vegan supplements

[sarahcd]

I have been vegan for nearly 3 years, and it has helped me tremendously. Now, going into body building training, i need to know how to get the supplements I need. Whey protein? Vitamin A? Does anyone know what I can substitute?
Thanks, and have an awesome day!

[reefpicker]

Originally Posted by sarahcd

I have been vegan for nearly 3 years, and it has helped me tremendously. Now, going into body building training, i need to know how to get the supplements I need. Whey protein? Vitamin A? Does anyone know what I can substitute?
Thanks, and have an awesome day!

Hi I know a lot of vegans myself but I am only a partial vegetarian... I do not eat chicken or red meats but I do eat fish and milk-products or eggs.

Whey protein is not vegan (its dairy).

Since I am not a vegan, I am going to tell you what I know about the topic with a little bit of personal experience from just being a vegetarian.

Soy protein: they sell it at walmart... Each scoop has 25g of protein. Soy protein is more difficult to digest, and dissolve, but you should be able to use it in shakes.

Since you are vegan, you may be able to buy soy yogurts for your shakes. Mix the yogurt with the soy protein and add some soy milk. It should make for a tasty shake. If its a pre-workout shake, add a bannana and some plain yogurt. If its a post-workout, add strawberries and a good flavored soy yogurt....

Try to eat a little bit more protein than recommended, b/c soy protein is (from what I have heard) more difficult to digest and absorb, thus you should up your consumption... Try to aim for 50% more... Thus if you calculate you need 120g of protein, use supplements to reach 180g. If you seem to lack in gains, push it to 100% more (thus 200% of the recommened daily intake)...

Eat a lot more legumes, spinach, and peanut butter. I eat peanut butter cookies like almost every day! LOL They have like 6g - 7g of protein per package. Try GenSoy bars which are vegan and taste great. They are a good snack (like 10g of protein or more and only 200 calories I think)....

Try to use the soy protein isolate for cooking. Add it to your tofued eggs etc.

Oatmeal is also a good source of protein for vegans. You may be able to make good protein shakes with this vegan shources: oatmeal, soy protein isolate, and peanut butter.

You will also need creatine ASAP and vitamin b12.

I suggest you buy these 3 things as soon as you can and start supplementing your diet.

It seems I am one of only a handful of vegetarians around here... So feel free to msg me...

Good luck!

[sarahcd]

Thank you, ReefPicker! I sooo appreciate your reply! I did not know that about soy protein. That was an awesome reply, w/ lots of info. Peanut butter cookies? Ha! That should be no problem. And, I do like those Genisoy bars, too. I knew about the Vitamin B12, but still do not know what to do about Vitamin A, which I have been told I need. I have been told to stop being vegan, and to eat chicken, and fish for protein, but I know that I can get it elsewhere.
Once again, I thank you.

[\S/]

Are you male or female?

FISH OIL: NOW Omega-3
CREATINE: Creatine Monohydrate

[tbradfor]

Hi Sarahcd,
I have been a lacto-ovo vegetarian for 23 years. I have recently decided to go Vegan since I'm allergic to soy, gluten products, beans, and becoming intolerant to Whey.
I would suggest flax oil, vegan amino acids, rice protein, hemp protein, soy protein(if your not allergic), creatine monohydrate, glutamine, vegan multivitamin/multimineral, digestive enzymes, evening primose oil, chromium picolinate and CLA. I'm not telling you to take all of these supplements, but these supplements have worked well for me and are Vegan.

Whey is not vegan, but some are vegetarian. I say that some are not vegetarian because some products like Nectur whey protein isolate contain Bovine serum (blood)--sometimes its abbreviated. However, the majority of wheys out there are vegetarian---but no whey protein is Vegan.
I hope this helps.

Tbradfor

[mcdbb]

Originally Posted by sarahcd

I have been vegan for nearly 3 years, and it has helped me tremendously. Now, going into body building training, i need to know how to get the supplements I need. Whey protein? Vitamin A? Does anyone know what I can substitute?
Thanks, and have an awesome day!

Vegans and vegetarians may also need to increase their intakes of iron up to 1.8-2x the DRI recommended as evidence suggests iron absorption from vegetables is fairly low. As others have recommended B12 is essential for vegans and vegetarians who do not consume milk or dairy products.

