Vegan Living - By Serena Li

Becoming vegan has become a popular lifestyle trend. People choose it to stay healthy, protect animal rights, and minimize environmental damage. However, many people are still confused as to what veganism entails and some hold pre-conceived notions as to what vegans do. History Veganism is a movement that officially started in 1944. Donald Watson came up with the term and co-founded a society to encourage vegetarians to stop eating eggs. Later on, the term "vegan" expanded its meaning to oppose all exploitation of animals. Over the years, the movement kept growing in popularity. In 2008, there were roughly one million self-claimed vegans in America. Classification

Vegan: do not eat meat, seafood, eggs, or dairy; do not use animal-derived products.

Dietary veganism: also called strict vegetarians. They eat only plant-based foods.

Ethical veganism: to these followers, veganism is more than a diet, it's a lifestyle.

Environmental veganism: they become vegans to consume less natural resource and leave minimal environmental footprints. Animal factory farming is seen as exploitation and cruelty to animals. Animal agriculture in general is linked to pollution, land erosion, energy consumption, and even climate changes.

Vegetarian: do not eat meat

Lacto-ovo vegetarians: do not eat meat, but consume milk and eggs

Pescetarians: do not eat meat, but can eat fish

Lifestyle

Veganism is more than eating natural foods, it's a lifestyle choice. Besides the obvious meat, seafood, milk and eggs, vegans also exclude other less obvious products. These include gelatin, whey, lanolin, casein, and others. Many of these ingredients may not be obvious in a product, but a careful examination of the list of ingredients will reveal more information. In addition, Ethical vegans do not use products tested on animals. When adopting the lifestyle, people tend to donate all animal-derived belongings to charity.

Vegan Diet

All plant-based foods are considered vegan. Common protein substitutes include tofu, tempeh (fermented soy), and wheat gluten. Cow's milk is replaced by almond, rice, or soy milk. When baking, ingredients such as apple sauce, mashed potatoes, or soft tofu can be used instead of eggs. Vegan cheeses are often made from soy, nuts, and tapioca.

Health Concerns of Veganism

According to the American Dietetic Association, a well-balanced vegan diet can be healthy enough for all stages of life, from children to pregnant women to elderly. It's even enough to sustain a few of the top endurance athletes through Ironman triathlons and ultramarathons. Studies have shown that people consuming plant-based foods have lower cholesterol, which is expected as cholesterol is present in animal products. In addition, they also enjoy lower mortality rates, especially from cardiovascular diseases. Such diet tends to be high in fiber, certain vitamins and minerals while low in fats, vitamin B12, vitamin D, calcium and zinc. Vegans must take measures to replenish those nutrients commonly present in meats and dairy products.

Adopting the vegan lifestyle takes knowledge, motivation and dedication. It takes a bit of research to get acquainted with all animal-derived products in our lives. Whether you decide on the change for health, animals, or environmental reasons, be sure to make small changes over a period of time. To avoid nutritional deficiency, make sure your diet is varied and well-balanced. Keep in mind that a vegan lifestyle can be extremely rewarding and healthful if planned properly.

Lose Weight on a Raw Vegan Diet and Start Living Again! - By Loren R Antonios

Do you have excess weight to lose? Have you tried every diet out there, only to give up and feel depressed and agitated? You really should consider adopting a better diet than the ones that you have previously tried. Why? Because clearly they do not leave you feeling good about yourself or your body. Have you ever considered adopting the raw food vegan lifestyle? The health benefits that come from this diet are endless, and weight comes off easily. This is what I call the Mother of all Diets. Here's why.

The calories are Low

When you start eating most of your calories in fruits, raw vegetables, sprouts, juices and nuts, you will see an obvious loss in your body weight, and this just keeps falling off if you stay on the raw food diet. What will give your weight loss an even bigger boost is if you eat fruits or fresh fruit juices only in the mornings. The reason is because fruits are low in fat and perfect for de-toxing, so weight will start to fall off rather quickly. Make sure you eat a variety of fresh fruits to keep your diet interesting - this will help you to stay on the raw food diet and help prevent cravings for bad foods. Why not try making for your breakfast a berry-banana smoothie? All you need is some fresh raw almond milk, some in-season berries (frozen is fine), one or two ripe bananas, and some vanilla extract or agave nectar to taste. You can even put a little pinch of sea salt in it to bring out the flavours.

It gives you abundant Energy

For lunch you should make for yourself a really big raw salad and also have a large glass of freshly made vegetable juice (made that morning, or the night before). This will skyrocket your energy to a whole new level, and you will find yourself feeling absolutely great all afternoon! People will also start commenting on your happy demeanour and sudden zest for life! It always happens!

Now, going back to the large salad for lunch - put as many of your favourite vegetables (and fruits) into it as your heart desires. I like to put into mine some romaine lettuce, fresh juicy tomatoes, onion, avocado, cucumber, walnuts, mungbeans and corn. And then for the dressing a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and also some freshly squeezed lemon, sea salt and pepper. Give it a go! This is very energizing and sustaining.

Just a word of caution however - If you are adopting this raw vegan diet for weight loss purposes, you need to limit your intake of avocado's and nuts. The reason being is that these two foods are rather high in fat (good fats) and calories, so limiting them is a must if you want to lose weight. I'm not saying to give them up altogether - just limit your intake to eating no more than half an avocado and one medium handful of nuts per day. You can increase this amount if you are maintaining your weight of course.

The conclusion of the raw food vegan diet is: Your weight loss will occur at a constant and rapid rate if you choose to undergo this amazing lifestyle. Many others have already lost weight in the same manner! To find out how they did and how you can too, CLICK HERE!