Must've been 3-4 years ago, I can't recall the exact date anymore.
As I grew older I started noticing that my body struggled more and more processing animal proteins. I'd feel heavy and tired after meals, even if the food I ate wasn't greasy or processed. It took me a long time to realize the root cause of it, but I eventually did. So I stopped eating meat/seafood all together then.
I also developed lactose intolerance even earlier. So dairy was already out of the picture.
The only thing left was eggs and, ironically enough, eggs is what I still miss the most. I always loved breakfast, and I don't feel it's complete without eggs.
Since going vegan I have dropped my LDL cholesterol levels to nearly undetectable levels. Not that I was in a danger zone before (about 2.5 mmol/L). But what I got out of my new eating habits the most is energy. I can now stuff myself with an obscene amount of plant-based food at lunch and still have enough jump to go about the rest of my day without feeling groggy or sleepy. It resulted in so much more efficiency at work and home that I sometimes feel like I've been re-born to be honest.
People are such interesting creatures: some can feel energized by certain diets, while others feel groggy and tired. What I don't like about nutrition science is that studies are run based on averages and statistical precision. These get reported and understood as ''diet x is better for your health than diet y.'' When in reality, in any large study, I guarantee you there were several jabroni in group y who were responding extremely well to diet y, and may not even respond well at all to diet x. But the findings will tell them to follow diet x. I think it would be interesting to do a study where you then took the best and worse responders from each diet, and had them switch to the other diet to see what would happen. Then, perhaps using genetic analysis, try to cluster the responders to each diet.
We could then say ''if you're in this category, you might respond really well to this diet.'' But as of right now the situation is that you might switch to a vegetarian or vegan diet and experience what you've experienced: energy, pep, better blood work, and health. Or you could experience what I did: hunger, lower energy, irritability, poor skin, and lower sex drive.
Just to take an anecdotal example, though I am not a lobster-person, I was listening to Jordan Peterson talk about his diet which is: beef, salt, and various kinds of water. He's lost 50 pounds and said he's never felt better. He was convinced to try it by his daughter who had debilitating arthritis and depression which suspiciously left when she switched to the carnivore diet. Now, this is not just anecdotal, it's also hearsay, but it's also extremely interesting. Maybe some people are just plant eaters, and some others are just carnivores.
It's nice to hear that you're having such wonderful results with veganism, though.
