The Vegan Primer
Choosing a vegan lifestyle
At San Jose’s Good Karma Vegan Café, customers enjoy good food and the promise of benefiting their own health and the environment.
Photograph by Lane Johnson
For people living in the San Francisco Bay Area, the word “vegan” is commonly heard. But what exactly does a vegan diet and lifestyle entail and what are its benefits? Here’s a quick guide to going vegan, along with some tips and warnings.
Contrary to popular belief, being a vegan is more than being a stricter vegetarian. “It really is a complete commitment to an ideology that permeates your lifestyle,” says Heather Schwartz, Medical Nutrition Therapist at Stanford Hospital and Clinics. “Being a vegan means the exclusion of any animal products or byproducts, including cosmetics, cleaning supplies, medications, and of course, food.”
Strict vegans also eschew animal-based clothing, toiletries, furniture, and many other types of products. Many vegans are motivated by a desire to benefit their own health, the environment, and/or animal welfare.
Mark Berman, a practicing physician in San Francisco who runs the blog VeganMD, decided to become a vegan 20 years ago while working at a tennis camp.
“I was introduced to the idea that what we eat has huge implications—not only for our health, but for the environment and the lives of billions of animals,” he says. “The more I learned, the more it seemed like the right thing to do.”
Of course, completely avoiding animal products can be difficult. When it comes to items such as wedding cake or tea with honey, for example, Berman sometimes makes exceptions.
“I don’t strive for perfection,” he says. “I just do the best I can and try not to be too neurotic about avoiding every single molecule of animal products.”
While becoming a vegan is not a magical weight loss method or cure for disease, research has shown many health benefits to a vegan diet.
“Multiple studies show that leading a vegan lifestyle greatly reduces bad cholesterol and improves good cholesterol,” says Schwartz. “Vegans also have lower fat mass or BMI, which tends to curb your risk of chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease.”
Berman agrees, adding that vegan diets have been shown to effectively treat obesity. Some research also suggests a vegan diet can help with allergies and chronic health problems such as asthma. But it is also possible for vegans to be nutrient deficient.
“People assume that a vegan diet is very healthy, but you can take a vegan diet and make it very unhealthy,” warns Schwartz.
In particular, many vegans don’t get enough calcium. Schwartz suggests her patients drink fortified dairy alternatives such as almond, hemp, rice, or soy milk, and take a daily calcium supplement with vitamin D. She also warns that vegans must make efforts to get enough vitamin B12, zinc, iron, and riboflavin.
Since becoming a vegan requires a major lifestyle change, Berman suggests you start slow: Begin by increasing the proportion of vegan meals you eat and non-animal products you buy, then scale up gradually.