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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. […]

By Ginny Messina|2020-09-03T11:21:38-04:00January 19th, 2012|Tags: Fat, Omega-3 Fats, Supplements|57 Comments

More on Vegan Diets and Weight Control

I want to offer a bit of follow-up to my last post on weight control, and address some of the comments and emails that the post generated by looking at three important questions.

Is it possible to maintain a weight loss? Absolutely. By no means do I want anyone to think that they are completely doomed to gain back weight that they’ve lost. But for many, long term maintenance of weight loss is difficult, and it’s good to understand that there are real reasons for this. In the meta-analysis that I referred to in my last post, the authors […]

By Ginny Messina|2012-01-09T15:15:44-05:00January 9th, 2012|Tags: weight control|27 Comments

Should You Go Vegan to Get Skinny?

Here comes the New Year with all its fresh-start possibilities. We’ve survived the season of caloric abundance and millions of us are ready to shed a few pounds.

But the latest research on weight management—some of which was highlighted in a recent article in the New York Times (see below)—raises questions about the pursuit of a slender body.

The evidence suggest that the majority of people who lose weight regain as much as 95 percent of it within five years. And it’s not necessarily just because people can’t stick with the plan that helped them lose weight. Dieting changes metabolism in ways […]

By Ginny Messina|2012-01-01T11:59:14-05:00January 1st, 2012|Tags: Diets, weight control|73 Comments

Vegan Non-Profits, and How I’m Spending My Money this Holiday Season

It’s that time of year when my stack of unpaid bills is not the tallest structure on my desk; it’s outranked by the mountain of holiday appeals from non-profits. Most of my end-of-the-year donations go to organizations that work to relieve poverty, promote animal rights and veganism, or help animals in my local community. But with so many groups doing exceptional work, I have to prioritize.

Of the groups that are devoted strictly to promoting vegan diets, I’m pretty picky about where my dollars go. Given my own professional and activist efforts, I’m very disinclined to support those organizations that endorse […]

By Ginny Messina|2011-12-17T13:54:38-05:00December 17th, 2011|Tags: Resources, Vegan activism|3 Comments

Vegetarian Diets and Eating Disorders

A study published in the journal Appetite took a new approach to examining the relationship between vegetarian diet patterns and eating disorders. I just wrote it up for the ADA’s vegetarian nutrition newsletter, and it’s such interesting research, that I wanted to share it here, even though Jack has already blogged about it.

Past research has suggested that young women who follow “vegetarian” diets are more likely to have restrained eating habits, or a tendency toward eating disorders—probably because some women with eating disorders adopt a vegetarian diet as a socially acceptable way of controlling food intake.

But these studies […]

By Ginny Messina|2011-11-30T13:25:58-05:00November 30th, 2011|Tags: Eating disorders, Mental health, Nutrition|20 Comments

Should You Become a Vegan Nutritionist?

Many readers of this blog have written to me asking about how to become a vegan nutritionist. It’s such a common question—I hear it several times a month—that I’ve created a separate page for my rather lengthy answer. You can read my thoughts and ideas and advice about getting involved in the field of vegan nutrition here.

Jack also has an excellent article on this same topic, covering quite a few additional points, at VeganHealth.

By Ginny Messina|2011-11-29T11:49:46-05:00November 29th, 2011|2 Comments

A Vegan Thanksgiving Celebrates Good Food, Activism and Hope

Clove, a rescued turkey at Animal Place

When I sit down with friends to carve the Tofurky on Thanksgiving, it always feels a little bit like lighting a candle in the darkness. People eat meat every day, of course, but somehow a holiday that places such intense focus on the carcass of one particular animal—and is responsible for the slaughter of some 45 million of them—is especially hard for those who care about animals.

Because Thanksgiving feels so heartbreaking to some of us, it can be […]