Muscle building and vegetarianism

[octoman]

New to the forum and need some help. My wife has taken a serious interest in vegetarianism, and I know very little about it and have some questions. First do you know if it's healthy, or what some of the health drawbacks are? Second, if healthy can you build muscle on a vegetarian diet?

Thank you

[glwanabe]

Is vegan healthy?

I like tomato's and lettuce on my burger, and I've never had a problem with it.

A lot of the animals I eat survive on grass, and other grain type foods. They seemed healthy enough for me to eat them.

OK.

Can a vegan build muscle?

Their have been bodybuilders who were vegans. To what exact extant I can't tell you. Being vegan is not something I have really ever entertained. I like meat!!

A lot of people talk up Soy as a wonder food, but I can find plenty of info bout Soy that says it is not all that great.

Here is a very good site about nutrition. It is large, and will require some of your time to get through all the topics that they present.

The Weston A. Price Foundation

I'll add this. Nobody should just stop eating protein, and take up a vegan lifestyle until they truely understand amino acids, and how your body works.

Living as a vegan requires a lot of education to eat properly.

[dmaipa]

I have experienced this first hand. The head strength coach at the college i used to work at became vegan. At the beginning he mentioned it was hard to figure out what exactly to eat but then he became very educated on the subject. But something that he did realize and admit was that although he feels really healthy and good, his strength levels has gone down and he has loss some muscle mass due to the diet. He still is in good shape but mentioned that he was much bigger and stronger when he was eating meat as his protein source but he would rather settle for being "healthy"

[strkout35]

There are differences between vegan and being vegetarian. Vegetarians can still drink milk, eat eggs, and still have a decent amount of options for protein (tofu, beans, etc.). Drawbacks would definitely be just always having to find other options to eat. Friends going to a burger place? You probably cant join them. If you plan it right and really research being vegetarian it's healthy. As far as building muscle on it, I don't know enough to give you a great answer but I'm sure its much harder than people who can eat meat.

[Trevor Lane]

Originally Posted by octoman

New to the forum and need some help. My wife has taken a serious interest in vegetarianism, and I know very little about it and have some questions. First do you know if it's healthy, or what some of the health drawbacks are? Second, if healthy can you build muscle on a vegetarian diet?

Thank you

Not healthy. Not muscle building. Humans are by design carnivorous, we have prey targeting front facing eyes and sharp teeth for tearing chunks of meat. In fact, you would be healthier swearing of all vegetation than you would being vegetarian. Also, soy will literally turn you into a bitch.

Here is some further reading on how awesome it is to be a carnivore and how crappy vegetarianism is for humans:

ISPUB - Isoflavone Rich Soy Protein Supplementation For Postmenopausal Therapy

Go Paleo: The Science of the Paleolithic Diet

Dynamic DNS for your IP AddressError


My recommendation is to get your wife out of the cult that turned her onto this and eat a steak ASAP.

[octoman]

Originally Posted by glwanabe

Living as a vegan requires a lot of education to eat properly.

This is what I fear the most. I don't like the idea of learning to walk again.

[octoman]

Originally Posted by dmaipa

I have experienced this first hand. The head strength coach at the college i used to work at became vegan. At the beginning he mentioned it was hard to figure out what exactly to eat but then he became very educated on the subject. But something that he did realize and admit was that although he feels really healthy and good, his strength levels has gone down and he has loss some muscle mass due to the diet. He still is in good shape but mentioned that he was much bigger and stronger when he was eating meat as his protein source but he would rather settle for being "healthy"

I didn't even know there were different types of vegetarians until this morning. I need to ask her what she thinks about eggs and dairy, but my sense is that she will not want to go down that path.

[glwanabe]

Originally Posted by octoman

This is what I fear the most. I don't like the idea of learning to walk again.

If you truely are going to walk that path, then that is what you will need to do.

As Trever said. You could easily drop plants from your diet with little adverse affects, but drop proteins, and your in a whole different ballgame.

Most people do not realize just how important fats are in our diet. Between, protein, fat, and carbs, the one you could most easily give up is carbs. You'll starve on pure protein without enough fat in your diet. People do not realize this fact.

Fat has been made an evil in America, when in fact it is not. Proper fat intake can actually hep you to loose weight.

[MC]

Originally Posted by octoman

I didn't even know there were different types of vegetarians until this morning. I need to ask her what she thinks about eggs and dairy, but my sense is that she will not want to go down that path.

Do you have to eat the same things as she?

I know at least two couples where one half is vegan/vegetarian and the other is not.

[octoman]

I want to thank everyone for the great information and feedback. I talked to my wife and she is ok with me drinking milk, eating eggs and fish. Not sure what you can that, but chicken, beef and other land mammals seem to be off limit.