springs

In my case, I get additional B12 from nutritional yeast, and saturated fat from dark chocolate.

four de trance

Hello and thank you for the questions!

1. We have done a lot of extensive research on the issue of B-12 and I've asked many doctors as well as nutritionists and the all the answers pretty much end up in the same place: meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans *all* have trouble getting the right amount of B-12. If the meat-eaters doubt that, then why do so many meat eaters have to take B supplements as well? As you stated, we eat a lot of nutritional yeast and take a small amount of a B-complex every couple of days. Since my wife is pregnant, she needs a lot more folate to avoid premature birth and neural tube birth defects, such as spina bifida, in the child. Her blood tests have been right on the money and all her numbers are awesome. My physicals and check-ups have shown the same, everything looks great! So, just basically a wide variety of greens, fruits, legumes, the nutritional yeast and a small supplement every couple of days.

In our search, we found Dr. Esselstyn and he is one of the leading proponents of the plant-based oil-free lifestyle. He wrote a book that is amazing and I strongly suggest it to cover all of your bases. The VegSource site (https://www.vegsource dot com/) is full of many doctors and nutritionists in favor of the plant-based oil-free lifestyle with all the information that you'd ever want to know about the lifestyle.

2. We gets all of the "essential fats" from the whole foods that we eat. You can get all of the necessary fat and oil from the foods themselves (ground flax seeds is a good source). Although it's not suggested by Dr. Esselstyn, you can have an avocado *once in a while* or nuts, but nuts are extremely high in fats and low in fiber. Another plant-based doctor, Dr. McDougall (in favor of high starch foods), doesn't really mind the nuts, but again, he doesn't say go nuts (pun intended) with them. The idea is that we can get all of the healthy fats that our body need from eating a variety of plant-based foods. If it takes a lot of hard work and/ or machinery to squeeze the fats out of veggies/ olives/ plants/ coconuts, then it can't be natural or good for you. Fat is fat per calorie.

3. Salt!!!!! I have had the hardest time trying to limit my salt intake, but it has finally happened!! Even the tiniest amount of added salt tastes like too much now. My wife never really did like salt, except for on her popcorn, but she stopped adding salt to anything a while back and now we're in a nice place. I add some once in a blue moon, but I don't cook with it and if we buy any frozen or canned goods, we get NO slat added. Be careful, LOTS of frozen veggies have added salt and frozen fruits have added sugar. Look at the labels if this is something that you are concerned about.

Tomatoes are very salty tasting and the aforementioned nutritional yeast adds a nice moderate salt to food. I've always been the Spice King, so all of our foods have zing to them no matter what I'm making. My spice rack is stocked with hundreds of spices and we have a garden with fresh herbs and spices as well. I never make a bland dish!!! Lemon and lime juice always helps out when trying to add a little something extra to food and if I absolutely have, I add sea salt to the dish AFTER it has been cooked. The cooking process can hide the salt taste and jack the sodium level up way too high.

So, we stay away from salt, sugar, fat, refined flours and grains. We just bought about 15 DVDs from Veg Source and they're symposiums/ conferences that take place annually in California that are on this very subject: the oil-free plant-based diet. Each DVD has an amazing panel of the nation's leading doctors that talk about how to enjoy the lifestyle and we are love them. I'm amazed at what these doctors are finding out and these conferences have been taking place for a while now. We're wanting to go to the 2013 Expo.

We also bought some DVDs by nutritionist Jeff Novick that goes through, step-by-step and explains how to do the plant-based diet for quick meals (in under 10 minutes), "burgers and fries" (homemade veggie burgers and baked spiced potato wedges) that is AMAZING!! There are hundreds of recipes in his DVDs and also in many of the books by the other doctors that I mentioned. It's an easy lifestyle adopt and there were only a few things that I had hard time giving up. Once we made the decision to do it, everything just fell into place.

Please ask more questions about the diet because we've been doing it for a while and I have never felt this great in my entire life. Of course being physically fit from cycling helps as well, but this also lets people know that being an oil-free vegan is just fine for endurance athletes.

I recently had a serious cycling accident where I hit the ground at 28mph and got knocked out. This happened about 2 weeks ago and I'm back on the bike again. The ER doctor and my ortho doctor said it would be at least 6 weeks until I could ride again and I got back on the bike three days ago, so a little less than two weeks. No broken bones, just sprained my right AC joint in my shoulder and a small amount of dislocation. Of course I had some other minor contusions, scrapes and bruises. I just went back to my ortho for the second follow-up yesterday and he stated that he sees nothing on the x-ray!! He was surprised because the first x-ray was pretty bad and yesterday's x-ray showing nothing!!

We're doing something right and the only thing we changed was our eating! Thank you for your time!

Wesley36

Tease!

four de trance

LOL! I apologize, I accidentally hit the "post" button.

wphamilton

I would have to, but then I'd put sugar, milk, some vanilla, and sometimes some syrups in with my smoothies

MEversbergII

Ok, when I read "oil free" I had gotten the impression this avoids "oily" foods (such as avocado, nuts, etc).

As to B-12 from yeasts, to my knowledge all current research does not support B-12 absorbency from yeasts. I had dabbled in vegetarianism briefly (as a academic exercise) based on the conventional teachings about a year ago and had read about adding yeast to my diet. Lab research, however, wasn't in favor.

We are at odds, as my inclination leans towards the Primal Blueprint.

As for meat eaters needing B-supplements, well that's all over the board. One can be a meat eater and get next to no vitamins - simply by focusing on lean, processed meats with fats added back in. That's one way, anyways. That was me growing up

Hot dogs. All the time. Poverty, you suck.

M.

four de trance

The guidelines suggest no added oil and NO oily foods (avocados, nuts, etc.), but if you don't have any heart disease and don't have any risk factors (smoker, strong family history of cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, etc.) then you can have a small amount of high fat vegetables. We don't really eat nuts save pumpkin seeds and walnuts because of the nutrients that they offer. I had a slice of avocado a few weeks ago, but the oil is overpowering after eating it. I get this slick, oily sensation in my mouth after eating avocado or guacamole and it's kind of nasty.

Do the inactive yeasts also fall into the category of not being able to be absorbed in the body? I know that the nutritional yeast is an inactive yeast, which has something to do with not living in the body and feeding off of the sugars or something like that.

Yeah, I grew up on hotdogs, fast food and whatever was cheap that my mom could afford! Of course, a rock with mustard has more advantageous health benifits than the **** I was fed as a child! Oh well, can't do anything about the past, but I sure as hell can do something about the future! I'm not going to let my two children grow up on garbage!