VeganAthleteGuide

Tag: Supplements

Vegan Meal Plan for Beginners – The Healthy way

Starting to be vegan without knowing the basics that keep you healthy or a wrong mindset can be reasons to quit a vegan diet. To keep that from happening you need a vegan meal plan for beginners that helps you to stay on track.
I won’t focus on giving you meal examples but guidelines you can use to create your own meals with some inspiration from some other sources if you need.

Basics ingredients and guidelines to create a Vegan Meal
You can see the most important foods as well as things to look for in the infographic below.

Have all of the 6 food groups daily in your diet and keep your food variating to make sure to get your nutrients.
At the beginning of your (healthy) vegan journey you should use cronometer.com to keep track of the nutrients you get from your food. Using it a couple of times you will start to know for yourself what to eat to get your nutrient levels.
Dry legumes need to be always soaked before you cook them. This will get rid of the phytic acid that prevents the release of nutrients and also your body from absorbing nutrients.
But phytic acid has some positive effects as well. It acts as an antioxidant and prevents cancer. You can find out more on www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
And about the whole grains. The options you see on the infographic are without gluten. In case you have a gluten intolerance, they are your preferred source. If you don’t have any, I would recommend to use whole spelt over whole wheat. Whole Oats are good too.

Thoughts that make you doubt a Vegan Diet
I won’t get enough Protein. Actually you not only can get enough protein throughout the day but even enough if you exercise and don’t supplement with protein shakes. Legumes, nuts, seeds and whole grains are all good sources of protein.
Iron? Not only it will be enough for men but as well for women who need a bit more. If you use my recommended food groups well, you won’t have any mineral deficiency except if you already have some health issues you might not be aware of. That is one reason to not just believe that everything is fine but to make regularly check ups.
There is nothing I can eat. The limitation is only in your head. There are millions of combinations you can have to create a vegan dish. And it is very likely that you can find at least hundred dishes you like, of which you will probably use not more than 20 regularly.
There are no restaurants. There are more and more options for vegans to go out to eat. And this will increase because veganism is growing. And you can be a part of the growth and not only improve your health but also reduce animal abuse and environmental damage caused by factory farming.
Veganism might be unhealthy for long term. Not sure what Dr. Ellsworth Wareham would say to that. This vegan retired as a plastic surgeon at 95. His mind and body stayed sharp like the scalpel he used.
A vegan lifestyle is unhealthy when you don’t know what you do. And depending what drugs you take that you shouldn’t (like birth control pills), or doing other lifestyle mistakes, you set yourself a ground for being unhealthy you might blame your diet for where it is not the diets fault.
Beware that cosmetics with questionable ingredients can cause harm too, like decreasing your thyroid function.

Is Supplementation necessary when having only Vegan Meals?
Using the RDA guideline in cronometer, you will usually have difficulties reaching your recommended calcium needs. But you won’t need as much as shown. 9.4mg per kg will do (~60%). Here is the study for that claim.
Your vitamin D levels can only be sufficient from sunlight no matter what diet (or supplementation in winter when the sun won’t be enough for you).
Vitamin B12 is the only “modern” vegan problem. You can read about my experience testing to go without vitamin B12 supplements.
If you variate and have a sufficient amount of the foods shown in the infographic, you shouldn’t face any malnutrition. Neither in macronutrients like protein nor in micronutrients like iron.

Conclusion

No matter how your individual vegan meal plan will look like, make sure to enjoy what you eat. You can give yourself some treats from time to time. Just keep yourself from being stressed about your diet. Stress can cause more harm than an unhealthy diet.
To stick to a vegan diet as a beginner, you will need a good reason to do so. I will soon link a post about how to stick with a vegan diet.

You probably have some questions. Don’t hesitate to leaf some in the comments section.

See ya
Alex

January 19, 2017
Best Vitamin B12 Supplement for Vegans and the rest of the World
If you are looking to supplement your vitamin B12, you will find many products to choose from. To make the choice easier I will explain how these supplements differ so you can get the best vitamin B12 supplement for yourself.

