10 Things You Should Know About Going Vegan | Exam Room Podcast

this next segment is for people who are just exploring the idea of adopting a plant-based diet so many of the exam room viewers and listeners are long-term long-haul vegans but this is for those who are entering this new year wanting to clean up their health and so here now with 10 things you need to know about going vegan is the one and only dietitian i call here the fiber queen lee crosby lee welcome back to the exam room great to be here thank you chuck i'm so thrilled that you are here because you know we're talking to new vegans today we're drawing in a new audience we want to help everybody get started on this plant-based diet you've come up with 10 things that people need to know before they make that switch so you ready to dive in let's do this what is the first thing people need to know about going vegan okay well there are so many things but just to sort of take an intro not all vegan is actually created equal yeah it's unfortunate so vegan is awesome don't get me wrong it isn't awesome and i like to think of it as an awesome first step it has definite health benefits all by itself right you're cutting out red and processed meat that's lowering your risk of colon cancer or breast cancer there's no salmonella contaminating your kitchen i remember that being something that was actually a huge relief to me when i switched over i was like i don't have to sweat about the biohazard pathogens like creeping in the little corners of my kitchen that's lovely right again you're gonna get the dairy out of your glass and off your plate and reduce prostate cancer risk and possibly also ovarian and breast cancer risk so you've got a lot of benefits for health you are doing something clearly that's good for the planet and for animals as well and then vegans we have plenty of data showing that on the population level they tend to have a lower risk of type 2 diabetes a lower risk of heart disease of certain cancers that's just going vegan but that is step one there are other steps in this process do you know the next step for chance well going vegan is a good first step but there are very many layers as you said of of going vegan so once you've gone vegan that next step to me would be maybe whole food plant-based excellent also known as vegan plus so you're gonna take out the you've already gotten the animal products off your plate next you're gonna avoid or minimize added oils right and that's where the whole food comes in because what is oil it's com it's a refined food right you've stripped away all the minerals and the fiber and the protein and the good stuff and it's just basically pure fat so you're gonna get those out of the way and you're gonna get the rest of the sort of empty junky foods to keep them to a minimum we're talking things like white flour and white sugar basically you're eliminating the other the standard american diet foods that managed to like slip in under the radar on a vegan diet because you get rid of a lot of standard the sad standard american diet foods you get rid of a lot of those when you go vegan in the first place this just kind of shows the rest of them out the door like scoot we don't we don't need you here anymore so it really focuses on foods that are high in vitamins in minerals in protective phytochemicals and the foods that are rich in all those things we're talking fruits vegetables whole grains and legumes also known as beans and lentils and split peas and then a modest amount of nuts and seeds and this is just a side note on what a phytochemical actually is because i've had this question and phytochemicals are really this just broad group of substances that are found in whole plants there's no set requirement for them like there is for vitamins or minerals but they have proven or suggested benefits for health and these are things like resveratrol and red grapes and they help heart health or those purple blue anthocyanins that are found in berries or the flavonols in cocoa which you know are my favorite they can help with brain function thank goodness so that's whole food plant-based and there's actually one step further here and this is the one that really gets people healthy when they are in need of that for them and that is a low-fat whole food plant-based diet or a low-fat vegan diet vegan super vegan plus is that what we're calling that one uber yeah thank you how do you understand that is super vegan plus and what that is gonna do is also in addition to cutting out the animal products and the sort of like junkie or refined stuff you're also gonna minimize or eliminate generally minimize those higher fat plant foods so things like nuts and avocado which are very tasty and do have some nutrients and fiber but if you're trying to lose weight or if you are trying to lower your blood sugar they can kind of get in the way so this is this is the next this is what we use for example in the clinic when we have someone who comes in with um who is overweight or obese and really needs to lose that weight because their blood sugar is starting to go up and their cholesterol is going up and they really need to you know get that under control to bring that blood sugar back down this is what we use in sort of a therapeutic way to get people where they need to go so it can be highly effective yeah and