Full Text Transcript
Hi there, Dr. Shayne Peter here. Today we're gonna be talking about should you or should you not follow a vegan diet because it's a question that I get a lot from people in the office. So let's talk about that. So I've got a few points here that I'm gonna cover that you should be considering if you are thinking about following a vegan diet. So first of all, genetics, so are you genetically suited for a vegan diet? Um, what research has shown is that people with a blood type A are the best genetically suited for a vegan diet. So if you do not know your blood type and you are following a vegan diet, that's definitely something that you want to figure out, that you want to find out, uh, is very easy to do. There's kits, you can order online and find out your blood type, at home.
So the next point that I want to talk about is digestive function. So if you're in a place where your digestive function is not optimal, you might benefit from following a vegan diet, , temporarily because you don't have enough digestive capacity to break down the proteins and meats properly. It takes a lot of, stomach acid and enzymes to properly digest meat. So if you are in that position, you might benefit temporarily, uh, and experience more relief and less discomfort for following a vegan diet temporarily. However, you don't want to stop there. You definitely want to find out what the root causes. So this would be a situation where it'd be good for you to get with a good functional medicine doctor and they could help you identify what those root causes are and get you on a plan to start healing that digestive process and restoring that digestive function.
Okay, so the next point that I wanna touch on is nutritional deficiency. So B12 gets all the attention. Most people that are avoiding meat and following a vegan diet, they know to supplement B12. However, there's these other vitamins that get missed that you're also prone to developing deficiencies too. So some of those, so B12 we've got, so some others are Choline, iron, vitamin D and zinc. So all of those vitamins you could develop deficiencies too from following a vegan diet. So you definitely want to be conscious of that and you, there's actually testing that can be done to find out your levels of these different vitamins and minerals. So that's another situation where you could get with a good functional medicine doctor and find that out and find out if you are deficient in any of any of those nutrients. Okay. So I do wanna touch on some good points about following a vegan diet. And the first is that you're going to be avoiding dairy. So dairy has been shown consistently in research to be inflammatory in a lot of ways, um, and it also can be another source of exposure to hormones. So I certainly go along with that. Um, avoiding dairy is certainly a good move. Another good point about following a vegan diet is that you're increasing your intake of plants.
So that's certainly a positive. Increasing your intake of vitamin, excuse me, of vegetables and fruits is certainly a plus. However, this is not what I'm seeing. A lot of times when people are following a vegan diet, they're replacing meat for a processed meat like substitutes. And that is certainly not a good move. So if you are becoming vegan, you should be increasing your intake of plants. And I do want to highlight that you do not have to go vegan to follow a plant based diet. You just have to dramatically increase your intake of plants. Most of us in America are not consuming enough fruits and vegetables. Okay? So you do not have to follow a vegan diet. In order to follow a plant based diet, you just need to increase your intake of fruits and vegetables and you'll be off to a great start. So I hope that that gives you more clarity. If you found this video to be helpful, share it with someone that you care about. Okay. Um, I'm Dr. Shayna Peter and I'll see you next time.
