Vegan diet: what it is, benefits and what to eat

The vegan diet is a diet based on the exclusive consumption of plant and plant-based products, with the exclusion of everything of animal origin or even simply deriving from the exploitation of animals.

Not a diet understood in the most "banal" sense of the term, on the contrary: it is a conscious and ethical choice, a lifestyle which - as a rule - when undertaken in a conscious and convinced way, is never abandoned.

Whoever thinks that the vegan diet is just a way to detoxify after a period of excesses or a method to lose weight is therefore very wrong: the vegan lifestyle is complex and also difficult to embrace, at least at the beginning, due to its being truly restrictive from certain points of view and the need to know foods very well, their most correct combinations and one's own body, otherwise risking losses in energy and nutritional deficiencies.

But let's find out in detail what it means to embark on the path of veganism and what is good to know before starting.

What to eat in the vegan diet: food pairings and substitutions

Recently we talked about plant-based diet, a diet where the vast majority of foods are of plant origin but there may be small quantities of animal proteins such as fish or eggs, as long as every product is of the highest quality.

For vegans this is a big no: no food of animal origin is allowed on the table, because even derivatives such as cheese, honey or eggs are seen as exploitation and mistreatment of animals themselves.

But can you live on vegetables alone? The answer is yes, as long as you study a lot to better understand the type of micro and macronutrients contained in each food, and what are the best combinations to be able to assimilate the most from each dish.

A big mistake that many newbies make, in fact, is to start with great enthusiasm and limit themselves to replacing the previous foods, those of the "omnivorous" diet, with equal quantities of plant foods, simply in order to achieve satiety.

Unfortunately, however, it is quite clear that the micronutrients contained in a beef steak with a side salad cannot be identical to those introduced by eating only a larger portion of the same salad.

food combinations therefore serve to achieve two objectives:

• Maximize the assimilation of particular vitamins or minerals
• Help natural digestion

Regarding the first point, for example, iron is often a micronutrient lacking in veg diets: in this case, mixing spinach and red peppers, or strawberries and dark chocolate, can help assimilate a greater quantity of precious iron.

From the point of view of digestion, however, given that it is based on the fact that foods are also processed thanks to enzymes, the vegan perspective focuses on not tiring the enzymes themselves, making them concentrate on one or maximum two macro-categories of foods at time.

There would, in fact, be 5 broad categories:

• starches, i.e. carbohydrates such as potatoes, cereals and chestnuts;
• fruit, divided into sour, such as citrus fruits and apples, and sweet, such as figs and bananas;
• proteins, such as legumes and soy;
• fats, such as avocado and nuts;
• vegetables, all non-starchy vegetables.

If it is true that vegetables can be combined with anything, on the contrary, mixing starches and proteins or acidic fruit and sweet fruit would lead to slowing down digestion and annoying bloating.

Vegan diet: pros and cons

Among the pros, certainly an excellent supply of all the typical plant nutrients, such as folic acid, vitamins of groups A and C and much more.

Among the cons, the detractors always think about the possible deficiencies but, in fact, the deficiencies of a vegan diet often derive from partial knowledge of foods, their combinations and, in general, what the body really needs to stay healthy.

The same Ministry of Health in 2015 released in one of its notebooks a focus on "Nutritional balances of a healthy diet", where it is argued that with the right level of knowledge and with the help of a supporting nutritionist, even the vegan diet can be balanced and suitable to satisfy the individual's nutritional needs. A diet, in fact - from the Greek "diaita", i.e. "way of living" - is considered healthy if it allows you to maintain an adequate body weight and not incur pathologies but, rather, to keep your body capable of carrying out the actions of daily life, such as study, work and sport.

A typical deficiency is that of vitamin B12, because it is normally present only in foods of animal origin: this is why many vegans need to integrate it through specific supplements or thanks to superfood such as spirulina algae, an edible algae naturally rich in B12.

On the contrary, however, no one ever thinks that an unbalanced and poorly managed vegan diet can make you fat: but it's exactly like that! Those who are new to this diet tend to think that, since foods of plant origin tend to be "lighter", they can also exceed the quantities. Nothing could be more wrong: however healthy, the good fats in avocado and dried fruit are still lipids, ergo in excessive quantities they lead to gaining excess weight, as do sugars and carbohydrates in general.

Vegan lifestyle, not just nutrition

When we talk about vegan, we immediately think about nutrition but – as we said at the beginning – it is an ethical choice which implies attention to the environment and animals in a broad sense.

This is why those who adopt a vegan lifestyle also avoid using polluting products for personal hygiene and cleaning the house, avoid everything of animal origin even in clothing - shoes and accessories in real leather, not to mention fur and the like - and give preference to every aspect of life, from clothes to home furnishings,eco-sustainable and recyclable solutions.