What Supplements you can choose from
You can get vitamin B12 in different forms. Not only in shape and structure like in pill- melting tablet- or liquid form but different in chemical forms too.
The shape form is the less important to focus on. But if I would choose one, I would take a liquid one, because digestion starts already in the mouth and it doesn’t have so many other ingredients like the melting tablet.
The main focus should be on the chemical form of B12 and there are mainly 4 to choose from. We have cyanocobalamin, hydroxocobalamin, methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin.
Three of those are occurring naturally in the body and in food. Cyanocobalamin compared to the other three is synthetic.
Hydroxocobalamin and adenosylcobalamin are higher available in meat products. Methylcobalamin is higher available in milk products. There are more forms of B12 (Cobalamin) that are usually not present in food but are produced through conversion in the body.

What are the differences in these Vitamin B12 Forms
The major difference between these four B12 forms is that only two of them are bioactive and can be used by your body. That doesn’t mean that the other two are useless but need to be converted by the body into active forms first.
To give you an understanding of the converting process look at the infographic below.
As you can see the cyanocobalamin needs up to four conversion processes and the hydroxocobalamin up to three to produce the bioactive coenzymes methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin.
Methylcobalamin can be converted to adenosylcobalamin but not the other way around.

What is the best Vitamin B 12 Supplement
The synthetic cyanocobalamin has the negative effect of leaving cyanide during the conversion in the body. Cyanide is a toxic substance that has damaging effects in the body. It was used during world war 1 and 2 because of that.
So it is already clear which vitamin B12 form you better avoid.
The only positive thing about it is, that it is very cheap to produce and thus cheaper to buy.
Hydroxocobalamin has the positive effect to stay the longest in your bloodstream as a deposit. Another positive effect is its ability to detox the mentioned cyanide as well as nitric oxide. Cyanide is usually accumulated in the body through smoking. Too much nitric oxide can cause migraines.
The downside is that during conversion from Cob(II)alamin, S-Adenosyl methionine (in short SAM or AdoMet) is used to produce methylcobalamin.
S-Adenosyl methionine is a cosubstrate that has shown in studies to have:
the same positive effects on depression like regular anti depressions
similar positive effects on colon cancer like chemotherapy
pain relief in osteoarthritis patients due to probably anti-inflammatory effects
benefits for liver health, where it is produced and used in the body.
You can read more about it on www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
To avoid SAM being used up in your body, a reduced intake of hydroxocobalamin would be beneficial.
The best vitamin B12 supplement suitable for vegans I would recommend you to take, would be a mixture of methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin. This helps your body to get the two important coenzymes it needs without converting them and using up your body’s resources.
Hydroxocobalamin can be considered as well for detox reasons. Because of its long durability in the body, compared with the two coenzyme forms, it won’t be necessary to take it on a regular basis.

Some people have a missing gene to convert the cob(I)alamin into methylcobalamin what seems to cause side effects. In case you realize side effects you should focus on getting your B12 from hydroxocobalamin, if you already know that you have a problem with methylcobalamin.
Don’t hesitate to share your experience or questions about the mysterious vitamin B12. You might help someone or can get new insights. You can read about my experience here.
See ya
Alex
January 5, 2017
Vitamin B12 deficiency in Vegans – What you should know

Vitamin B12 for vegans is one of the nutrients people think won’t be sufficiently obtained on a vegan diet. Instead of the other things like protein, iron, calcium and what else some tend to see as problematic, vitamin B12 deficiency in vegans is the only thing that is truly being a problem that you can’t overcome with a vegan diet. At least with a tasty diet.. (more below)
So that you not face any problems, I will give you the things you need to know and my experience about the experiment I made with not supplementing with vitamin B12.

Experiment on a Vegan diet without Vitamin B12 Supplementation
Going vegan I made tons of research on this diet form and stumbled across one major issue in a vegan diet. As you already know it was vitamin B12. So having the “paleo way” in my mind I wasn’t really into considering supplementation but a way to get the B12 on a natural way.
What I have found about getting the B12 natural (back then) was that if you have a healthy gut flora, your body will absorb a sufficient amount of B12 from your gut. Important to know is that B12 is actually produced in your colon, the only problem is that the colon is not absorbing a sufficient amount into your bloodstream and the B12 is ending up wasted in the toilet.
Other ways I read of getting vitamin B12 are eating dirty vegetables, meaning not washed after harvest, what meant to me the only healthy way doing this is to grow your own food (what I couldn’t do). And another would be to drink water from a natural spring. I have a spring near my place and gave that approach a try.
So assuming to have a healthy gut flora, eating organic foods (but cleaned) and drinking my water from a spring I put it to the test. After 2 years I had obvious symptoms I couldn’t neglect and did a regular blood test to check my B12 status. It is not the best approach for a B12 test but good enough, if you are really deficient and it turned out that I was deficient.