that is the perfect segue to the second thing that people need to know about going vegan yeah and that is this is a good positive side effect you may lose weight and the more you do a low fat i know the more you do the low fat whole food plant-based diet you will almost be guaranteed to lose some weight so if you're focusing on fruits veggies whole grains beans those pounds they are just they're just gonna come off because you're getting the fiber that you need to feel full without all the extra added calories that your body doesn't really count right it's not counting the soda calories meat and butter like there's no fiber in that your body's not really checking that off it's like oh i feel good and full i've gotten what i need it's not it's like just keep feeding me so i do want to make the point that the vast majority of americans do not get enough fiber i'm the fiber queen so i have to stump for fiber so your brain is literally programmed for high fiber foods you need that fiber to feel full when you are deficient of fiber because you are consuming foods that are stripped of fiber or animal foods which have zero fiber the brain literally again it literally has trouble knowing when we're full it doesn't know when to stop so we actually stop eating too late after we've eaten more than our body actually wants and needs and those high fiber plant foods are really what helps to fix that so again you can sort of plan for weight loss for some people who actually don't want to lose weight and there are certainly people who are they don't need to lose weight that's actually when i will have people a eat more and then eat more of those higher fat whole plant foods like nuts seeds and avocado just to keep them from losing weight because otherwise the odds are good that it's going to start coming off and yeah i can talk about this from experience um and and that just think about it in this term if this is why you are going vegan this is why you're doing it because you want to lose weight well think about the foods that you are eating now think about all of the trips through the drive through and the amount of fat and the amount of calories that you're taking in with every meal at my heaviest i was eating 10 000 calories a day don't expect that you're there but what i'm saying is you're still going to eat as much food if not more on this vegan this plant-based diet but the fat intake the caloric intake is going to be so much less that really you you're not going to have a choice that waistline is going to shrink it down and your body's going to be fueled with healthy nutritious foods so all of the other things that you need to work on whether it be high blood pressure cholesterol etc we may get into that a little bit later that's going to improve as well with that shrinking waistline so really simple you're not going to go hungry and that is something that scares the bajibers out of so many people when they go on diets it's like i can do this for the short term i can be hungry for just a little bit but with the plant-based diet you will never go hungry no hunger does not look good on anybody it is not it's not it's not good so and that was actually a big deal for me because like everyone else you know in college and these things like i had dieted and it was miserable i was cranky the whole time i was just like counting every calorie and wanting to make sure when i transitioned to a lower fat plant-based diet i wasn't hungry and i just lost weight like it was great i was like where has this been my whole life like why has no one told me about this why did i have to do all this extensive research to find it so it's one of the reasons that i'm a dietician now is to help get the word out that wow this exists and it's here and it's great i don't want to say it's super easy initially because it can be a little hard so we're going to talk about some of the things that'll make that a little simpler but wow right where where has this been you will not be hungry if you're hungry eat more food amen to that and what what other way of eating do you know where that is the mantra if you're hungry eat hello winter winter when when clients come in i ask them oh gosh well you have you been hungry and never has anyone said i've been hungry no it's it's important it's not happen given the volume of food that you'll be eating and the fiber that it contains it's just impossible um yeah so that brings us to number three if you're overweight obesity obviously is an epidemic but we also see so many other people with the chronic illnesses related to obesity diabetes being a big one it is rampant it is unfortunate because it is related to the increased risk for all kinds of bad things that you don't want i mean amputations and not losing your eyesight it's dialysis these are not things that anyone wants and diabetes raises the risk for all that and yet it's very stealthy right it starts with a slow creep upward in blood sugar and honestly by the time that starts the pancreas has been struggling for years so by the time someone gets to full blown diabetes their body is really crying out for help so what we do often find is that people when they switch to a low-fat plant-based diet they start losing weight and that helps all by itself but also just changing the fuel even though it's higher in carbohydrate actually helps get at the