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Vegan diets aren’t dangerous. However, people with irrational ideas about nutrition are. The stories of vegan parents who starved their babies because of mistaken beliefs about infant feeding are clear proof of that. It is horrible and it’s heartbreaking. But it has nothing to do with veganism.

Why is it that journalists can’t figure this out? Mary Elizabeth Williams’ article in Salon was another attempt to tie the actions of a handful of misinformed parents to veganism. She made the case that some babies in vegan families have suffered because they were fed inappropriate diets. And, then, she suggested that “whatever a parent’s personal beliefs, they must be continually adjusted and evaluated based on a child’s needs.”

I can’t argue with either of those observations ... Read More >

Low-carb diets are nothing new. The first book promoting carbohydrate restriction for weight loss, Eat Fat and Grow Slim, was published in 1958. And I can remember the wildly popular The Drinking Man’s Diet of the 1960s (which restricted carbs but allowed as many martinis as you wanted).

Carbophobia gave way to fatphobia in the 1980s (it seems like we’re always scared of something), but it’s an approach that never really went away. Today, however, low-carb proponents are much more likely to embrace a so-called Paleo-style diet. It’s a different spin on low-carbohydrate eating since Paleo advocates avoid dairy foods and processed meats.

But a true Paleolithic diet wasn’t necessarily low in carbohydrates. Best estimates are that pre-agricultural people got about 35 to 50 percent ... Read More >

Quite a few people have asked me to comment on the blog Authority Nutrition. It’s written by Kris Gunnars, a medical student at the University of Iceland.

First, despite the bold title of his blog, Gunnars is no authority on nutrition. His background is the usual one of the self-proclaimed expert: “I got interested in my own health and started reading books and studies on nutrition.”

The result is that his blog is an interesting mix. There is some good advice and thoughtful observation, but also many overstatements of the evidence as well as some overt misinformation.

But he is certainly popular and it’s not hard to see why. He writes with ... Read More >

“Vegetarians Found to Have More Cancer, Allergies, and Mental Health Disorders.” That’s the alarming headline from a website called Science 2.0 (which also declares vegetarianism to be a “fad diet.”)

They are referring to new research in Austrian vegetarians published in the journal PLoS One. The study compared self-reported health among 1,320 subjects who were divided into groups according to the type of diet they consumed. Although the media jumped all over it, there has been plenty of more thoughtful discussion among nutrition experts about the shortcomings of this research.

The researchers themselves recognized some of these shortcomings as well and they outlined them in the discussion section of the paper. Here are some of the problems that have been noted.

• It’s a ... Read More >

I’ve eaten a lot of truly exceptional vegan meals in my life. But I have absolutely no trouble recalling the single best meal I ever had (truly the single best one!). Prepared in an ancient restaurant in a little town on the island of Sicily, it was a big bowl of chickpeas that had simmered on an open hearth in a sauce of tomatoes, garlic, herbs and olive oil. The beans were served along with an impossibly delicious home baked bread, the world’s freshest salad, and a tumbler of Chianti.

The food was great, but admittedly lots of things about that meal made it special. I was with my husband and my father-in-law. We had brought my father-in-law to visit the city of Messina, where ... Read More >

A number of readers have asked if I’d respond to the article Why You Should Think Twice About Vegetarian and Vegan Diets, by Chris Kresser. Kresser is a licensed acupuncturist who writes frequently about diet. And since I would never go around poking needles into people, I wish he would return the favor and stop giving advice about nutrition.

Kresser promotes a semi-Paleo eating pattern so it’s no surprise that he’s not a fan of vegetarian diets. But in his effort to prove that plant-based eating is unhealthy, he uses some very faulty logic. Jack addressed Kresser’s observations about vegetarian diets and longevity, so I’ll look at some of the other tired old ... Read More >

With the exception of some raw foods vegans, almost all of the vegans I know eat grains. If any of the fear mongering around these foods has any basis, it’s a wonder we’re all still alive and that many of us are thriving.

At the center of the anti-grain campaign is Dr. William Davis, author of the mega-bestseller Wheat Belly. Davis doesn’t like carbs in general and specifically doesn’t like grains. But what he really doesn’t like is wheat. Weight gain, heart disease, acne, and that fuzzy-brained feeling you get after lunch? He says they can all be cured by dumping wheat from your diet.

Davis cites lots of research to build his case—but in the longstanding tradition of bestsellerdom, he uses that research selectively ... Read More >

It’s not surprising that vegetarians and vegans tend to have higher intakes of potassium compared to omnivores. One simple dietary change—replacing the meat in a recipe with any type of beans—can give potassium intake a healthy boost.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that we vegans always get enough, though. In fact, while it’s far easier to meet needs on a plant-based diet, it’s really a challenge to consume the recommended 4700 milligrams of potassium on any kind of diet. In the Adventist Health-2 study, there was a wide range of potassium intakes among vegans, suggesting that some were on the low side.

Potassium is another of those nutrients where you won’t be staggering around with deficiency symptoms if you aren’t getting enough. Low intake does its ... Read More >

If you subscribe by email to this blog, you may have received a post about calcium and protein and bone health last week. I’m not sure why since that post was published last August. But it worked out to be okay that it popped up out of nowhere. It’s actually a reasonable segue to this post, which is a follow-up to my recent article about my diet.

In talking about my own eating habits, I noted that I tend to favor legumes over grains. A number of readers emailed, asking if I think vegans should be reducing grains in their diet.

I don’t. I have absolutely nothing against (whole) grains and I eat them every day. Including the ones that are packed with gluten.

I ... Read More >

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by The Laziest Vegans in the World about my favorite convenience foods this week. This fun website is “a tribute to vegan pre-packaged food.” I’m glad that these foods exist, especially for those who are reluctant to try veganism because they think it’s too hard or that there are no options for treats. And some of these packaged foods are actually healthy.

But, I don’t eat a whole lot of convenience foods myself and my choices in the interview are for things that are occasional treats or for those days when I don’t have time to cook and the refrigerator is bare.

So what do I usually eat? It’s one of the most frequent questions I get ... Read More >