I don’t think she means any harm. I doubt she knows about the cruelty behind milk production. Many people really don’t know how bad it is. Someone should gently educate her.

She didn’t seem to go veg for humane reasons…more for health reasons or to stay model thin for her career. She plugged her Total Gym but not a love for animals. And she’s not vegan…just vegetarian…or she probably wouldn’t have done those milk ads. I’d say she’s a bit shallow…but at least she’s not a carnivore. LOL!

Yeah, if you’re vegan you’re not doing milk. Not sure why you’d be out promoting it. Oh yeah, for the $$. Guess PETA doesn’t pay enough.

Eric, doctors get almost no nutritional training whatsoever, so one of them falling for the protein myth isn’t as unforgiveable as a nutritionist doing so. But I read a book in which Suzanne Havala Hobbs, vegan nutrition expert, said that the dairy industry provided a lot of materials to the students.

congrats, Parrish, on your eight years. Earlier this month, I celebrated my seventh veg-annniversary; I went vegan a few months after that.

To add to Erin’s point… I recently did an online “health analysis” that is offered through my employer. I received high scores in everything except for nutrition… I was dinged for not eating 3 or more servings of dairy a day! Even though that is just an online tool, it’s just another sign that our medicial community needs to wake up!

I’ve only had one doctor in my life who really seemed to consider the “whole” me. He was also very open about considering my input, even listening to ideas I had picked up off of the internet, researching them with his colleagues and working with me to support my health. He always asked me how my support network was doing (knowing I was a single mom living away from the rest of her family), if I was working out, how I was eating, etc.

I’m still on the search for another “Dr. Right” since I moved from that part of the country

i would rather say eating dairy products is a sign of an unhealthy diet, unless you are a toddler.

Dairy isn’t what the body needs…calcium is…and you can get that without dairy products…But where does it say that Christie is VEGAN?…She says vegetarian in the above post…Maybe she’s lacto-veg or lacto-ovo-veg but NOT vegan? Did I misread her comments?

a) Whenever I see someone with the milk mustache, I think they are either greedy or desperate for money.

b) Milk does NOT do a body good. It’s dangerous: there’s a strong milk-cancer link as well as a milk-diabetes link.

c) I’m glad she’s vegetarian and outspoke about it.

d) I consumed dairy for a long time as a vegetarian before I went vegan. I understand dairy consumption, but I don’t think anyone should promote it.

e) Diary is incredibly cruel.

if you stop smoking cigaretes, its not like the next day, or the nex week you feel great and healthy, rather your body feels miserable and really miss the nicotin. its the same with changing your diet and stop eating all animal products.

quote from fbr : “the result was that I felt weak, my body started burning muscle mass, couldn’t keep up with my normal exercise routine and felt tired and generally bad”

thats all because you change your diet and your body that is used to dairy (and meat ?) needs more than two weeks to adjust to it.

as a person that stopped smoking, and stopped eating meat, milk, etc, i damn well know what i an saying and what i did feel, and that the effects on your body are nothing less than unpleasant withdrawal changes, weather it is stopping eating animal products that your body and mind are used to, or stopping smoking cigarets.

i am sorry, but to have an unsuccesfull vegan fling for a two weeks, says more about your (lack of)commitment, then the nutritional value of milk.

fbr, unless you’re a baby calf, you don’t need cows’ milk.

There is, I have read, a milk osteoporosis link. Yep, counter to the dairy industdry’s claims, consuming milk makes it more likely that you’ll develop osteoporosis because excess animal protein strips calcium from your bones. In many parts of Asia, where dairy consumption is near nil, osteoporosis is practically unheard of.

fbr, when a person radically changes the daily diet, the body needs time to adapt, this takes times and until the body is used to the new diet, it will feel similar like withdrawal symptons and strong cravings for the foods that you stopped consuming, just EXACTLY how you described your own bodily reaction when you turned vegan.
to say that you dont have withdrawel symptons when you change your diet is naive.

also this previous quote seems not to be based on any research or experiences from people who turned (and sticked) to a veggie diet.
“but just as surely there are tons of correlations between vegan diets and medical conditions.”

“herwin, sure the body takes time to adjust to radical changes in diets.”
okay, thats my point, so thanks for agreeing with me.
nope, burning muscle mass isnt a withdrawal sign but a lack of nutrients, couldnt agree with you more.
dont know where you live (where the veggies only grow three months a year, eh) or if you have acces to good supermarkets and grocerie stores, but i am sure that its possible to have a healthy and delicious vegan meal each day.
wow, i feel like i am living in a cave out of touch with the vegan world. I never heard of vegans turning meateater, but i get the impression from you there there are many of them.
i only can speak out of my own experience, by eating a very tiny piece of meat (kind of hidden ingredient that i wasnt aware of) i got sick and diarea.
its a bit childish i feel, vegan diets dont have their own medical issues like meat, milk, and other animal products do. yes, you have to take care to get all the right nutrition, but you are not getting cancer, diabetes, heartproblems, allergies, obesity,(to name the most obvious diseases related to a meat / animal based diet) from ANY vegan diet.
i have seen the effect of people going veggie and how they could stop taking medicine. thats not a result after a few weeks, but generally it takes a year.
btw, also animal based products like cheese have ingredients that are lightly addictive. so yeah, it has many similarities with nicotine and tobacco.

