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Supermarket vegan food - healthy or not?

(30 Posts)
notanan2 Thu 09-Jan-20 22:22:40

There are lots of vegan foods. Some is healthier thsn others. Sometimes vegans just want pizza beer and icecream and are under no illusion that theyre being healthy that day!

Hetty58 Thu 09-Jan-20 22:03:04

Vegans just need to take care that they eat a healthy diet, possibly with supplements, to ensure nutritional needs are met. If they do, they are likely to enjoy far better health than meat eaters or vegetarians:

academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/89/5/1627S/4596952

Razzy Thu 09-Jan-20 21:42:26

Vegans are in it for ethical reasons, not specifically health. They just don’t like the killing of cows, pigs, chickens, etc. as they see all animals the same - why do we not kill and eat dogs and cats? When you can choose a plant burger that tastes the same as a beef one, but no animal had to die for you, they choose the non-cruelty version.

Whole food plant based is a healthy vegan diet.

So - there are healthy eating vegans and junk food vegans! Red meat and processed meat has been proven to be bad for your health. Eating whole food plant based is healthy.

Healthy vegans eat a wide range of fruit and veg, legumes, beans, etc. and avoid processed foods.

Overall though I think the science still points to a balanced vegan diet being healthier than a balanced omnivore diet.

merlotgran Thu 09-Jan-20 20:56:13

I think it's important to read the labels. A lot of these so called healthy foods are loaded with sugar or salt (or both) as a preservative and for flavour.

I think if you're going to have a meat free meal you don't need anything that pretends to be meat. Just have a meal based on vegetables.

I do like making my own veggie burgers though. grin

tidyskatemum Thu 09-Jan-20 20:45:13

Supermarkets are full of vegan meals labelled "not chicken "not beef", vegan "cheese" etc etc. So many people seem to be moving to a vegan diet for supposed health benefits but it worries me that so much stuff in the supermarket is highly processed, which I understood was something we should try to avoid at all costs.