Uncategorized

Weight Control the Vegan Way

Vegans are less likely than omnivores to be overweight or obese on average, which is a nice selling point for veganism. In general, our diets are somewhat lower in fat and much higher in fiber—two important factors for weight management.

But not everyone loses weight when they go vegan, and promising people that they will is unfair. There are plenty of vegans who struggle with their weight. Some overweight vegans feel guilty about their body size because they believe that they aren’t a good advertisement for veganism. But anyone who makes an effort […]

By Ginny Messina|2011-04-01T09:47:54-04:00April 1st, 2011|Tags: Health, weight control|50 Comments

Meeting Protein Needs on a Vegan Diet: The Calorie Connection

People often ask why any adult would need a diet providing more than 5 to 6 percent of calories from protein. After all, human breast milk is around 6 percent protein and it supports health during the fastest period of growth of the entire lifecycle. How could adults need a more protein dense diet than an infant?

Babies certainly have high protein needs for their size. They require almost 0.7 grams of protein for every pound of body weight. Vegan adults need far less—around 0.4 […]

By Ginny Messina|2019-11-11T09:59:52-05:00March 13th, 2011|Tags: Nutrition, Protein, Vitamins|43 Comments

Soyfoods in Asia: How Much Do People Really Eat?

Way back in the fall, when I reviewed The Vegetarian Myth, I promised to follow-up with some perspective on the controversies surrounding soyfoods. I know that Jack Norris is working on a fairly comprehensive overview of this topic which will hopefully be available soon. I’ll be adding some information to my website as well. For now, I wanted to look at the important issue of soy consumption in Asia. It’s an area of some confusion since a common belief is that Asians consume only small amounts of soy—sort of condiment-style—and that they consume mostly fermented soy products like […]

By Ginny Messina|2011-03-01T10:23:26-05:00March 1st, 2011|Tags: Soy|87 Comments

Healthy Vegan Diets Can Include Meat Analogues

A little hot dog stand in my town advertises on a big bold hand-written sign that they have vegan hotdogs. (They used to sell “veegun” hotdogs; I’m not the one who corrected them, but I’m glad somebody did.) Even though I live in a hippie town where this sort of thing isn’t unusual, it makes me happy. Vegan fare at a hotdog stand gives me hope for the future.

The first “meat analog” was invented by John Harvey Kellogg in 1895 and it definitely wasn’t a hotdog. He ground peanuts into peanut butter […]

By Ginny Messina|2011-02-17T10:10:43-05:00February 17th, 2011|Tags: Fat, Health, Nutrition, Vegan activism|44 Comments

Vegan Food Guide, Protein, and New Book

Lots of stuff packed into this post. First, I’ve updated my food guide to create separate groups for legumes and nuts as a way to ensure adequate protein intake.

I’ve been thinking about protein a lot lately for a number of reasons. The main one is that I’ve been working on a book on vegan nutrition with dietitian Jack Norris. It’s called Vegan for Life, and will be published this summer by Da Capo Press.

We worked […]

By Ginny Messina|2011-01-24T11:05:24-05:00January 24th, 2011|Tags: Food guide, Protein|69 Comments

New Vitamin D and Calcium RDAs: What They Mean for Vegans

The latest recommendations from the Institute of Medicine have many people asking if they should toss out their bottles of calcium and vitamin D supplements. The answer to that question is probably a little bit different for vegans.

The IOM’s report was surprising in that they recommended an intake of vitamin D that was considerably less than what was expected and suggested that calcium supplements were not needed by most Americans and could even be dangerous. […]

By Ginny Messina|2010-12-10T11:54:47-05:00December 10th, 2010|Tags: Calcium, Vitamin D|26 Comments

How the Health Argument Fails Veganism

When President Clinton went (almost) vegan several months ago, my reaction to the news wasn’t quite as enthusiastic as it might have been. Seeing high-profile people (or anyone for that matter) go vegan for health reasons makes me nervous. First, President Clinton referred to his diet as “strict,” which is not an especially enticing word when it comes to food choices. He also suggested that it was an “experiment,” noting that 82 percent of those who go on low-fat almost-vegan diets see their heart disease reverse. The implication was that, if he turns out […]

By Ginny Messina|2017-11-22T16:03:05-05:00November 30th, 2010|Tags: Vegan activism|141 Comments

Recommended Supplements for Vegans

Just days before everyone was talking about the Voracious [ex-] Vegan story, I received a severe scolding from a reader for my stance on supplements (this was in response to my post on omega-3s). She was adamant about the fact that “whole plant foods” can easily provide everything we need.

An effort to prove that a whole foods vegan diet is the ideal or foolproof diet of all humans gives rise to all kinds of potentially harmful myths. These include the unfounded […]

By Ginny Messina|2010-11-28T13:19:06-05:00November 28th, 2010|Tags: Calcium, Iodine, Iron, Nutrition, vitamin B12, Vitamin D|179 Comments

Do Ex-Vegans’ Stories Make the Case Against Vegan Diets?

When I read the recent blog post by Tasha, who used to be The Voracious Vegan, it felt like déjà vu all over again. Just a couple of months ago I was blogging about another woman—Lierre Keith—whose vegan diet made her so sick that she had to go back to eating meat and, in the process, she learned about how “nutritious” cholesterol is, became an advocate for a type of sustainability that depends upon animal foods (ie, learned that it’s more ethical to eat animals than to be vegan), and […]

By Ginny Messina|2010-11-21T10:48:45-05:00November 21st, 2010|Tags: Ex-vegans, Iron, vitamin B12|236 Comments

More on Omega-3 Fats in Vegan Diets

Based on some emails I received about my blog post from November 17, I realize that there is a little bit of confusion about the different types of omega-3 fats. I want to clear that up so that readers can make the best informed decision about meeting needs for these compounds.

There are two different type of omega-3 fats in foods. We definitely need one of these and may need the other.

Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) is a short-chain omega-3 fatty acid that is an essential nutrient. We absolutely need to have […]

By Ginny Messina|2010-11-19T11:24:26-05:00November 19th, 2010|Tags: Omega-3 Fats|10 Comments