underlying root cause for type 2 diabetes so just can we do a super quick physiology lesson by all means okay just a tiny bit so what actually causes type 2 diabetes any thoughts what would the what do you think the average person would say what causes diabetes i would say sugar would be the average person's answer yeah yeah the average is like oh sugar so i'm going to stop eating sugar but it turns out that really the root one of the main root causes for type 2 diabetes is in sugar it's too much fat in our muscle cells but why i know why does that matter and i know some of our listeners have heard this but it i think it bears repeating so muscle cells use most of the carbs that we take in which break down to sugar so muscle cells are the sink for that right think about it when an athlete has a big competition the next day they carb load because the muscles are going to fuel up on that and build up their glycogen stores and they're going to go take over the world so muscle cells are using those carbs that sugar we take in however if those muscle cells are full of fat which can happen if someone is overweight or obese it can happen in people that are sort of at like upper healthy weight if they store their fat more in their muscle cells than someone else does this muscle cells say we're full they take in even a healthy carbohydrate like a sweet potato and the muscle cells are like no room in the end that blood sugar is staying out in the blood it's not getting in here which is hence your blood sugar starts to rise right so over time you get pre-diabetes and diabetes but the actual problem is still that fat and the muscle cells going vegan obviously can help you lose weight and that will help clean out those muscle cells all by itself but fun fact and we don't we still don't know the mechanism but vegans on average actually store less fat inside their muscle cells which may be one of the reasons that vegans there also tend to be a healthier body weight but they are lower risk of type 2 diabetes so again shifting over to a plant-based diet especially one that's low in fat it actually has a tendency to make people's blood sugar go a little bit a little haywire in that first week or so and then it tends to head down and i want to say that can happen pretty quickly so if you are taking medications that lower blood sugar and that have a risk of low blood sugar i would like you to talk to your doctor let them know that you are changing your diet and keep an eye on your blood sugar check it if you start running lower than is normal for you or you have a low golly gosh treat it but call your doctor because they may need to adjust your medications don't do that on your own call your doctor no and and i'll tell you talking about the high fat diet really being the culprit behind this type 2 diabetes epidemic think about also a lot of the foods that do have high levels of sugar it's not just a lot of sugar in there cakes loaded with fat ice cream loaded with fat snickers bars loaded with fat and so on and so forth so you really do get that double dose so when you take a second to sit back and think about what it was lead that you just explained it really does seem to make a whole heck of a lot of sense yeah so many people say oh i'm cutting out carbs and what they mean is i'm cutting out cake and donuts and i'm like you know that's a lot of fat right in terms of percent of calories we could be looking at even amounts or actually more in terms of the fat the calories coming from fat so yeah you are absolutely correct all right so now i want to go back to what it was you were talking about earlier with the vegan plus and the super vegan plus diet i think that the further up the super scale you go the less thank you the less the the less sodium you're going to have in the diet and i think that that then would play perfectly into the fourth thing that people need to know and that is blood pressure so sodium is important if you when if and when you change to a vegan diet you can expect that your blood pressure is likely to go down um why is that happening like you said you're likely going to be eating less sodium particularly if you are climbing the super scale climbing up the super scale and eating more whole foods and lower in fat what's also going to drive that is that you are likely going to be losing weight and losing weight drops blood pressure you're also going to be eating foods that are naturally really rich in potassium and that also all by itself can help lower blood pressure which is all dandy most people need their blood pressure a little lower and none of that by itself will push your blood pressure too low unless you are also taking a medicine that drops your blood pressure on purpose so if you combine a diet that gets your blood pressure naturally to a healthy level and then you pile on a drug that drops your blood pressure to what can be below a healthy level you could um end up yourself standing up and dropping over so not you know just passing out because your blood your blood pressure drops too low so again if you have high blood pressure or you're on medication for blood pressure you want to be monitoring your blood pressure letting your doctor know and if you start running lower than what is typical for you then or heavens if you have like an episode of low blood pressure please contact