Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hi all,
I have a question relating to a website that i came accross. It was saying that there is a condition called "failure to thrive" basically saying how long term veganism is unhealthy with people even dying from starvation even though they are eating because they dont absorb enough nutrients from food, it stated othe rproblems like hairloss malnutrition ,and the fact that there are no vegan centernarians .Has any study been done to prove or disprove this, I would think the centenarian comparision is unfair because they were comparing 60,000 vegans to millions of non vegans,on the malnutrition robert cheeke and the other athletes on this site don't look malnurished to me, but i can see it happening to some people, this is my second attempt at veganism , the first time failed because i'm used to a premade diet, so i lived on chips and noodles.Second time around i'm doing great i'm not missing dairy or meat at all.My main question is can a vegan diet alone be healthy enough or do i need to add vegan vitamins and suppliments,
i also noted that a lot of their articles were old from the 30's 40's ect with people like weston price even ghandi was mentioned,apparently he tried a vegan diet with some followers and concluded it was unhealthy although he supported a vegetarian diet. I am fully commited to staying vegan ,but this webpage just scared me a bit
thanks ozjay

Funny thing: Weston Price traveled the world in order to prove that primitive cultures eat vegan diets and are healthier, turns out the opposite was true and he was honest enough to report what he did find.

I have personally found the diet Weston Price recommends to be VERY beneficial and I still try to apply as many of his principles while I am eating a vegan diet. It is really up to you to find whether you absorb enough of what you need from the diet you have chosen and to be unbiased enough to see where you might be going wrong. I have found that there are very few vegans who eat a healthy diet and nearly all healthy vegans rely on a number of artificial foods (supplements) to support a healthy lifestyle.


Good luck.

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thanks for the reply tarzan,
I dont know much about weston price ,but what practices of his relate to veganism , i thought he was against it

Weston Price was alive around the time of a great boom of veganism in America, I think he may have been a vegan/ vegetarian himself. He set out to prove veganism was the cure for all the "diseases of civilisation" and found that there was much more to human diet than he thought. It is definitely worth reading about from an unbiased perspective. The book that covers his travels is 'Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects' It is a very objective and dry read but fascinating nonetheless.

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Eh... Weston A Price was a holistic dentist most active in the late 1800s and early 1900s (when virtually no one was practicing veganism and he most certainly was not a vegetarian). He's right that sugar, flour and many vegetable oils are bad for you, but I think that's all that you need to learn from the guy. Can you be healthy following the kind of diet his foundation proposes? Probably. But his supporters overlook the fact there are plenty of cultures (primitive or otherwise) who thrive(d) on high starch, relatively low meat diets like the Kombai in New Guinea and the traditional Okinawa diet. Nutrition is complex and the human body is very adaptable. It's a bad idea to get obsessed with any diet guru. Do some reading and draw your own conclusions.

Start here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weston_Price

Oh, and for what it's worth, he died of a heart attack at 78.

There was a significant population of vegans in the United States in the late 1800's:
From Wikipedia:
"In the United States, Reverend William Metcalfe (1788–1862), a pacifist and a prominent member of the Bible Christian Church, preached vegetarianism.[78] He and Sylvester Graham, the mentor of the Grahamites and inventor of the Graham crackers, were among the founders of the American Vegetarian Society in 1850.[79] Ellen G. White, one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, became an advocate of vegetarianism, and the Church has recommended a meatless diet ever since.[80]"

"The International Vegetarian Union, a union of the national societies, was founded in 1908. In the Western world, the popularity of vegetarianism grew during the 20th century as a result of nutritional, ethical, and more recently, environmental and economic concerns. Henry Stephens Salt[85] and George Bernard Shaw were famous vegetarian activists.[86]"

In Weston Price's own writings he claims to avoid meat and intended to travel the world to prove veganism was the healthier option. He was 60 when he set off on his travel around the world in the early 30's. If you were trying to suggest Weston Price died because of his diet, bear in mind that he was likely vegetarian his whole life.

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Ok I used to take care l of a seventh day advent who was vegetarian and if memory serves me correctly was 101. She started her day off with a tall glass of fresh carrot juice

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I do because I can. I can because I want to. I want to because you said I couldn't.

I don't make excuses... I make results

If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you

My granddad is 98 has half a lung, smokes a pipe still and has lived on almost strictly whiskey and bacon sandwiches his whole life. Old people are tough and should not be taken into consideration

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Lol wrong thing to say to a caregiver

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I do because I can. I can because I want to. I want to because you said I couldn't.

I don't make excuses... I make results

If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you

OK, we will allow anecdotes about old people just so you can continue to grace this thread

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I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in on knowing a 100+ yr old vegetarian

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I do because I can. I can because I want to. I want to because you said I couldn't.

I don't make excuses... I make results

If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you

You're fine, I'm not trying to cut you down at all. All I mean is that people were made from some much tougher stuff back in the day.

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They still are made that tough. We just got soft with all the advancements

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I do because I can. I can because I want to. I want to because you said I couldn't.

I don't make excuses... I make results

If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you

There are some human specimens around that make me think there is still hope.

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