There are more misconceptions about going veg out there than Lady Gaga has wardrobe changes. Before you head down your chosen path of meatlessness, you deserve to know the true impact of your decision—no agenda, no bias. I give you the facts, and you take it from there.
It sounds logical enough—if you give up one entire food category, extra pounds will just fall off your body, right? Nope, not true (as amusing as it is to imagine what that would look like). Losing or gaining weight is a balancing act: calories in vs. calories out. Eating more calories than you burn results in extra poundage; take in fewer calories than you burn and you lose weight. While you may be subtracting meat from your diet, the foods you replace it with will determine your body’s energy balance. And even though many vegetarian foods are super low calorie (like carrots and celery), others are not (Snickers bars and cheese fries).
There’s another layer to how going veg can impact your weight: the protein piece of the puzzle. Protein—the nutrient that meat, fish, eggs, and cheese are so rich in—is one of the most important factors in satiety (say-tie-ity). Say what? Satiety is the state of being satisfied, or how you should feel at the end of a meal and for a few hours afterward. The less satiated you feel, the more likely you are to hit the vending machine between meals or overdo it the next time you eat. Often when people go veg, they forget about satiating protein. And while pasta with tomato sauce may seem like a healthy lunch choice, unless you add in some protein—like chickpeas, soy meatballs, or a Greek yogurt for dessert—you may find yourself scrounging around for Lunch: The Sequel before the final bell of the day has rung. The result? You wind up with an oversupply of energy that your body stores in the form of pounds (check out page 15 or 36 for more on the all-important nutrient protein).
Even if you’ve never been to a cattle ranch, you can imagine all of the hard work and energy that is expended to raise animals. First somebody has to grow food for them to eat, like grass or corn. If the animals get sick, they need medication to help them get healthy. Eventually, they are brought to the slaughterhouse; the meat is then kept cool and transported to a butcher and eventually to your dinner plate. Scientists have calculated just how much of an environmental impact all of those steps have, a concept they call “fossil fuel calories.” When we burn fossil fuels (which is how most of the world gets energy for everything from cars to air-conditioning), we create around 90 percent of the earth’s greenhouse gasses that are trapping excess heat in the earth’s atmosphere—in other words, we contribute in a major way to climate change. It takes twenty-five calories of fossil fuels to raise each edible calorie of animal protein (meat, eggs, milk). On the other hand, much less work is required to “raise” plant-based protein—it takes just two fossil fuel calories per edible calorie. As a result, the less animal food you eat, the lower your environmental impact—vegans contribute on average 42 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than meateaters, lacto-ovo vegetarians 28 percent, and pescetarians around 24 percent, semi-vegetarians around 20 percent, according to a study from Loma Linda University.
And now, a detail I’ve just got to share because it’s way too weird and fascinating not to. When cows burp and fart (I’m serious here) they release methane into the atmosphere. Methane is a potent (ha!) greenhouse gas, a compound that traps heat in the earth’s atmosphere, which makes such impolite behavior a huge factor in climate change. Until someone invents Beano for Bovines, simply eating less meat may be the surest way to make sure less methane gets released into the atmosphere (if people eat less meat, eventually the number of cattle raised will shrink, along with their stink). Oh, and if you’re concerned about your own, ahem, impact, fear not—most people don’t release methane in their personal gas (but remind your little brother he should still keep it quiet, sheesh!).
Any diet you choose—from meat-eating to vegan and everything in between—has the potential to be health-boosting or health-busting. A tub of movie theater popcorn doused with buttery topping (they don’t call it butter because, well, it’s usually not—more likely it’s a mixture of hydrogenated oil and artificial butter flavor) and a pack of Swedish Fish is not exactly the picture of perfect health—but it is considered completely vegan by most. Regardless of where you fall on the veg spectrum, it is up to you to make choices that add up to a balanced, healthy diet. We’ll get to what that really means and how you can make it happen in Chapter 4, Nutrition for Veggies.
OK, take this as a warning. Once you declare yourself a vegetarian, well-meaning friends and relatives will take it upon themselves to point out the one tofu-containing item on the menu whenever you dine out. Every. Time. For the rest of your life. For whatever reason, people associate vegetarian eating with tofu. Does that mean you have to eat it? Absolutely not.
Many people assume VegHeads crave tofu because they are used to seeing meat as the center of a meal—and tofu, with its semisolid texture and chameleon-like flavor, seems like a suitable meat replacement. It’s also a good source of protein, the satiating, muscle-building nutrient that meat is also rich in. (All tofu is, for the record, is soy milk that’s been processed in pretty much the same way milk is turned into cheese.) Of course, if it doesn’t make it to your mouth, which it won’t if you can’t stand the stuff, your body gets none of these benefits. Lucky for you, there are plenty of other friendly protein sources out there. To name just a few: almonds, baked beans, black beans, cashew nuts, cheese, chick peas, edamame, eggs, yogurt, hummus, kidney beans, lentils, peanut butter, quinoa, seitan, soy milk, sunflower seeds, tempeh, veggie burgers, veggie chili, veggie hot dogs, walnuts.
Of course (hear me out!), it’s possible that if you don’t like tofu, it’s because you haven’t had it prepared well. On its own, the white stuff is about as bland as a food can possibly be. The nice thing about tofu is that it takes on the flavor of the foods it’s cooked with, which means that, done right, it might even be considered tasty. If you’re looking to give it another try, check out Chapter 10 for recipes like Protein-Packed Parmigiana and Chocolate Power Mousse that may cause you to reconsider your antitofu stance (don’t worry, it’s still OK to roll your eyes when your mom points out the Tofu Surprise at the local diner for the eighteenth time).
