2012 Archives

The New York Times, Nina Planck, and Safety of Vegan Diets

Last week brought more shoddy coverage of vegan diets from The New York Times. This time, it was a debate about the safety of veganism. And it didn’t occur to the Times to solicit opinions from anyone with actual expertise in vegan nutrition.

At the center of the discussion was food writer and farmer’s market expert Nina Planck, who excels at making sweeping, unsupported observations about nutrition. She is woefully uninformed and spectacularly unconcerned about her lack of knowledge and credentials.

Planck believes that we have “extraordinary needs for nutrients not found in plants,” –including vitamins A and D, omega-3 […]

By Ginny Messina|2012-04-23T11:50:44-04:00April 23rd, 2012|Tags: anti-vegans, infants, Meat, Protein, Soy, Vitamin A, vitamin B12, Vitamin D|65 Comments

Is Umami a Secret Ingredient of Vegan Activism?

In a recent New York Times article, wellness reporter Tara Parker-Pope explored the challenges of going vegan. Those challenges—including knowledge about how to prepare vegan foods and finding support—are real, although not nearly as insurmountable as Ms. Parker-Pope would have us think.

In particular, she focused on the taste and experience of familiar foods, saying “Giving up favorite foods is never easy, food scientists say, for it means overriding taste preferences imprinted on the brain during a lifetime of eating.”

No doubt that’s true, but I’m not sure that we […]

By Ginny Messina|2019-12-30T17:19:33-05:00April 18th, 2012|Tags: Cookbooks, Umami, Vegan activism|92 Comments

Body Shaming Fails Vegans and Vegan Advocacy

A couple of months ago, I was among several dietitians who voiced concern to PCRM about their Your Abs on Cheese campaign. Based on the thoughtful feedback I received, I felt confident that this body shaming approach to vegan advocacy wouldn’t continue. So when I saw the group’s latest media effort targeting obesity, I was stunned to say the least.

The “tongue-in-cheek” commercial suggests that airline passengers should be allowed to pay $10 to sit next to a “trim and fit” vegan. For those who don’t opt for this perk, there is the risk of “getting squeezed […]

By Ginny Messina|2012-04-01T12:43:33-04:00April 1st, 2012|Tags: fat shaming, Vegan activism, weight control|142 Comments

Blogging Woes, PeaCounter and Red Meat Revisited

Last weekend was a tough time in my blogging career since, as many of you noticed, my blog was infected with malware. I’m grateful to my web host and especially to Jack Norris for helping me navigate through the ordeal.

In fact, if I couldn’t go whining to Jack every time I have a problem with my blog, I don’t think I could even have a blog. So if you find any of the material here helpful or interesting, please consider making a donation to Vegan Outreach. Or you could buy yourself some treats from Pangea through […]

By Ginny Messina|2012-03-15T12:31:57-04:00March 15th, 2012|Tags: Nuts, red meat, Vegan activism|7 Comments

Vegan Diets, Critical Thinking, and 9 Blogs You Need to Read

I had the great pleasure of speaking to the members of the Vegan Chicago Meetup last week. In addition to being warm and welcoming, this is another group on my list of organizations that aim to promote an evidence-based approach to vegan advocacy. Before my talk on the Seven Habits of Healthy Vegans, event organizer Dave Sutherland introduced the group’s Vegan Chicago Baloney Detection kit—a guide to critical thinking for vegans, which is based on material from Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World.

Detecting baloney is no easy thing. Resources on veganism are packed […]

By Ginny Messina|2012-02-21T13:35:28-05:00February 21st, 2012|Tags: Health, Nutrition, Resources|40 Comments

Cyanide, How Not to Sell Veganism (and Speaking Schedule)

By Ginny Messina|2012-02-18T08:45:58-05:00February 18th, 2012|Tags: vitamin B12|9 Comments

Making It Easy To Be Vegan

A recent review of 135 studies suggests that it’s okay to consume some refined grains, as long as at least half of your grain intake is from whole foods. I’m not especially surprised. Sure, whole wheat bread is better for you than white bread and brown rice is way more nutritious than white. But the idea that we sacrifice health unless every bite of food lives up to some ideal of whole foods perfection doesn’t usually hold up to scientific scrutiny.

The findings from these types of studies may or may not always be relevant to vegans, though. Although fiber isn’t […]

By Ginny Messina|2012-02-02T17:46:39-05:00February 2nd, 2012|Tags: Vegan activism|16 Comments

Fat in Vegan Diets and Tips for Optimal Nutrition

In case you missed it, Jack had a good post last week about fat in vegan diets.

And if you’re looking to maximize nutrient intake with attention to just a few details, take a look at my post on the 7 Habits of Healthy Vegans on One Green Planet. (This is a very condensed version of a talk I’m giving in Chicago next week. Hope you can be there if you live in the area!)

By Ginny Messina|2012-01-30T11:44:19-05:00January 30th, 2012|Tags: Fat, Health|7 Comments

Dairy-Free Diets Are Packed with Nutrients

A study published in the scientific journal Nutrition Research last November looked at the effects on nutrient intake when dairy foods are reduced or removed from the diet. Rather than focusing just on calcium—which is easily found in other foods—the researchers looked at several nutrients that are abundant in dairy products. They concluded that even when “calcium-replacement foods” provided the same amounts of calcium as dairy products, they fell short on other nutrients that milk provides.

This study was funded by the National Dairy Council and administered by the Dairy Research Institute. Two of the researchers work for the Dairy Research […]

By Ginny Messina|2012-01-23T16:16:14-05:00January 23rd, 2012|Tags: Calcium, dairy|19 Comments

Omega-3 Fats in Vegan Diets: A Quick Primer

[updated 9/3/20]

There continues to be much confusion among vegans about the differences between the two types of omega-3 fats. If you take supplements of DHA (or DHA and EPA), do you still need to eat flaxseeds? And if you are eating flaxseeds, do you need those DHA supplements?

The short answer is that you definitely need to include foods like flaxseeds that provide essential omega-3 fats and you may need the DHA supplements.

Flaxseeds and a handful of other plant foods provide an omega-3 fat called alpha-linolenic acid or ALA which is an essential nutrient. […]