Help me advise my friend's little sister on staying veg (and healthy)!
Posted by gnarls_baudelaire on May 10, 2010 · Member since Aug 2007 · 434 posts
Hey guys,
I'm sure there are other threads relating to this, so if anyone wants to link me to a few specific things, that would be great. I made this its own thread because I wanted to tailor it specifically to this girl's needs. She's thinking about leaving the fold, and I need to show her that she can stay vegetarian and still get all the nutrients she needs!
Her doctor has prescribed her amino acid supplements, one of them being L-carnitine derived from LD, which is supposedly toxic. I don't know anything about that, so if anyone does, I'd appreciate the information. She is low on ferritin, B6, B12, magnesium, coq10 (what's that?), vitamin D, and lysine.
So now, she's thinking about eating meat again. I don't want her to! Please advise.
http://www.veganhealth.org/
http://www.vegansociety.com/lifestyle/nutrition/
http://www.happycow.net/vegan_nutrition101.html
http://www.chooseveg.com/vegan-health-tips.asp
Have her take those deva vegan vitamins.
Flax seed
Hemp seed/ Protein powder
I dunno google
I take power teen vitamins for girls. They're prettyy niftyyy.
How old is she?
she's....24? Maybe 23.
No, she doesn't WANT to go back to eating meat, she's just not sure if the supplement her doctor prescribed her is 100% safe to take, which is a legitimate concern. I'm not giving any unsolicited advice, she actually wants my help.
I would say to have her make sure she is eating a crazily varied diet, so that she can get as much as possible from her food. Also, if she eats a lot of processed soy (or any other process foods for that matter) try and have her go off those for a while, since I've heard soy has been reported to hinder absorption of certain nutrients, though I can't remember right now which ones. But I think the best thing for her would probably just be eating lots of whole foods and maybe just taking a children's vitamin or something to get the extra B vits and the D back up to the right levels.
Something that might be helpful is anything you know about how she usually eats, so that we can help make more specific suggestions (though, I can totally understand if you don't know).