{"id":4894,"date":"2015-05-31T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T16:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/?p=4894"},"modified":"2015-05-31T17:44:58","modified_gmt":"2015-05-31T21:44:58","slug":"preventing-ex-vegans-10-strategies-to-maximize-long-term-success-on-vegan-diets-ginny-messina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/preventing-ex-vegans-10-strategies-to-maximize-long-term-success-on-vegan-diets-ginny-messina\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes from VVCIII &#8211; Preventing Ex-Vegans. 10 Strategies to Maximize Long-Term Success on Vegan Diets &#8211; Ginny Messina"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday Session &#8211; Preventing Ex-Vegans &#8211;\u00a010 Strategies to Maximize Long-Term Success on Vegan Diets &#8211; Virginia Messina, MPH, RD<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Preventing-Ex-Vegans.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4904\" src=\"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Preventing-Ex-Vegans.jpg\" alt=\"Preventing Ex-Vegans\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Preventing-Ex-Vegans.jpg 640w, https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Preventing-Ex-Vegans-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Preventing-Ex-Vegans-250x166.jpg 250w, https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Preventing-Ex-Vegans-150x100.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Reasons People Stop Being Vegan<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Health concerns<\/li>\n<li>Not confident they&#8217;re meeting their nutritional needs<\/li>\n<li>Lack of social support<\/li>\n<li>Lack of convenience<\/li>\n<li>Missed taste of animal foods (meat\/cheese)<\/li>\n<li>Didn&#8217;t see diet as part of their identity<\/li>\n<li>Found it difficult to reach purity (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.brainonhugs.com\/post\/106733121708\/level-5-vegan-drives-an-avocardo-share-on\">avocardo<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Believed they could reach all of their goals without being veg.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Helping People Stay Vegan<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Promote realistic benefits (relates well with Matt&#8217;s talk)<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>There are accurate and legitimate benefits to eating a plant based diet &#8211; but some of those claims are exaggerated and many ex-vegans began to doubt the benefits of their vegan<\/li>\n<li>Vegans may have lower risk of cancer &#8211; but vegans still can and do get cancer, and a vegan diet cannot reverse cancer.<\/li>\n<li>A vegan diet is not going to make you look youthful forever &#8211; sets people up for disappointment (setting appropriate expectations)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Promote ethics and ethical reasons behind following a vegan diet.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The ethical and animal rights argument for veganism are unique, universale (or pretty close) and stickier. (because most people like animals &#8211; campaigns like Why Love One but Eat the Other?)<\/li>\n<li>Makes the diet part of their identity.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/spot.humaneresearch.org\/content\/how-many-former-vegetarians-are-there\">Humane research council survey<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/her.oxfordjournals.org\/content\/22\/3\/397.full\">Understanding successful behaviour change: the role of intentions, attitudes to the target and motivations and the example of diet<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Vegan diet does not automatically equal\u00a0weight loss.\n<ul>\n<li>When people don&#8217;t achieve their goals, they will pursue other angles or other diets.<\/li>\n<li>Why is health motivation less sticky?\n<ul>\n<li>People that approached their veganism with &#8220;health&#8221; benefits in mind, often followed a more restrictive diet (which in many cases resulted in turning them into ex-vegans)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>26%of ex-vegetarians\/vegans were not taking B12 supplements or\u00a0didn&#8217;t think they needed any.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0195666315000732\">Lifestyle choices of individuals following a vegan diet for health and ethical reasons<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Some highlights of this study:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Compared to health vegans, ethical vegans adhered to a vegan diet longer<\/li>\n<li>Higher intake of soy and vitamin supplements in ethical versus health vegans<\/li>\n<li>Health vegans consumed more fruit and sweets compared to ethical vegans<\/li>\n<li>Reason for adhering to a vegan diet must be considered when studying vegans<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Fear based nutrition &#8211; never, ever, eat this food.<\/li>\n<li>Science based nutrition: emphasize certain foods, eat others less frequently, use some foods as occasional treats.<\/li>\n<li>People think vegan diets are really restrictive and unpleasant &#8211; adding additional restrictions to vegan diets (with additional proclamations of toxicity, or &#8220;bad&#8221;ness) make it very hard to be vegan<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Allow for convenience<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Lots of people don&#8217;t know how to cook &#8211; and if they think they have to cook all the time to be vegan, they probably won&#8217;t want to be vegan.<\/li>\n<li>Vegan convenience is better than omnivore convenience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Promote good nutrition<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>people need to know a few basic rules about meeting their nutritional needs &#8211; &#8220;eat a variety of foods&#8221; is good advice, but it&#8217;s not enough advice.<\/li>\n<li>vegan diets &#8211; no cultural or historical habits &#8211; we are creating vegan culture right now.<\/li>\n<li>1990&#8217;s view of protein the idea was that excess protein, leached calcium from bones, so vegans didn&#8217;t need as much calcium as meat eaters.<\/li>\n<li>The reality is, that this is not the case. Study showing\u00a0dietary protein and bone health a systematic review and meta-analysis. ((http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/19889822))<\/li>\n<li>The reality is animal protein doesn&#8217;t leech calcium out of the bones. Unfortunately, this claim is touted by many health-focused (and not health focused) vegan organizations.