How to go Vegan without dying

I became vegan a month ago with no idea what I was doing. I thought I just had to eat falafel and water and it would all be ok.

Turns out that because the world is entirely designed around meat-eaters, it's not enough to just decide to be vegan, wave the magic wand of change, and not pay any attention to the biological minutiae of the human body.

Back when I was jamming animal remnants down my pipes, apparently I was getting all kinds of vitamins and minerals as a side-effect of my homicides-by-proxy. Now that I'm vegan, there seems to be a general agreement that I need to supplement with certain vitamins to stay alive.

At first, I thought: "This is bullshit. I don't want to become a bio-medicinal chemist just to live. Give me my meat back!". But, after some more thought, I realised that the industry that previously provided me with meat was flagrantly awash in all kinds of chemical perversions –– hormones; antibiotics etc. So, all I am doing now is placing the burden of responsibility on myself to understand and maintain my own biochemistry, rather than outsourcing this problem to a cattle farmer, drenched in blood, who probably can't sleep at night for all the cow-eyes that stare hauntingly at him from his abyssal subconscious trough.

Anyway, back to my body: I seemed to be getting weaker and weaker over the last week. This peaked during a rock climbing sessions in which my arms seemed to give up climbing and want to be laid down on a mattress and soothed.

I asked a good friend of mine who is dabbling in veganism what might be wrong; why did I feel like I was dying?

He told me that I needed to eat the EU (European Union) recommended Nutrient Reference Intake (NRV) of:

Vitamin B2 (1.6mg - 114%)
Vitamin B6 (2mg - 143%)
Vitamin B12 (25µg - 1,000%)
Vitamin D3 (20µg - 400%)
Folic Acid (200µg - 100%)
Iodine (150µg - 100%)
Selenium (60µg - 109%)

So, I've been doing that and now I don't feel like I'm dying anymore. In fact I feel fantastic.

While I was at the vegan shop, I also picked up some other things as experimental objects to aid my conversion into the vegan fold. The first was this:

It was kind of expensive, but I'm going to investigate other options online. I just wanted to give it a try first. Basically, this Vegan Protein appears to be a plant-based alternative to meat-based protein sources and can supplement the protein I get from chickpeas etc. I'll let you know how I get on with this powder in a future post. I'm completely naive about what I'm doing here, so if you're vegan and you have any tips, let me know.

I also got this:

It's a milk alternative. But unlike traditional milk it doesn't contain hormones and pus. These are significant bonuses for me. Interestingly, I read that America consumes the most milk in the world, but also has the highest rates of osteoporosis. This suggests that the dairy industry's claims of calcium being prevalent, or absorbable, from milk is a fraud. In fact, some researchers say that osteoporosis is actually caused by traditional milk¹

I'll give this Oatly stuff a go and let you know if my bones snap, or if I stay in one piece.

I also got some of this because I generally like eating things that are marketed by Rapunzel:

I'll try it after writing this post and report back on how it is. Apparently it is organic and the bag is massive, so it should last me a few weeks.

Next time I'll write about grocery shopping. I know I have to buy lots of fruit and vegetables, but I'm not sure what exactly. There is a grocery store near me that sells everything without packaging. So, I'll go there with a load of jam jars and stock up for the week.

So far this vegan thing is interesting. I feel less drenched in horror and blood, but I'm also a bit confused about how this new lifestyle works exactly. I'm enjoying the process of learning though.

Footnotes

¹http://www.slate.com/articles/briefing/articles/1999/08/got_osteoporosis.html