Quashing the myth-Vegan nutrition and Vitamin B12.

Defining Veganism

Vegan is a person who abstains himself /herself from using animal products.

Yeah, vegans don't drink milk, don't use honey or meat, also they just dont wear leather or fur.

Then what the hell do they eat?

-answer is quite simple if you open your eyes you can see a millions of cruelty free options and for sure they are more nutritious than your trans fat containing meat an eggs. 

Why vegan?

Obviously when you have lots of choices and spicy chicken and full of protein eggs, then when would you go for something monotonous and less proteinaceous. 

Here can be three aproaches towards adopting a vegan diet and these are cruelty free, environment friendly and above all the only healthy option left.
             

Let's have a look one by one

Obviously killing somebody who has higher functions intact and can react to the pain stimuli and are emotional like us is to be considered cruel. Isn't it?

Ohh just don't put your bullshit logic that plants have life too,cruelty is not about killing something that has a life.

Even microorganisms have life. It's all about the higher functions, a very basic phenomenon we learnt in class eighth.

Involving something that is a part some different food chain leads to the disturbance in the ecosystem.

Also animals belong to the jungle and not on your table. If you want to know the relation between global warming and animal killing, just go and watch youtube full oc thousands of such explanations.

Last but not the least, everything is all about the individual's health. If you are still on the meat diet proving that you don't give a shit about others and the environment and call yourself a selfish person.

So damn you are not selfish because a selfish person thinks about himself first. Then, wait, what?

According to WHO census 2016, here are the top 10 cause of deaths worldwide

1-Ischemic heart disease

2-stroke

3-obstructive pulonary diseases

4-lower respiratory tract infections 

5-dementia

6-lung cancer

7-Diabetes mellitus

8-Road injury

9-diaorhea

10-TB

Here,by adopting just few lifestyle changes  most of the diseases can be avoided. Let's  take an example of heart diseases , the root cause is the more trans and saturated fat content.

As a result atheroma is formed arteries get narrowed. Again Diabetes mellitus is because of more trans fat and obesity and so as the hypertension.
 Also vegan food contain roughage which is requisite for better digestion and maintains the colonic microorganisms and avoid many digestive disorders.

Yeah, red meat is the class 1A carcinogen also,it is more dangerous than smoking and alcoholism put together. Just check out the list of carcinogens.

For sure road injuries  can't be avoided by adopting a vegan diet.

Vegan nutrition :the big debate

It is quotidian people saying that vegan diet lacks in some basic nutrients and minerals like iron, calcium, vitamin D, proteins(quality as well as in quantity)  and most importantly vitamin B12, but the truth is surprisingly different.

Let's take one by one...

Protein is one of the most requisite requirements of our body, which is necessary for muscle building, enzyme function and much more.

There are three things to be mentioned whn it comes to describing the protein content of some food one is protein quantity, protein quality (number of essential amino acids) and the Net Protein Utilization which is a biological coefficient to describe the abosorption of some protein.

Egg has the highest NPU and contains all the essential amino acids and the protein content is also not bad but it contains a lot of saturated fat which may have cumbersome aftermaths.



Most of the soya products contain a very high quantity of proteins and also they are complete proteins, containig all the essential amino acids but the NPU is not very high but since it does not contain a lot of saturated fat and there is no risk of cardiovascular complications in taking good dosage of soya products, it is considered to best source of protein for all age groups.

Other protein sources in vegan diets lack in one or other essential amino acids so this problem can be tackled by mixing.

 For instance,mixing of cereals with pulses make them a complete protein source.


Normally we get sufficient amount of vitamin D fron sunlight, so all you need to get half an hour of sunlight and thet is sufficient to strengthen your bones.

Also it is a myth that vegan food does not caontain iron, instead leafy green vegetables are a good source of iron.

Also most vegan foods are rich in fibres which are essential for digestion and maintains colonic microbes.

Vitamin B12:

Vitamin B12 is necessary for maintaing neurological functions and yeah its true that plants don't make vitamin B12, but it is also not false that animals too are not capable of making vitamin b12. 

So from where do we get this?

Only the microorganisms are capable of producing vitamin b12. Whether its the plant diet or animal diet, if it contain micobes then it has vitamin b12. 

Most of the animal products like meat are fortified with vitamin b12, so why there is not any demand for fortification of plant base products?   Okk, let's leave this debate and continue on our discussion. 

             

In vegan diet, soya milk is a good source of vitamin b12. Also vegans can take supplements from time to time if they are diagnosed with any deficiency.

Also human intestine contain microbes and it is capable of making vitamin b12 but in dome individuals it is not in sufficient quantity. 

My personal suggestion for vegans is have tests to check the vitamin b12 concentration in their body and take supplements as per the requirements. 

That's it!,
Obviously not,to end it with a bang there is another blogpost for another time!

What am I missing here? Let me know in the comments and I'll add in it!
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