Vitamin B12 is recycled in your Body
The reason why I could go for two years without having symptoms of a vitamin B12 deficiency is mainly because vitamin B12 can be reused and therefore your body won’t get rid of it so fast.
But after I started to be sleepy throughout the day as well as more forgetful, I did the blood test to check what it could be. Already being very sure it can only be the B12 the tests showed exactly that. The doctor added that he is surprised that my hemoglobin (red blood cell) size is normal as it should usually get bigger. I’m not sure if that has something to do with unknown super powers (probably not).
So my test failed and I can tell everybody not to repeat this experiment because it can end in damaged nerves in your body that can cause an inability for a lifetime, if you don’t react quick enough. Another thing I learned is to invest into blood tests instead of just thinking everything is fine.
After taking vitamin B12 supplements for some weeks and recheck myself again on the B12 issue, the results have been alright. But soon after I realized that I could have prevented this from happening. There was another way I could have obtained the vitamin B12 naturally, if I only had thought about it more simple.

Vitamin B 12 can be obtained on a Vegan diet but…
… that’s for the hardcore vegans. Like I mentioned before B12 is produced in the colon and then wasted in the toilet. Well, thinking simple would be: “Why waste it?”
If you would eat your poo, you would get a sufficient amount of B12. And that was actually already known in the late 50s when Dr. Sheila Callender treated vegans with low B12 with water extracts from their poo. That is documented on onlinelibrary.wiley.com.
Vitamin B12 isn’t hard to get naturally. Just hard to eat.
Looking at the animal kingdom you will find animals like our beloved dogs eating poo. The reason behind it is that they are lacking in nutrients (like B12) they can get by reusing their “brownies”. This a legitimate and natural way to get B12 even if you are on a vegan diet. You can argue that poo is not vegan but vegetarian and I would’t participate in that debate, because I think that time could be better used like in trying to sell one’s poo.
Luckily we have science that can produce vitamin B12 in capsule form so you don’t need to live a poopy live.

Vitamin B12 should be taken seriously
No matter if you want to take supplements or tend more to poo, which I wouldn’t recommend, watch out to keep your vitamin B12 up. Too low levels can also cause depression what can result in obesity as well.
A Vitamin B12 deficiency isn’t only a vegan or vegetarian problem. The average Joe can have it too and people with a higher age tend to be deficient as well. Therefore, you should always do yearly check ups on any deficiency to prevent age related diseases.
You can find out about what vitamin B12 supplement you should take here.

Did you have a similar experience like I did or did you even have found a better way nobody knows about getting your vitamin B12? Let me know in the comments.
See ya
Alex

December 13, 2016
What is the Best Vitamin D Supplement? – How much do you really need

To stay healthy during winter time you need to know what is missing when Santa Claus is coming (except the presents). The days are short, the sun is in a lower angle and hits you with fewer rays. And thus you start to suffer from Vitamin D deficiency. “What is the best Vitamin D supplement?” It will be answered when you understand first how much “Hormone D” (Yes it is actually a hormone, if you do not know already) you really need. So that you can stay healthy all year round and keep on exercising.

Vitamin D Dose

Knowing that Vitamin D is actually a Hormone and not a Vitamin leads to the important fact that it needs to be balanced for optimal health. If other hormones like estrogen and progesterone are out of balance in woman for example, it would lead to several health issues (that are most likely treated wrong). So you should better have an optimal level for “Hormone” D.

The Optimal Level looks like in the Chart below. (If you are overweight, I would recommend you to keep the dosage closer to normal weight rates for your size)

I just realized that I need a balcony to write this. This chart is based on the recommendation of Dr. John Cannell who is specialized in Vitamin D. The Chart is showing you the total amount of Vitamin D from supplements or/and sun exposure needed. So if you go out in the Summer regularly, you will need none or little depending on how much you are exposed to the sun. Our ancestors from Africa have been under the sun for the whole day. Today you go into cave offices to earn paper with numbers called money and return to cave houses using your turtle with wheels.

