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Beer and the high carb vegan diet


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My girlfriend is a big fan of freelee the banana girl, and I've been reading up on the high carb vegan diet, 80-10-10 etc.

 

So my question is, is beer good for vegans?

 

Most health conscience folks are beer adverse due to the high carb content, but as vegans perhaps we should be drinking more beer?

 

Perhaps wishful thinking, but it would be great for marketing the diet. "Vegan: the diet where beer drinking is encouraged" (I'm tempted to TM that)

 

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  • 1 month later...

IMO...all hype and marketing. High Carb vs low carb/high protein (aka Akins aka paelo), similar to the marketing scheme for high protein in the american diet. Pretty much everyone gets TOO MUCH protein...

 

now to your question, and from my perspective.

 

I eat what I want, drink what I want. Don't really pay much attention to the macros (e.g. carb count) but I do pay attention to the SOURCE of the carbs. Plant-based whole foods eater all the time. Avoid (most of the time) highly processed foods. And yeah, I know if I get on the beer a bit (vegan only beer of course!), or at various times the Oreo's my options become to either A) work harder to compensate for the surplus and low nutritional value carbs, or B) accept that in a few weeks time will start to see a bit more flab particularly along my back.

 

Want to get/stay lean and mean, then avoid the crap. Or have a little crap and either work it off or accept the consequences.

 

Body needs carbs for fuel. Low carb anything is out of balance with what you need. Sure there are optimal carb sources and crappy ones, choose based on your goals.

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Since I posted this, I have made the switch to what I call a low fat, high calorie, whole foods vegan diet.

 

Basically I eat tons of fruits and vegetables, as well as starches and legumes, and am very high carbed. Have cut out my protein powders too.

 

Before I was calorie adverse and ate lots of fatty vegan foods like peanut buttwr, avocados, oils and like my username, hemp hearts. All while occaisionally starving myself to keep lean.

 

I've noticed since I've made the conscious decision to eat more while avoiding fat, I've made the best gains of my life and have had my body fat drop while adding mass. And I've been drinking my usual dozen beers or so a week too.

 

It's a bit anecdotal, but take it for what it's worth.

 

I am now COMPLETELY sold on the low fat thing, as well as the high carb and high calorie thing. Fat is the enemy and whole foods are your friends.

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I really don't believe that fat is the enemy, as long as you are consuming the right types. You need to be taking in decent levels of omega 3's on a daily basis ~ you only have to start doing a little research into longevity and you'll start to realise the importance of 'good fats' in your diet.

 

SO WHY SHOULD YOU CONSIDER RAISING YOUR EFA'S/FAT INTAKE?

 

B-36-95UAAAeZ6U.jpg

 

First and foremost health is probably the main thing, and diet-wise ideally you want to be eating a variety of foods that are higher in monounsaturated & polyunsaturated fats. Researchers and scientists are repeatedly finding that the countries/people with the lowest recorded incidence of cardiovascular disease also have a very high, regular intake of omega 3 fatty acids (and other healthy EFA components such as HUFA's MUFA's, PUFA's, arachidonic acid etc). MUFAs can be of benefit to insulin levels and blood sugar control and PUFAs (found mostly in plant-based foods and oils) can help decrease the risk of Type II diabetes as well as reducing LDL whilst raising HDL cholesterol.The Okinawans and Inuit's for example have been shown to have an average Omega 3 intake of around 17,000mg/day and their race has virtually NO cholesterol, heart or CV problems. These types of ethicities have zero/very minimal elevations in cardiac inflammatory biomarkers and this is shown again and again in studies.