<\/li>\n<li>Adventist Health Study &#8211; found that women that ate more protein = had healthier bones<\/li>\n<li>In the <a href=\"http:\/\/epic.iarc.fr\/\">EPIC Study<\/a>, vegans\u00a0were 30% more likely to fracture a bone than meat eaters or lacto-ovo vegetarians. This is a problem for a variety of reasons but primarily &#8211; we need to make sure we&#8217;re meeting our nutritional needs, and make conscious choices surrounding that.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/schd.ws\/hosted_files\/vidavegancon\/16\/Ginny%20Messina%202.jpg\">Ginny&#8217;s notes on this talk<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theveganrd.com\/resources\" target=\"_blank\">The Resources page on The Vegan RD&#8217;s website.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00a0Focus on flavour and texture of meat alternatives. Improve quality.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>there are five flavours, people forget about the last one &#8211; Salty, sweet, bitter, sour, umami.<\/li>\n<li>Umami is in breast milk<\/li>\n<li>Ketchup, yeast, sea vegetables, mushrooms, fermented foods.<\/li>\n<li>To make satisfying meat alternatives &#8211; add back what&#8217;s missing: texture, protein, and fat.<\/li>\n<li>Richard Mattes, Purdue University &#8211; &#8220;This may be why low-fat foods have been generally unsuccessful so far,&#8221; Mattes says. Most low-fat alternatives are designed to emulate the texture of fat, but not the taste \u2014 and our bodies aren&#8217;t fooled by it. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thesalt\/2015\/02\/18\/386100165\/salty-sweet-sour-is-it-time-to-make-fat-the-sixth-taste?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=news\">NPR interview<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Presenting positive intentions<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Negative &#8211; I&#8217;m not going to eat meat\u00a0anymore<\/li>\n<li>Positive &#8211; Focus on the joyful aspects of vegan food &#8211; more bean burritos,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Consider a slower transition from non-vegan to vegan<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>This isn&#8217;t universal &#8211; some people are passionately interested in making the necessary sweeping changes into their life based around ethics, but most people need a more time to make huge changes to their diet and life. (I was one of the pe<\/li>\n<li>Have a plan\n<ul>\n<li>Take small incremental steps to reducing your consumption of animal products.<\/li>\n<li>Talk to an RD.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lend Support<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Being vegan can be hard if you&#8217;re alone, or don&#8217;t know any other vegans. Create spaces where vegans can interact.<\/li>\n<li>It can be very hard to exist if you&#8217;re conscious of feeling conspicuous as a vegan.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S1499404606600821\">Who we are and how we eat: A qualitative study of Identies in Food Choice<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Create community.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1080\/14742830600807543?journalCode=csms20\">Veganism as a Cultural Movement &#8211; A Relational Approach<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Do you live in a vegan unfriendly community &#8211; reach out to online communities, create your own local community, connect with people, bloggers, and just REACH OUT. (<em>on a personal note: feel free to reach out to me if you ever need support. I remember what it feels like to be the only vegan I know. &#8211; meshell)\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Celebrate progress<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Being vegan is about progress, not perfection. It&#8217;s about effort and intention.<\/li>\n<li>People need room to make mistakes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>What are ex-vegan&#8217;s doing now?<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Many \u00a0(public ex-vegans) have taken\u00a0huge transitions to extreme diets and have made a career out of being not vegan.<\/li>\n<li>But there are people out there that are not-vegan anymore, but still consider themselves animal advocates. They for whatever reason were unable to make veganism work for them<\/li>\n<li>TVA Conducts First Study of Lapsed Vegetarians in Canada &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/veg.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/TVA_Lapsed_Veg_Study-2015-01-20-FINAL.pdf\">Toronto Vegetarian Association Survey<\/a>\u00a0(pdf)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Make real promises related to following a vegan diet.<br \/>\n<\/strong>The only guaranteed promise of a vegan diet is that it removes yourself from the exploitation of animals. It won&#8217;t make you look young forever,\u00a0it wont necessarily make you lose weight or live forever, but you will remove yourself from the exploitation of animals.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.TheVeganRD.com\" target=\"_blank\">TheVeganRD.com<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.Facebook.com\/TheVeganRD\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook.com\/TheVeganRD<\/a><br \/>\nTwitter.com\/TheVeganRD<br \/>\nginnymessina@gmail.com<\/p>\n<p><strong>Books<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nevertoolatetogovegan.com\/\">Never to Late to Go Vegan<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/veganforher.com\/\">Vegan for Her<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theveganrd.com\/vegan-for-life\/vegan-for-life-book\">Vegan for Life<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday Session &#8211; Preventing Ex-Vegans &#8211;\u00a010 Strategies to Maximize Long-Term Success on Vegan Diets &#8211; Virginia Messina, MPH, RD Reasons People Stop Being Vegan Health concerns Not confident they&#8217;re meeting their nutritional needs Lack of social support Lack of convenience Missed taste of animal foods (meat\/cheese) Didn&#8217;t see diet as&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1335,300,306,151],"tags":[1341,1340],"class_list":["post-4894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-austin","category-vida-vegan-con","category-vida-vegan-con-trip","category-vida-vegan-conference","tag-ex-vegans","tag-ginny-messina"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}