There can be difficulties but being vegan in itself is not difficult
Fourteen years ago, there were my own money troubles, so that I was needing to get food where there was help for that, this made a difficulty in going vegan when I might have otherwise. Going vegan itself right after that difficulty was not hard, I can give tips for that.
Other than the social element, the difficult part is losing the psychological defense mechanisms that carnism provides, while still having to cope with living in a carnist environment.
Vystopia
Empathy HURTS. Experiencing a fraction of the pain and atrocity that others experience HURTS. There are no vegan cowards.
Yup. And you’ll feel better too. Going vegan is only as hard as you make it
Well I've got a question I've been wondering about for a while, so since you offer advice I'll ask it here:
How do you get enough choline in your diet without spending a lot of money? Searching the web hasn't turned up an answer for me so far. Of all the vitamins and minerals known to nutritional science it's literally the only one I haven't figured out yet. I'm eating eggs for that (it's the number one non-vegan thing about my diet) plus a supplement, and it's still not quite up to the officially recommended level although I think it's probably good enough. But I'd like to not have to eat so many eggs and the research seems to indicate that dietary choline is somewhat important.
Choline indeed is an essential nutrient as your body cannot synthesise enough from other substances to maintain proper health.
Unfortunately, we cannot determine what is a good enough amount of dietary choline for you specifically. There isn't even a scientific consensus for the recommended dietary allowance (yet).
Instead, as I understand you're interested in the importance of choline for health, I'd recommend you read the scientific research specifically about vegetarian, vegan, and plant-based diets in relation to choline intake and their health outcomes.
Here's a literature review: https://www.academia.edu/3067-1345/2/4/10.20935/AcadNutr8085
_vegetarian and vegan diets supply lower choline levels than omnivorous diets, but overt deficiency is rare, likely due to nutrient interactions and potential overestimation of requirements. Increasing intake of animal foods to meet choline requirements may be associated with increased chronic disease risk _
They also noted that a single egg per day increases the risk on cardiovascular disease: a meta-analysis of 41 cohort studies found that consumption of one additional 50 g egg daily was associated with increased CVD risk.
Based on the findings in this study, I would recommend to the general public, whether vegan or not:
Cheap plant-based foods rich in choline are peanuts, almonds, edamame, tofu, flaxseed, sunflower seeds, mushrooms, and cauliflower.
Thanks, that article looks very helpful. It'll take me a while to read it but already it makes me want to go back to eating more spinach, for the betaine. I will at least start eating fewer eggs even if I don't go fully vegan.
Ive never even heard of this before. Just searched it, found a random webpage
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods-with-choline#vegan-sources
The second half of the list mentions vegan sources, including Cruciferous vegetables, lima beans, red potatoes, almonds, kidney beans and others.
So from that list —
I was hoping for an answer other than eating two cups of soybeans every day. I'm not even sure whether or not it's possible to get them at a reasonable price in this part of the world, but I guess I'll have to find out.
This is probably why 90% of usians dont get enough, as stated in the article. It's like this for Vit D around here too. No one gets enough vit D.
If youre really concerned about this one specific vitamin or mineral, Id ask your doctor, if you can, about it. Id guess its not something to be too worried about, but Id ask your doctor about it.
Studies are actually limited on this. Actual deficiency seems to only occur when intake is less than 50mg/day, which is why vegans generally don't all drop dead from fatty liver disease even though their daily intake is less than the adequate intake recommendation.
But, again, studies are limited. Society doesn't really care if vegans kill themselves so no one bothers to study this kind of stuff. I supplement with 250mg/day, because I only really get around 200mg/day from my normal diet and I don't feel like eating several cups of soybeans lol
I'd never heard of choline before, but it seems to be available in decent amounts from soy beens, whole grains, peanuts, brussels sprouts and broccoli.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choline#Content_in_foods