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I have abstained from eating meat for more than 13 years now and have been vegan for 10 years. Suffice it to say, I’ve been chowing down plants for what has been almost half my life. Literally! It has become an inside joke that I am the OG vegan of my peer group and since the inception of a plant-based diet, I can tell you that I have followed some pretty cray cray vegan diets over the years.
With this plethora of dietary experience when it comes to veganism, I look back on my younger self and think “What the holy hell were you thinking!?” Seriously?
To briefly summarize:
I was a raw vegan and followed a….
High fat raw-vegan diet: essentially over 60% of my calories were coming from fat intake (nuts, seeds, oils, avocado…). At the end of it, I developed a candida overgrowth that plagued me for almost two years. In my desperate attempts to rid myself of this thing that felt was plaguing my life, I eventually started following a:
High carb raw-vegan diet: essentially my diet consisted of a TON of raw fruit (bananas, mangoes, apples, dates…) and a lot of uncooked veg. This did clear my candida overgrowth; however, resulted in a consistent outbreak of cystic acne, scarring, bloating, and a real fear of dietary fat, I am sad to admit.
I followed the raw till 4 approach:
Pretty well the same concept of being a high carb raw vegan, except only eating cooked high carb foods such as rice and potatoes after 4 PM
*Since breaking away from these diets, my acne cleared, as well as my bloating, and I also lost just over 20 pounds. *
I look back on these times and while understanding why I stuck to these vegan diets for so long (helping to correct my candida overgrowth which severely impacted my quality of life negatively, trying to be as “natural / chemical-free” as possible), I do regret being such an advocate and promoting it, as neither of those three diets is nutritionally sound long-term and are incredibly restrictive and expensive. Suffice it to say, I also did not take the time to actually perform any of my own research and followed what I believed to be the “experts” with no credible background knowledge or education in the field. So running around and sharing my dietary habits, in turn, promoted these fallacies regarding health and nutrition, adding to the problem.
Another issue, was at the time (and now, still) is that it is that many industries promote chemical-free or natural, non-GMO, organic products, that inherently you start to believe that anything else must be bad and will harm you long-term (or at least that was the conclusion that I came to). This not only propelled my dietary habits to be void from as much processed, packaged foods as possible, but as well as products when it came to personal care (hello baking soda and apple cider vinegar as shampoo and conditioner), cleaning products, and well, you get the gist.
I was flipping CRAY CRAY trying to be as “natural” as possible and didn’t even realize the toll it could have on my long-term health, because I was so desperately trying to cling to this idea of being “100% natural”, whatever that means.
Now? I focus on quality food sources (rich in vitamins, minerals, protein, fibers, omegas, and healthy fats), eat like a regular human (hello money savings), use shampoo and conditioner (thank gawd) and feel the best that I ever have. This includes eating foods that are rich in protein - not only limited to beans, nuts, and seeds but tofu, vegan “meats” such as Yves sausages or field roasts, some of which boast 20 grams of protein from one serving, but also foods that are fortified with vitamins and minerals (thanks plant-based milks) to ensure that I am consuming those harder to get vitamins such as B12. I focus on creating recipes that are the healthy equivalent to their traditional ‘unhealthy’ counterpart (i.e., pancakes, muffins, etc.) that are nutritionally dense, all the while preserving, flavour, and texture.
My diet has vastly changed and I can honestly say is a balanced vegan diet in comparison to the ways that I previously ate. Not only that, but my focus is not only on nutrition, but anatomy, biomechanics and fitness, and educating myself on sports specific nutrition to reach long-term health and fitness goals.
You see, while I may not be overly proud of the ideologies that I once promoted (I took down my old content that promoted these ideals), it was this first-hand experience that has provided me with a lot of learning opportunities that I was able to build from. Not only that, but there are many ways in which you can eat (vegan or not) that are inherently unhealthy; however, you may not be able to realize at the moment.
So one thing that I want to emphasize is that a vegan diet (just like any other diet) can be healthy - but it also can be very unhealthy too. It's a matter of the approach that you take that will determine your success in finding long-term health. Take it from the once crazy vegan whose been there ;).
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