Genuinely curious I have been seeing some nutrition stuff that made me start questioning why I eat processed foods and junk food for pleasure and whats really in it for me other than dopamine boost with candies, for example. Now I’m wondering about what I’m asking in the title.
Just fruits? No that would basically be a death wish. You can find a handful of people who claim to have done it for long periods of time and survived.
But if all plants are on the table? You’re 100% in the clear. Keep an eye on your protein and shoot for lots of variety for your best bet. If you see a doctor regularly they should be able to detect problems before they become big problems. A lot of times “junk food vegans” can have issues, so put some time into learning how to make balanced meals.
If you don’t actually have any ethical problems with consuming meat or animal products, having meat once or twice a month will allow you to reap virtually all of the health benefits of being plant based while simplifying lots of things, nutritionally as well as socially
junk food vegan
I’ve seen this with my own eyes, but didn’t know there was a common name. Indeed it is possible to be slothful, fat, and practically live off of peanut-butter, all at the same time. The intent was there, but complete nutrition was not.
Being vegan takes a bit of nutritional awareness but it’s not that difficult. You might want some vitamin supplements as people have said. Note that fruit isn’t that much different from candy in terms of the sugar hit. I’m not vegan myself in terms of intentionally sticking to such a diet, but often my eating patterns end up going that way anyway, and it works out ok, at least for a while.
Just fruits would be very hard¹. But plant based diets are very common with minimal supplementation (vitamin b12 is needed and eventually vitamin D, folic acid, iodine, could be added if missing from your diet).
Look up Plant Based Whole Food diets (PBWF). A source I rather enjoy is the “vegan doctor” Dr. Greger and his “daily dozen”: https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/daily-dozen/
Basically what he says is that if you manage to eat foods from all 12 groups every day, you probably have a good diet.
¹ Most fruits are just packets of sugar, water and some vitamins. If you include nuts you get more protein and fats. But you might not get enough variety of protein and vitamins from those.
Thanks that looks an interesting read
Most fruits are just packets of sugar, water and some vitamins. If you include nuts you get more protein and fats. But you might not get enough variety of protein and vitamins from those.
huh TIL. thanks again
Most people here are, correctly, pointing out that going fully vegan easily gets all your required nutrients except for B12. However, this is a mostly solved problem because while “naturally” humans would get it through consumption of animal products it’s synthesized via bacteria and it’s currently produced at scale via genetically modified strains, such as Propionibacterium Freudenreichii, and used to fortify things like plant based milks and nutritional yeast.
It is something to be aware of, but it’s also not the problem many on this thread are trying to paint it as.
Thanks :) I don’t think I ever had a nutritional yeast so I definitely will try to look for it or try to learn how to make my own, do you happen to know how these plant-based milks and/or nutritional yeasts get fortified with Vitamin B12?
Nutritional yeast is sold at lots of grocery stores, especially organic ones.
And it’s delicious. I add it to most food I cook. Many folks also use it as the base for vegan cheese.
I can’t answer your vitamin question, but I thought this would help.
Thanks :)
Fungi and bacteria are sources of B12, neither are classified as animals (or plants). So mushrooms and fermented plants.
Check online for guides, and ferment your own cabbage, then see what else you can make.
Or buy pills that have B12 in them
Thanks :)
There’s multiple ways, but as an example in a similar way as nutritional yeast is made by growing a microorganism such as Saccharomyces Cerevisiae and then extracting the products. B12 is made by growing an organism like Propionibacterium Freudenreichii and extracting and seperating those products.
You then mix the B12 from the Freudenreichii with the inactivated[dead] Cerevisiae.
Thanks :)
As long as you’re not a cat.
If you are adding the plethora of generally available dried fruits to the mix, it should be manageable.
Though you might need to do some research if you intend on committing on fruit-only.
If I were to try something like that, I would have in mind that if things start going wrong I could just get some eggs for emergency.
Don’t forget lemons and tomatoes. Also that some fruits are better off cooked.
Eat more beans.
There are so many different kind of beans and some can be toxic if you dont prepare it correctly though right? Maybe I’m being needless overly cautious but of all them I only tried black/white beans
There’s no toxic canned beans. You can explore cooking beans yourself later as you find out which ones you like most.
Thanks but isn’t canned food unhealthy?
It’s about the level of processing / how it’s done. If the company is doing what you can do at home, like preserving beans through pressure canning, it’s not really an issue. More processed beans, beans in tomato/molasses take more processing and additives.
Look at the ingredients. If it’s beans in water it wouldnt be considered ultra processed.
Thankss :) good to know I wasn’t aware of this
Not as a rule, no.
some can be toxic if you dont prepare it correctly though right?
This is true of many different types of foods.
