Thinking About Going Vegan? Read This.

According to a study in British Journal of Nutrition, researchers previously demonstrated that abstaining from meat, for one month, by healthy omnivores (lacto-ovovegetarian model) resulted in a statistical decrease in pancreatic secretion. In the present study, they aimed to assess the changes of exocrine pancreatic secretion by applying a vegan diet. The nutrient intake and fecal output of pancreatic enzymes (elastase-1, chymotrypsin and lipase) were assessed twice during the study. Each assessment period lasted for 7 days: the first before the transition to the vegan diet (omnivore diet) and the second during the last week of the study (vegan diet). The dietary modification resulted in a significant decrease in fecal elastase-1 and chymotrypsin output. The lipase excretion remained unchanged. The decrease in proteolytic enzymes was documented to be positively correlated with a decreased protein intake. In addition, elastase-1 and chymotrypsin outputs were also related to the changes of protein type, plant versus animal. It was concluded that significant reduction and modification of protein intake due to a short-term vegan diet resulted in an adaptation of pancreatic protease secretion in healthy volunteers.

Bonnie - translation? When you reduce the amount of bioavailable protein (i.e. animal form), you also reduce your ability to digest the remaining protein in your diet. To make matters worse for vegans, plant protein is twice as hard to digest and is much less bioavailable than animal protein, rendering your enzymes even less useful. I have had several clients exhibit protein deprivation issues after going on vegan diets. Supplementing with enzymes can help the situation, especially chymotrypsin and protease, but cannot replace the bioavailablity of animal protein.