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My friend Erik Marcus recently invited me to write an introduction to vegan nutrition for his website vegan.com. In his weekly newsletter, Erik wrote about why he feels so strongly about providing solid nutrition information for vegans.

One of the most important and most neglected topics in all of veganism is our high recidivism rate—the percentage of vegans who go back to eating meat. I suspect in many cases, it’s because these people did not read accurate information about how to sensibly plan a vegan diet. There’s just so […]

Guilt and shame are common reactions for vegans who get sick. Our diet is all too often portrayed as a way to get skinny and stay bulletproof against disease. Vegans who don’t reap those outcomes sometimes wonder if there is a place for them in our community of animal advocates.

These kinds of issues have been a concern to me as a vegan activist and health professional for a long time and they are addressed in my new book, co-authored with Carol J. Adams and

It’s easy enough to get drawn into the hype, hyperbole, and conspiracy-driven drama that’s often used to advocate for vegan diets. It’s sometimes meant to convince people that vegan diets have one-of-a-kind health benefits. Or it might be used to create a sense of comfort around veganism by assuring newcomers that it’s not possible to be nutrient deficient if you are eating all whole plant foods.

The truth is way less dramatic. There is no body of evidence to suggest that you have to be vegan in order to be healthy. The […]

Please take a peek at my new article on the Science Based Medicine website. You may recall that I criticized the website back in July for their review of the book Vegan Betrayal. I hadn’t actually read the book at the time, however. I’ve done so now and I asked them to consider sharing a new review of the book from me. They were kind enough to do so.

Curiously, though, they inserted an editorial comment at the beginning of the article suggesting that my perspective is similar to their […]

Early last summer I asked readers of this blog to share their personal experiences with chronic disease either as comments here or privately via email. Thank you to everyone who responded. Those stories and perspectives were extremely valuable for a book I’ve been working on which will be published in the spring of 2017. Stay tuned for more information on that.

In the meantime, I am honored that my friend Carol J. Adams, author of the groundbreaking book The Sexual Politics of Meat has asked me to co-author […]

The latest book to capitalize on anti-veganism is by science writer Mara Kahn (and, yes, of course, she’s also an ex-vegan). It’s called Vegan Betrayal: Love, Lies and Hunger in a Plants Only World. I can’t comment much on the book since I haven’t read it. But I can comment on a review of the book that appeared on the Science Based Medicine (SBM) website.

Written by SBM co-founder Dr. Harriet Hall, it was more a synopsis of the book’s contents than a thorough review. It […]

Almost exactly three years ago, I asked blog readers to tell me their stories about going vegan after the age of 50. The feedback I received—almost 200 comments and emails—were an amazing source of information and inspiration for Never Too Late to Go Vegan (which, by the way, is available this month for e-readers for just $1.99).

For a new project, I’m looking for a completely different type of story. Are you a vegan with a chronic disease, like heart disease, cancer or diabetes?  Or high blood […]

Dr. Maria Strydom on Denali

Last week, a vegan named Kuntal Joisher successfully reached the summit of Mt Everest and came home to post photos to his Instagram account. Chances are, you didn’t hear much, if anything, about him. No doubt, though, you heard about another vegan climber, one who died while attempting to climb the tallest mountain in the world.

Of the nearly 1,000 internet articles generated by this story, some overtly questioned the safety of a vegan diet for climbers. By noting that she was […]