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Updated Speaking Schedule and Meeting Protein Needs (on Our Hen House)

I have lots of travel to fun vegan events in the next couple of months (off to Vegan Paradise this week for Vida Vegan Con). I hope to see some blog readers as I trek around the continent (twice to beautiful Canada!) talking about the joys of healthy and compassionate eating. Please take a look at my updated schedule and stop by to say hello if you’re in the area.

And you also may want to take a peek at my latest article on Our Hen House about meeting protein needs on a […]

By Ginny Messina|2013-05-22T16:20:35-04:00May 22nd, 2013|Tags: Protein|3 Comments

Vegan Food for Everyone

On a recent trip to Costco, I found seaweed salad (vegan in my Costco, although in some areas it contains fish sauce), big cheap packages of tofu, little travel packs of hummus, and delectable stuffed grape leaves.

I was thrilled to come across these and other vegan goodies. But when I reported my finds on facebook, a few people voiced concerns. Was the tofu GMO? Wasn’t there sugar in the seaweed salad? And shouldn’t I be shopping locally?

I do shop mostly—but not exclusively—locally. And there is no shortage of tofu in my life since I live five blocks from the local […]

By Ginny Messina|2013-05-10T12:14:20-04:00May 10th, 2013|Tags: Books for activists, Resources, Vegan activism, vegan products|29 Comments

Wear a Cow Ribbon for Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day is not an especially important holiday around my house. I no longer have a mother and I’m not a mother (except to five cats who never get me anything). Ever since my mom died, it’s a been a day tinged with a little bit of sadness, but mostly one that slips by unnoticed.

Sometimes a new twist on a holiday can make it as good, or even a whole lot better than the way it used to be, though. Thanks to the efforts of Canadian animal advocacy group […]

By Ginny Messina|2013-05-01T17:44:40-04:00May 1st, 2013|4 Comments

Iron Nutrition: Why the Rules are Different for Vegans

One of my vegan cooking gurus, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, recently posted directions for producing perfectly browned tofu. She advises making it in a well-seasoned cast iron pan. I don’t have a cast iron pan, but am thinking about getting one. I eat tofu every single day, and love when it’s perfectly browned, so it deserves its own cookware.

Lately, though, people seem to be abandoning their cast iron pans. They are worried about the iron leaching into their food and causing iron overload.

It’s true that cooking in cast iron (and also stainless steel) can increase the iron […]

By Ginny Messina|2013-04-04T14:56:14-04:00April 4th, 2013|Tags: Alzheimer's disease, Iron|25 Comments

Gearing up for Vegan for Her—the Book and the Website

I’m counting the days with lots of excitement (and sometimes a little apprehension) to June 18, 2013—the release date for my new book Vegan for Her. I’ve been working on it for more than a year with my friend and co-author JL Fields, and it’s hard to believe that in a few short months, this labor of love will be a real live book!

Right now, JL and I are in the process of creating a community around the ideas and concepts that we talk […]

By Ginny Messina|2013-04-01T08:14:56-04:00April 1st, 2013|4 Comments

My Interview (with Jack) in Vegan Views Magazine

I was honored to be interviewed—along with Jack—by Paul Appleby for the Spring 2013 issue of Vegan Views magazine in the U.S.

Paul is the senior statistician on the EPIC-Oxford research project—an investigation that has provided some of the most important current information about vegan and vegetarian nutrition—and he is widely known and respected in the nutrition research world.

You can read the interview here.

By Ginny Messina|2013-03-26T08:47:47-04:00March 26th, 2013|Tags: interviews|3 Comments

Being Fearlessly Vegan

If you read the comments on this blog, then you know that not everyone in the vegan world is happy with some of the perspectives presented here. The two criticisms I hear most frequently are these: First, that my recommendations, which focus on areas where vegans may fall short, make it seem “too hard” to be healthy on a vegan diet. And second that, because I’m an animal advocate, I care only about making it easy to be vegan—refusing to condemn foods like vegetable oils, nuts and veggie burgers—with little regard for human health.

Obviously, both of these things can’t be […]

By Ginny Messina|2013-03-21T09:55:08-04:00March 21st, 2013|Tags: Fat, nutrients, Vegan activism|38 Comments

Do Some People Need to Eat Meat?

It’s one of the most frequent questions I get from blog readers: How do we respond to people who insist that they require meat in their diets?

I know very well that some vegans struggle with their health, because I hear frequently from those who are looking for help. Most who contact me are animal advocates who are experiencing nutrient deficiencies (diagnosed through blood work) or they simply don’t feel well.

These are not people who are eating junk-food vegan diets. Anyone who gets sick from eating a diet based on potato chips and cookies will usually have a fairly good idea […]

By Ginny Messina|2013-03-02T11:06:01-05:00March 2nd, 2013|Tags: Ex-vegans, Fat, Meat, Protein, Umami, Vegan activism, vegan food guide|165 Comments

Notes from the 6th International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition

I spent 3 days at the 6^th International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition this past week in Loma Linda, CA. Held every five years or so, the event is hosted by the School of Public Health of Loma Linda University and is considered the premiere conference on plant-based nutrition. It brings experts and researchers together from all over the world and its proceedings are published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the most prestigious of all nutrition journals. I was honored this year (and a bit terrified, since I felt very much out of my league) to be […]

By Ginny Messina|2013-02-28T15:20:56-05:00February 28th, 2013|Tags: Calcium, Fat, Health, Nuts, Protein|46 Comments

The Vegan-for-a-Week Challenge: How to Survive and Thrive

Going “vegan for a week” seems to be a popular thing. Lately, quite a few blog posts and news articles on this phenomenon have been turning up in my google “vegan” search. These are usually written by people who want to see what it’s like to be vegan, even for just a few weeks.

My impression is that most of these temporary vegans have had reasonably good experiences with finding satisfying food. Most have also run up against challenges, usually due in part to a lack of preparation or knowledge.

I haven’t seen any of these experiments morph into an actual embrace […]