There’s a lot of misleading information put out by the plant-based community with regard to macros, and I fell for it. Despite some improvements thanks to my hard work and the benefits of insects, I’d been wrestling with plateaus for months.
Recently though, I figured out why – most information out there about a “healthy” vegan diet is geared toward mere survival! Not toward maximizing the human condition, which is what I’m looking to do.
The fix is actually quite simple, since I’m already eating the healthiest, most sustainable diet on the planet as an Entovegan: just increase my intake of insect protein and nutrition.
Most vegan or plant-based info online suggests that you only need ~40g of protein per day to survive, and that “vegans get a lot more than this, as much as 70g”.
Wow, a whopping 70g of protein? Are you sure I should get so much? (I’m snarky now, but…I believed it and was following that advice.)
I finally got frustrated enough at being stuck on an endless plateau, that I decided to listen to my lifting partner and nutritional advisor Curran Hendry, and follow what world-class athletes and bodybuilders suggest: get a helluva lot more protein!
Basically, I want to at minimum double what most plant-based information says is sufficient, and get at least 150g of protein every day. At a minimum! Forget that 40g or 70g nonsense, I want improvements and I want to be in peak condition, I don’t want to just “survive”.
Fueled by insect nutrition, I get my #Entogains, whether in the gym or outside.
So I’ve increased my insect protein intake by a huge amount, and shockingly enough, what do you know but I have made crazy awesome gains the past several months!
Look – you can survive on a strictly vegan diet with low protein consumption, and while having to supplement huge quantities of your vitamins and minerals which you can’t get from plants.
Or, you can thrive, by taking plant-based to the next level with the addition of the most evolutionary food source available, insects.
I’m not just saying Entovegan is the evolution of a vegan diet for the sake of saying it – it’s unequivocally the TRUTH!
Farmed insects are more sustainable than commercially farmed plant proteins, making an insect-based diet the most sustainable diet on earth.
Insect nutrition is healthier than a plants-only diet, and it blows the lab-grown soy-hybrid alternative proteins out of the genetically modified, sodium and saturated fat-filled brine they’re grown in.
Do you want to maximize your health, while making the most sustainable food choices possible? Be Entovegan.
LET’S BE REAL: PLANT-BASED HAS FLAWS
I was well aware of the potential downsides to the vegan diet when I started – real dangers from a lack of B12, calcium, iron, omega fatty acids, and more.
But the epiphany for me was the realization that insects fill in all those nutritional gaps!
- Insects are a complete animal protein, while being the ultimate SUSTAINABLE superfood
- Insects are high in vitamin B12, calcium, iron, zinc, and other minerals, eliminating the need for vegan mineral supplements
- Insects are an easy to digest protein with a complete amino profile, ensuring you can get enough to make gains, not just survive, and without having to eat massive amounts of beans or tofu every day
- Insects are high in pre-biotic digestive fibers which benefit a healthy gut microbiome and the gut-brain connection (more than 97% of Americans don’t get enough fiber!)
A purely plant-based diet, though, requires supplementation in all those areas in order to still be considered a healthy diet. The Entovegan diet doesn’t need anything else, it is the full-spectrum solution.
Veganism tells you how to survive. Entovegan helps you thrive!
What’s more, unless you live in a privileged city with massive amounts of healthy vegan food, and you can afford it (healthy vegan food choices tend to be much more expensive than their traditional counterparts), it’s very difficult to make gains as an athlete or bodybuilder being strictly vegan.
And while there are some very notable vegan bodybuilders out there now, they also supplement heavily, and they live in cities with plentiful access to healthy vegan food. They also don’t follow a normal vegan caloric intake – forget about only getting 50g-70g of protein, these guys are getting that every meal, multiple times per day!
For the most part, there’s a reason why the cliched viewpoint of most athletes regarding vegans has been that they’re skinny weaklings…aka, soyboys.
I want to do my individual part for the planet, so being vegan is the right step. But I don’t want to be a weak soyboy, so being Entovegan is a better solution! For strength AND sustainability.
And as the population booms over the next 30 years, and the world frets about 2050 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), the reality is that the majority of the population growth is coming in the developing world, where being vegan or even strictly plant-based isn’t practical.
Being Entovegan, though, is something that is practical for people all over the world, and it’s easy to thrive, not just survive.
WHY COMBINE ENTO WITH -VEGAN INSTEAD OF -TARIAN?
I’m also asked, why Entovegan instead of Entotarian? Wouldn’t it be healthier to include eggs and dairy in your diet to more easily cover calcium, protein, and other nutrient needs?
The argument can be made that vegetarian is healthier than vegan for those reasons, BUT, because vegetarian includes support of the dairy cow industry and poultry farming for eggs, being vegetarian supports too many animal abuses and it’s highly unsustainable.
A vegan diet is far more ethical and sustainable than a vegetarian diet, and obviously better for animal welfare.
But adding insects and creating an entirely new dietary framework which is Entovegan, is better than both!
“He doesn’t look vegan.” “No, that’s a body built by insects…he’s Entovegan!”
Remember that I’m not claiming to be a ‘vegan who eats insects’, no – I’m Entovegan, which is an entirely new word and dietary / lifestyle framework, which improves upon the plant-based vegan diet through the addition of insect nutrition.
Entovegan takes the positives in sustainability from a vegan diet and makes them even more sustainable, as insect farming is more sustainable than commercial plant proteins such as soy. (Pat Crowley, the CEO of Chapul, will be speaking about the topic of plant-based vs alternative proteins at Supply Side West – I’ll post the video when it’s available).