One other thing your body needs “mainly” to process Vitamin D efficiently is magnesium. If you are on a Vegan diet and following a meal plan similar to this one you will have more than enough and don’t have to worry about it. The minimum Magnesium intake daily should be from 600-800 mg depending on your weight.

The Vitamin D hormone is necessary to process calcium in your body. Calcium is what your bones depend on. Back pain from working in the office can actually be a calcium deficiency.

Vitamin D2 or Vitamin D3 Supplementation?

Yes there are two types on the market.

The difference between them is that your body can only absorb up to about 2000 IU with Vitamin D2 because it can’t store it. So if you take more it would be useless.

D3 on the other hand can be stored in your fat cells for several weeks just like Vitamin D from sunlight. That means you can take a very high amount and that will be stored. But you shouldn’t take more than double your recommended IU/day daily for a long period of time to risk intoxication. However, you can take up to 7 times your recommended dose weekly if you like.

So which one to choose? I would recommend the D3 for Winter and outdoor workout in summer. The D3 should not be higher than 1000 IU per capsule for proper dosage, especially if you want to give it to children.

If you are taking medicine, ask your doc for advice before taking Vitamin D supplements.

Vitamin D Supplementation VS Sunlight exposure

For some reason I’m thinking of tanning my big white butt. Well that’s one benefit of sun, it can make you look nice. Might be because it’s an instinctive sign of health to look a bit tanned (like having visibly enough D). That’s on courtship.

Summer sunlight is the natural way your body learned to use for Vitamin D production and will always be the best. No need to look on a chart, just go out and it will be done for you. You might heard you need only 15 minutes of summer sun a day. That’s true for most Swedish maybe, but depending on your skin type it could be up to 8 times as much. The general rule is: You don’t need to turn into a tomato. If you know how much time it roughly takes for you to get red you just divide it into half.

Depending on how long and how much your skin will be baked, you can get 2 to 5 times the IU of Vitamin D you need. And there is no need to panic if overdose. Like mentioned before, your body can handle the sun better than supplements and prevent overdosing. The Winter season is crucial for some Vitamin D supplements though.

And finally sunlight helps your body to produce Coenzyme Q10 by combining with Chlorophyll (plant blood form veggies). [wp-svg-icons icon=”wand” wrap=”i”] This is another pro for the natural source.

Protection of too much sun exposure

Number one product for sun protection: The Shade. 100% Organic, no side effects, free until out of stock. Get it NOW!

Truck driver Bill McElligott is a good example that a car glass can only filter UVB rays but not UVA. The UVA is not burning your skin but is causing it to age faster and can lead to skin cancer. The fairer your skin is, the more you should care about proper sun protection.

I am no fan of chemical Sunscreen and thus don’t recommend it. The ingredients in most sunscreens are more likely to produce skin cancer than the sun itself. In case you will be under longer sun exposure and want to protect your skin from burns, there is one antioxidant called Astaxanthin that helps many people to prevent sunburn.

One other thing you can do to protect yourself from sun damage, is to install a window film on your windows.

In general, darker skin types have higher pigmentation and melanin that protects them more efficiently from UV damage. But damage does still occur.

Something unclear? Share your experience or write your questions down in the comments section.

Cheers

See ya

Alex

September 12, 2016
What is the Best Vegan Protein Powder – With Vegan Protein Shake Recipe
Going to have some hard workout but not sure which vegan protein powder to take after? Then let’s get to the point. What is the best vegan protein powder? Well, the best vegan protein powder is actually combining two vegan protein powders. I will show you which these are and how to combine them into a protein shake for efficiency and taste.

The best Protein Powder (actually two)

Here are the two main Ingredients in your vegan protein shake:
- Rice Protein Powder
- Hemp Protein Powder
Why these two?

