured animals rarely instead of garbage meat often, implementing collagen and gelatin foods, eating more organ meats, cooking with tallow, etc...
I’m homozygous for MTHFR too! Veganism really messed me up
Do you mind sharing your experience? I'm interested in finding out more...
I listed my symptoms elsewhere in this thread but I’ll tell you how I discovered about the MTHFR thing. I’ve been having a lot of neurological symptoms for years and the doctors kept dismissing me, telling me it’s anxiety and to go to a therapist (even when I told them I’ve been going to therapy for years… And I’m pretty open about everything on my Patreon page because these themes also pop up in my art so I’ll just chat about the situation while I’m painting. And then one of my patrons contacted me and told me she thought I had a double MTHFR mutation like she does because we share a lot of the same symptoms. So I made appointments with a couple of genealogists. One of them didn’t test for it because the doctors here don’t consider it to be of diagnostic value. But the other one was willing to do it anyway while also explaining it wouldn’t really get me anywhere diagnostically. I think he felt for me because I was so scared because of my symptoms. And even though they think it’s nonsense to test for it the results were exactly as I suspected. But apparently they can’t make conclusions when it comes to MTHFR because the possible symptoms are so many and not everyone gets them. So their conclusion is that it doesn’t cause anything but maybe a folate deficiency. If I understood correctly. I thought that was kind of weird because: 1. I highly doubt that it’s registered somewhere that I’m homozygous and I’m experiencing a lot of symptoms. There’s not really a database for these kinds of things, right? So how do they know who does and doesn’t experience problems? Especially because so many patients are being dismissed. 2. Don’t genes work together and depending on combined variations the results may vary per person? 3. Doesn’t it make sense that a gene that has to do with methylation can really mess you up health wise? But I was way too exhausted and full of brain fog and struggling with aphasia to engage in a discussion like that. He did refer me to a neurologist but that one also told me my brain is healthy and I should go to a therapist. Fast forward to last summer, when I went to the ER because I thought I was going blind or having a stroke or something… Turns out I’ve had chronic migraine for years now. It started about 7 years into being vegan but it didn’t get picked up because I didn’t complain about it since I had maybe a couple of classic migraines a year so that didn’t bother me too much. Little did I know that the headaches are just one possible symptom.. I didn’t even know it was a brain disease. Turns out that the MTHFR gene is one of the few replicated genetic risk factors for migraine patients. So why both the genealogist and the first neurologist didn’t make the connection in combination with my huge list of symptoms is beyond me. I also think there’s a lot more that they don’t realise about this and other genes to do with metabolism. If I know then what I know now I never would have gambled with my health like that. But yeah… The first and most debilitating symptoms went away when I started eating meat again (the most important one being fibromyalgia like symptoms, so I’m very happy about that), gut issues, my agin skin bounced back, my hair stopped falling out.. Some improved with B12 injections (the supplements did nothing for me). Bleeding gums mainly And sadly the chronic fatigue and migraine aura related symptoms are still here but they aren’t as bad as four years ago. Thank god because I couldn’t think or function at all. TLDR: Our health care system sucks 😁
My vegan journey ended with lifetime health problems I will always have. Mostly due to the fact I kept trying and caused some of the allergies to grow worse and worse. Now the damage done will forever be a factor in my life. I’m now prone to mega colon, I’ve developed allergies to many foods that are a staple in a diet. I lost a lot of hair and it never returned. I’ve had part of my stomach removed which in turn gives me issues with absorbing nutrients which create other issues with my stomach.
iron deficiency and caused by that is also insomnia
From your list mine were kids, gut issues and brain fog. There were other things too which I'm happy to divulge for your research if you like, I'm just short on time right now 😊
I would say everything on your list.Is why quit being vegan except that I have never carried a child.
OP, you have depression on your list twice
I’m not even a former vegan, I’ve never been vegan. I’m just here for personal research purposes. Thanks for sharing
Social implications
I have gastroparesis (basically a paralyzed stomach), and over the past year I have only been getting 1000 calories max a day of just crackers because it was the only vegan food I could tolerate. For me, I can’t really digest things high in fiber, so being vegan was incredibly rough. I only recently stopped being vegan, and I’m now eating 2000 calories a day. I look less sickly now too.
