Jakarta –
Plant-based, vegan and vegetarian diets are now increasingly popular. A doctor reveals his 30-day vegan journey. Here’s the result.
Every year, many healthy lifestyle practitioners take part in the Veganuary challenge. This means they followed a veganism diet during January and then revealed the results.
This challenge also attracted the interest of doctor Mikhail Varshavski or familiarly known as Doctor Mike. He decided so vegan to determine its impact on health.
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Previously, Mike emphasized that a vegan diet is indeed good for health, especially if it is followed by people who have been consuming high-calorie, animal-based foods.
“If you follow the standard American diet and switch to veganism, then you will see improvements in terms of reduced risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and even longer lifespan,” he said as quoted by Ladbible (3/1).
 Doctor Mike admitted that he had no appetite because he was not a big fan of plant-based foods. Photo: Ladbible |
It’s just that when he started the 30-day vegan challenge, Mike immediately encountered problems regarding fulfilling calories. “I have to be honest, I don’t have much of an appetite,” he said.
Mike apparently isn’t a big fan of vegetables, rice and beans. He can only eat a little of the menu so his daily calorie intake is less.
But he added, “It’s partly my fault because I didn’t prepare properly. Even though I said that the healthy way to follow a vegan diet is to plan your menu adequately for the first 2 weeks.”
Another obstacle Mike encountered was flatulence and gas. “I had incredible bloating and gas in my stomach. I’m very embarrassed to say it,” he said. He had to struggle with these effects in the midst of his busy activities.
Apart from that, Mike also has difficulty deciding what to eat. He didn’t know what food would appeal to his taste to consume.
“When I was vegan“I lost motivation to work out at the gym, my work ethic really got worse because I was trying so hard to be vegan,” he continued.
He also felt he had lost his identity and did not think that this would be an obstacle. “I don’t want to go to the gym with friends. This is really not like me and this is an obstacle that I really didn’t expect to happen,” he said.
But according to Mike, the most difficult thing was pressure from friends around him. They are not too happy when they have to plan to eat out and check whether a restaurant provides vegan menu options or not.
 Mike even lost his enthusiasm for going to the gym. Photo: Ladbible |
Even so, the 33-year-old doctor is very aware of all these limitations, including the fact that he didn’t plan as well as he could have.
On the other hand, Mike says there are plus points to being vegan. He didn’t notice a big decrease in energy and he didn’t get tired easily.
Mike feels that his body is healthy and remains strong even though he only eats plant-based foods. His weight also dropped by around 1.3 kg, but according to him this was most likely due to calorie restriction.
In short, Mike revealed that this diet can be healthy, but he will not be following it again in the near future because of the bloating problems that arise.
“If you experience bloating while on any diet, there is no way you can survive on that diet,” concluded Mike.
(adr/odi)