herwin, let me address your points in reverse order. My quote needed no research because it’s a self-evident truth. You can always find historical correlations. You can find them between pirate populations and global warming, and you can just as surely find them between vegan diets and a number of medical conditions. A large body of research in this area are correlation studies, which must be taken into account when assessing their importance.

Comparing nicotine and dairy products in terms of how addictive they are is nonsense. Just let it go, it’s not an argument worth fighting for.

As to your personal experiences of people stopping taking medicine after getting into a vegetarian diet, you’d have to be far more precise on the examples. Sorry, but I don’t put much weight on these types of arguments. You commonly encounter them while debating religious people claiming to have witnessed miracles. If you have seriously never heard of vegans/vegetarians going back to meat you need to do your research before debating. I mean there have been stories on this very site about it. Another point to research would be the medical conditions linked to vegan diets, thinking there are none is dangerously naive.

There’s no point doubting my assessment of the validity of vegan/vegetarian diet where I live by saying you’re “sure that its possible to have a healthy and delicious vegan meal each day”. I tried it, I know exactly how possible or impossible it is. Like I said it is possible to have a healthy vegan diet (if you don’t mind eating vegetables imported from across the globe for the majority of the year). As for the deliciousness, that’s purely subjective and I wouldn’t say any of the recipes I tried were “delicious”.

a correlation between pirates and global warming ?? what are you talking about ?

so in short you started a veggie diet without any commitment and without any knowledge of making delicious veggie recipes.
So for 4 weeks you were gobbeling food down your throat thinking “why the hell am i eating this tasteles shit!”, right ?
your comments about comparing my experiences with people and how a vegan diet affected their health and how some could stop taking medicines, with that of religious people claiming miracles, is rather stupid and ignorant.

furthermore, i dont say that cheese and cigarettes are the same addictice as you suggest, that would be stupid. i merely say that cheese has an ingredients that is lightly addictive. (and anyone knows that nicotine is heavily addictive)
stopping cigaretes OR drastically changing your diet , both the body needs time to change and has withdrawel effects because it is stronly craving foods / nicotine that the body is used to. this is an unpleasant feeling.

before posting comments like “if you dont mind eating veggie imported halfway around the globe” you should do a little bit more research about the food the cows (your meat and milk) are eating. is that grown locally ?? i dont think so. also that comes from far away, and anybody knows that producing meat (and milk) takes so much more grains and soy, that any animal product has a far bigger ecological footprint.
besides, you really think you can substitue veggies and fruit for meat and milk ?
you should as your pirates, as many know that living on a ship for a long time without fresh veggeis and fruit will make you sick.

if you cant make a delicious veggie mal, thats okay, but i am sure other people can, with the same ingredients thta are available in your local supermarket or grocery store.

i am so glad that there are at least more inteligent and more open people like Oprah Winfrey who tried a vegan diet for 21 days, who start with a healthy commitment, a vegan coach, and are honestly so surprised because its much more delicous than they anticipated.

the pirates and other seaman that had acces to fish (duh), and also fresh meat on many times from life stock like goats or turtles. nonetheles they developed scurvy on their long journeys, because of lack of fresh veggie and fruits. this was solved when they took fresh veggies and fruits on their trips.

previously they also had acces to milk on board (from goats, life stock at board or taken from the islands) but that didnt solve the problem.

yes, you noticed correctly, i failed and still fail to understand your type of “commitment”. maybe its because when reading comments like this, make me think you didnt have any serious or well thaught commitment with strong believ and or feelings in the first place.
Quote : “To commit there would have to be a good reason, and the only ones that I could come up with were either ethical or religious ones”
the ONLY reasons you could come up with are ethical or religious reasons ? well, “ethical reasons” sounds good to me ! what else do you want ?

again, i dont say anything like that dairy is addictive, you should try to read better. all i say is that the body needs time when you change your diet and it reacts just the same way like withdrawal symptons. you really want to deny that ?
even changing habits causes withdrawal symptons. ask an avid tv addict (and his family!) how he feels when he cant watch tv for a couple of days.

so my point is, that if you appearantly without any good and strong convictions, and whithout any clou of cooking a good vegan meal, (yes, you can stuff your head with reading books but that doesnt qualify as “good preparations”) is it a surprise that your body reacts in a negative way ? rather, i would be surprised if it would work out.

Happy Vegan Birthday, Parrish. I turned 5 on 1/1/09 … xoxo