Does anyone here follow a whole food plant based diet? How do you find this lifestyle?

I eat grains, vegetables, fruits, fake meat, and I also order from a company that does meal replacements. I think the biggest problem for me is getting enough protein. I try to eat lots of nuts too supplement this problem. I should eat more beans.

I tried to do this diet many years ago and I found that I was never satiated. Even eating a lot of nuts and beans didn't help. I was lethargic and moody. Had a hard time getting out of bed. My experiences there have actually led me to more of a keto/carnivore approach, and while I may get some flak for the sheer amount of animal protein I eat, I truly do feel leagues better. I eat very little sugars (although I did buy a pint of ice cream last night), very little grains. I eat mostly meat, fruit, and the odd vegetables from the garden. I also grow most of my food when in season, which I think helps largely.

What I have gotten out of this is that it's not so much whether you're eating carnivore, vegetarian, or anywhere in between. Ime, it has more to do with processed and in-season foods. For example, a tomato grown in full sun, in season, has far more nutrients than a tomato grown in a greenhouse out of season. A burger at a fast food joint is much less nourishing than a burger from a freshly butchered cow with no additives used. Canned green beans are much less than freshly picked green beans, etc.

So to me, the bottom line has more to do with the treatment of what you are eating, rather than what you are eating. I know this wasn't probably what you're looking for, but I felt it was relevant enough to comment. Have a wonderful day

For some it may not work so well.

Some challenges you'll come across are difficulties in eating a high enough caloric density (pending lifestyle and activity), recieving enough necessary protein and essential aminos (these can be found in non-meat products, but can be difficult for some), and getting necessary micronutrients such as iron.

It can be done

One love

Most of my diet is plant-based, growing some myself and trying to buy season/local, but I also include fish and fish oil for health reasons, as well as butter and eggs. I make sure the fish is from sustainable fishing, eggs and butter are from local animals eating organic, etc. I've been doing this for about 20 years.

I applaud anyone's effort to try to be more sustainable and avoid causing unnecessary suffering to other lifeforms, as well as to try and be healthy. At the same time I think a purely vegan diet is very hard to be healthy specially long term, and I find it very contradictory when some people are eating vegan but depending on mass produced products coming from another continent, wrapped in so much plastic and what not.

Everything in life has trade-offs and there is no such thing as 0 impact. I think the distancing of consumers from the process of killing the animals and over-consumption of meat connected to the meat industry (and conditions of those animals) are very harmful, but I also think hunting, raising your meat source in small scale or fishing for food when you do it within limits and with respect to the animal life, can be honorable and sustainable. Practices such as regenerative grazing can also help the top soil and are arguably more sustainable than monoculture agriculture which can feed some plant-based diets.

Diet is also very complex and being healthy has several different layers. Some nutrients can act as anti-nutrients when in certain combinations, and the same food can be good and bad in different aspects. Red meat is nutrient-dense but can be associated with cancer, fish meat can be very healthy in some ways but some fish like tuna can accumulate heavy metals. Plant diet can be great but the lack of b12 or heme iron isn't, and things like phytates binding to minerals aren't either, or soy's estrogenic activities, etc...

And then we have to consider that we humans often can't really feel the effects happening in our bodies, and we may feel good or bad with a certain diet but that does'n t necessarily mean its being healthy or not. It' s a very complex multi-faceted subject and it's important to keep this in mind when talking about diets and making decisions for oneself.

I have been a vegetarian for many years before switching to a plant based diet. I always wanted to switch to plant based but was kind of put off by the B12 issue. It then turned out that I already had a deficit due to my strict vegetarian diet and I had to take supplements. So at that moment I decided I could just give up the few animal based foods I was still eating. It has been a bit over 2 years and I am very happy with it.

I think it is important to do regular blood tests and check ups with a doctor to be sure everything is going well. A plant based diet makes it necessary to think a bit more about what you are eating and if you get all the nutrition. This is some extra work but my health has benefited from it. Before I was kind of eating "whatever I want". This has changed and it changed my overall awareness to my health and lifestyle. I have the feeling I see the same thing in the posts here. People are reflecting a lot on what they eat and what they need.

There are lots of good and sometimes very different reasons why to eat plant based. Do you want to eat plant based for animal rights reason, for environmental reason, health reasons...
As endlessness pointed out: It seems weird to consume highly industrial products that were shipped around the world for environmental reasons just because there is a "vegan" stamp on it. Maybe eating mainly local and seasonal products is a better way. Important is that you figure out what you want and what is important to you. Then you will build your own diet. Maybe it is completely plant based or maybe not. Try it out and find your way.

I've been mostly raw fruitarian for 12 or 13 years now after being introduced by Tony Wright's work. I eat a good amount of greens/nuts/seeds/veggies etc daily as well, and some cooked plants here and there on occassion. Works great for me but it's complicated and depends on a lot of factors in my opinion

I initially did it for experimental reasons related to this and it seemed self evident relatively quickly https://www.childrenoftheforest.info/node/2