 

Chia seeds are also something I like to add in to my diet as they are rich in omega content (mainly a-linolenic acid, also known as ALA). They're also a great source of antioxidants and contains a variety of amino acids, plus their mucilage is effective at cleaning and detoxifying the intestines as well as being a reasonably effective appetite curber. If you buy a good chia then it should be gluten free and shelf stable for years due to it containing Cinnamic acids that help guard the omega oils from oxidation. Another bonus is that it has a positive effect on blood sugar levels, which is great for athletes as blood sugar levels can fluctuate a lot as the duration of the exercise increases. Other good food sources of healthy fats that may benefit your performance are mixed raw nuts (walnuts, brazil, macadamia are all good), avocado, rice bran oil, almond butter, coconut oil etc. Ideally, you want to be eating a variety of foods that are higher in monounsaturated & polyunsaturated fats. MUFAs can be of benefit to insulin levels and blood sugar control and PUFAs (found mostly in plant-based foods and oils) may help decrease the risk of Type II diabetes as well as reducing LDL whilst raising HDL cholesterol. If you are looking to consume Omega 3 through diet alone you need to make sure you are eating raw; cooking denatures the Omega 3 as well as reducing the levels of DHA.

 

So to summarise, raising your intake of EFA's (especially omega 3) will offer anti-inflammatory benefits as well as reducing CV risk factors as I mentioned above. I would be careful on increasing the intake of omega 6 as this is pro-inflammatory due to the fact that it increases the production of inflammatory chemicals known as eicosanoids; also worth noting that a rise in omega 6 intake will decrease omega 3 levels. Another bonus is that supplemental EFA’s have been shown to stimulate muscle protein synthesis in older adults

 

 

OMEGA 3 SUPPLEMENTATION IN RELATION TO SYMPOMATIC PRESENCE

 

DOSE:

 

General health ~ 1,000-2,000mg

Moderate disease/stress ~ 3,000-4,000mg

Mood/behaviour/cognition ~ 5,000mg

Severe disease/stress ~ 6,000mg+

Bipolar disorder ~ 9,600mg (optimal dosage according to studies)

 

We know from studies that it’s great for improving membrane fluidity, is the brains fat of choice for both function and structure and it holds significant merit for reducing post workout inflammation/DOMS.

 

References:

** (1) Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Muscle Protein Synthesis: NCT00794079

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That was a good read, and I'll consider it.

 

From a pure physique standpoint though, I'm very sold on the high carb low fat thing.

 

I do have some vegan omega 3 DHA supplements lieing around, so perhaps I'll make a better effort to take them, though am feeling damn awesome since the change so far.

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That was a good read, and I'll consider it.

 

From a pure physique standpoint though, I'm very sold on the high carb low fat thing.

 

I do have some vegan omega 3 DHA supplements lieing around, so perhaps I'll make a better effort to take them, though am feeling damn awesome since the change so far.

It's always good to take away what you think is important and relevant, I always do a lot of research from varied (but credible) resources. What works for me might not work for you and vice versa, that's always good to remember!

 

Glad to hear you are leaning up, I'm sure tightening up on the dozen beers a week would bring things in even tighter hehe. BTW this was me a couple of years ago on a high fat diet (tons of avocado, oils, nuts etc):

 

http://my.picresize.com/vault2/L842E8ORVW.jpg

 

The diet did the opposite of what a lot of people were expecting ~ basically stripping off any remaining fat I had. Ended up getting into fairly good shape whilst also getting stronger... win win

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Were you low carb, when you were high fat? From what I understand it's the combination of carbs and fats that cause fat gain.

 

Have been skimming through my gf's copy of 80/10/10 for the last hour or so. Lots of great info in there , and might be something worth checking out.

Well I was mainly trying to drive up my fats, wasn't overly paying attention to the macro's as a whole. I would probably think it looked something like high fats & EFA's/moderate carbs/moderate protein. I'm going to start recording my nutrition a lot more in my journal, just wrote up yesterday's meals if you wanted to take a look; going to try and write up at least a few days every week so people can get an idea of the sort of foods I'm getting into me.

 

My basic feelings is that protein is overrated, carbs are fine in moderation as they're pretty damn essential for brain & body functioning (like fats you just have to select the right types) and fats are important and necessary on a number of different levels Oh and beer is probably up there in importance too !!

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  • 1 year later...

Everyone loses weight on that diet. I did it for 8 months, consistently eating 4k calories of mostly dates, my weight dropped all the way down to 140 during that time. I was sitting on my ass most of the day and would do some heavy lifting a couple times a week because I wanted to build, chronic cardio isn't required to get your self to an anorexic weight level on raw vegan

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