your health care provider because they will probably want to adjust your medicine again not something to do on your own just give them a call that's what they're there for and important also why don't we go ahead and lump in another thing here that is often far too high in a lot of people uh and that is something that you will only find in a diet that is chock full of dairy and meat what is that that is so we want to bring down cholesterol and going plant-based is a very simple highly proven well-supported way to lower your cholesterol so total cholesterol and that bad ldl cholesterol those are almost guaranteed to decrease when you switch on to a plant-based diet so that's a nice side effect yeah real talk when i was overweight um i was put on blood pressure medication when i was still in high school it was something like 180 190 over 90 or 100 i mean no up there right but my cholesterol was also way up there and so both of those plummeted after um they began to drop as i lost weight but then when i transitioned over to a plant-based diet completely that's when they really dropped and my cholesterol one of the doctors upstairs at the barnard medical center he actually measured it and he said man this is one of the three lowest cholesterol numbers i have ever seen in my entire life and it was just by going plant-based you know and so that that made my my ticker feel good you know literally and figuratively indeed all right number five i'm just gonna put this ball completely in your court step back and then giggle like a five-year-old because really at the end of the day i mean maybe ten or twelve i don't know the bms will be a breeze when you change over to a plant-based diet it is just easier to go when you are vegan we're talking like reliable happy bowel movements so have you all ever seen that ad that was on for the squatty potty are you familiar with the squatty potty i have no idea what you're talking about but it sounds epic so unrelated to going vegan there's this lovely contraption called squatty potty that tucks by your toilet and it gets your feet a little bit higher so it's sort of like it basically kind of puts you in a squat position without actually having to squat yeah yeah we're going there hence why it's called a squatty potty i also affectionately call it a poop stoop so it basically just puts your body in optimal pooping position that is not the point of this they had an ad are we going to cut this part out oh absolutely not they had an ad i think it was on like youtube or something a few years back that had a a unicorn that pooped rainbow's soft surf what's using the squatty potty i highly recommend that you google it it is very entertaining and had like millions of views but that's how easy and comfortable it will be when you are on a plant-based diet and it comes to going number two okay i don't know where to go with that unicorns and rainbow bowel movements i don't know it will not be rainbow unless he eats then that's a maybe oh my gosh well okay maybe we'll just yeah moving on i don't know where to go from there like i feel like we should just stop it live i mean that is a showstopper oh my gosh google it just all right all right actually i worry a little bit if someone googles pooping unicorn who just google squatty potty that'd be a heck of a meme anyway uh let's put our professional hats back on now and if we must and uh go back oh boy to some uh to some honestly uh serious real talk here your your number six here is really good this is important because i as great as a plant-based diet is it is not a panacea it is not going to solve every problem in your life it's not going to pay down your credit card that it's not going to give you you know a whole new it's not going to like completely make you over it's going to make you healthier you're going to feel better but again it's not going to fix every problem you have and i do run into people who are disappointed because they yeah they have a little more energy and they've lost some weight but it's not just the end-all be-all fix for everything and it's not it's a change along with things like exercising and stress management through meditation and all these things and even they aren't going to totally fix your life it's just going to make life better to live so i just want people to yes all these benefits are not only possible but supported in the research literature but at the same time it is not likely to fix every problem you have right and if you go back and you listen to archived episodes of the exam room you'll always hear us use the term lowers your risk it doesn't completely eliminate it it's all about lowering your risk but it's kind of like playing the lottery right so right now you have a 1 in 300 million chance of winning right but if you adopt a plant-based diet and you are hoping to lose weight lower your blood pressure lower your cholesterol reverse diabetes even right so you're going to be in a far better position than one out of 300 million i mean your odds are like i mean you're better than 50 50 in a lot of cases i mean way better than 50 50 in a lot of cases i would say but there's no silver bullet here there's no magic bullet that's going to be a cure-all correct and i'll hear that sometimes someone will say oh well i was vegan and i got a cancer diagnosis like what's that about i'm like well