Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian…

What is a Vegan lifestyle? It is a way of living where you eat no meat, eggs, or dairy products. If the source of the food is from an animal, or processed using animal products, or derived or tested on animals (fur, leather, wool), then a follower of vegan lifestyle will stay away from it.

Some people take an intermediate step of becoming a lacto-ovo-vegetarian before going vegan. This diet includes dairy (lacto) based products (cow or goat or camel milk, yogurt, cheese, buttermilk, sour cream, cottage cheese etc.) and ovo (eggs, and products that use eggs – cakes, puddings etc.) and all vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, and fruits.

Another variation that has come about recently is Pescatarian, who for health reasons eat fish and all lacto-ovo-vegetarian foods.

What do vegans eat? Plant based foods, green leafy vegetables, beans, legumes, fruits, and grains and infinite combinations of recipes that one can make with them are the staple of vegan diet. You can use milk from sources like almond, soy, and coconut.

And all of the above diets give you all the protein and calcium that your body needs with additional anti-oxidants and complex carbohydrates that you do not get from meat-based food sources.

There have been studies on human populations correlating heart diseases and cancers with animal protein-based diets. Casein, main protein in cow’s milk is a known chemical carcinogen, and this has been proven in numerous lab studies on test animals.

Higher-protein diets derived from animal based foods increases the risks of cancer, cardiovascular diseases due to excess protein that creates an imbalance of nutrients in the body.

So, if you stop eating meat and dairy, do you get enough calcium, vitamin, protein etc. lack of which can hinder growth and sustenance of body functions? You do have to make sure that you are getting all essential nutrients from your vegan and vegetarian or pescatarian lifestyle.

Net: Know the science behind nutrition. But make sure it comes from sources that have no affiliation to any industry or exist to further industry interests.