If you turn Vegan, eating wise, & are strict (no cheating) about it, then you will eventually (if you started overweight-obese) will never be overweight-obese, for as long as maintain being a strict Vegan.

Now that I am eating a lot more processed, salted & sugary Vegan foods*, *- Because revolution for the worst has happen in Vegan eating, When I started it was not Capitalist popular as now, so it was not possible, 30-years ago.
I wonder if I was always wrong, I have always been Vegan thin, genes & always active enough, that hard for me to become overweight-obese,
I leaning towards (with a lot more processed, salted & sugary Vegan foods introduced into one’s way of strictly eating Vegan) would NOT result in overweight-obese Vegans.

What do you readers think?

I am not saying being thin is being healthy enough,

  • rbn@sopuli.xyz
    4·
    5 days ago

    Vegan and healthy are two independent dimensions.

    You can have a healthy vegan diet, a healthy non-vegan diet, an unhealthy vegan diet and an unhealthy non-vegan diet.

    However, I would expect the average vegan diet to be healthier than the average non-vegan diet because…

    1. you avoid some substances that aren’t good for your body (no nitrosamines, less saturated fats etc.) and
    2. people with specific food requirements (applies not only to vegans) typically do more research and have more knowledge about what they eat (like reading the ingredients).
      • lalo@discuss.tchncs.de
        51·
        5 days ago

        Gaining weight has nothing to do with the food consumed being processed, sugary, salty, fatty, high protein or whatever. It’s all about calories.

        You can eat 4 kg of boiled potatoes every single day and become overweight.

          • boredsquirrel (he)@slrpnk.net
            5·
            5 days ago

            Well kinda. If you have lots of fiber then the theoretical energy value (in germany we say “brennwert” as it is measured by burning the stuff) does not result in as much energy actually used.

            Also if you eat lots of “soft fiber” (that can be split up by gut bacteria) you feed them, which is extremely important and leads to a way healthier body.

            So in theory yes, calories are different because they are not an accurate measurement of what energy actually ends up in your system.

            But if you compare effectively consumed calories that actually end up in your body (like olive oil vs some animal fat), apart from health benefits, you will gain the same weight.

  • termaxima@slrpnk.net
    4·
    5 days ago

    I am a little worried as well. When I became Vegan 10 years ago, there was virtually no choice besides eating healthy, unless you fed yourself only French fries, I guess.

    Now it’s increasingly easy to eat vegan junk food. While I think this makes stepping over easier for new Vegans, it also means some of the health benefits may not be as guaranteed as they used to be.

    That said, Vegan junk food is still much better for your health than the non-vegan equivalent, even if no Vegan steak can ever be as good as just plain red beans, as an example.

    It’s probably a good thing for Veganism adoption overall, but we must be careful to always present these foods as “transition tools”.

  • umbra@slrpnk.net
    2·
    5 days ago

    You can be a vegan but make very sugary and unhealthy snacks. You could then consume that and eat more calories than you burn in a day, and over time you would become overweight.

    This means it is possible to be an overweight vegan, and as you mention this is also possible with the processed vegan foods that have become available that make it easier to consume more calories than you burn in a day.