Table Of Content

PRAISE FOR BECOMING VEGAN: EXPRESS EDITION “Registered dietitians Davis and Melina cover every aspect of the vegan life. Their clear, detailed, and practical coverage of the benefits is supported by easy- to-use, remarkably informative charts, and propelled by expertise and enthusiasm. This is the go-to book for understanding and practicing healthy and enjoyable veganism.” American Library Association Booklist “Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina are authoritative and influential leaders in nutrition, and this is one of the most useful guides you will ever own. A plant- based diet provides tremendous power for health. Becoming Vegan: Express Edition gives you everything you need to put that power to work for the very best of health.” Neal Barnard, MD, adjunct associate professor of medicine, George Washington University, president of PCRM “Nutrition pros Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina have written the definitive work on vegan nutrition. To all who want a clear, authoritative, and readable guide to this increasingly important subject, Becoming Vegan: Express Edition will prove to be a seminal and benchmark work.” Michael Klaper, MD, consultant, educator, and physician with True North Health Center “Every so often a book comes along that you feel should be on every vegan’s bookshelf. Becoming Vegan: Express Edition is one such book.” Paul Appleby, senior statistician, Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, England AWARDS FOR BECOMING VEGAN: EXPRESS EDITION Honorable Mention, Health, INDIEFAB Book of the Year Awards 2013, Foreword magazine Canada Book Awards Winner, 2014 also by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina Becoming Raw (with Rynn Berry) Becoming Vegan: Express Edition Becoming Vegetarian The New Becoming Vegetarian The Raw Food Revolution Diet (with Cherie Soria) by Brenda Davis Dairy-Free & Delicious (with Bryanna Clark Grogan and Jo Stepaniak) Defeating Diabetes (with Tom Barnard, MD, and Barb Bloomfield) by Vesanto Melina Cooking Vegan (with Joseph Forest) Cooking Vegetarian (with Joseph Forest) Food Allergy Survival Guide (with Jo Stepaniak and Dina Aronson, RD) Food Allergies: Health and Healing (with Jo Stepaniak and Dina Aronson, RD) Raising Vegetarian Children (with Jo Stepaniak) BECOMING VEGAN COMPREHENSIVE EDITION the complete reference to plant-based nutrition Brenda Davis, RD Vesanto Melina, MS, RD Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Davis, Brenda, 1959- Becoming vegan : the complete reference on plant-based nutrition / Brenda Davis, RD, and Vesanto Melina, MS, RD. — Comprehensive edition. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-57067-297-2 (pbk.) — ISBN 978-1-57067-900-1 (e-book) 1. Veganism—Health aspects. 2. Veganism. 3. Nutrition. I. Melina, Vesanto, 1942- II. Title. RM236.D38 2014 613.2'622—dc23 2014018034 Cover art: Julia Ruffles, http://www.juliaruffles.co.uk/ Cover and interior design: John Wincek © 2014 Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced by any means whatsoever, except for brief quotations in reviews, without written permission from the publisher. Printed in Canada Book Publishing Company P.O. Box 99 Summertown, TN 38483 888-260-8458 bookpubco.com ISBN 13: 978-1-57067-297-2 19 18 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Printed on recycled paper. Book Publishing Co. is a member of Green Press Initiative. We chose to print this title on paper with postconsumer recycled content, processed without chlorine, which saved the following natural resources: 133 trees 4,164 pounds of solid waste 62,207 gallons of water 11,470 pounds of greenhouse gases 60 million BTU of energy For more information, visit greenpressinitiative.org. Paper calculations from Environmental Defense Paper Calculator, edf.org/papercalculator. To the visionaries before us and beside us, who have dedicated their lives to making this world a kinder, gentler place: ■ Donald Watson, Dr. Frey Ellis, and the founders of the vegan movement; ■ Jay and Freya Dinshah, and others who started vegan organizations throughout the world; ■ Bob and Cynthia Holzapfel, and the hundreds of courageous plant-based pioneers at The Farm; ■ Jane Goodall, John Robbins, Albert Schweitzer, and all those who have guided our paths to compassion; ■ Michael Klaper, Neal Barnard, Michael Greger, William Harris, and the many other physicians who have dedicated their lives to assisting others toward healthful vegan lifestyles; ■ Virginia Messina, Reed Mangels, Sue Havala, Jack Norris, George Eisman, and the countless dietitians who laid the foundations of vegan dietary wisdom. CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS CHAPTER 1 Widening the Circle of Compassion CHAPTER 2 The Great Vegan Advantage CHAPTER 3 Protein Power from Plants CHAPTER 4 Balancing Fats CHAPTER 5 Carbohydrates: The Whole Story CHAPTER 6 Minding Your Minerals CHAPTER 7 Vitamins: Vital for Life CHAPTER 8 Clean, Strong Vegan Eating CHAPTER 9 Expecting Vegans: Pregnancy and Lactation CHAPTER 10 Growing Vegans CHAPTER 11 Prime of Life: Nutrition for Seniors CHAPTER 12 Weighty Matters CHAPTER 13 The Vegan Athlete CHAPTER 14 The Vegan Plate and Menus APPENDIX: Recommended Intakes of Vitamins and Minerals RESOURCES REFERENCES INDEX ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We’re most grateful for our brilliant and dedicated colleagues at Book Publishing Company, including publisher Bob Holzapfel, editors Cynthia Holzapfel and Carol Kroskey, and marketing and support team Anna Pope, Thomas Hupp, John Schweri, and Rhiannon Wolfe. Our deepest thanks go to the insightful colleagues and friends who provided invaluable feedback, thoughtful commentary, support, and inspiration: Reed Mangels, Jack Norris, Ginny