Quod cibus est aliis, aliis est venenum. What’s food to some is poison to others. So, I picked up a book recently, written by a dietitian (who shall go nameless because I’m not out to point fingers). She has had years of experience and has many degrees (M.S., R.D., C.D.N., C.N.S) so she knows a lot about nutrition. Anyhoo, I contacted her because I noticed that when she mentioned good sources of protein in her book, she did not mention any plant sources. She responded with this: “I have had many vegetarian and vegan patients in my 15 years of practice, and believe it or not, not one of them walked into my office healthy. I used to be a vegetarian myself, and became anemic within 1 year. And I have done extensive research on soy and the vegetarian/vegan lifestyle, and have made educated professional and personal decisions that the protein sources derived from vegetables and legumes does not efficiently convert to human muscle and does not support regular hormonal function. Not only that, but there is a tremendous amount of research I have come across on the negative impacts of soy: http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/ as well as the benefits of the paleolithic diet: www.thepaleodiet.com. So at this point in my career, I do not advocate vegetarian sources of protein as a mainstay in the diet. That being said, I do love vegan and vegetarian recipes for healthy side dish options. I wish you all the best and continued good health, _____” Needless to say her response freaked me out a little bit. From what I’ve read, plant proteins are just as good as animal proteins- and healthier in many respects! And I haven’t had meat in 12 years and am not anemic. And as a vegan, I feel pretty good! Also, the research out about soy is so controversial right now- I know she knows a lot about nutrition, but does she know as much specifically about vegan nutrition as, say, a vegan R.D.? So my next step was to start consulting some vegan dietitians. I first went to Brenda Davis, R.D., co-author of Becoming Vegan: The Complete Guide to Adopting a Healthy Plant-Based Diet. She was at a research intervention and had limited internet access so her response was brief, but here’s what she had to say: “My guess is that the vegetarians _____ saw came to her because they were not doing well. It is unfortunate that she would discourage people from choosing a diet that supports human health beautifully, and is also ecologically and ethically sustainable. The healthiest, longest living people in the world have always been very near vegan (read Healthy at 100: The Scientifically Proven Secrets of the World’s Healthiest and Longest-Lived Peoples). If you look around the world, the lowest rates of chronic diseases are in populations eating largely vegan diets. In most cases, small amounts of fish or animal protein are eaten, but in rural China, it is less than 7 g per day per person. Read The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health. I know of numerous extremely healthy vegan families. It is such a joy to see children who suffer only a fraction of the infections, allergies, asthma, etc. of average kids.” I next went to Vesanto Melina, M.S., R.D, the other author of Becoming Vegan. “It is true that people (such as this dietitian), who have no idea how to create a nutritionally adequate vegan diet, sometimes are unaware that it can be done. It depends on her university program, but some programs could fail to include that information in a curriculum. And then it sounds like she never became updated. Of course many vegans are thriving, and look tremendously healthy, and would not have any reason to see an MD. It sounds as though she saw some who were poorly informed, and then she was unable to help them further. I do consultations for people. If this is what interests you, I will send you the details. However our book Becoming Vegan: The Complete Guide to Adopting a Healthy Plant-Based Diet covers many questions you may have very well. So you may want to have a look at that first. Many dietitians who have vegan clients (and successfully counsel them) use this book as a reference. it is a classic for this subject, and very well respected by dietitians and physicians.”

The purpose of this post is not to attack anyone. It is to give vegans a piece of mind about their health and their decision to be vegan. And I urge anyone who has information on the effectiveness of plant protein or other information about vegansim being a healthy life choice to contact me or post a comment. Any other dietitians out there - I’d love to hear what you have to say on the topic. I’m particularly curious about her claim that “protein sources derived from vegetables and legumes does not efficiently convert to human muscle and does not support regular hormonal function.”

I read in The Vegan Diet As Chronic Disease Prevention ,”The human body does not need to eat other animal’s muscle in order to build its own muscle. Neither do other vegetarians, like deer, gorillas, bulls, stallions, giraffes, and elephants… In 1907 the Yale Medical Journal published findings showing that both vegetarian athletes and vegetarian non-athletes excelled in exercise endurance over meat-eating athletes.”