Everyone's "advice" on my Vegan demise

Jennifer, I have some really bad news for you... You know how you are supposed to be able to trust your doctor, who is "smart" and "went to medical school" and "has all this training" and such? That is bull crap. The fact is, the overwhelming majority of MDs these days have little to no training in one very important aspect of human health: FOOD. Your doctor is simply regurgitating back to you the un-scientific propaganda he has been told, but that propaganda has no basis in fact.

How do I know this? Because I did my own research, years ago. I read different sources of information, consulted different experts, dug into the details and drew my own conclusions. Over the years, I have never heard anything that convinced me my original conclusion was wrong. Meat, at *best*, contributes nothing positive to human health. It is far more likely to damage or even destroy human health. The same is true for fish.

I urge you to read some books by some of the few MDs who have done true research/work in this field: T. Colin Campbell, John McDougall, Joel Fuhrman, Neil Pinckney, and others whose names have escaped me for the moment.

By the way, I myself am not a doctor, but I have a master's degree in physics. This does NOT make me "smarter than everyone else" by any means! But I do know something about how science is done these days, and I am aware that there is a lot of b.s. going on in research these days. I firmly believe people need to read up on nutrition themselves and understand where the information is coming from. We cannot count on the government to keep us healthy, nor can we count on our doctors or the medical industry. Any health-related stuff you hear, I urge you NOT to take it seriously until you have some good idea of where the information is coming from.

Not all mainstream doctors are meat and dairy pushers. I brought my omnivore husband to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota (this is a world renown health system) due to issues he was having with severe anemia, rheumatoid arthritis, and immune deficiency. The doctors there were almost all pushing a plant based diet and were very interested in my veganism. I showed them research on rheumatoid arthritis and studies showing marked improvement in subjects with RA who followed a plant based diet.

Although my husband is very thin, he has very high cholesterol from years of guzzling tons of dairy. His parents, both dairy farmers, also have very high cholesterol and are on meds for it. They are also big meat eaters and hunters. His dad has hypertension and COPD. I am also a medical coder and used to work in Health Information Services at a large medical complex working with radiation oncology charts. I have coded and scanned literally thousands of cases by now over the years. Most of the cases all have sections that mention special diets and so on as part of their treatment. I have yet to see any vegans or even vegetarians mentioned. Even the numerous cases of iron deficiency anemia I have coded were all asked if they were vegetarian by their doctors and all of them said no, they were meat eaters. All of this information is in medical records.

I have been vegan (no slips) for three years and nine months. I have had my B12 checked, hemoglobin, vitamin D, blood calcium, HDL, LDL, total cholesterol, blood glucose, triglycerides, blood pressure, and more checked. Every one of these levels have been excellent and some even majorly improved since going vegan (for example my total cholesterol in 2010 as an omnivore was 155, and as a vegan in 2012 when I had a screening it was 125; vitamin D was 44 in 2010, in 2012 it was 77). I used to be on 112 to 125 mcgs of thyroid meds as an omnivore. As a vegan, even consuming soy here and there, I have only needed 88 to 100 mcgs of thyroid meds. I am currently on 100 mcgs. The ONLY thing that has gotten worse is that I have osteoporosis that was diagnosed when I was an omnivore in 2006 (I lost my ovaries and uterus when I was only 33 years old and also suffered with anorexia for years and was a very low weight for a long time). Over the years my bone density has declined, even when I was consuming Greek yogurt and sardines/salmon several times a week as an omnivore. I don't blame being vegan for it. There are many other factors at play. I did however intentionally put on over 22 lbs to get to a healthy weight to battle my osteoporosis.

It is such a stereotype that vegans are all too thin and weak and will have problems down the road. If you get involved in activist groups and get to know long term vegans, you will see that they are as vibrant as ever years later. There are more and more people being born and raised vegan now who are adults and doing just fine having never consumed meat. There really isn't anything to worry about. There are many vegan nutrition books and studies out there to check out for peace of mind to make sure you are meeting your needs if that is a concern.