Messina, Paul Shapiro, Mark Rivkin, Margie Colclough, Margie Roswell, Andres and Lily Vallejo, Heather Waxman, John Pierre, Ruth Heidrich, James Chicalo, Carolyn Johnston, Andrea Frisque, Stephane Lahaye, and Daneen Agecoutey. Many thanks for the time and expertise of our gracious advisors: Paul Appleby, Luciana Baroni, Winston Craig, Michael Greger, Michael Klaper, Kristen Yarker, Joe Millward, Melvin H. Williams, Ricardo Uauy, Ailsa Welch, Jagoda Ambroszkiewicz, Francesca Crowe, Undurti N. Das, John Davis, Jill Wallace, and Freya Dinshah. We appreciate the supportive energy of our research assistants: Renee WebbPelchat, Deanna Ibbitson, Carole Douglas, Katherine Jassman, and Hana Tahae. Boundless love and gratitude to our partners, Paul Davis and Cam Doré, for their continued dedication and support. Special thanks to Cam for his brilliant and ongoing assistance with technical challenges. Richest blessings to our cherished and supportive family members: Brenda’s mother, Doreen Charbonneau; her mother-in-law, Linda Davis; her children, Leena Markatchev and Cory Davis; and her son-in-law, Nayden Markatchev, and to Vesanto’s children, Xoph Crawford and Kavyo Crawford; her son-in-law, Stefan Shielke; her dear grandson, Chance Shielke, and to Claire and Audra Doré. Photographic credits and appreciation go to Kevin Trowbridge (KevinTrowbridge.com) and his assistant Katherine Jassman. We’re also grateful to the companies that generously shared their excellent products for recipe testing—Sunrise Soya Foods, Garden Protein International (Gardein), Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods, Omega Nutrition, Nature’s Path Foods, and LeSaffre Yeast Corporation—and to ESHA Research for its outstanding nutritional analysis program, The Food Processor. BECOMING VEGAN COMPREHENSIVE EDITION the complete reference to plant-based nutrition CHAPTER 1 Widening the Circle of Compassion Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. MARTIN LUTHER KING, US CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER It takes immense inner strength to oppose the status quo. It takes courage to resist the pressure to accept what the influential people in your life consider morally and culturally reasonable, and perhaps even necessary. Yet, if people didn’t rise up against social injustice, slavery still would be legal, the poor would remain uneducated, and women wouldn’t be able to vote. What does a vegan lifestyle have to do with social justice? Nothing—if animals are regarded as resources; everything—if animals are recognized as sentient beings. It’s possible that the greatest social injustice of our time doesn’t involve humans at all, but rather our fellow beings—nonhuman animals. Becoming vegan is about taking a stand against this injustice. The seeds of vegan ethics were sown by philosophers and spiritual leaders in the East, where prevalent religions, such as Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism, emphasized compassion toward animals and included vegetarianism as a part of their core doctrines. These seeds were nurtured and spread in the West by Pythagoras, a sixth-century BC Greek philosopher and mathematician. Pythagoras shunned the consumption of animal flesh and directed his followers to do the same.1 While many other notable thinkers followed suit, including Plato, Plutarch, Seneca, Ovid, and Socrates, it wasn’t until the mid-1800s that the moral roots of vegetarianism were firmly established in Western culture. The epicenter was England, and the driving forces were moral leaders of select Christian churches. Although the movement became well-grounded in the West, when contrasted with the practices and teachings of the East, its early influence was limited. Vegan Awakenings The ethics of consuming dairy products were hotly debated within the burgeoning British vegetarian movement, but it wasn’t until 1944 that a small, like-minded group of individuals decided to develop a new branch of vegetarianism, one whose practitioners consumed no animal products. The father of the contemporary vegan movement, Donald Watson (1910– 2005), and his compatriots recognized that the flesh-food industry and the egg and dairy-product industries were inextricably linked, because animals raised to produce eggs and milk were eventually slaughtered and eaten when they were no longer productive. These British vegans contended that the case against these industries rivaled the indictment of the meat industry, so the use of dairy products and eggs was no longer justifiable for ethical vegetarians. Their intent was to eliminate the exploitation of animals and to move closer to a truly humane society. To do so, they founded the first Vegan Society in 1944; initially, it had only twenty-five members.2 In the 1950s, London physician Frey Ellis joined their ranks and significantly strengthened the scientific understanding of vegan health. In 1948, Dr. Catherine Nimmo and Rubin Abramowitz established America’s first vegan society in Oceano, California. The group continued gathering members until 1960, when a national organization, the American Vegan Society (AVS), was founded by H. Jay Dinshah. As a strong vote of support, Nimmo became the first paying member and encouraged her former group to join AVS.3,4 Although Jay passed on in 2000, AVS remains vibrant under the guidance of his wife, Freya Dinshah, who has been with the organization since its inception. AVS has consistently encouraged the active practice of ahimsa (a Sanskrit word meaning dynamic harmlessness) as a part of a vegan lifestyle. Members embrace ahimsa as an urgent worldwide necessity and advocate six pillars—one for each letter of ahimsa:5 Abstinence from animal products Harmlessness with reverence for life Integrity of thought, word, and deed