I have been writing columns in The Jerusalem Post for a few years about different subjects in the area of health and wellness. A few months ago, I wrote a column about the advantages of getting our needed protein from plant sources as opposed to animal sources. I make no secret of my preference for plant predominance in the diet in order to prevent and even reverse chronic disease.
To review, I pointed out that using animal products for protein comes with a lot of baggage, like saturated fat and cholesterol among other problems, whereas plant proteins are free of those. I am appreciative of the many comments this article evoked – it’s good to know that there are many out there reading my articles.
One thing I did not expect when I wrote that column was the number of negative comments I received and the angry tone of some of them. So, let’s get a few things straight. Veganism is not necessarily healthy, I am not a vegan, and I would like to address some of the comments I received so that we all can benefit.
Being vegan means one who refrains from eating meat, chicken, fish, eggs or dairy. It doesn’t necessarily reflect a healthy way to eat. Some can eat a whole food, plant-predominant diet like I do but they can drink Coca-Cola and eat Oreo cookies, donuts and non-dairy ice cream – an unhealthy way of eating – and still be called a vegan. Let’s dig a little deeper.
There are variations of being a vegan. Vegetarians would eat dairy and eggs and pescatarians would add fish to the mix; some may eat dairy also, some not. Why go in this direction?
There are really three main reasons people might become vegan. Many choose veganism for health reasons. They generally eat a whole food, plant-based diet low in oils, sugars and salt.
Some are what we call ethical vegans. An ethical vegan is someone who not only excludes animal products from their diet but also tries to avoid using animals, animal products, and animal-tested products when practical.
Then there are environmental vegans. These are people motivated by the desire to create a sustainable diet, which avoids the negative environmental impact of meat and dairy production.
FOR THOSE who choose veganism to prevent cruelty to animals and want cleaner air to breathe and cleaner water to drink, I have no criticism. Who wouldn’t want to treat animals well and breathe cleaner air? These are not necessarily my priorities in advocating plant predominance in the diet, but there is nothing that environmental and ethical vegans say that is at all incorrect. So what were all these comments about?
Someone accused me of being part of a conspiracy to turn “the entire universe” into vegans. No, there is no such conspiracy and neither is that my personal goal. My interest is to present the overwhelming evidence based on many thousands of studies that eating real whole foods, mostly plants, and getting the highly processed stuff out of the diet will not only extend your life but bring you good health and quality of life.
There was another comment by someone who said that I may be right, but he would rather die earlier or be ill than give up his meat.
Okay, that’s your choice. Try to think beyond tomorrow. I appreciate the short-term pleasure those foods can give you, but try to think about the long-term manifestations. Here is a suggestion: Why don’t you just have a little bit of meat, chicken and fish occasionally and eat more plants more often? You don’t have to be 100% whole food plant based to gain benefit.
Let’s take that idea a little further – don’t let perfection be the enemy of good. In the past, we have mentioned the Blue Zones, those five places on the planet that have been thoroughly studied because their populations live to be more than 100 years old and they live those years as thriving people. They have a very plant-predominant diet but they do include very small amounts of meat or fish in their menu, and sometimes even a tiny bit of dairy.
WE KNOW that even a diet of 85% whole foods from plants can be highly beneficial to your health. The problem is, the Western diet is now made up of 63% processed foods, 25% animal products, 6% processed plants and only 6% whole plants (The Plantrician Project and Dr. Scott Stoll, MD). Unless you need to really reverse chronic or autoimmune diseases, it’s more a question of just changing the ratio of your food choices, not giving up these foods altogether.
Then there was the old and now tired argument that animal proteins have the exact amount of amino acids our body needs and that we can’t get that from plants. Please reread my previous article (“To tell the truth,” The Jerusalem Post). The whole point was that this is not what the latest research is showing. That amino acid argument is incorrect and outdated.
I will add another point to what I wrote last time. We now have research showing that some of the amino acids are more inflammatory that others, mostly methionine. While it is pretty prominent in animal products, it is a lot less so in plants, compared to other amino acids. That seems to pretty much be the way nature wants it – that we eat more plants and less animals, to minimize inflammation.
The data is incredibly consistent and the conclusion obvious. The approach? Just increase your fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes, and decrease the animal proteins. The more you change that ratio, the better your health will be. Most of my clients, who are highly successful with sustained weight loss, disease prevention, and even disease reversal have a diet of small amounts of meat, chicken, fish and eggs complementing a large amount of plant based foods. We do take out the oils, sodium and sugar, though.
I hope I have clarified my position and what is the best way to eat for your health. It’s healthy, tasty and because the calorie density of plant-based food is so low, you can eat lots and lots of it without gaining weight or causing health issues. I am not a vegan; I am a healthy whole food plant-based eater who enjoys his food, feels satisfied eating it, and benefits greatly from eating the way I do. It “adds hours to my day, days to my year and years to my life.”
The writer is a health and wellness coach and personal trainer with more than 25 years of professional experience, and has recently been appointed to the Council of the True Health Initiative. He is director of The Wellness Clinic and can be reached at alan@alanfitness.com.