Try garbanzo/chickpeas.
Don’t eat toxic beans.
Do you know the difference between a chickpea and a garbanzo?
Trump never paid to have a garbanzo on his chest.
But he was paid by Goya to do that.
Maybe just a few toxic ones?
Right? At a minimum, it might help mental health to allow some things to ferment a bit and then consume the toxic byproducts in moderation.
Edit: fixed typos
Thanks :) do you happen to know any electric machines I can buy where I can just let chickpeas cooking while I do other stuff?
Pressure Cookers are wonderful for beans. Something like the Instant Pot can cook beans for you, as well as a whole bunch of other stuff. If you’re not comfortable with pressure cookers, there’s also slow cookers, tho they’ll take longer than just boiling the beans.
You could also just put the beans, water/stock, whatever seasonings you want in an oven proof pot, bring it up to a boil on the stove, and then transfer it into a 325F oven and let it go for 1-1.5 hours
Thankss :)
I don’t understand what you’re asking.
Soak dried chickpeas overnight in salt water. Boil the chickpeas. Add seasonings, sauces, and/or condiments. This will cost you pennies to prepare.
Thankss :)
Go for it. Do it one day a week for a while to see if you like it. You will.
You can’t live on fruit alone because you need vitamin B12, which you can only get from animal products or supplements. Fruit is generally also low in carbohydrates, fats and proteins, all of which you need to live!
Thankss :) though for carbohydrates theres banana, and avocados for fats and proteins, but as you pointed not enough I suppose then. sadly vitamin B12 would still be a problem though :/ how does it end up on animals by the way, do they produce like we (humans) can produce vitamin D?
Yeah, that’s it: you can get some of that stuff from some fruits, but you’re looking at a lot of avocados!
Bacteria synthesise B12 inside various animals. Even our gut flora synthesise it, but they do it too far down our digestive system to be useful!
Thanks :)
Not only fruits. Fruits and vegetables is possible, but it’s pretty difficult to do safely. Lots of good advice in the comments already
Sorry if this sounds rude, but based on your comments it seems that you’re just entering the early phase of the Dunning-Kruger curve on nutrition. Which means, you’ve started learning and are getting overly confident, despite not knowing that much in the grand scheme of things.
Don’t make big dietary changes because you just read something online. Don’t fall for fad diets. Don’t quit eating a large group of foods because they vaguely feel “unhealthy”. Learn about nutrition thoroughly, from reputable sources.
It’s good that you’re asking questions, though.
I do have stopped with things that seems obviously needless and unhealthy like sodas, for example. But overall this was my purpose with the topic to reassure and learn more about if I could live like how I describe on the title, I’m getting interested in some sustainablity stuff and if I were to eat solely fruit or fruit and plans combined it would a lot easier to try reaching to others in a community or see if I can rent a small space to plant some food in the future when I have all more planned out. You didn’t sound rude don’t worry :)
soda isn’t unhealthy unless you stop drinking all other liquids and treat soda like tap water
Absolutely. You can get all the nutrition you need from plants. You have to eat complimentary items so you get all the protein etc that you need.
Going entirely vegan isn’t the easiest thing to pull off for everyone, but you absolutely could cut out the vast majority of animal products that we consume. I think there’s an argument to be made for a certain level of consumption of animal products - perhaps not from a moral standpoint but arguably from a health point of view.
I don’t know where OP lives, but for the vast majority of people in the world, it’s cheaper to cook plant based meals than eating meat, eggs and dairy foods. The exceptions is in places that have poor access to fresh food. But even then usually rice and dry beans is the cheapest food and very shelf stable.
The main reason it might be hard to pull off is if OP is not able to cook due to lack of skill, time, space, time. Many people end up depending on frozen meals or cheap take out because they have 2 jobs or something. But if you have time to cook and access to a supermarket, there’s nothing hard about vegan cooking.
I lack skill and space though I do have access to fresh food however mostly fruits
During summer I like to just make salads with many ingredients. Leafy vegetables, seeds, fruits, nuts. Add a can of beans and you have a great meal.
Thanks :)
My question is more directed to health, it’s not that I don’t care about the moral standpoint being stated but there are probably a lot of discussions on it already I assume so I was more interested in terms of health, like what kind of nutrients would be missing from someone only eating fruits and/or what about if the person is combining fruits with plants on daily basis? I know fruits are rich in vitamins and we actually don’t need vitamins in high dose but all food has a mix of nutrients AFAIK correct me if I’m wrong I’d be happy to learn :) also I learnt about Kañiwa recently which is a superfood but its not something you can easily find around
Except of some bananas, I actually don’t eat many fruits or not at all, however I eat a lot of vegetables.
Yes.
