So U think Vegan is healthy?

[Aractus]

I'm sorry I mistyped the figure it's 75% of vegetarians in the USA go back to eating meat after an average of 9 years, not back to vegan, lol.

The other thing I forgot to mention is that the serious health problems can take 20 years to develop on a vegan diet, so we're only beginning to learn about the negative long term health effects and while you say that we didn't know about B12 deficiency until recently - that we also agree on - vegetarians are also very unaware of the risks of other deficiencies like zinc deficiency, protein deficiency and of course cholesterol deficiency. Plant based diets have been proven to lower cholesterol, so if you have a healthy cholesterol level and you go on a vegan diet you will become cholesterol deficient and that leads to mental disorder - anxiety, depression, anger and aggression.

Vegan diets are high in carbohydrates which our bodies break down into glucose (sugar ) it's good slow release energy, however like cholesterol our bodies are capable of producing glucose, and to remove the glucose from our blood we use insulin. If we keep having too much blood glucose then we can develop type 2 diabetes - how does a vegan go about lowering their blood glucose? They have to virtually remove all sweet fruits from their diet!

But that's not the main problem, the main problem is that our bodies can produce glucose, but they can't produce the essential fatty acids. They're actually called the essential fatty acids because we can't produce them. So low fat diets can be very dangerous. Diets too high in glucose can lead to low triglyceride levels and while that means you can't physically get fatter, it also means health problems including mental health problems. You never hear vegans talk about this, and the problem is that it's not a 100% settled science - in other words we don't yet know what level really is too low. Normal levels are "up to" 150 mg/dl - so what level is too low? Well at the moment anything below 10 mg/dl is considered very dangerous.

That would bring me to thyroid problems what if a vegan is diagnosed with an overactive or an underactive thyroid? Well the first thing they have to eliminate from their diet is soy (maybe not all soy, but certainly soy milk and other products high in soy), along with a number of vegetables. Another thing that can contribute to thyroid problems is gluten which is in wheat, which means you have to also look at eliminating all wheat from your diet.

Soy is not a natural product - raw soy is toxic to omnivores and to carnivores, it's only herbivores like cows that can digest grass that can eat soy. Moderate consumption of processed soy foods are considered safe, but we're now learning about the dangers of over-consuming soy - so you can't look to soy as a replacement food for something that is healthy and non-toxic.

• The Health Dangers of Soy
  
  Soybeans -- even organically grown soybeans -- naturally contain "antinutrients" such as saponins, soyatoxin, phytates, trypsin inhibitors, goitrogens and phytoestrogens. Traditional fermentation destroys these antinutrients, which allows your body to enjoy soy's nutritional benefits. However, most Westerners do not consume fermented soy, but rather unfermented soy, mostly in the form of soymilk, tofu, TVP, and soy infant formula.
  
  Unfermented soy has the following 10 adverse affects on your body:
  
  

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  1. High Phytic Acid (Phytates): Reduces assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. Phytic acid in soy is not neutralized by ordinary preparation methods such as soaking, sprouting and long, slow cooking, but only with long fermentation. High-phytate diets have caused growth problems in children.
  
  2. Trypsin inhibitors: Interferes with protein digestion and may cause pancreatic disorders. In test animals, trypsin inhibitors in soy caused stunted growth.
  
  3. Goitrogens: Potent agents that block your synthesis of thyroid hormones and can cause hypothyroidism and thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked with autoimmune thyroid disease. Goitrogens interfere with iodine metabolism.
  
  4. Phytoestrogens/Isoflavones: Plant compounds resembling human estrogen can block your normal estrogen and disrupt endocrine function, cause infertility, and increase your risk for breast cancer.
  
  5. Hemagglutinin: A clot-promoting substance that causes your red blood cells to clump, making them unable to properly absorb and distribute oxygen to your tissues.
  
  6. Synthetic Vitamin D: Soy foods increase your body's vitamin D requirement, which is why companies add synthetic vitamin D2 to soymilk (a toxic form of vitamin D).
  
  7. Vitamin B12: Soy contains a compound resembling vitamin B12 that cannot be used by your body, so soy foods can actually contribute to B12 deficiency, especially among vegans.
  
  8. Protein Denaturing: Fragile proteins are denatured during high temperature processing to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein (TVP). Chemical processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.
  
  9. MSG: Free glutamic acid, or MSG, is a potent neurotoxin. MSG is formed during soy food processing, plus additional MSG is often added to mask soy's unpleasant taste.
  
  10. Aluminum and Manganese: Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum, which is toxic to your nervous system and kidneys, and manganese, which wreaks havoc on your baby's immature metabolic system.
  
  Soy's antinutrients are quite potent. Drinking just two glasses of soymilk daily provides enough of these compounds to alter a woman's menstrual cycle. But if you feed soy to your infant or child, these effects are magnified a thousand-fold. Infants fed soy formula may have up to 20,000 times more estrogen circulating through their bodies as those fed other formulas. You should NEVER feed your infant a soy-based formula!
  
  In fact, infants fed soy formula take in an estimated five birth control pills' worth of estrogen every day.
  
  As dangerous as unfermented soy is, fermented soy from organic soybeans is a different story altogether and can be a beneficial part of your diet. Fermented soy is a great source of vitamin K2, and K2 (combined with vitamin D) is essential in preventing osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, dementia, and various types of cancer.

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