Uncategorized

There is a wide range of calcium intakes among vegans (just as among omnivores) and the evidence shows that some vegan diets fall short of recommendations. As far as we know, vegans need as much calcium as anyone else. And, with just a little bit of knowledge and some attention to food choices, it’s not at all difficult to get enough. My latest vegan nutrition primer provides simple guidelines for getting calcium from plant foods.

Please share it with anyone you know who is concerned about calcium in vegan diets.

This is my 4^th and final (for now) post on tactics for preventing ex-vegans. My thoughts on this topic come from several different types of evidence—including research in vegans and vegetarians as well as research on eating behavior in general.

To summarize, what I’ve already written about:

•  People sometimes leave veganism (or vegetarianism) because they no longer believe in its benefits—so overhyping the benefits of veganism, promoting unrealistic expectations (like the idea that you could age like a supermodel) can definitely backfire when it comes to encouraging long-term veganism.
• Likewise, ignoring the […]
  

Helping people go vegan is great. But it’s meaningless if we can’t help them stay vegan. Last week, I wrote about how overhyping the benefits of a vegan diet can result in ex-vegans. One of the reasons people abandon vegan diets is that they lose faith in its benefits. That’s more likely to happen if the claims are far-fetched.

We also run the risk of losing vegans (and vegetarians) when we skip over discussions about ethics. While health may motivate many people to go vegan or vegetarian, ethics seems to […]

Christie Brinkley turned 61 this year, and she looks pretty great. Incredible in fact. How does she do it? According to some vegan blogs and facebook posts, she credits her vegan diet.

That’s funny, because I’m about Christie’s age and have been vegan for some 25 years. And despite my diet, the years haven’t been quite as kind to me as they’ve been to Christie. It’s no big mystery as to why that is.  And it has nothing to do with the way we eat.

In a People magazine article last […]

One of last week’s big nutrition news items was about a method to reduce the calories in white rice. Researchers from Sri Lanka found that when you add a small amount of fat to white rice during the cooking process, and then refrigerate the cooked rice for at least 12 hours, the result is a higher content of resistant starch.

Resistant starch is starch that is poorly digested in the small intestine, and there is lots to like about it. Since it isn’t well digested and absorbed, […]

Getting enough protein on a vegan diet is pretty easy. But it doesn’t mean that every single vegan meets protein needs. Eating too many junk foods, avoiding legumes, or skimping on calories can all cause protein to fall short of optimal intake.

My second nutrition primer is on plant protein and vegan protein requirements. It summarizes the most important issues that vegans need to be aware of. Here is the link to the primer. Let me know if you have questions about it.