HOWEVER. This is hardly a reason to start gobbling down one of those mega-vitamins with 10x the daily recommended amount. You'll hurt yourself more than you will help yourself. "Get 2x the amount of iron" simply means eat a few more servings of leafy greens or beans. Men only need 8 mg (milligrams) a day - some of your run-of-the-mill multis will have way, way, way more than that - to levels that could induce toxicity. Same goes for B12. The DRI is 2.4 MICROGRAMS, a supplement would cover you MORE than you need. Additionally your body will store up to six years' supply in the body, so popping a pill a day is overkill. Besides the B12 I really don't think you have much to worry about.

[markland3214]

You can also take wheat protein isolate if allergic to soy. Here's a review:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=107777861

[justtakexmeout]

I am 99% sure that no Creatine supplement is Vegan. Creatine is a compound found only in meat, and I talked to someone from USPlabs and their creatine supplement "Jack3d" is derived from pork fat.

just a heads up

[reefpicker]

Originally Posted by justtakexmeout

I am 99% sure that no Creatine supplement is Vegan. Creatine is a compound found only in meat, and I talked to someone from USPlabs and their creatine supplement "Jack3d" is derived from pork fat.

just a heads up

Creatine is not found in fat tissue, so I doubt the statement is true. It is not even soluble in fat!

The amount present in muscle tissue of any animal would make it almost impossible to justify using animal sources.

In fact, creatine is made in the lab from chemicals as this article says:
http://fusionnutritioninc.blogspot.c...e-is-made.html


I understand you seem to have a primary source for your information, but considering the simplicity of the creatine molecule, and how pure the form we buy is, I doubt this has any grain of truth. At best, because it is not found in fat, I doubt that your source was reliable.

[eddiebo]

Originally Posted by sarahcd

but still do not know what to do about Vitamin A

Vitamin A / Beta Carotene
Some veggies are loaded. Top 20 from nutritiondata.com:

Peppers, sweet, red, freeze-dried Vitamin A: 77249IU
Carrot, dehydrated Vitamin A: 68460IU
Chives, freeze-dried Vitamin A: 68306IU
Parsley, freeze-dried Vitamin A: 63238IU
Shallots, freeze-dried Vitamin A: 56097IU
Peppers, pasilla, dried Vitamin A: 35756IU
Grape leaves, raw Vitamin A: 27520IU
Peppers, hot chile, sun-dried Vitamin A: 26488IU
Sweet potato, frozen, cooked, baked, without salt [Sweetpotato] Vitamin A: 20870IU
Pepper, ancho, dried Vitamin A: 20439IU
Sweet potato, frozen, cooked, baked, without salt [Sweetpotato] Vitamin A: 20870IU
Pepper, ancho, dried Vitamin A: 20439IU
Sweet potato, cooked, baked in skin, with salt [Sweetpotato] Vitamin A: 19217IU
Sweet potato, cooked, baked in skin, without salt [Sweetpotato] Vitamin A: 19217IU
Carrot juice, canned Vitamin A: 19124IU
Tomato powder Vitamin A: 17245IU
Carrots, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt Vitamin A: 17036IU
Carrots, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt Vitamin A: 17036IU
Carrots, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt Vitamin A: 16927IU
Carrots, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt Vitamin A: 16927IU
Carrots, raw [Includes USDA commodity food A099] Vitamin A: 16705IU
Sweet potato, frozen, cooked, baked, with salt [Sweetpotato] Vitamin A: 16413IU
Broccoli, leaves, raw Vitamin A: 16001IU

[eddiebo]

Originally Posted by mcdbb

HOWEVER. This is hardly a reason to start gobbling down one of those mega-vitamins with 10x the daily recommended amount. You'll hurt yourself more than you will help yourself. "Get 2x the amount of iron" simply means eat a few more servings of leafy greens or beans. Men only need 8 mg (milligrams) a day - some of your run-of-the-mill multis will have way, way, way more than that - to levels that could induce toxicity. Same goes for B12. The DRI is 2.4 MICROGRAMS, a supplement would cover you MORE than you need. Additionally your body will store up to six years' supply in the body, so popping a pill a day is overkill. Besides the B12 I really don't think you have much to worry about.

My undertanding is more than needed B12 is simply released through your urine, not at all toxic. The only water soluble vitamin that is potentially 'toxic' at extremely high amounts, is B6.

[eddiebo]

justtakexmeout, did you resurrect this thread simply to try to state creatine is derived from pork fat? Its over 2 years old... truly from the archives.