When I first decided to be a dietitian, I had no particular interest in vegetarian diet. Rather, I was simply interested in food and nutrition. I liked the puzzle of creating diets. Vegetarianism wasn’t even a blip on my radar screen as I went through my dietetics program and then graduate school as an omnivore.
At the same time, I was very much an advocate for animals and pretty sensitive to animal rights. What a big disconnect, huh? But while I had a tender heart for animals, I knew absolutely nothing about factory farming.
When did that little light bulb go on over my head? I know I was 28, recently married, and had just obtained my RD (registered dietitian). I also had purchased my first vegetarian cookbook—just for fun. It was Laurels’ Kitchen, and I’m quite sure it deserves a great deal of credit for starting me on my journey toward ethical eating. Standing in the little kitchen in my apartment in Kalamazoo, Michigan, I opened it and read this:
This book is dedicated to a glossy black calf on his way to the slaughterhouse many years ago, whose eyes met those of someone who could understand their appeal and inspire us, and thousands of others like us, to give the gift of life.
Just like that, something clicked. Those simple words spoke volumes to me and I knew right then and there that I wasn’t going to eat animal flesh again. I started reading about vegetarian diet and experimenting with recipes. Five years later I took a job working for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and once again, made a huge leap in my dedication to ethical eating. I was hired by this organization to develop materials about vegan diet. Well, I could hardly tell people not to eat eggs and dairy if I was eating them myself. So I began to read more about factory farming and learned–to my very great surprise–that animals suffer just as much on dairy and egg farms as they do in meat production.
That was an incredible period of personal and professional growth for me and really exciting. I learned tons about diet. Just as importantly, I unlearned a bunch of the wrong ideas I had picked up throughout my schooling and work. I cared deeply about diet and its effects on animals. And, I found myself in a remarkable position to help other people who were eating, or trying to eat, vegan diets. What a lucky thing–somehow, I had landed exactly where I belonged.
Since then, I’ve written some books, plus lots of freelance articles, developed a continuing education program on vegetarian nutrition for dietitians, wrote a textbook on vegetarian nutrition, worked on soy projects with my husband Mark Messina, co-authored the American Dietetic Association’s position on vegetarian diet, and created a web site. Now I’m ready to blog!
Where this new adventure is headed, I don’t exactly know. I have lots to say about how to be a smart and healthy vegan. I’m an ethical vegan—which means that I choose to eat and promote this diet to reduce animal suffering. It also means that my diet is just one part of a bigger vegan lifestyle. But my expertise isn’t in philosophy or ethics or animal husbandry. It’s in food and nutrition, and my contribution to this cause is to help vegans and those who are working toward veganism learn how to eat this way while enjoying good health and wonderful food.
But I have some thoughts on some of the peripheral subjects, too—social situations and interactions. So here I go–I’m just going to dive in and share a little knowledge and lots of opinions.