And Entovegan is more richly nutritious than a vegetarian or vegan diet, providing large quantities of all the vitamins, minerals, omegas, and protein that a person needs, and does so in the most sustainable manner possible.
Entovegan is truly the ideal dietary framework for a person who is looking to maximize their human performance while living as environmentally friendly as possible. There’s no debate anymore.
Forget about comparisons with the meat industry, it’s obvious insects are exponentially better. Instead, let’s compare insects with the alternative protein options.
- Insects are more sustainable than plant-proteins (especially soy)
- Insects are healthier than GMO lab-grown soy-hybrid proteins (beyond meat, impossible burger, etc)
- Insects are able to be produced at scale (unlike algae to date)
- Insects are accessible for billions of people in the developing world (unlike any of the others in sufficient quantities)
And in terms of animal welfare, insects must be farmed in absolutely perfect conditions. Unlike cattle, which can be tortured endlessly and still produce milk, or baby calves which are unable to move or walk in order to keep their meat ‘tender’, insects need to have the ideal conditions for their life in order to obtain a nutritious product.
Insects thrive in high density conditions, and so farming them at scale is much easier and uses exponentially less land, energy, feed, and water than any other natural protein. Greenhouse gas emissions are virtually nonexistent.
And the insects live an almost ‘club-med’ life with the perfect amount of food, ideal temperature, plentiful choices for mating, and no dangers from predators, before they’re humanely euthanized through freezing (being cold-blooded, they simply go into hibernation peacefully and don’t wake up).
Carefully tracking my macros and increasing my insect intake has led to visible and intangible improvements.
There’s no collateral damage, like there is with commercial plant-proteins, where millions of small mammals, birds, reptiles, and of course insects – including bees – are needlessly killed.
The farmed insects simply live a happy, ideal insect life, and then their cells are respectfully turned into nutritious protein for humans and animals.
Truly, there’s no better protein source on the planet! Nothing is more sustainable, and no other alternative protein has the breadth of nutrients and health benefits.
Speaking of protein, remember how I said at the beginning that I was struggling to make gains, even though I’ve felt really healthy? Well, the simple solution was fixing my macros.
Instead of getting the vegan “survival” amount of protein between 40-70g, I’m getting a minimum of 150g of protein per day, the majority of it through insect protein (I’ve also replaced quinoa in recent months with Job’s Tears, an ancient grain that is gluten-free, non-GMO, local here in Asia, and also high in protein).
My metabolism has sped up, muscle growth has been consistent, I have more energy, look and feel younger, and I’m well on my way to building my best self, while making very environmentally-friendly food and lifestyle choices.
A POSITIVE EXAMPLE TO INSPIRE THE WORLD
My goal is simply to live as a positive example and demonstrate that it’s possible to be fit, strong, and eco-friendly with a diet based on insects.
I believe Entovegan is the best solution available for health and sustainability, and I’ve set out to prove this.
To date, while I’ve certainly made mistakes and found myself in some valleys (remember the teeth problems? Increasing my insect intake and thus calcium, while lowering the amount of vegetables with anti-nutrients, allowed my teeth to repair themselves!) and on some plateaus, I feel like I’m starting to really hit my stride now and have a much deeper understanding of how to maximize the benefits I’m getting from insect nutrition.
Curran and I joke about it in the gym, saying we’re getting our #entogainz, but there’s a lot of truth to this! It’s just important to consume enough insect protein to allow the body to actually make gains, and not simply survive.
The first core tenet of the Entovegan Philosophy is to hold one’s own life in the highest regard. This means never being satisfied with mere survival. It means learning about biohacking, to achieve the ultimate in human performance that one is capable of.
It means fasting regularly to allow the body to cleanse itself of toxins, consuming known superfoods, applying the latest in sports science and workouts, ensuring you have a healthy gut-brain connection, and more.
Do you have an insect-based food product or brand? Get Entovegan Certified!
It also means EAT MORE INSECTS because the more one consumes, the more benefits are going to be seen in the body and mind!
I’ve been living this Entovegan life publicly because I have wanted to either prove or disprove the hype about insect nutrition being the future of food.
And I think the results so far are pretty clear: insects are a kickass superfood!
I am just a normal guy pushing 40 with an athletic past and a desire to stay active and adventurous for the next half (plus!) of my life on this beautiful planet. If I can make major lifestyle changes leading to drastically positive results, anyone can.
But it all started with making a conscious choice to overcome the erroneous yet deeply ingrained cultural biases that I had against eating insects. Once I realized they’re sustainable, healthy, and delicious, it would have been morally wrong of me to reject insects as a food source, having the knowledge of all their upside.
I made the right decision to embrace entomophagy, to embrace the bug, and to build my life within a framework of Entovegan health and nutrition.
This is, I believe, the ultimate method of fueling the body to maximize health and fitness and do it in the most sustainable manner possible.
I’ve put my body on the line the past few years to test the hypothesis that insect nutrition is the key to feeding the future. I probably eat more insect nutrition on a daily basis than anyone on the planet. And so far, the benefits have only been incredibly positive.
I hope I can inspire you to take a serious look at the myriad benefits of insects in your diet, the substantial improvements in offsetting your carbon footprint that come from being Entovegan, and the delicious diverse flavor profile that awaits you on this unique culinary experience!
This is only the beginning of my Entovegan journey, and I’m excited for what the future holds. Join me in making the world a better place, and in maximizing yourself through insect nutrition!
