Being a vegan certainly isn’t easy. Just ask Bob Harper, veteran trainer from The Biggest Loser. Bob himself follows a vegan diet, and with his contestants often discovering they have obesity related diseases like diabetes and high cholesterol, it’s not hard to see why Bob pushes a diet that eliminates red meat, eggs and dairy.
The first concern that comes to my mind when I think of a vegan diet, however, is where the protein and calcium will come from. The substitutes for protein in meat, eggs and dairy in a vegan diet can come from legumes, nuts and beans. The calcium that normally could be obtained from milk and cheese would require a calcium and vitamin D supplement, but what about your conjugated linoleic acid?
Never heard of it? Most haven’t, but it is an important concern if you go vegan. Conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA, are a group of fatty acids that are found in dairy products and red meat. Conjugated linoleic acid is a fatty acid that our body can not make on its own, so supplementation for vegans is essential.
(more…)
