[zorkso]

I was vegan for about 8 years. I stopped this past February.

The first 2-3 years were a breeze. I knew that what I was doing was good for the planet. There were fewer animals suffering at _my_ expense. Everyone said eating a lot of plants was good for you so I must have been healthy.

But eating a whole foods plant based diet (which is what people focusing on the nutrition aspect of veganism assume you're doing) is really fucking hard. Getting some plant based meat and pasta is vegan, sure, but is it healthy? Did I feel good?

In February I realized that I had to include coffee as a mainstay of my diet in order to feel energized and that didn't sit right with me. Why didn't my food make me feel energized? Why did I have to blow my nose the second I finished eating any meal? So I decided to stop. I went to what's popularly called an "animal based" diet (grass-fed beef, minimally processed whole milk cheese, eggs from chickens treated and fed well, and fresh fruit) and I feel great but now that I've lived through 1 honeymoon period of a new diet, I'm going to wait and see how I feel over the coming months and years. I don't depend on coffee to stay awake and I'm able to power lift regularly with a strength that I don't remember feeling when vegan.

Veganism works in bursts. You can be vegan for a day or a week or a month and feel good. But my current anecdote-based hunch is that people feel better when they have minimally processed food and the best way to get a human's worth of nutrition from minimally processed food is with animal based foods.

This author should commit to an update post in 5 years to talk about how they feel then.

[jschveibinz]

My personal journey with a plant-based diet is very different from yours. I find it to be a much cleaner, healthier, regular, nutritious, satisfying and even delicious way of eating. I have followed this diet for almost 8 years, I am now 61, and my strength and bloodwork is better than ever.

I believe that everyone needs to come to this diet on their own terms. And as you say, if bursts, or periods, or trials are best for you, then that is wonderful and probably beneficial.

Cheers.