Ok so here it goes. I went vegan for like a year, took up the title and all, even bought hemp shoes. I quit though, because I found that I really didn't care about the animals. When faced with the question of "either kill a chicken, or a human which would you kill" it was pretty much always the chicken. So yea, if I had to hunt turkeys to survive I wouldnt hesitate, so I figure... Might as well just eat them anyway. Not like I can do away with the natural urge to eat lower life forms. Doesn't make me any worse than a lion, bear, or wolf. But heres one of the biggest problems I had with the diet: GAS and tons of it. It sucked. It was a good thing I didnt have a girlfriend at the time. All I could eat for protein was like beans and cereal grains. That imitation meat costed a ton. And for calcium I drink silk.... which was made of beans. And you had to combine grain and legume to make complete protiens, so I would end up with beans and grains for breakfast, lunch, and supper. Nuts and seed also, which alone dont really cause much gas at all, but combined with a bunch of cereal grains and stuff it created one hell of a fart factory in my guts. I was only around male friends at the time which was pretty lucky, I had to hold it whenever a woman was around. my friggin car had a constant stench to it as well! It was like, in the material of the seats in the car too. And if you came into my room after I slept in it all night, it was like someone had put a stink bomb in there... one that would last for HOURS! So yea, I tried bean-o... it didnt put a dent in it! I had to take a whole bottle for like one or two meals to actually ease the gassiness and this stuff aint cheap. Much much cheaper to just have some meat and dairy. And seriously the stench wasnt just bad, it smelled almost "wrong" in a way, it made me think, "maybe constant cereal grains, vegetables, and beans are not really what the digestive system was made to tolerate all day long every day after all". The gas problem itself was a good enough reason for me to quit. How the hell was I going to sleep with the lovely woman I sleep with now if every morning she woke up to a gas chamber? That would not have been cool... Ill hunt and butcher chickens and rabbits every day for the rest of my life rather than do that to my significant other. Wouldnt you? Has anyone else had this sort of experience? I mean this gas problem was unbelievable, me and no one else I knew ever knew how bad gas really could be. It sounds like its way over the top, but its not! It was really that bad.
This is not a pro meat, anti veg post, this is just my experience with the diet, my thoughts on it. Not looking to get into a heated debate or anything.
Ha! I've never had this problem, thankfully. But I know other people who have! I think it is part of the transition to a high fiber diet . Veggies, fruits, legumes & beans, all staples of a vegan diet, are high in fiber. I would guess that it was your body adjusting to the heightened nutrient intake. It's an irritating, but temporary side effect for most people . No worries. "maybe constant cereal grains, vegetables, and beans are not really what the digestive system was made to tolerate all day long every day after all". I don't think that is the case, at all. I know people who gave up fast food and physically suffered withdrawals--diarrhea, headaches, intense cravings, for months! I think the body has to adjust to any new diet. Be it vegan, reduced sugar, gluten-free, whole foods, anything!
My tummy stayed in withdrawal for years. Even after I incorporated some meat and dairy back in I tried to eat mostly veggies. Eventually I eliminated all the beans and cereal grains. For fiber I use popcorn now cuz it doesnt really create any gas at all. For protein I try to stick with meat, either fish, chicken, beef, or those imitation meats(because damn there good and they dont make me gassy). Of course I still dont eat a lot of meat, cuz its expensive and all, I dont use the cheap filler like beans and grains anymore which cause me to be extremely gassy. My digestive system is EXTREMELY sensitive to those things. If I eat too many triscuits or something I get punished with explosive gas. So I have to limit myself to just a few triscuits in a day, maybe a small serving of beans a couple times a week, lots of popcorn, absolutely NO MORE OATMEAL! Silk I still drink once in awhile. I still eat quite a few nuts. But if I try to depend on affordable vegetable sources of protein, my gal is going to leave me im sure of it!
Your gut bacteria is all fucked up. Incorporate some fermented foods into your diet like kimchi, or start taking a good probiotic. A cultivate a colony of proper gut microbes and you can eat ANYTHING with impunity.
http://www.wbur.org/npr/244526773/gut-bacteria-might-guide-the-workings-of-our-minds "I'm actually seeing new neurochemicals that have not been described before being produced by certain bacteria," says Mark Lyte of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Abilene, who studies how microbes affect the endocrine system. "These bacteria are, in effect, mind-altering microorganisms."
You don't need to combine grains and beans to get a complete protein. You don't need to eat grains or beans at all. You can if you want to. It's all a matter of digestion. Beans are difficult to digest, they have digestive inhibitors as do grains. Check this out: http://files.meetup.com/410532/Food Combining Chart.pdf Anytime you're eating things with ingredients from different categories, you can expect gas. You might not always get gas, but you might get it when you eat something else and then it looks like that thing caused the gas, but what caused it was the combinations in your digestive tract. So you can expect that beyond most other things breads and imitation meats will cause gas most of all because they both combine starches, with fat and sugar.