Rice Protein Powder
- has 80 grams of Protein per 100 grams
- has all three BCAAs in a sufficient amount. BCAAs are amino acids (Proteins) that your body can use directly and send them straight to your muscles which is a good thing to have after a workout
- is made of soaked sprouted and fermented whole brown rice. Sprouting activates enzymes and makes vitamins and minerals easier to be fully digested by your body. Same goes for Protein
- has good amounts of Vitamin B’s that are acting as coenzymes and are necessary for proper enzyme function and muscle recovery.
- can preserve all enzymes and vital substances if not heated over 42 degrees (Raw). The enzymes will support your organism and digestive system in processing the nutrients in your food
Raw rice protein powder of high quality

Hemp Protein Powder
- has 40 grams of protein per 100 grams
- is one of the vegan protein sources with all essential amino acids your body can’t produce itself
- has high amounts of magnesium, iron, and zinc which are cofactors and necessary for testosterone production and muscle repair
One raw hemp protein powder with 50 grams of protein per 100 grams

These proteins combined give you all essential amino acids the BCAAs for quick support for the muscles after a workout and benefit your testosterone production and regeneration. Both proteins are high in the amino acid Arginine which has known effects on wound healing and hormone function, both necessary for recovery and growth.

Your simple Vegan Protein Shake Recipe

You need:
- Banana (~150 g)
- Rice Protein Powder (15 g)
- Hemp Protein Powder (30 g)
- Water or Almond Milk (0.5 l)
- Mixer
You probably already got the trick. You add everything in your mixer and press the start button. The banana has a higher glycemic index than most other fruits, which will raise your insulin to absorb the proteins faster and will fill up some carbohydrates. It will add almost 2 grams of protein and help your muscle recovery by adding 50 mg of magnesium and 600 mg of potassium. Magnesium to support your muscles and your nervous system and increase the fat burn by activating enzymes related to it. Potassium to help your muscles to recover. Your body will lose both when doing sports

You would get about 25 grams of protein from this shake. You can add more or less if you want just to keep the Rice Protein to Hemp Protein ratio around 1:2.

This would be enough to help your body to recover. But to get more out of your shake in terms of taste and efficiency…

What else to add for more benefits and taste
- Barley Grass Powder (5 g)
- Maca Powder (7 g)
- Carob Powder (5 g)
Barley Grass Powder will give you lots of vitamins and minerals. Through it, you can add some Vitamin C and Chlorophyll into your shake to increase the absorption of the iron inside the Hemp Protein.

Only 5 grams cover
- 10% of the recommended daily Vitamin C intake
- 10 % of the recommended daily Folate intake
- over 40 % of the recommended daily Vitamin K intake
- 15 % of the recommended daily iron intake
- 15 % of the recommended manganese intake
And Barley Grass has many health benefits
- lowers cholesterol
- has strong antioxidants that protect your cells and keep you young
- aids your skin and connective tissue
- raises your pH level
- is used to treat some cancer like skin cancer and breast cancer
- aids your intestinal health
- high in Chlorophyll which gives you red blood cells for transporting oxygen and with sunlight regenerates CoQ10 which is believed to aid energy levels and recovery from exercise
Maca Powder is the secret weapon. It will give you energy, balance your hormones and build your muscles. The “side effect“ will be enhanced sex drive with more performance and higher fertility.

You should take about 1g Maca for every 10kg of bodyweight. It might take some days or weeks to feel the benefits. And it is better to stop using it for some time so your body doesn’t adapt to its effects. Either you take it for 4 weeks and 1 week off or 6 days and 1 day off.

Health benefits are
- balancing hormones
- better immune response
- building muscle by indirectly increasing testosterone
- strengthens bones
- improving sexuality and fertility
Maca is a kind of natural steroid and Viagra in one. You can get it raw or gelatinized what should work better because the ingredients seem to be more activated through the process.

Carob Powder will add a little more minerals and vitamins to your shake and give it a sweeter taste. I have used cacao powder before but found out that this hyped “Superfood” has more toxins than it has minerals and vitamins. It won’t kill you but will put your liver into much stress if eaten too much daily. So for the extra flavor, there is the tastier Carob Powder which is safe.

In addition, you can eat raw pineapple that contains the enzyme bromelain. Its function is to break down and digest proteins. I don’t really like to add pineapple to my shake though. What about you? Any special advice or questions? Then leave a comment.

See ya

Alex
September 5, 2016