I'm aware that cravings aren't indicative of dietary needs. I'm not claiming I "need" eggs/dairy, but rather than psychology and taste addiction (and social pressure, if we're talking about outside-the-home veganism) have been difficult hurdles for me.brimstoneSalad wrote: What kind of replacements have you tried? Our bodies don't really crave specific nutrients as linked to foods so much (e.g. an iron deficient person might crave ice -- that doesn't make sense). It's probably a matter of psychology and taste addiction.
Have you tried tofu scramble with black salt? Nutritional yeast? Any vegan cheeses, or non-dairy milks?
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Have you tried the daiya vegan cream cheese? It's made from coconut, and spreads pretty nicely for toast applications. You might like it.
I've found in the past that coconut oil works well on pancakes, and doesn't have a strong taste.
I love tofu scramble, black salt, nooch, etc. and eat them often. I drink my whey protein shakes mixed with chocolate soy milk and make my pancakes with "vegan buttermilk" (unsweetened soy milk + vinegar) most of the time. I have two giant tubs of coconut oil (refined for high heat cooking, unrefined for making no-bake treats). Daiya cheeze is gross to me, but I make a mean cashew-based nacho cheeze and I like Follow Your Heart cream cheeze okay. I make my own soy yogurt about half the time that I eat yogurt. All this stuff was instrumental in drastically reducing my animal product use... but it just doesn't taste the same.
I completely agree with the notion that "it tastes good" isn't a sufficient reason to harm sentient beings. That's why I went vegan in the first place. However, if I try to stick to these replacements and be 100% vegan, I end up binging on a giant plate of cow-cheese nachos or something like that, which makes me feel super guilty (both for binging and for eating an animal product) and leads me to intense calorie restriction. It amazes me that I can be fully aware of this issue and still repeat the pattern, but this has been the cycle for two years now. I have sought professional help for my issue, but multiple mental health professionals have assured me that the established firstline treatment for an eating disorder is ceasing all food group and calorie restriction. And... that works. That makes me better. Regardless of what vegan youtubers say about having cured their own eating disorders with veganism, I am not them.
Soy is fine too. I make my own seitan on a weekly basis, and eat beans almost every day. Sometimes I buy field roasts for cookouts, etc. I'm 100% happy with meat replacements and have no desire to ever eat meat again. Maybe a rope-grown oyster or two at most.brimstoneSalad wrote: What about [rice, hemp protein powders] do you not like? Do you have problems with soy?
How about beans as a protein source? Have you tried mock meats?
YES I 100% agree!! I am the evangelist for this at my gym haha. I follow the Renaissance Periodization diet for strength athletes, which recommends 1g of protein per lb of lean body mass and not a gram above that. For most female weightlifting athletes who aren't super heavyweight class this is going to be close to if not exactly .82g/lb, given most female weightlifters myself included train around 20%bf. I personally am in the 69kg/152lb weight class and eat 115g of protein per day (1.7*69=117). There is a massive amount of bullshit out there that strength athletes fall prey to. According to my coach, even the Olympic Training Camp had their weightlifting athletes on 1.5-2g of protein per lb bodyweight, which is insane. Fortunately most of the American weightlifters going to the Olympics this year have Renaissance Periodization diet coaches. Their slogan is "science is stronger."brimstoneSalad wrote: Studies demonstrate that there's no real benefit to ridiculous amounts of protein for strength training.
Are you sure your consumption patterns are evidence based, rather than habit, or a sport myth?
http://www.eatright.org/resource/fitness/sports-and-performance/fueling-your-workout/protein-and-the-athleteThis is a pretty good article debunking in detail the 1g/lb myth of protein for body builders:Recommendations
While protein needs of both endurance and power athletes are greater than that of non-athletes, they're not as high as commonly perceived.
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada and the American College of Sports Medicine recommend the following for power and endurance athletes, based on body weight:
Power athletes (strength or speed): 1.2 to 1.7 grams/kilogram a day
Endurance athletes: 1.2 to 1.4 grams/kilogram a day
http://bayesianbodybuilding.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/
I recommend reading the whole thing, but here's the point:Based on the sound research, many review papers have concluded 0.82g/lb is the upper limit at which protein intake benefits body composition (Phillips & Van Loon, 2011). This recommendation often includes a double 95% confidence level, meaning they took the highest mean intake at which benefits were still observed and then added two standard deviations to that level to make absolutely sure all possible benefits from additional protein intake are utilized. As such, this is already overdoing it and consuming 1g/lb ‘to be safe’ doesn’t make any sense. 0.82g/lb is already very safe.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10867064brimstoneSalad wrote: If you can link me to what studies you're talking about, I'd be glad to look at them, but it's really irrelevant because even if that is true for some other study participants if you have digestive issues with dairy, the whey is probably holding you back.
You should see overall better health and performance on a diet more suited to you.
Considering digestive issues cause so many problems and are so well correlated to ill health, maybe avoiding eggs and dairy (for you, with your particular issues) would be wise for those reasons as well.
It's probably not actually an advantage for you if you're having issues with dairy.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18090657
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21912246
Given that my stomach seems to respond poorly to any food I'm not recently acclimated to, I see no reason to assume that I have a particular issue with dairy. Notably, I had the same type of stomach issues when I first started eating beans regularly. As I said my doctor thinks the most likely issue with dairy is lactose intolerance, and whey protein isolate doesn't have any lactose...
It was hard for me to start supplementing creatine because there is an initial scale weight gain due to water retention, and I was afraid that would trigger a disordered eating episode. But I did eventually start it and I was fine. I also take B12, algae oil, and vitamin D. Out of curiosity, did you mean anything else by "other" supplementation?brimstoneSalad wrote: Creatine supplementation and others would probably be more useful: and cutting out the eggs and dairy so your digestive system functions better.