This is a tough one. It turns out that even dermatologists who study this sort of thing can’t seem to agree on the role going veg can play in preventing acne.
I decided to sift through some scientific journals to get to the bottom of this for all of my readers—you know, just a bit of light summer reading. According to several studies, there is a link between diet and acne. Scientists theorize that hormones found in dairy foods like milk and cheese can cause your body to overproduce the chemicals that cause breakouts. Even dairy that is raised without the use of growth hormones still contains hormones that are found naturally in milk. Meat also contains hormones. So how much is too much? Well, it’s hard to say—everyone is different, say researchers.
Another food factor that can impact your skin is sugar and refined carbohydrates (think white bread and pasta). Eating a high-sugar, highrefined-carb diet jacks up your blood sugar levels, which promotes the production of hormones called androgens that lead to acne.
So it’s possible that cutting the meat and dairy in your diet, either completely or just a bit, can help improve your skin. However, eating a lot of carb-or sugar-heavy foods in their place may cancel out any positive changes you might have seen. And of course, other foods (for example, chocolate) you eat might contribute in other ways. Bottom line: it’s complicated. There are no guarantees when it comes to any diet and your skin—but no matter what type of diet you follow (veggie or not), be sure to keep sugar as a treat and not a major food group.
People choose to go veg for all sorts of different reasons—but conforming to one specific “type” is not one of them. Just a sampling of some of the famous (crunchy granola-free) celebs who are reported to be—or have been at one point—proud VegHeads: Carrie Underwood, Natalie Portman, Russell Brand, Kristen Wiig, Ellen DeGeneres, Olivia Wilde, football player Tony Gonzalez, Lea Michele, Milo Ventimiglia, Kristen Bell, Jessica Chastain, Aimee Teegarden, Simon Cowell, baseball player Prince Fielder, WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan, Leona Lewis, Alicia Silverstone, Rooney Mara, Lauren Bush Lauren, ultra-runner Scott Jurek, Kal Penn, Tobey Maguire, Anne Hathaway, mixed martial arts fighter Mac Danzig, Joss Stone, Chelsea Clinton, Jack Johnson, Emily Deschanel, Rachel Meltzer Warren, MS, RDN (OK, OK, I’m not famous—just making sure you’re still reading!).
People in the United States have a serious protein problem. That is, they overestimate just how much protein we really require. Yes, the nutrient is important. But in reality, a healthy teen only needs 0.85 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight (each pound equals roughly 0.45 kg). Between the ages of four and thirteen, you need slightly more—around .95 grams per kilogram. So to figure out your protein needs, take your weight in pounds, divide it by 2.2 to get kilograms, and then multiply that number by 0.85 or 0.95. So if you weigh 100 pounds: 100/2.2 = 45.5 x 0.85= 38.7 grams of protein per day. Very informative, you’re thinking—but what does that mean foodwise? Well, one plain ol’ hamburger at Five Guys Burgers and Fries provides 39 grams—slightly more than a hundred-pounders’ daily need (and that’s not including the protein in a slice of cheese if you make that order a cheeseburger). For people who eat meat regularly, it’s easy to get far more protein than you need on your plate.
So what about if your meals are meat-free? Well, there are plenty of protein options for you too. While few of them contain quite as much protein per serving as meat does, if you eat a well-balanced diet you will likely get just the right amount of protein over the course of the day (around forty-six grams for most teen girls). Here is a list of both animal-and plant-based protein-containing foods, so you can see how easy it is to go veg and still keep up (and how easy it is for meat, meat, and more meat-eaters to go overboard).
Short disclaimer: If you are a very, very bad VegHead and eat nothing but pasta and garlic bread, you will NOT be getting enough protein. You don’t have to sweat it out to get the right amount of protein, but you can’t be a dope about it, either. BALANCE is the key word here. Check out Chapter 4, Nutrition for Veggies, for more on getting all the nutrients you need.
To calculate your protein needs:
[Your weight in pounds] divided by 2.2 = [your weight in kilograms]
[Your weight in kilograms] x [0.95 if you’re 13 or younger] OR [0.85 if you’re 14-18] OR [0.8 if you’re 19+] = grams of protein you need per day
OK, in MY opinion this is a myth. Here’s why: what you choose to eat and what you choose to wear are both YOUR business. Maybe you don’t like the taste of meat, but cows have just never given you the warm and fuzzies. Perhaps there’s a health or religious reason you go meatless that doesn’t impact what type of shoes you wear. People go veg for many reasons and on many different levels—and no one has the right to tell you that their observance is better than yours.
Beyond that, just because you choose to eat one way today, there’s no telling what you’ll do tomorrow. So should you abandon plans to go veg if you’re not ready to take the plunge completely? Is it wrong to eat vegan and still wear the same old leather gym shoes? I. Think. Not. Dip your toe in whichever end of the veggie pool that speaks to you and see where it goes. And don’t worry about what anyone else has to say about it. I’ve got your back, completely.
That said, many feel that by definition a vegan is a person who not only passes on meat, eggs, dairy, and honey, but also opts not to wear leather, wool, or silk, as those fabrics are made from animals. So if you say you are vegan, people may be surprised to see you keeping warm in a wool scarf. If you eat only vegan foods but choose to wear clothing that comes from animals, it may make your life easier if you are more specific with your explanation for why you’re saying “no franks” to the mini hot dogs at your friend’s sweet sixteen: “I eat a vegan diet” or “I don’t consume anything that came from an animal” rather than “I am a vegan” will explain your choices just fine.