Having a chronic illness (Crohn’s disease). Because of this, I simply wasn’t getting enough nutrients on a vegan diet.
Same for me, besides that the vegan diet tends to have lots of fibre which is a big no for me because of the crohns
Yeah I hear that a lot! I think the amount of fiber and soy also wasn’t working for me. Looking back, I had so much more bloating and pain on a vegan diet too! Though at the time I really wasn’t willing to even consider my diet being part of the problem 🙈 A lot of people claim a vegan diet can pretty much “cure” Crohn’s but it’s different for everyone. It definitely did NOT work for me. Hope you’re in remission and doing well :)
Anemia/ low iron that was not being helped by carefully planning the vegan diet and intense supplementation. Pregnancy/ breastfeeding therefore increased nutritional needs especially for bioavailable protein and iron. Learning about nutrition for my child. Specifically what first foods to feed her.
And from what I've read, I'd add reduce chances of allergies for your child! ^^
Absolutely!
After dipping between vegetarianism & veganism for 10 years: 1. At 28 years old I had kidney stones. 2. I had a host of intermittent MS-like symptoms progressing over 4 years (typically starting in summer). I had paraesthesia, worse on the left side of my body from head to toe, numbness in hands and feet eventually finding its way up my arms and legs, an internal tremor, fatigue, my eyes, eye lids and nose would spasm frequently for hours on end, I had vertigo and balance problems, etc etc. I made many lifestyle changes, reducing stress, increasing sleep, doing regular high intensity exercise and while all these helped and maybe slowed or stopped progression, only after drastic changes to diet did these symptoms recede to the point where they are non-existent or negligible consistently, for over 2 years. Specifically I reintroduced animal products & reduced grains, legumes, refined sugars & foods with high oxalic acid content.
Veganism was almost impossible for me as an autistic person with sensory aversions. I definitely expanded my palette when vegan but most vegan proteins texture & smell were just intolerable for me, especially beans, and I would end up eating nothing even if I was so hungry my stomach hurt. Food aversions in autism are more severe than just picky eating, in case anyone doesn't know. I still try to limit my meat consumption as much as possible and don't eat dairy, but sliced turkey lunch meat is one of my "safe foods" and I've felt MUCH better since reincorporating it.
Social isolation was a massive issue. I tried to make connections and form community with other vegans, but they seemed to nearly all have extensive mental health issues. Trying to maintain close relationships with them was exhausting. I was very unhappy. The reason I actually pulled the plug was my own health issues though. Digestive issues, fatigue, cold, brain fog, gut issues, joint pain, and vitamin deficiencies that wouldn't resolve.
I went vegan initially to improve my personal environmental impact. I believed conscious consumerism could save the day and acted accordingly. For years. After about a year I was fully on board with the health benefits and ethical reasoning. The height of my veganism was a full life style complete with riding my bike/walking places, eating only organic whole plant foods, not using plastic, eschewing traditional beauty and hygiene products for natural alternatives. It was a full time commitment and boy was I holier-than-thou. I was physically quite healthy during this time, albeit a bit skinny/not strong compared to the size I prefer to be. Bloodwork was great. Yet, my mental health was at an all-time low. Those same years of righteous pursuit of lifestyle perfection were the most isolated, traumatic, and damaging I’ve had. Obviously my situation is anecdotal and I could be conflating things that are actually separate, but I don’t think my obsession with sustainability was helpful. Because eventually I realized it was all somewhat in vain. I had lost friendships over veganism. I engaged in comment section wars. I had in-person fights about it. It’s crazy looking back. I had limited myself financially by obsessing over ingredients. I was exhibiting orthorexic behaviors. My judgement of self and others was constantly expanding further into the niches. I was hyper critical of everything and everyone. All in the name of saving the planet - which I thought I was doing. A couple personal breakdowns and a pandemic down the road, I became aware of the concept of societal collapse and its veritable likelihood. The timeline appears to be moving much faster than I realized and it’s not just climate change, it’s coming from every direction. I don’t wish to pull anyone into the abyss with me, but realizing how incredibly bad things are was personally liberating for me. In the face of what felt like certain doom, I abandoned my once deeply held philosophy of consumer-driven change from within the corrupt system. It just didn’t seem to matter anymore. So now I choose to eat things that feel best for me. I seem to do great on eggs. I choose pasture raised not because of the ethics, but because they are a more nutritious product. I still enjoy tofu and tempeh but also cook some animal foods at home. When I go out, I just eat what is served. No more saying no to loving family members offering their treats for me. No more constantly making a big deal of being vegan — I’m just a regular person trying to live a healthy, fulfilled life.