I also like what another poster said about whether it is natural to eat meat or not. Murder and rape are also "natural" human acts that have occurred since the beginning of time. It doesn't justify them. Besides, there is NOTHING natural about keeping animals in cages and on farms and breeding and raising them for food, or keeping fish crowded in tanks as a food source, or scouring the ocean floors with huge nets to catch more and more fish to feed more and more people that this planet can not sustain. If we need to eat sea food, the least we can do is cultivate sea vegetables instead of sentient beings to meet our DHA/EPA needs. And indeed you can find vegan DHA/EPA supplements derived from sea vegetables, the same food that fish get their DHA/EPA from. You can also get other omega 3s from flaxseeds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, leafy greens, avocado etc. Animal ethics and health are not mutually exclusive.

I agree with what other people have said here. Most doctors take one nutrition course in med school and don't ever bother to take the initiative to delve any further into the subject. They know as much about nutrition as I do about rocket science. Which btw is nothing. I'm lucky I can change a tire on my car.

There have been dozens upon dozens of peer reviewed studies as well as multi-generational meta studies which show that vegan/vegetarian diets are not only healthy but that people who eat primarily plant based diets tend to live longer and suffer from fewer preventable diseases such as diabetes 2, obesity, heart disease, stroke, etc.

The best defense is a good offense. There are a number of excellent books in most decent library systems that will give you some perspective on the benefits of a vegan diet and will give you some ammunition to use against anyone who pressures you.

I would start with, as Rocket suggested, 'The China Study' by T. Colin Campbell. Follow that up with books by Drs. Esselstyn, Fuhrman, Barnard, and McDougal. Most of those doctors also have websites which contain a lot of good information you should learn, if for no other reason, than to benefit your own health. Another excellent site is: http://nutritionfacts.org/

There are also some outstanding vegan nutritionists who have a ton of useful information:

Ginny Messina http://www.theveganrd.com/
Jack Norris http://jacknorrisrd.com/

For the record, I've been vegan for over 40 years and the worst thing that's happened to me besides some middle aged weight gain caused by an extended stretch of couch potato-itis was three badly broken toes from when I severely miscalculated the location of the bathroom door in the middle of the night while simultaneously tripping over a cat that had camped out in the hallway.

I encounter so many people my age or younger that have serious health issues and take a lot of prescription medications; the only thing I take is a daily b12 supplement. I would think if veganism was going to kill me it would have done so by now or at least have compromised my health to the point where I would need serious medical intervention. Yeah, nope. As an added benefit that I attribute mostly to what I eat or don't eat, most people think I'm at least twenty years younger than I actually am.

Please don't let other people's misguided opinions force you to do things you feel aren't right. By fully committing yourself to a compassionate lifestyle, you're doing really good things for animals as well as for yourself.

My advice is to do the best you can to educate yourself about vegan nutrition. Some good resources are the book "Vegan for Life" (check if your local library has it, otherwise not too pricey on Amazon in paperback or Kindle), veganhealth.org and theveganrd.com (all authored by vegan registered dietitians).

Almost anyone can be healthy on a vegan diet, but if you have a serious medical conditions you will definitely want to work with your medical professionals on how to be vegan in the most healthy way possible. If you are in the United States, the best health professional for nutrition concerns is a Registered Dietitian. Other people may call themselves "nutritionists" but they do not need to have special training or certification to use that term. Doctors are not necessarily well versed in nutrition, but usually have a basic idea of how nutrition can relate to certain diseases. Ask your doctor which nutrients he or she is concerned about. Meat doesn't have magical properties -- and most doctors would agree that eating less meat and more fruits, veggies, legumes and whole grains is better for reducing the risk of some chronic diseases. You can get all of the protein, vitamins and minerals you need from a vegan diet - just remember to supplement vitamin B12!

As far as fish goes, you don't need it. If you want the omega 3's, you can take a DHA and EPA supplement, which comes directly from algae (which is where the fish get it from). A good vegan brand is Ovega-3. The evidence for fish oil supplementation has been kind of controversial, so it's not clear that this supplement is really going to be beneficial to vegans.