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Being Picky About Vegan Nutrition

Psychology Today recently published the results of a web-based survey on why vegetarians return to meat-eating. The number one reason given was failed health, and this was followed by the “hassle and stigma” of being vegetarian.

Their study had just 77 participants (I don’t know how many were vegan) and, to my knowledge, hasn’t been published in a peer-reviewed journal, so it’s not much more than food for thought. What impressed me the most about the article was the author’s reference to a 2005 CBS News survey which found that there are three times as many “ex-vegetarians” as there […]

By Ginny Messina|2011-07-01T12:32:12-04:00July 1st, 2011|Tags: Ex-vegans, Nutrition|73 Comments

Fat Soluble Vitamins: Do They Stand Between Vegans and Health?

This month, I’m working on a couple of responses to recently published criticisms of vegan diets. Among the issues that are frequently raised is one that focuses on fat-soluble vitamins. Some of the concerns are based on legitimate questions about active forms of these vitamins and their absorption from plant foods, and others aren’t. Regardless of those questions, though, plant foods can and do provide enough of the fat soluble vitamins A, D and K. (Vitamin E, which is also fat-soluble, is not involved in the controversy since it’s found in a […]

By Ginny Messina|2011-06-20T12:33:48-04:00June 20th, 2011|Tags: Nutrition, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, vitamin K, Vitamins|59 Comments

Understanding Nutrition Research: A Quick Primer

This is clearly a case of great minds thinking alike. I started writing this post earlier in the week, and just saw that Jack Norris posted an article on the same topic yesterday. If you're at all interested in this topic, I hope you’ll read both; his is a more in depth discussion and this one is a faster overview.

It’s an issue that comes up frequently in the comments section of this blog—how we analyze and use nutrition research. In order to draw conclusions about diet and health, we need to […]

By Ginny Messina|2011-06-08T16:14:38-04:00June 8th, 2011|Tags: nutrition research|19 Comments

Vegans are Compassionate at Every Size

Some 2 billion pairs of eyes will be focused on Kate Middleton as she takes the long walk down the aisle of Westminster Abbey tomorrow, and apparently she’s been slimming down in anticipation of that scrutiny. Naturally the media is all over Kate’s recent weight loss, speculating that it was achieved through France’s (and soon to be America’s) new diet craze from Dr. Dukan. The Dukan Diet is an updated and equally unhealthy twist on Atkins and it promises weight loss by restricting food choices to a few plant […]

By Ginny Messina|2011-04-28T10:25:42-04:00April 28th, 2011|Tags: fat shaming, Health, weight control|28 Comments

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. […]