I became vegan in January of 2005, ironically the same month and year that The China Study hit the shelves. Here's a short version of my becoming a vegetarian and ultimately a vegan, which was not via the health, ethics, or guilt route. I only heard of the China Study from the Vegan RD in the Florida Voices for Animals about 2 months later:
This has been published on a veg blog, but I did a little editing. ( I just googled myself):
I had two A-Ha moments. In 1987, I read that a certain ethnic group was eating cats in St. Petersburg, Florida. There and then, I stopped eating anyone with eyes. I was the only vegetarian in my family and didn't know anything about PETA or any organizations. I was in my little bubble. Then 18 years passed and I went for a chunk of cheddar. I had not heard the term vegan before, but knew about strict vegetarianism and thought that it was extreme. I had a thought, "I wonder how the cows are treated?" and the Universe answered shortly thereafter. By "coincidence" I met a vegan Buddhist soon after and then I met two AR activists who loaned me the movie Peaceable Kingdom. I saw the footage of the calf being removed from his mother and it felt like I was watching Roots or the Holocaust*. I couldn't do anything about Hitler, but I can stop eating dairy and eggs. I don't even think about it, like the taste buds for both products just vanished. That was 6 years ago. Since then my health has improved a lot. No more lumpy boobs, no more runny nose, barely any zits. At the moment of commitment, the universe conspires to assist you — Goethe
Soon after I wrote the above statement earlier last month, the shit hit the fan. I got my copy of the Vegan Outreach newsletter and that directed me to an interview with Jack Norris of Vegan Outreach by Rhys Southan, at LetThemEatMeat.com. Rhys is an ex-vegan who some current vegans believe to be hell bent on destroying veganism, or something like that. Actually, I think the guy is a truth seeker. He's funny as hell. He doesn't like organized religion and that's exactly what some parts of the vegan movement appears to be. Plus, he was really unhealthy on the vegan diet. He was lied to and that will make some people start a revolution of sorts!
After reading his story, Tasha's story, Chris Masterjohn's story, and lots of stories on Beyond Veg, Mothering.com, and meeting the tooth decayed kid with caps at the Thanksgiving Potluck, and and basically opening up my mind to listening to folks and realizing that my own mother couldn't hack it all the way, I woke up to realize something I wish I would have realized 5 years ago: there is no one diet to rule them all.
The vegan diet has done all right by me and many, many others, but some people it just doesn't work for and they have to be heard and not dismissed and be called spies for the evil empire or something like that. There's a myriad of reasons why vegans become ex-vegans, some could be that they were not so good at getting enough protein (yes, you do have to work harder at it, especially for dudes), some because their intestines are not optimally absorbing pro-vitamins and turning them into fat soluble vitamins, and many others reasons, perhaps genetics. One of the reasons is that many Vegan Guru MDs encourage low fat and that is WRONG WRONG WRONG! I've written or cobbled together a lot of information on why there is failure to thrive, so click around on the blog for the months of November and December 2010 in particular.
The China Study, I honestly don't know what to make of it. Rather than think it's some kind of vegan propaganda, it's more like being seriously misguided. Seriously. If you read my "Ex Vegan Essay" and the "Feeling Better after Eating Meat" post, you'll see more where I'm coming from.
I had excruciatingly painful and lumpy boobs and the pain and lumps went away when I stopped dairy, first the pain, then slowly the lumps went away. I've read and heard from others that their health improved a lot by removing dairy. That alone doesn't make the China Study worthy of being deemed the ultimate diet book for the entire planet, which many, many people think that it is. Perhaps it's just a diet book for Chinese people, or certain people with certain genetic constitutions. I'm serious. We are all different and adaptable to different diets, but we are all not the descendants of people who eat more plants to meat ratio. So the Japanese thrive on their diet and the Inuits thrive on theirs. Provided they don't start incorporating any Western crap food, my bet is that they are just fine. If you read the articles I linked to earlier, that is the case. The Inuits on their high fat and cholesterol laden diet, provided they don't start eating modern high sugar, fructose corn syrup and neurotoxins like aspartame and other crap, they are at low CVD risk. Would they thrive on the Mediterranean diet? No they would not. They would need to adapt and also move to a similar climate, most likely.
When it's "common knowledge" that cholesterol is bad (which it is not) and the ratios of LDL/HDL and triglycerides are freaking confusing, most people, really like simple answers and want others to think for them. Others like doctors or books will do the trick. Never outsource your thinking.
Most, if not all, people yearn and search for external validation that what they are doing is the "right" thing. Being right is effing great. You don't actually have be right, you just simply think you are right and that is good enough. This is on all sides of the diet movement. Just because the Nourishing Traditions worked for you, it doesn't mean that it is the one diet to rule them all either. But seriously, isn't that the way it is with something so intimate such as diet or religion? Jesus is God to millions of people, they pray to Him, get inner and outer confirmation and feel happy. Telling them otherwise is not going to get you anywhere. They want all the people to share in their happiness and joy they get from a close personal relationship with Jesus. Telling them that people also pray to Buddha, or Allah, or my master, Meher Baba, and also feel the same way and get the same benefits, that would freak them out. They would cover their ears and start singing loudly, in a manner of speaking.
People want absolutes and having things be relative is confusing.
When the so called "one diet to rule them all" and its accompanying bible "The China Study" is shown on a deep personal level to not work for an individual, they are shaken to the core. The construct comes down and they have to build another one in order to eat, in order to function. A new form of ethics or reasoning comes in and is developed within that individual. And she will find sources "out there" to validate her new construct. People can't act against their own conscience, they have to build a new construct to operate or they can't operate at all.
I'll leave it at that for the time being.
*I think of animals as sentient beings and that doesn't diminish the status of human beings, but puts animals right up there with them. I would love to clone Donald Watson's herbivorous system and make everyone vegan, but that's not possible. So the word holocaust came to mind at that time in 2005 without any outside influences. Basically seeing that footage freaked me out. When I saw footage of the Jewish holocaust years and years ago, and read Ann Frank's Diary, I was depressed for months and constantly bitching at God. So that's how I am.
Oh yeah, and right after writing that, I got the worst flu in years and this past week I've been really sick. See how it is when one makes absolute statements!
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