Vegan for Life - Jack Norris [4]
After college, I became a full-time activist for animals, founded Vegan Outreach with Matt Ball, and spent two years traveling the country handing out our booklets on veganism to college students. In that time, I came across numerous people who said they had been vegan or vegetarian and had not been healthy. Due to this and all the other nutrition issues surrounding a vegan diet, I decided to become a registered dietitian so that I would know what I was talking about.
Ginny
When I headed off to college to become a dietitian, I was a carefree omnivore, chowing down happily on hamburgers and baked chicken. I’ve loved and felt great compassion for animals all my life, but for two and a half decades, it didn’t occur to me that this had anything to do with how I should eat.
The little light bulb went on over my head just after I obtained my RD. I was newly married and cooking up all kinds of gourmet dinners, including—just for fun—some vegetarian ones. The first vegetarian cookbook I purchased was Laurels’ Kitchen, and I credit it with nudging me onto the path toward ethical eating. Standing in the little kitchen in my apartment in Kalamazoo, Michigan, I opened it and read:
This book is dedicated to a glossy black calf on his way to the slaughterhouse many years ago, whose eyes met those of someone who could understand their appeal and inspire us, and thousands of others like us, to give the gift of life.
Just like that, something clicked. Those simple words spoke volumes to me, and I knew right then and there that I wasn’t going to eat animal flesh again.
Five years later, in 1989, I took a job working for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and once again made a huge leap in my understanding of what it means to eat ethically. As the staff dietitian, I did a lot of reading about dairy and egg production—and what I read absolutely stunned me. I learned that animals suffer just as much on dairy and egg farms as they do in meat production. I went “mostly vegan” and continued to refine my choices over the next several years, eventually removing all animal products from my diet as well as other parts of my life. I also dedicated my work to learning as much as possible about planning healthy animal-free diets. And my work as a writer and a consultant continues with that focus—sharing information about vegan nutrition and helping others make a safe and happy journey toward compassionate food choices.
Top Ten Myths about Vegan Diets
While vegan diets are gaining status more quickly than anyone could ever have imagined, they still sit well outside the mainstream. We have a big challenge in getting the message out that this way of eating is not only safe and healthful, but enjoyable and realistic too. At the same time, an enthusiasm for vegan eating among its proponents has given rise to unfortunate myths that cause some vegans to make poor food choices.
We’re going to do some myth-busting in this book, and here are ten of the biggest ones that we’ll tackle:
1. Vegans need less calcium than omnivores.
2. To reap the health benefits of a vegan diet, you need to avoid fat.
3. The healthiest vegan diets are based on 100 percent unprocessed whole foods.
4. People don’t need to start taking vitamin B12 supplements until they have been vegan for three years.
5. If a vegan diet is good, then a raw-foods diet must be better.
6. Eating soy gives men female characteristics.
7. When you first go vegan, you’ll experience unpleasant feelings from detoxing and withdrawal from animal products.
8. Vegan teens are at risk for developing eating