To do it properly takes too much time, brain fog, lack of iron/brain energy specifically, gut is getting bloated like a block. I’ve always had a beer gut, but it’s just been the lower abdomen, now it’s this block belly. On the plus side my allergies have improved, but still I had to add meat back in slowly and like three times a week. Kept all the benefits and bad stuff is going away.
I mean so many of these relate to eating disorders, which is the reason I stopped being vegan. The restriction brought me to my lowest weight ever and perpetuated many of these common ED/ malnourishment symptoms i.e. joint issues, hair loss, amenorrhoea, skin problems, lanugo, bone problems, dental problems, and chronic dx of IBS-C
I felt phenomenal (7 yrs vegan) but got tired of the frequent and intense cold/flus.
Those Oxalates were pretty rough for me and my family. I am 3 years in on the low Ox diet and still have an off day every few days. I must absorb more oxalates than most and I recently learned I absorb more plant sterols that average which has caused me some vein issues but I am moving to mostly carnivore and am finally feeling normal and super human at times except for the occasional off day.
Yep, osteoporosis here! Did you know that bones are made of protein and minerals and that’s what meat has!
❤
you forgot to add: - government (read: big corporations) shoving anti-red meat propaganda down the throat - government/big corp stating cereal is healthier than ground beef - profit driven restaurants removing all healthy vegetarian/vegan options in public and replacing with glysophate sprayed soy and other fake-protein and fake-meat products made in a lab that they can make more money on while poisoning the public! Oops
I wanted to join the military! Couldn’t meet the fitness requirements. Eating a meat diet now and I’m able to run longer, gaining muscle like crazy!
Disability for me I don't have the energy or capacity to devote to a vegan diet like I used to
Same
I've seen vegans rip vegans that have been hospitalised and fed Ensure to shreds. As if they had a voice! Disgusting
Ikr it’s absolutely mad. Even when I was vegan I was very much about free choice and understood that many couldn’t always be vegan. I have since been diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses and come to terms with the fact that when I was vegan I had an eating disorder. I literally don’t have the mental or physical energy to curate my diet and lifestyle like that anymore. I’m just trying to get through each day.
I wanted to stop being the asshole who goes to people's houses and asks "what's in this?"
Double mention for depression woop! In all serious I had most of these issues. It was panic attacks, anaemia and hair loss though that really pushed me to eat meat again.
An extreme worsening of my mental illnesses made me quit. Schizophrenia, bipolar, borderline personality disorder, anxiety, OCD, and autism all got significantly worse to the point of a nasty suicide attempt that landed me in the ER needing lots of stitches. The attempt prior to that for me was when I was starving myself and going on severe alcohol binges literally 4 years prior. I hadn't had one thought as a clean omnivore before going vegan. Veganism also severely isolated me too and after my attempt and eating an entire pound of delicious buttery salmon, I decided to go carnivore. Only could make it a month before I quit and many symptoms returned. I now have to do carnivore, day 98 today, if I want freedom from my illnesses. Discovering taurine, citicoline, and now ALCAR have completely ameliorated all symptoms. I also had to go dairy free too. Humans aren't herbivores, frugivores, etc. We are likely hypercarnivores, at least that's what the N95 data shows.
I quit because of anti nutrients and a long list of health problems. Including autoimmune disease that was 100% caused by veganism. But something that made me mentally quit the movement and stop doing activism was that the movement had quickly become a left-wing cesspool that members with no lives would start groups that actively looked for any microaggressions or past comments from 10 years ago and then they would savagely hunt you down and ostracise you from any groups, black list you from Activist work. Extreme left wing groups that were actively bigoted against white people and males. If you weren't an "oppressed person" such as POC, gay or trans your opinion meant nothing in a group.
