What are the benefits of being a vegan?

i am not a full vegen at the moment. But i've been eating vegetarian lunch daily. You can get protein from soy product-Tofu, cheese, eggs(if you consider taking egg too),nuts ( peanut butter is good and some are complete proteins) Vegetarian meal has lots of protein, as they usually have cheese or eggs. Eat more leafty food will make a person slimmer too. My friend and i are more vegy lover, we don't have to worry about getting fat as we seldom eat junk food and meat. have a nice meal - Go for vegy.

ok let me explain a little, I make a little summary, here it is : Health Studies have strongly correlated a plant based diet with better health benefits than a meat heavy diet. Vegans note additional health benefits are gained by not consuming artificial substances such as growth hormones and antibiotics, which are often given to farmed animals The American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada state that "well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence." Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than nonvegetarians, although there was no significant difference in blood pressure rates. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine says that one small scale study has observed that a vegan diet can reduce blood cholesterol in people with, and significantly reduce the complications of Type 2 diabetes. There are a number of vegan athletes. Vegan athletes compete in a variety of sports, such as powerlifting, bodybuilding, martial arts, long distance running, and many others. Multiple Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis has stated that he became vegan in 1990 and felt that his "best year of track competition" was when he ate a vegan diet. Some studies have found benefits associated with diets rich in whole plant foods, and risks associated with diets rich in animal-based foods. One of the researchers from the 1990 epidemiological study, "The China Study," said "Even small increases in the consumption of animal-based foods was associated with increased disease risk." Studies in Japan found that increased consumption of some animal products coincided with a decrease in risk for some forms of cerebrovascular disease and stroke mortality. There are also claims that industry livestock feeding practices pose health threats to human consumers. According to Dr. Michael Greger in a January 2004 lecture at MIT (which is the basis for Whistleblower, a 2007 documentary film by Jeff Bellamar) each year more than one million tons of animal excrement are fed back to farm animals raised for human consumption to lower the feed costs. He also says that up to 10% of blood from killed animals is mixed into some cattle feed, and up to 30% of some poultry feed is made up of the blood. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is believed to be caused by cows being fed with contaminated meat and bone meal, a high-protein substance obtained from the remnants of butchered animals, including cows and sheep. In most parts of the developed world, such remnants are no longer allowed in feed for ruminant animals, and the World Health Organization recommends a complete ban on ruminant-to-ruminant feeding, but the practice persists in a few countries. Health effects The American Dietetic Association says that a properly planned vegan diet presents no significant nutritional problems. Vegans are potentially at risk for being deficient in several nutrients, such as vitamin B12, vitamin A[citation needed], iron and iodine. These deficiencies can have potentially serious consequences, including anemia, pernicious anemia, cretinism and hyperthyroidism.[citation needed] Vitamin supplementation is highly recommended for vegans. Vegans should be particularly concerned with adequate intake of vitamins like Vitamin D and Vitamin B12. However, adequate amounts of vitamin D may be obtained by spending 15 to 30 minutes every few days in the sunlight, which may be difficult or impossible for vegans in areas with low levels of sunlight during winter. Vegans are at a higher risk of vitamin A deficiency because in its true form (also called retinol) it is found only in animal foods such as fish oils and liver. This form is readily absorbed by the body. Plants do not contain vitamin A, but rather provitamin A and despite consumption of such provitamin A rich foods there might be vitamin deficiencies because of the consumption of insufficient amount of fat together with carotene-rich vegetables, and dietary deficiencies in iron and zinc. Vitamin B12, a bacterial product, cannot be reliably found in plant foods. While it may take one to five years to exhaust some individual's reserves of vitamin B12, serious health consequences are a very real risk and many people do not have such reserves. Additionally, mild B12 deficiency (elevated homocysteine levels) can develop even with such reserves. In a recent laboratory study, 60% of the strict vegan participants' B12 and iron levels were compromised, as compared with the lacto- or lacto-ovo-vegetarian participants (who were able to acquire vitamin B12 from these animal sources). In addition, lower counts of lymphocytes (the white blood cells responsible for immune system responses) and platelets (responsible for blood coagulation) and alterations in the iron metabolism and transport, were demonstrated. I sumarizing that from wikipedia, I hope that could help.