There's often a confusion between people who go "whole-food plant-based" for personal health reasons, and people who go vegan which is about animal's rights. Of course a person can want both too.

In any case, people who adopt more plant-centric diets do often see a reduction is bodyweight, but it's not guaranteed. As the pic up top shows, it can still be very easy to have an unhealthy lifestyle even if it is plant-based.

The vegan I knew in college actually warned people about weight gain while she was pushing her veganism on us. "Its hard not to replace everything with carbs" was basically her spiel.

Bill Clinton did it to, though I think his doctor basically said he was dead if he didn’t.

You can pretty much survive on black beans and onions.

Iirc, beans have everything you need except for vitamin c, but I could be wrong about that.

You’re unlikely to be lacking most nutrients in a first world country, even eating tons of junk food.

That’s not me saying it’s okay to live on junk food, that’s me saying essential nutrients aren’t going to be your problem.

Edit:

I looked it up. You’ll be missing some components of a complete protein, so eat some grains too.

Protein: legumes (beans, lentils, peanuts, chickpeas, tofu and other solid soy products)

Calcium: fortified plant milks (convenient) or cruciferous leaves and flowers (healthy) such as collards, kale, or broccoli. Tofu is a good source too. Avoid excessive intakes of salt.

Iron: eat vitamin-C rich food with your meals, such as bell peppers, lemon/lime juice on your food, or drink orange juice.

B-12: you must supplement, either with gummies, fortified plant milk or processed vegan products (vegan sausages, vegan "turkey" slices, etc.)

A vitamin: carrots, cruciferous leaves and flowers (see calcium), squash, cantaloup. Eat with fatty food for better absorption. Eg. Minestrone soup (kale and olive oil)

Omega-3 : tofu is a good source. Flaxseed oil has enough in a teaspoon – it works well on salads. Some nuts are a good source too.

Please visit https://veganhealth.org/ for more information. This site is authored by a registered dietetician.

https://nutritionfacts.org/ is great too.

If you plan to reduce your meat intake, you don't have to consider anything, really.

If you plan to eat fully vegan, you should look up B12 supplements and make sure to get some proteins (beans, lentils, tofu etc). The whole nutrition thing is not as big a problem as you think it is, though. If you're unsure, maybe get a blood test done after a few months.

There are no nutrients that are exclusively available via meat/dairy. The only thing you might miss out on is B12, but that's usually supplemented in a lot of the vegan substitutes/junk food alternatives already. Anything else you'll get pretty easily by simply eating your regular veggies, beans, legumes etc.

If you truly care about nutrients, then get your blood tested and have them check what you are actually lacking, and then adjust or supplement your diet accordingly. Chances are that you are already low on something even when eating animal products.

Vitamin B12 is the main one that's hard to get. It's not really natural to any foods apart from animal products.

Iodine is also a tough one. Though you're probably deficient in this anyway depending on how much sea food and dairy milk you eat. Technically iodine isn't natural to milk, but we feed iodine supplements to dairy cattle.

You can get enough of both of these by drinking enough fortified plant milks, but it's like half a litre a day and idk I find that's just a lot.

I'm personally just lazy and take supplements, the Vegan Society here in the UK do ones that are affordable and have everything you need in them. If you live far enough north or south you should be taking vitamin D supplements anyway, at least during the winter.

Its not that hard. Gorillas are vegan, they do fine. So are my goats.

i quit meat a bunch of years ago, I try to eat a varied diet, and try to mix greens and grains. I get a check up about once a year and all my blood work comes back fine.

About 5-6 years ago I did the same thing. I'm still a shameless omnivore, but I managed to reduce my meat consumption significantly. Around 2024 (so several years after I started) I had to get my blood analyzed. The only thing they found was my lack of vitamin D, but I live in a country with ~~minimal~~ suboptimal* sun exposure, so it's a thing here anyway.

Note that I still eat meat, but way less often than before. I started with a maximum of two meaty days per week (no cap on meat those days), but not as a fixed schedule: I just allowed myself when I really craved it, but not more than 2 days a week. Can be 1 or 0.

Fast forward to the end of 2023, when I started thinking about when I last had meat, and I couldn't remember. It wasn't quite hard, to be honest: there are awesome veggie meals around, and I still eat dairy and eggs whenever.

That's only a downside for the coworkers

Famously everything other then cheese and onion is vegan, including Smokey Bacon somehow.

I'm sure chickens give up bouillon willingly.

Most are not, but a handful of certain flavors are

https://yourveganjourney.com/vegan-doritos/

https://vegfaqs.com/are-doritos-vegan/

like the drug or curry kind

Yeah. But apparently OOP is mocking people who eat ten at a time.