Open Future New Zealand

Eating a Vegan Diet
A Poor Political Choice?

Some of our very best young people commit themselves to a vegan diet, because they are told that it's better for health, for animals and for the planet. That's a lie, that leads to poor mental health, decline in strength, poor bones and teeth, loss of hair, and severe digestive issues.

A Vegan Describes a Common Experience on a Vegan Diet.

I decided to be a vegan when I was 18. For 10 years I ate grains, legumes and lots of vegetables and fruits. I thought this was the right thing to do. But I was always hungry, and over time i began to find the food less and less appealing, and my health began to get worse.

Over the next 7.5 years I saw my health decline. On the way I saw my broken mentality put on a new robe, a new "healthy eating disorder" (orthorexia). I saw my frame of mind splinter, become jagged. I became rigid, numb in the extremities, and committed to the cause. I was ignoring my body. "It was just detox." "The way I was eating was healing." Delusion.

I believed that I needed to be a stronger vegan, to fast longer, harder. To push myself past the point of return. I saw my joy diminish, deficiencies set in, and still I dragged my body on, a prisoner to the notion of an ultimate truth. At one time I could barely stomach any cooked vegan food, whole as it may have been. I began to eat only minimally processed soluble fiber and raw fruit, that passed through me without complaint.

I thought I had made my system strong. I thought I was getting what I needed. I forget what health was like. I forgot the truth. I embraced a broken body, a chronic condition, and the feeling of a terminal illness. This was the health that I had been sold. I drank potions and supplements for good measure. I cut out oils and sugars, refined carbohydrates and grains. I could not have beans or legumes. What did I have left but some fruits, the same coconut raisin pudding every day, and a salad of unappealing raw leaves.

For 7 months this year, I ate the same thing over and over again and lost my appetite completely in the end. I snapped out of a haze and looked at the limp leaves and thought 'why am I eating this?!'

It was hell. And it was not only physical symptoms of fatigue, brain fog, burning, and nerve pain. I could not think clearly. It felt like there was a grinding and sawing in my very skull. My emotional landscape was littered with mood swings, irritation and seething rage. It felt like I was sped up, excitable. Like all my nerves were just waiting for a trigger to react.

I could not deviate from my way of eating. I was trapped. I could not deviate if I wanted to, because my body would react. I felt confined to the limits of raw fruits and vegetables, all the while being told this was the most expansive, compassionate, healing diet.

I could barely walk up stairs anymore without losing my breath entirely. My muscles had wasted away so much. I was flabby, thin, grey looking and very ill.

The mental, physical, emotional, cognitive toll was great. After 7.5 years of autolysis and starvation, my instinct kicked in. Saved me. My body snapped. Barked orders for fat, animal fat, NOW. I watched the 'Vegans: The Epitome of Malnourishment' series on YouTube and by god, I saw. I cried tears to see my struggles and what had been sold to us as health. 7 cavities later, brittle bones, terrible skin, fatigue, anemia, dry hair, wasting away, and poor emotional well-being, I saw sense.

I cracked two eggs in a cup, convinced it would taste revolting. Convinced that what I had done for 18 years, was righteous, and the proof would be in how terrible it would be to try it. First sip and I was shocked. Not only was it creamy, wholesome, delicious- my brain zinged alive, my eyes stung with tears. I suddenly had clarity, energy after all these years. WHAT was going on! How could this be possible? Downing the whole cup, my body ached and called for it, demanded more, wondered, 'why have you deprived me of this for so long?' I had wanted for it to be wrong. I had wanted for it to taste rank. I had wanted to break out in hives or horrible sobs, to have gut pain, or to feel nothing. To feel nothing at all, not this sudden rightness, clarity and groundnedness.

This first decision to abandon what had not been working for years, to follow my instinct towards denser food, to feed myself raw eggs, to crave raw liver and to eat it for the first time and experience mental clarity and well being like nothing else I had ever experienced, was what saved me from the hell I was in. It saved me from starvation, pseudoscience and self hate. It unraveled the years of dogma. 'Animal products cause mucus...Animal products are inflammatory...Raw foods heal the gut'... All of it came crashing down with the research and the experimentation.

I heard a strong call for animal foods. And I listened. I followed only what my body wanted until all I ate was from the animal kingdom, and I began to heal. For the first time in a decade I began to heal.

I fed and fed myself saturated fat, what I craved. I fed and nourished myself, got stronger and stronger and more and more clear. Whatever I had been doing for the last few years reversed in weeks. Two months in and my story was unrecognizably different.

Dr. Georgia Ede (31 minutes)

Published by: Low Carb Downunder - 2019

Prof. Walter Willet at the Harvard School of Nutrition is a committed vegan, and for many years has tried to convert the world to a vegan diet. EAT-Lancet's Plant-Based Planet: is exactly that, a vegan diet. Please be careful.

Some Ex-vegan's Respond

Comment One
I was in a similar situation - strict vegetarian from the age of 6.  The first meat I had was in spaghetti Bolognas and it was delicious.  I kept eating that until I felt that I could progress onto more solid meats - I would suggest adding minced meat, burgers, sausages etc into your diet before trying steak or plain meats, as I found that plain steak made me feel ill at first whereas the less pure meat options did not.  Oh and physiologically the change came when I researched farming, especially regenerative, and got involved with raising my own chickens for the table.  I even visited a local family run abattoir and assisted the vet in doing carcass inspections, which gave me a great understanding of the way the animals were treated.  Good luck!! 

Comment Two
I just heard an old interview from someone who the book  "The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability" (2009) by Lierre Keith published by PM Press.  Is controversial, but maybe that would be a resource to change your mindset. 

Comment Three
The idea that we can both love animals and also eat them was impossible to me as a vegan, now I can accept it.  It takes work, like actual work to reframe your mind.  A main thing that helped me was understanding that death truly is a part of life.  We can't live with out death, period.  Trying to escape that cycle is not only pointless but harmful.  Root into the earth and feel how taking an animal's flesh into your body grounds you down into the life cycle of our planet. That is sacred.  Give thanks, be reverent. 

It's hard. Take baby steps, don't rush it.  Try the easiest things first like eggs and dairy.  Bone broth as a soup base is awesome because you can't really taste it but you get the nutrition.  Add collagen into drinks.  Then try small bits of meat.  For me, chicken was easier than beef but still took a while to get used to.  Rabbit was actually the easiest for me so far.  Mentally, there's no way around the fact that its difficult.  I've had to just accept that.  Are you familiar with dialectical thinking?  I'd highly recommend learning about that and possibly therapy too. 

Comment Four
Listen to all the wonderful talks on you tube by  Dr Zoe Harcombe an ex 20 year vegetarian - whose first meal was steak after 20 years, she said she began to start feeling better immediately.  She explains why we are manipulate for vegan and vegetarianism. Sadly we have all been indoctrinated.  She also explains the importance for healthy soil. 

Comment Five
Would you deprive a pet cat of it's natural diet? Most people would not because it would be regarded as cruel. So ask yourself this....why would you be so cruel to yourself?  The very reason we evolved to become the most successful species on the planet was because we ate meat.  Humans have been doing it for so long now that we physically cannot thrive without it.  Also, the person that said about plants producing toxins to prevent being eaten is correct.  Our digestive systems are not adapted to dealing with high quantities of these toxins.