I have decided to become a vegan due to health reason (I recently got diabetes).
For the last 30 years, I ate mostly health foods but sometimes did junk or fast foods.
Most days I was about 85% vegan and 90% vegetarian.
Since I am trying to cut down on fruit and grains due to my diabetes and doctors advice, and meats and dairy due to my research, it doesn't leave tons to eat other than veggies, nuts, and beans.
I am also wanting to go 85% raw as I read several books about this reversing diabetes. Should I first do some vegan before going more raw..so far my blood sugar has not improved much but not getting the ultra high readings. I think a vegan diet might not be enough to reverse diabetes,,it might need to be a raw vegan diet..does anyone know more on this point?
I had a few readings too high for the meter to read and that scared me into making changes.
Still I am a food addict and love to eat and did love meat, cheese and eggs but I am not doing too bad giving those up.
It is harder to make soup taste good without using meat though
My problem is I find myself eating more fats due to eating at least all this plant food and produce in the form of veganaisse, salad dressings and sometimes oils to make the veggies taste better.also eating more nuts.
What are good things not so high in fats to make salads and raw veggies taste better. I have lots of salad dressing in the pantry but maybe when I run out, there are better things to make the salads taste good that aren't so high in fats. suggestions?
I find not eating the cooked foods much harder than giving up animal foods as this includes a lot fo the stuff found in health food stores in addition to my own cooking is very hard (processed health food store vegan items are often cooked) .
how did raw food faddists get away from cooked foods after a lifetime of eating them..I have eaten lots of cooked foods in my nearly 6 decades of life and it is hard to quit.
I am eating cup after cup of produce (75% of my food is produce now on average) and still cannot get to the magic 85% raw number.
Also finding it hard to give up cheese...what are some good substitutes for similar taste (I don't really like the soy and rice cheeese except for soy parmesan)
any tips would be most appreciated.
It is just a lot of changes recently started walking daily (which I hate to be honest) after never exercising, gave up pretty much all fast foods (but salad), junk food and buffets, and meat, fish, dairy, a lot of grains, eggs, and limiting juice and juice which is hard.
I do not want to lose my leg, eyesight, wind up on dialysis etc so I do want to change...any help or advise or answer for my questionjs would be appreicated.
It is also hard catching all the produce before it goes bad as I have so much here.
how did others make these changes.
I am happy I am doing more to not supporting the inhumane food industry which does bother me, m helping the environment and not subjecting mysefl to the things shown in movies like food inc and have long admired vegarians and vegans but it was for my health, and (secondary) need to lose weight to reduce insulin problems that I am doing this ( I lost a little so far, which I feel is from the exercising)..that fear of going blind etc forced me to realize I must make changes. I saw two relatives go blind and had a mom go through the nightmare of dialysis.
I want to be successful as I am not a person willing to take drugs for the most part and if I don't reverse this, I could die young like someone I knew.
I go to the regular store and can hardly buy anything...health food stores are better but it is a little startling how few things I can buy since in addition to going vegan,. I need to cut whole grains and fruits some..give up high glycemic grains and fruits and .since I am cutting back from the amount of whole grains/fruits I used to eat,
I am eating so much produce..there is a lot of variety and I eat 15-30 different kinds of produce a day...but eating more fat with it and if I cut back on cooking, it is like really different..
any help/support would be appreciated
For the last 30 years, I ate mostly health foods but sometimes did junk or fast foods.
Most days I was about 85% vegan and 90% vegetarian.
Since I am trying to cut down on fruit and grains due to my diabetes and doctors advice, and meats and dairy due to my research, it doesn't leave tons to eat other than veggies, nuts, and beans.
I am also wanting to go 85% raw as I read several books about this reversing diabetes. Should I first do some vegan before going more raw..so far my blood sugar has not improved much but not getting the ultra high readings. I think a vegan diet might not be enough to reverse diabetes,,it might need to be a raw vegan diet..does anyone know more on this point?
I had a few readings too high for the meter to read and that scared me into making changes.
Still I am a food addict and love to eat and did love meat, cheese and eggs but I am not doing too bad giving those up.
It is harder to make soup taste good without using meat though
My problem is I find myself eating more fats due to eating at least all this plant food and produce in the form of veganaisse, salad dressings and sometimes oils to make the veggies taste better.also eating more nuts.
What are good things not so high in fats to make salads and raw veggies taste better. I have lots of salad dressing in the pantry but maybe when I run out, there are better things to make the salads taste good that aren't so high in fats. suggestions?
I find not eating the cooked foods much harder than giving up animal foods as this includes a lot fo the stuff found in health food stores in addition to my own cooking is very hard (processed health food store vegan items are often cooked) .
how did raw food faddists get away from cooked foods after a lifetime of eating them..I have eaten lots of cooked foods in my nearly 6 decades of life and it is hard to quit.
I am eating cup after cup of produce (75% of my food is produce now on average) and still cannot get to the magic 85% raw number.
Also finding it hard to give up cheese...what are some good substitutes for similar taste (I don't really like the soy and rice cheeese except for soy parmesan)
any tips would be most appreciated.
It is just a lot of changes recently started walking daily (which I hate to be honest) after never exercising, gave up pretty much all fast foods (but salad), junk food and buffets, and meat, fish, dairy, a lot of grains, eggs, and limiting juice and juice which is hard.
I do not want to lose my leg, eyesight, wind up on dialysis etc so I do want to change...any help or advise or answer for my questionjs would be appreicated.
It is also hard catching all the produce before it goes bad as I have so much here.
how did others make these changes.
I am happy I am doing more to not supporting the inhumane food industry which does bother me, m helping the environment and not subjecting mysefl to the things shown in movies like food inc and have long admired vegarians and vegans but it was for my health, and (secondary) need to lose weight to reduce insulin problems that I am doing this ( I lost a little so far, which I feel is from the exercising)..that fear of going blind etc forced me to realize I must make changes. I saw two relatives go blind and had a mom go through the nightmare of dialysis.
I want to be successful as I am not a person willing to take drugs for the most part and if I don't reverse this, I could die young like someone I knew.
I go to the regular store and can hardly buy anything...health food stores are better but it is a little startling how few things I can buy since in addition to going vegan,. I need to cut whole grains and fruits some..give up high glycemic grains and fruits and .since I am cutting back from the amount of whole grains/fruits I used to eat,
I am eating so much produce..there is a lot of variety and I eat 15-30 different kinds of produce a day...but eating more fat with it and if I cut back on cooking, it is like really different..
any help/support would be appreciated