you reduce your risk like you said but you don't eliminate it if a vegan diet were a cure for cancer i think you know that would probably wow we just solved one of the world's problems it sure can reduce your risk though right and having you know risk for having a recurrence for some folks but at the same time it is not you know in and of itself going to fix everything but it sure does help with a lot of things it does and i also i don't want people hearing that to let that be the wind going out of their sails so often when we're looking at making this enormous change in our life that when we hear that what could be just even the smallest bucket of cold water that could be poured on us we use that as the stopping point as the excuse not to continue because not continuing is just the easier route to take but i'm telling you this is not an excuse not to try it's not an ex it should not be the excuse why you don't try it correct and i will also say that continuing with what you're doing now may feel easy short term but long term it sure isn't looking at what people are up against when you look at what happens in terms of the the long term but even the short-term results of what people are eating you know i can just see this for myself in terms of i've dealt with fibrocystic breast disease so one of the reasons i came to plant-based eating was because of an increased risk for breast cancer and if i start going off the wagon i mean i stick with the vegan thing but when i start to kind of go into the junkier stuff i get pain right away like my body doesn't wait it's like oh no lady let's get back to healthy eating so it can give you some very immediate benefits too so it's not like you have to wait 10 years to see that i lowered my risk for diabetes it's like oh you can get some benefits right now it's just is it going to fix absolutely everything right this second no it's not but it helps so much that it is absolutely worth whatever effort it takes 100 could not have said it better myself we're up to number seven what do you have for us oh i love this okay this is promising this is hope this is beans i'm serious i'm serious yeah laugh it up but beans if if people take nothing else away from this about plant-based eating i want to make sure they're eating beans and here's why okay everyone worries about protein on a plant-based diet you don't need to worry about protein on a plant-based diet one of the reasons is because you're going to be eating beans they are protein powerhouses they're packed with it minus all the saturated fat and cholesterol that you get in animal products more important and closer to my heart they are fiber mega stars like big time so again the average american is eating 15 grams of fiber all day long like that's it one cup of black beans all by itself has 15 grams of fiber so you have lunch and you've already knocked out the fiber that most of america has eaten all day long so the amount of fiber again is one of the features of them they help keep you full because they have that combo of protein and fiber but also they feed the good bacteria in your gut and that is huge because those bacteria have you ever heard of the gut brain axis oh yeah that is a fascinating thing that's a vegan 2.0 or 3.0 we got newbies here so let's not scare them off but it is we're not going to skip too much but let suffice it to say that when you feed the bacteria in your gut good things and you want bacteria in your gut you want the healthy ones they tell your brain good things so this and those good things are things like hey we're full and we're not going to be hungry for a while more it basically helps in terms of satiety so i feel full i'm not you know sitting around and having the kinds of cravings i had also for blood sugar when you eat beans the same day your blood sugar improves your body has an easier time controlling your blood sugar the day after you eat them because of the effects on the microbiome or the flora so really and truly one eat beans they're also linked with weight loss itself so please please include beans in your diet and are they really good for your heart they are but you know the more you eat i know which brings us to number eight okay and so this now this is this is something that most people will experience a little bit and that's a good thing it's it's what you expect because you're eating all these fruits and veggies and whole grains and beans and that's awesome and we know who else is benefiting right the good guys in your gut all those trillions of bacteria that are in there hanging out when they first get a lot of fiber the ones that digest fiber are stoked right this is not what they're used to and they are having a flip and field day they are thrilled right at the same time they're also kicking the bad guys right the bad guys are getting they're getting booted off the island the good guys are throwing a party and you're gonna know this because you're going to experience gas so eventually that will settle down and you will feel better than ever but for that first few weeks and we're talking anywhere from like two weeks to two months gas can be an issue particularly if you go all in all at once on a whole food plant-based diet right so this is one of those times where i'd say you know if you are uninitiated so to speak just let's just take it easy let's just you