Vegan diets & financial cost by Julie Bowen

A common misconception about the vegan diet is that it severely lacks protein and, as we all know, protein is the building blocks of muscle and therefore essential to building them. However, any vegan will know that nuts and soy are equally good sources of protein and good fats. Many diets are aimed at those willing to spend vast amounts of money to make the problem – their fat – disappear. However, for most, these prices are extortionate and unnecessary. Finding the cheapest diets to burn fat, while maintaining muscle is essential to getting the chiselled body you want.

The Paleo – or Caveman – diet is a regime that’s being talked about excessively in the weight loss community. Although at £2.60 per meal there are probably cheaper ways of losing fat, the method is actually incredibly sensible. The ethos of this diet is to eat only what you would find in the wild, in theory, like our ancestors used to. This means no processed sugars or fats, mainly nuts, grains, fruit and vegetables. If weight lifting on this diet, as soy traditionally needs to be processed before it’s consumed, it might be sensible to also use a vegan protein powder as insurance so that you don’t have to rely on the protein in the other sources alone.

Additionally a vegetarian diet without the animal products – a well-rounded, clean vegan diet – is excellent for weight loss in itself and very cheap at only around £1.40 per meal. Non-processed, simple foods like nuts, fruit, rice, non-starchy vegetables, beans, pulses and grains are all excellent for your body and when portion controlled in exercised, can help your body shred fat and retrain muscle at a low price.

[Editors note:  Just so you know, the editors of the blog do not consider the paleo diet as "incredibly sensible" as there appears to be links with cardiovascular disease & a host of other problems with the diet, as well as the ethic issues of course]