Vegan Forum

I started being a vegan on March 10 this year. I lost like 5 pounds and felt really great in the first few weeks of my vegan diet.
I drink a lot of fluid and I eat more than 3 different fruits daily. Recently, I started having problems with my health.
I am very constipated and I had a lot of fartulence incidents. It started like 1 week ago. My gastrointestinal system was doing great when I first started my vegan diet.
To make it worse, I went to donate blood yesterday and the blood center did not let me donate. They said that my hemoglobin was at 10.5 which was 2 points lower than normal. I don't want to eat meat to get my iron or B12. What is solution to my problems? Why am I so constipated? How can I increase my hemoglobin?

You should take B12 supplements and eat more beans, chickpeas, nuts, seeds (like sunflower seeds), leafy vegetables not only fruits. And it would be better if you write everything you eat at usual day.

It's obvious that you are not eating correctly. Eating vegan to some people means eating Twinkies all day long. That will kill you.

If you are not up to the challenge of eating a wide variety of protein-rich plant-based foods, then eating vegan won't work out for you.

If you can't follow a healthy vegan diet, you might as well take some supplements so that you won't encounter low hemoglobin again...

Fartulance. Oh, that is funny! I'm gonna borrow that clever expression...

If you eat lots of whole grains, as well as many servings of veg and fruit, not to mention legumes, you'll never suffer constipation.

I agree that eating a junk food vegan diet is not recommended. While I understand that some vegans are vegans because of ethical reasons only, a healthy diet is optimal to be sure. I've known vegetarians who eat primarily dairy foods and eggs, as well plenty of refined junk food. Even a carniverous diet with plenty of whole grains, fruit and veg is much healthier than a diet comprises of total crap.

Is there vegan junk food? Haven't heard of that...

Oh, most definately, Meign.

Such as red licorice, potato chips, hard candy. Trust me, I love junk food and always manage to fit it into my otherwise healthy diet.

Thank you so much snog!
Hard Candy? Are these Caramels? I also love potato chips, I thought these are not vegans... I remember that french fries are also junk food right?

When I became a vegan, my understanding about healthy diet was not so good as well I did not like vegetables so much.
Now many years later I realize that
#1 are green leafy vegetables,
#2 seeds,
#3 vegetables,
#4 whole grains,
#5 fruits

I go to donate blood and all my iron and iron reserves are higher that other "normal" people.

As well you might be experiencing detox, so your minerals go down now. Mineralize with green smoothies and/or juices.

A massive amount of off-the-shelf junk food is vegan. Chewy Chips Ahoy, Lays Baked ketchup and original, Lays original, Doritos BBQ and Sweet Chili Heat, Humpty Dumpty Ketchup and salt and vinegar, Kernels all-dressed and ketchup flavour shakers, Oreo and Fudgeo cookies; most Allan Trebor candies are vegan (even a lot of chewy ones, just not the ones that say "gummy"), most Maynards are vegan (except the gummy bears; and yes, there are commercially available vegan gummies), a lot of chocolate - just look for milk products in it (anyone who knows anything about chocolate should know that *real* chocolate NEVER has dairy in it).

So yes, being a junk food vegan is extremely easy.

Your whole "health problems" are more likely in line with detoxing. Just eat lots of veggies and keep up with the fruit. Those will keep cleaning your system out -- the source of your discomfort. It can take months to see changes and to actually improve your health. All this stuff was already festering inside you; your body was simply in equilibrium and so it never manifested. Eating healthier has brought it all out into the open.

As Dacite said, green smoothies and juices will definately help. I would also suggest a fruit smoothie for/with breakfast or for a snack every day. Use dates and/or stevia to sweeten and never use store-bought juices; only use water.

Yes, I also agree to previous reply author, that detox/ system cleaning can be a long process. You may go worse before you get better.

There is actually a theory that one needs to detox 10% of the lifetime they were polluting themselves. So if you are 20 it will take 2 years to get your optimal health.

I started vegan diet months ago and we had the exact same thing. You really should listen to meign and Evut. Food supplements are the way to go if you want to avoid digesting any meat. Natural fruit juices are also good, you can try making up your own fruit juice recipes to suit your taste!