The vegan and vegetarian lifestyle emerged and becomes a trend nowadays all around the world. In recent decades, many people are converting to veganism in their consent and not because of lack of meat around them.
Some predicted that the trend started out as a reason to save the earth. Indeed, scientists have proven that livestock agricultural activities are harmful to the nature, and consuming meat means supporting the industry to bring more harm to the earth.
As a substitute to meat, some kinds of plants also contain the nutrition found in meat. Consuming less meat, meaning not in excessive amount, also known to make you healthier. However, being vegan and vegetarian is not always easy, especially at the start.
But once you are used to the lifestyle, you will get all those benefits and contribute to the nature. What kind of side effects that we may get from converting into no-meat life? Here we will tell you about this, and how to solve it.
1. Energy Issue
When you decide to go vegan, at first you will feel less energized and weak. This is normal because plants contain less calorie than meat-based foods. This is the reason why many people are going back to consume meat after several days going vegan.
It is actually easy to overcome it, simply just eat more food or eat more frequently until you can get used to this lifestyle. Once you get into the rhythm, instead of feeling weak, you will feel more energized than before.
Many athletes are converting into vegan because of this reason, they feel more energized after reducing their meat intake. One reason to explain it is because by consuming more food, you will get more nutrition aside from the calorie.
When you are aiming at fulfilling your calorie needs, you are actually giving your body many other nutrition that you don’t realize. The nutrition will reform your body and fill the gaps that you have never filled when you are consuming meat.
However, to get the full benefit of this meatless lifestyle, make sure that you only consume whole vegan foods. Processed food will bring less benefits and nutrition, in example, it makes you feel full faster than consuming whole vegan foods.
2. Cooking By Yourself
Another problem that you may get when you are going vegan is limited choice to eat outside. Thus, you cook you own food more frequently compared to before the conversion. In addition, the choice of ingredients also limited, making it harder.
However, cooking by yourself actually have a good impact for your health. Most of ready to serve foods, including fast foods, are processed foods which contain less nutrition (again). By making your own food, you can measure the nutrient intake.
Making your own food also means that you can avoid dangerous chemicals being added in your daily consumption. You know what you eat and you know that it is healthy. You can also experiment with the ingredients and learn to mix and match.
If you think that cooking is hard to do, the internet is the answer. There are a lot of vegan recipes out there and what you have to do is just surf the internet. So, don’t worry to face this challenge, since you will overcome it easily.
3. Habitual Craving
Changing your diet is not an easy job, and even some ‘professional’ vegans are cheating sometimes. However, like Arundhraty Roy wrote in one of her books, “human kinds were creatures of habits”. You can change it once you make meatless lifestyle is a habit.
One scientific explanation about the craving is that junk food you consume contain elements that your body cannot process and store it in your fat reserve instead. When you are losing weigh at the beginning of the conversion, the elements are released back into your body thus creating the craving.
However, it is all just about changing your perspective toward meat and how it is produced in large scale. For every food produced from animal means that one animal’s freedom has been taken away. We know that it is impossible to get even the milk of wild cow, let alone the children to be converted into meat.
That’s why, the best way to convert into meatless lifestyle is to reduce the amount of animal produced foods gradually. You are actually allowed to go very slowly and still consume your favorite meaty food at the beginning of the conversion.
As time goes, make sure to find or make the meatless version of your favorite food. In example, you can find vegan pizza and burgers everywhere out there. And when you get used to it, it means that you are ready to stop consuming meat for the rest of your life.
4. Stomach Problems
In the beginning of the conversion, you might often encounter uncomfortable feelings in your stomach. So, what actually caused it? There is a scientific explanation about this, and the answer is that you are still adapting to your new lifestyle.
It means that the bacteria in your stomach has not adapted to your new lifestyle thus they are not able to process the food optimally. However, as time goes, the bacteria will familiarize the situation and instead of making you uncomfortable you will get healthier digestive system.
Going meatless is actually very healthy for your digestive system, since plants are rich of fiber that will help you to overcome constipation and other bowel movement problems. In the other hand, red meat is reported to cause the problems instead.
5. Social Life
We are living in omnivore society and we realize that being different sometimes is hard to do. Some of your friends may be supportive to you but some other will give you hard times instead. One thing for sure, most of those people will interrogate you about your choice converting into meatless lifestyle.
However, there is a way to solve it by making yourself open to them. Tell your friends your reasons and try to explain it in a subtle way. Since most of your friends are clearly living in 21st century where veganism and vegetarianism is not a strange case, most of them will understand about your choice.
So, if you have decided to live a meatless life, make sure you are prepared to face the hard beginning. Your effort to treat yourself and the earth better will be paid off eventually.
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