From thenakedscientists.com
What it's like to give up animal products...
Interview with
Alice Guillaume, Cambridge Food Hub
What exactly does the modern day vegan diet look like? And how healthy is it? Chris Smith went to meet Alice Guillaume from the Cambridge Food Hub. Alice has been on the show before, and she also happens to be vegan…
Alice - I would say there are three main reasons that I know people choose to become vegan and they can overlap between the reasons, or include all of them. Environmental reasons are important. Wanting to reduce the impact of your diet on things like land use, water use, carbon emissions, but ethics and particularly ethics of animal rights. Then, the third reason might be health reasons. So wanting to make positive health decisions. So I'd say those three are the main reasons that I believe people would choose to be vegan.
Chris - Are there grades of veganism?
Alice - That feels quite controversial and I'm sure that whatever I say, others might have a different opinion. At its purist, it is strict, but you will find people that choose, they might eat eggs that their own chickens have produced, for example. Or some people do eat honey even though it is an animal product. Whether those people then strictly define themselves as vegan, or are trying to follow it to the best of their abilities... Personally, I'm not very pure about things. I think people need to make the decisions that are right for them and how they live. Medication, for example, often can contain lactose from milk or gelatine, so sometimes people have to make compromises. I think, from my perspective, the important thing is to try and reduce the amount of animal products that we consume. I would never say to anyone they have to be completely pure about it but the most concrete definition of veganism would be removing the animal products from all those different aspects of your life.
Chris - How long have you been vegan?
Alice - It's difficult for me to remember exactly when I became fully vegan. I briefly transitioned through vegetarianism, but it started when I went to university. I became quite involved in environmental activism and a lot of people that I was doing things with were vegan. I began to understand the impact of my diet on the planet and it felt like something that I had complete control over. I was always somebody who was turning off the lights, turning off the taps when I'd brush my teeth, but I remember learning a fact. It was something along the lines of: if you don't eat one beef burger, you've essentially saved the same amount of water as having showers instead of baths for a whole month. It was something like that. It was about the water impact of eating meat. And I thought to myself, why am I doing all these other small changes when there's this one big change that I have complete control over in my own life? That's why I decided to become vegan. And. I'd eaten meat my whole life before then, so it felt a bit of a struggle. I felt like I was going to be missing out on things, but I really tried to spin it in a positive way to think about all the new foods that I would have access to. It really broadened my cooking. It made it more exciting. I tried different cuisines from around the world and overall it's really been a positive thing. And now animal products are not something that I miss.
Chris - How do you keep yourself healthy? And did you go into this with an eye on the health side of it? Because this is a programme ostensibly about the science and the health of veganism. There have been a number of reports recently where people are saying, look, this is not a healthy diet. How do you make sure you don't end up in trouble from a health perspective, especially as a young woman, because young women tend to be more prone to iron deficiency and that kind of thing, for example?
Alice - Of the people that I know, the people that are the most aware of what they eat and the nutrients they're getting are the vegans because it's almost drilled into you that you're going to become deficient. It means that people are very aware of what they eat and very aware of where they can get certain things from. They are more likely to take supplements, for example. I was aware of the health aspect, aware of the different elements of your diet that you need, proteins and nutrients and things like that, and also aware of the health benefits, increased consumption of whole foods and fibre in particular. My diet consists of a lot of pulses, for example, things like chickpeas and lentils and beans, which are a great source of fibre. I'd say that there's an increased consumption of fruit and vegetables. The way I had it described to me, which I really liked, is if you remove meat and dairy from your plate, there's more space for fruit and vegetables and nuts and seeds and pulses, all things that are really good for you. I think it's worth saying that I think that you can be an unhealthy vegan or a healthy vegan. You can have a diet that is high in processed foods, for example.
Chris - Do you get yourself checked out? Do you go to the GP and say, well, can I have a blood test to look at my haemoglobin level, make sure I'm not anaemic, etc.?
Alice - I don't, but I think it's a good idea. I have given blood fairly recently, so that's a good way of getting those things checked as part of that process. I'll be honest, it is something that has been on my mind just because if you're experiencing symptoms like fatigue and things, you do want to know, right? Have I got all the balance correct? But again, a vegan diet can increase your chances, but all of us have the potential to have nutrient deficiencies. And actually one of the leading causes of diet related ill health is lack of fibre. Basically, people don't eat enough fruit and vegetables, and I think that that's something that you can really gain potentially if you become vegan, depending on what foods you're choosing to eat.
https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/why-people-go-vegan-and-what-they-eat
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