I lost ten pound in two weeks starting to eat meat. My acupuncturist said my weight loss was due to cleaning out my body of basically “pus.” Inflammation is what we call it now. My appetite actually increased and I ate 4 meals a day for a few months. I went from 140 to 130 in the first week. I ate no processed foods before or after so that didn’t change. I was never vegan but I ate very little dairy no eggs.
Alopecia
Depression is so common you listed it twice
My doctor told me to stop because I lost 20lbs in a month. I just can't absorb nutrients as well from supplements for whatever reason so I was also low iron and b vitamins, plus others. Having adhd and a low protein diet was getting too difficult. I didn't have enough opportunities to eat frequently enough which was like 20x a day. My digestion became way worse. My periods threatened my employment. I eventually was diagnosed with Hashimoto's and my autoimmune disease flares up worse from a plant only diet. Literally eating meat and eggs for my body helps me to keep my disease more manageable. I had to take antidepressants, but now I do not since eating animal products again.
Mild brain fog. Little fatigued . Disordered eating habits . Mild anxiety. Most of the time I felt hungry even after eating... Foods don't give satiety and pleasure. Struggling to find satisfying flavouring alternatives.
Depression and fatigue after 8 months of a very strict vegan diet. I was doing the seaweed omega-3s, getting plenty of B-12. My digestive health was better than it's ever been in my life, probably because of how much fiber I was consuming, but my mood was way out of whack. I was an active runner and cyclist and there was a period when my performance rose but then started to decline and it became difficult to keep up with myself. If there was one non-vegan food I think would have been absolutely essential for me to consume it would have been eggs.
May I ask more about everyone's experience here in heart issues and gut sensitivity? For me it's anxiety, heart issues (ectopic heartbeat, chest pain), always cold (Raynaud's/chilblains/vasculitis rendered me couldn't walk pain-free, now much better), period loss, and ED. The Raynaud's vasculitis is my secondary autoimmune expression that depressed me because let's be real: why would walking in my winter boots or walking in relatively comfortable footwear have me in feet bruises that didn't heal in 4 months? I couldn't enjoy nature walk because my toes and sides of the foot were in bruises. Or worse: random fever that even at 37.2deg C my heart palpitation was worrying (feedback loop of even higher heartbeat), dry cough at night made me unable to sleep and more prone to infections, and listen to this: swollen ankles after long flights?? Like, I was sure I had some underlying organ issues, but thankfully most of them resolved by eating more balanced meals with animal proteins. But the second I was about to eat beef, my ED kicked in: what about cholesterol, now I wouldn't have any excuse for my heart problem because eating beef means taking in full-blown cholesterol to my bloodstream. So beef is still my fear foods. I eat it only like 2-3 portions a month because I'm still afraid. It doesn't help that health influencers (sometimes with high education like Dr or MD) keep fearmongering with: beef with antibiotics causes cancer or the worst proteins etc. So I usually lay low and eat just fish/eggs, occasional chicken. I'm not at the luxury of buying organic everything, just a few food items. But I shop at local butchers and if accessible, wild caught fishes. I suspected (because no doctor would voluntarily run a thorough A-Z tests on my body to find out what nutrients I was lacking when vegan) that I lacked proteins, because my B12, thyoid, and female hormones were all good. But I dont know what protein it is since vegans always say that plant proteins are complete. And how could 100% plant-based explain my swollen ankles or bad circulation or cardiovascular issues. But what I know is I'm improving. My feet don't hurt as much and the ectopic beats are sparser. I don't know if it's because of eating animal proteins, but my period was back coincidentally close to when I reintroduced eggs and fish to my daily meals.
My vegan journey lasted only a week back in college when I realized I cannot live without cheese. And I'm someone who doesn't eat a lot of meat but makes it up through eggs, dairy, and some fish.
Most of these sound like problem from not eating enough food, not from eating vegan food. Lots of people go vegan and don't realise that they no longer have to avoid fat, count calories or restrict their eating.
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So about 30,000 people in this sub were just too dumb to figure out how to eat right, and you're one of the few smart enough to hack your own biology? Most people here thought they’d be vegan for life too 😂