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Yes, Vegans Can Climb Mt. Everest

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 […]

By Ginny Messina|2016-05-25T08:16:01-04:00May 25th, 2016|8 Comments

Vegan Food for People Who Don’t Cook

Recently, I had a taste of what it’s like to be a vegan who doesn’t cook.

For what seems like the past decade or so, I’ve been living with a kitchen remodel. Cooking while my kitchen was torn apart was not really a problem. I have an electric frying pan, an Instant Pot, and an Aroma Rice Cooker/Slow Cooker. I set them up in the dining room, creating a functional kitchen annex. But without running water (or a sink) plus some concurrent remodeling of the (very old) plumbing in the […]

By Ginny Messina|2016-04-07T09:09:02-04:00April 7th, 2016|Tags: convenience foods, cooking, Menus, Products|17 Comments

Vegan Diets are Dangerous? Here is What the Research Really Says

Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic suggest that vegans should know something about diet planning in order to make sure they are meeting nutrient needs.

Their conclusions were published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. The paper doesn’t say anything that is particularly alarming, and, with a few exceptions, there isn’t much in it that I would take issue with.

But the Cleveland Clinic press-released the findings, giving the media a chance to scaremonger about vegan diets—and you know how much they like to do that.

As is often the […]

By Ginny Messina|2016-03-19T11:49:20-04:00March 19th, 2016|Tags: Calcium, Fat, Health, Iron, Nutrition, Omega-3 Fats, Protein, vitamin B12, Vitamin D|14 Comments

Vegan Diets and Irritable Bowel Syndrome: The FODMAP Approach

One of the most frequent questions I get through this website is about the low-FODMAP diet. This popular approach to easing symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) eliminates (at least initially) many plant foods. It’s definitely a bit of a challenge for vegans, but may be worth it if you suffer from IBS.

The FODMAP Diet

IBS affects as much as 15% of the population in North America, so it is no small problem. And while it’s not life-threatening, it can have a significant effect on quality of life.

The idea behind the low-FODMAP […]

By Ginny Messina|2018-03-13T13:04:49-04:00March 8th, 2016|Tags: carbohydrates, FODMAP|57 Comments

New Vegan Nutrition Primer on Iron

Iron deficiency anemia is a serious and common public health problem for people eating all different kinds of diets. While vegans don’t seem to develop anemia any more often than people who eat meat, we do have higher iron needs. It’s hard to know just how much higher those needs are for individual vegans, though, since requirements depend on a number of other factors—including how much iron you have stored in your body and what the rest of your diet looks like.

You probably already are eating a diet rich in […]

By Ginny Messina|2016-01-22T07:20:55-05:00January 22nd, 2016|Tags: Iron, minerals, Nutrition, phytates, phytic acid|9 Comments

Your Vegan New Year’s Diet: Don’t Forget the Protein

It’s hard to resist the call of the New Year’s diet. There is something about the promise of new beginnings, especially after the season of indulgence.

If your goals for 2016 include weight loss, please make sure your vegan diet includes enough protein-rich foods. I’m not suggesting that you need to eat a high-protein diet. Nor am I saying that eating lots of carbs is bad. My concern is that some vegan weight loss plans are woefully short on legumes. A menu that consists of oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, vegetable soup […]

By Ginny Messina|2016-01-02T13:04:55-05:00January 2nd, 2016|Tags: Beans, dieting, legumes, Protein, weight loss|13 Comments

New Year, Same Old (Vegan) Me

The promotional emails flooding my in box promise all kinds of tips and tricks for a “New Year, New You.” I had no idea that I was in such need of a total makeover. But these emails seem to assume that there is considerable room for improvement.

And sure, I suppose there is. I could stand to eat more fruit and fewer cookies. I should cook more from scratch. I should spend more time meditating and less time obsessing over Donald Trump’s presidential prospects. I should drag myself out of the house […]

By Ginny Messina|2017-12-31T21:54:30-05:00January 1st, 2016|Tags: Vegan activism|19 Comments

Will a Vegetarian Diet Make You Depressed?

The recent article in Women’s Health Magazine about the “scary mental health risks” associated with meatless diets has—not surprisingly—received lots of attention. People love to hear bad news about vegetarian and vegan diets, after all.

Author Jill Waldbieser pulled the article together from the usual hodgepodge of questionable resources—in this case a few anecdotes plus comments from Vegetarian Myth author Lierre Keith. She also referenced two studies, one in Australia and one in Germany.

I took a quick peek at the German study, which assessed diet and mental health in […]

By Ginny Messina|2015-12-30T11:45:53-05:00December 30th, 2015|Tags: depression, inflammation, Mediterranean diet, Mental health, soyfoods|18 Comments

Lettuce and Bacon and the Environment: Some Thoughts for Vegan Activists

Is lettuce really worse for the environment than bacon? That’s what the latest headlines say, based on findings from new research at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Allegedly, lettuce produces more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than unhealthy foods like bacon. The media have gleefully proclaimed, based on this study, that vegetarian diets are bad for the environment.

But that’s not what the study showed. It’s not even what the study looked at. It looked at what happens when people eating a usual American diet shift towards a healthier eating pattern as […]

By Ginny Messina|2015-12-18T06:44:40-05:00December 18th, 2015|Tags: environment, Vegan activism|20 Comments

Vegan Diets and Orthorexia: How Should Activists Respond?

I’ve been pretty much MIA from this blog and most of the internet over the past few months. My husband and I packed up our home, offices, and cats and moved 3000 miles from Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula to the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts in early November. Driving across the country with 5 cats caused me more than a little bit of angst, and a lot of other things fell by the wayside this fall.

I’m only now catching up on vegan news. One story that has been on my mind over […]