know if you're changing a lot of other things maybe you don't dive right into whole grain pasta maybe you start with white pasta like if you're having beans well actually let's talk let's talk tips yeah see now this is something that i wish that i had when i first uh adopted the plant-based diet because i did go all in i just pushed all of my chips right to the middle of the table and went all in with this thing and for the first two maybe two and a half weeks i mean there was significant bloating and gas and abdominal uh discomfort to the point where i mean it was painful and i was doing sit-ups in the middle of the night in the kitchen like trying to get some gas to come yeah like it was it was serious so i would love for you to be able to share some tips to help alleviate a lot of those symptoms for people okay yeah learn from chuck don't do like i said you want to ease in take a week or two and sort of transition it really does make a difference because what you can do is start to just shift the balance of power in your gut to the good guys instead of just like you know fire and fury and napalming we don't want to do that so beans and lentils and split peas start with half cup a day or less and you can even break it up you could do a quarter cup at lunch and a quarter cup at dinner most people don't get gas eating a half cup per day even at the beginning and again you're going to give yourself the bacteria that you need to comfortably digest those things and you're going to do it at a reasonable pace if you do that and then you can start working your way up to a cup a day or more but again just take use your body's cues and take those you know just listen to what your body has to tell you literally in this case um when you're having beans drain and rinse them right so drain the liquid out of the can then rinse them off that liquid that they're cooked in or if you cook them yourself do the same it contains carbohydrates you can't digest which then go down to your large intestine which is where the bacteria hang out and on top of all the other fiber that's in there can lead to gas so we know how to do that cooking on a stove top and make sure you get them in a rolling boil for a couple of minutes first or even better yet in a pressure cooker until they're really nice and soft makes them easier to digest as well and soaking if you're cooking them at home which you don't need to you can absolutely do canned beans that's great if you're cooking at home and you're soaking them make sure you dump out that soak water and then cook them in fresh water because again that soak water is going to have some indigestible carbohydrates that can cause gas and then just soaking the beans themselves can help transform some of those substances that can cause gas into non-gas-causing substances so those are just a few tips i've always got a couple more because this is a topic near and dear to my heart yeah you know and and really quickly before we move on to number nine i also know that one of the things that you and i have talked about and i had no idea was even could be an issue was eating beans and fruit at the same time initially so this is more anecdotal i don't know we have studies on this but particularly fruits that are higher in some of these um fodmap chemicals that are um that can give some people gas issues if you eat those at the same time as beans again maybe this is tmi but i'll just say anecdotally that can lead to gas so like maybe if you're gonna have an apple and you're gonna have beans you might have the apple as a snack later and have the beans at lunch again this is just something that i have noticed and when i've shared with people some people have good results from it for some people it doesn't really make a difference but good to know i do want to mention one other thing with fiber when you increase your fiber intake make sure you're drinking plenty of water because if you eat a lot of fiber but you don't give any water in there to hydrate it sometimes that can actually cause constipation in some people and that is not what anyone is going for and constipation can also mean gas so we don't want to do that drink plenty you ain't lying you ain't lying so with the ninth tip i want you to answer this question is it possible to get all of the nutrients you need 100 just by eating the plant-based diet or might you need some help from a supplement well it's a little tricky my answer is you will need a supplement you will need supplemental vitamin b12 it is not optional some people will say well you could do a fortified which is code for supplemented you know nutritional yeast or milks and add it up to the you know daily value for vitamin b12 my answer is don't rely on that this is the simplest thing in the world it's pennies a day take a vitamin b12 supplement it is not found in plant-based foods it's found in animal-based foods it's not actually made by the animals it's made by the bacteria that live in their guts and some of it soaks in so just take a vitamin b12 supplement you really only need i believe it is 2.4 micrograms per day that's not very much but once your body really only absorbs about half of that amount at any one time efficiently and then it absorbs just a tiny fraction of what's left so if you just want to supplement once a day you actually need to take way more than 2.4 