comment to readers comment….

Someone wrote in to ask me if I was joking about vegetarianism being not healthy.  So I followed the link to her blog and read for awhile.  I found many references to soy, tempeh, tons of baked good, white sugar, food cravings, how to not over eat on desserts, weight issues, low fat foods… Cakes made with margarine (hydrogenated fats!)  All breakfasts she lists are grain based.  Here’s her index;

bagel bbq beans Beer biscuits bread broccoli burgers burrito cake chickpeas collard greens cookies Corn Sticks curry falafel gravy hummus ice cream kohlrabi lasagna pancakes pasta pita pizza potatoes protein quesadilla restaurant rice shepherd’s pie soup Southwestern Black Beans sprouts sushi Swiss chard syrup tea tofu

7 items in the index are actually vegetables.

I was a vegetarian for 23 years, a vegan for 8, and had problems with both ways of eating.  Like most vegetarians I had food cravings continually.  I have been studying nutrition since I was 18 years old. I am now 55, and in perfect health.  I was never a moral vegetarian. One of my main reasons for trying to stick to veganism for so long was that there was no sources of clean meat or fats. 

It took me until age 36 to realize that humans are not grain eaters, and that we are not supposed to eat cows milk. Most vegans go on and on about not eating processed foods, but eat soy not realizing it is highly processed.

I was in a meeting yesterday with a health food store owner and we were talking about those vegans who eat brownies, tofu and bean burritos thinking they are eating healthy. Several of my friends who are vegetarian and my age (55) are having issues with high blood pressure, weight gain, very low energy. I have a vegan friend who had surgery 4 years ago on her bowel, two years after liposuction…and she has not healed in spite of me and her doctor begging her to add the protein back to her diet which would help her heal. AND she is still overweight.  I have another friend, a 30+ year vegan, who has lupus, chronic fatigue, can barely make it through the day, has been on anti-depressants for 20 years. Her doctor tells her that red meat is bad for her, to eat low fat.  The average food intake I see, in the form of food diaries from  new clients, is 1100 calories a day, about 70% from carbs.  These people are malnourished. 

If you are overweight you are malnourished.  If you have dis-eases, you are malnourished.  Disease is your bodies way of asking you to respond appropriately.  A compromised immune system is always involved when you are in anything less that perfect health. 

The author had a copy of the “vegan food pyramid”.  The largest group was the bottom of the triangle, it was all grains, totally empty carbs. The top was oils that were in supplement form.  Weeelll, doesn’t that in itself show that if we need to “supplement” then the diet is inadequate. Oils removed from the foods they originally came in are highly carcinogenic!  Yet her desserts contain vegetable oils, including canola, a highly toxic oil.  Heated vegetable oils produce a large amount of free radicals. (read Udo Erasmus’ work!). Heated vegetable oils, along with a diet high in sugar and grains, cause heart disease.

In short, a vegan diet is sadly lacking in necessary fats, high quality proteins.  A diet that has been shown to lead to many health problems, including a suppressed immune system and obesity.

I am not trying to attack anyone here, but a vegan diet is not healthy, for us, or the planet.  How we eat should not be based on a belief system, but on hard science; the diet that man has been following for thousands and thousands of years;

Healthy fats, 75% of them saturated, organic grass fed meat, vegetables and a small amount of fruit.  Nothing processed, nothing out of cans or boxes. In short, real food.