A health risk of being very healthy! XD Nah, everything has a risk to it, but as long as we’re all careful, it’s all good!

They can be avoided by still maintaining a healthy, consistent, and wide variety of a diet.

Nope, I didn’t see that – I’ll have to check it out. Haven’t used it much as of late. Thanks for letting me know! I’d love to try those bars.

@hakred did you see that they’re letting you earn points for completing weekly challenges now? For 150 points, you get a free box of these: http://www.elementbars.com/
That’s a pretty big incentive to stay healthy right there lol.

I just set it to custom values, and did some research on how much of what we should really have for optimum health. I can honestly say since tracking it, and going vegan – I get waaaay more nutrients than I ever did as an omnivore. Being aware of what you’re eating changes so much.

Woops, they only have options for “vegetarian”, not vegan. Still awesome, though!

Here are the other options:

Calorie Count Recommended Values
Generic USDA Daily Values
My Custom Values
Low Carb Diet
Low Fat Diet
Vegetarian Diet
Diabetic Diet
Athletic Diet
Mediterranean Diet
Pregnancy Diet
Lactation Diet

(I’d have edited my first post, but the forum is no longer allowing me to edit my first post on a topic – only my second. A glitch?)

I second @Styna. Calorie Count is great & even includes an option to customize your dietary needs based on your diet (vegan, vegetarian). I used it to keep track of my calories a few years ago and lost 70 lbs. <3 it!

In case you’re interested, I use this really cool site: caloriecount.about.com
Not only to make sure I get enough calories every day, but it also tracks your essential vitamins and protein, and it shoots up a little red flag if you haven’t met your requirements for the day.
It’s free, and super easy to use. So that’s just an option for ya, it might help with your moms concerns about your nutrition

Do your due diligence– make sure you’re aware of the nutrients you need to get and that you’re eating foods to get them. If you’re worried, schedule an appointment for blood work with your doctor after you’ve been vegan for a bit. They’ll be able to tell you if you’re lacking in anything. If you’re doing well, that’ll be proof for your step-mom that vegans are healthy! Good luck!

As long as you’re eating a healthy well balanced vegan diet then you’re actually doing better than worse if you’re not eating right then they’re going to be risks just eat right!

As long as your eating a healthy balanced vegan diet, the only nutritional concern you will have is Vitamin B12 – and there are plenty of great vegan supplements for that. There is also a lot of research going on right now about whether or not Seaweed is an acceptable source of B12. But thats beside the point.
As long as you’re eating a healthy balance vegan diet, you’re likely to be healthier than most omnivores.

There is health risks with almost everything .. if you go vegan you just have to eat right.. there is plenty of info here for you to do that..

The average vegan diet provides all needed nutrition without causing any health problems.
The average non-vegan diet which includes meat & dairy is lacking nutrition and causes all kinds of health problems.

Vegan food is human food. It’s the food humans are designed to eat.
On a proper vegan diet, your health will almost certainly improve, not worsen, and you will be less susceptible to illness and disease.

Of course you could, but you also could have the same problem with a diet including meat, eggs, and dairy. I suggest checking this page out for more info:
http://pcrm.org/health/health-topics/calcium-and-strong-bones

A vegan diet can be much healthier as well and help reduce your risk for disease:
http://features.peta2.com/making-the-connection/disease.aspx

I hope you find this information useful, and if you have any other questions or need tips on going vegan, please don’t hesitate to post on the boards or e-mail peta2 for help!

You will not get rickets or any bad health problems if you go vegan in a healthy way. Rickets is caused by a deficiency in calcium, vitamin D, and phosphate. There are a lot of ways to get these on a vegan diet:

Calcium– soy products (soybeans, tofu, soy yogurt, etc.) & veggies such as broccoli, collard greens, turnip greens, cooked kale, cooked okra, bok choy, beans, and almonds.

Vitamin D– sunlight (15 minutes outside is enough), fortified vegan foods such as soy milk, vitamin supplements made with yeast or other fungi, and vegan margarine.

Phosphate– most beans and lentils, peas, corn, sweet potato, parsnips, mushrooms, spinach, artichokes, asparagus, broccoli, and nuts.

Actually, eating meat causes health problems. Check out this website.

http://www.nursingdegree.net/blog/19/57-health-benefits-of-going-vegan/

Hope this is helpful for you:)

My step-mum is convinced that I could get rickets or my children could be born with them. Is there any other health risks that may occur? If so how could they be prevented?