micrograms to absorb 2.4 micrograms so the minimum will tell people in terms of supplementing unless there's some reason for them not to for most people it's 100 micrograms per day if they're under 65 general guidelines again if they're over 65 will actually save 500 micrograms a day because you often will not absorb it as well as you age and people on certain medications don't absorb it as well so the sort of i think the good general rule is to get your b12 levels first supplement and second get your b12 levels tested in the first you know sometime within that first year of going vegan to make sure you're on target you might be getting more than you need you might be getting enough iodine is an overlooked nutrient that i know should be discussed here as well it is so it's one that is i think again like you said overlooked so people think well people probably don't think a lot about iodine but they should it's important you need it for thyroid health there's also some evidence that is needed for breast health um so there are a couple different reasons that you want to have it and where most americans are getting it right now is actually from dairy products but not because there's magically natural iodine and dairy products most of the iodine and dairy products is coming from the disinfectants that they use on cattle's udders and trace amounts of it get in your milk and you don't need much iodine you just need you just need trace amounts so that's actually where americans are now getting the majority of their iodine where they used to get it was from iodized salt so the problem here is that your processed foods which have tons of salt almost never have iodized salt and the salts that are trendy right now i don't know chuck what are the trendy salts do you know pink himalayan sea salt or pink himalayan salt uh sea salt obviously celtic sea salt i mean there's so many isn't there black salt now there's so many different kinds i think celtic doubles the price yeah pink quadruples it so those are all very fancy and they make your pantry look i don't know she she but boujee yes your pantry will be so fuji but you are not going to get the iodine you need from the salts there is i think one brand of sea salt that actually adds iodine but really you just want to buy the salt that your grandma used don't add any more salt than you already use the goals not to add more salt it's just to change out whatever salt you use for iodized salt if you don't like salt sea vegetables like the little nori crunchy sheets of sea snacks or if you do like a vegan sushi that wrapper on the outside is actually a good source of iodine too so there's a workaround um sea vegetables are in some cases even too high but in iodine but those little nori sheets two thumbs up in terms of amount and the final tip this one to a lot of people i think is as exciting as losing weight and it's actually perhaps the most surprising because when you think about a vegan diet you probably think the opposite is going to occur but what is number 10 well you know how i said a vegan diet can't help you pay down your credit card debt that's actually not true i'm thinking about this so a vegan diet can save you money a lot of people think oh i'm gonna have to buy some kind of like weird you know i don't know no chicken chicken and like acai berries grown in like compost composted like lotus flowers or something like i don't even know you do not beans and rice oatmeal bananas spaghetti and tomato sauce sweet potatoes and baked beans these are cheap these are some of the cheapest foods you can buy and they're also like rocket fuel they are so good for you in season produce can be inexpensive in january it can be pretty pricey right frozen fruits and veggies are awesome they're easy my grocery bills actually have tended to go down i'm trying to think it's been a while since i've eaten animal products but i can remember i mean meat's expensive even the fact even with all the government subsidies and everything meat is expensive so you are going to be eating cheaper if you are eating plant foods so yeah it can save you some dory me no question about it and we put that to the test uh a while back you and i went to a boutique grocery store in in washington dc where the prices would be high anyway yeah filled up a grocery cart with enough food for two people for an entire week and spent only a skosh over forty dollars yeah it's just around forty a little bit more than forty dollars yeah and healthy and with all the you know with the vitamins and the minerals and the fruits and the veggies all the things that you need for good health fiber queen lee crosby thank you so very much 10 tips 10 things you need to know about going vegan you're the best thank you so much sometimes sometimes not today you were today you were thanks it was great to be here if you feel like you've raised your health iq by a couple of points go ahead and subscribe to this channel and leave a nice comment below and to hear the entire interview head over to apple podcast or wherever you get your shows from and subscribe to the exam room by the physicians committee and please leave a five star rating

Channel: Physicians Committee

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Id: Mcx91_U4DuE

Length: 35min 42sec (2142 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 22 2021