My Story: Coming Out of the Pantry

“Oh! Okay... I'm sorry, that must suck... So... why?”

Typically that’s the response I get when people find out I eat a plant-based diet. But I can’t blame them; vegans can be... well, unique.

At least that’s what I thought most of my life. In fact, I was so opposed to any form of vegetarianism I was borderline omnivore activist. “For so many reasons you should eat meat,” I would argue, “plants alone don’t provide adequate protein or B-12. And why else would God create all these animals - it’s not like He gave us canines by accident. What happened to a moderation in all things? And I don’t recall the Bible referring to the land of soymilk and honey...”

I could have written a 20-page persuasive essay. Needless to say, I was passionate about meat. But honestly, deep down I pitied vegetarians. Meat is delectable! In-N-Out, Outback Steakhouse, Chic-fil-A . . . All could be classified as “Heavenly.” Vegans were beyond my understanding. Give up eggs and dairy too? Butter, milk, cheese, ice cream?? You take all the fun out of eating!

You can imagine my surprise when I began eating mostly plants early in 2012.

A few months prior, my family found out my aunt had breast cancer. She flew from Washington to stay with my family in Arizona for her cancer treatment. At first I didn’t pay too much attention to her new diet given to her by her doctor, but it became impossible to evade as she and my compassionate mother began preparing new recipes that were meatless. Apparently, it was something called a “low-fat, non-oil, non-processed, nutrient-dense, whole-food, plant-based diet.” I had never heard of it before - way too many words for my impatient mind to handle.

Interestingly, once she switched her diet, her cancer growth immediately turned off like a light switch! Let me re-emphasize; her cancer stopped growing - it even started to reverse before the treatments began. And what's more, as the cancer treatments were taking place along with the combination of the diet, the cancer (thankfully) went away. Did eating this way save her life? "Eh, it's interesting, but I'm not convinced," I thought. "I'm sure similar results would have occurred even by eating meat. It was simply an answer to prayer and not enough to convince me to eat this way."

At least not enough for me, but my aunt wasn’t the only one who noticed improved health during our vegetable craze.

My mother shared with me an experience she had while riding her bike with her friends. She had been riding the same routes with the same biker gang of about 40 riders for a few years. During their early-morning expeditions she would invariably end up near the back of the group. Once she changed her diet, however, suddenly she was keeping up with the fastest rider for the entire duration of the ride! She told me at this moment some familiar words entered her mind, “run and not be weary; walk and not faint.”

Her interest was piqued to say the least. She eagerly read several books and articles to learn about this low-fat, whole food, plant-based diet; they were all consistent. They demonstrated how eating this way can prevent and even reverse heart disease, common cancers, respiratory diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure, and a host of other common diseases. Who knew that plants can remove the cause of diseases?? It wasn't until much later I came across articles of Native Americans eating certain plants and roots to reverse diseases - a practice they have been doing for hundreds of years (including ancient inhabitants of America) that we are just now discovering.

But I knew better, or so I thought. My pride was clouding my vision as I dubiously reasoned, “I’m sure exercise and plenty of vegetables would produce similar results. Besides, I doubt those biased studies are even credible.”

It has always been my outlook to seek to understand others’ lifestyles and passions that, to me, are foreign and even unattractive: screamo music, SpongeBob lovers, olympic curling, democrats, turtleneck sweaters... I don’t have to enjoy or agree with these things, but I desire to put bias aside and understand why these things are the motivating factor for millions of people to get out of bed every morning. I want to hold intelligent conversations with people who are passionate about these things and be able to truthfully tell them, “I understand you. Let’s be friends.”

Eating a diet of plant-based whole foods fell perfectly in this category of things I didn’t understand. Oftentimes people disagree with things because they are ignorant or misinformed. Such was the case for me, and perhaps also for you now. 

I resolved to investigate the diet and find out for myself. Conveniently, a research project in one of my classes at BYU-Idaho had just been assigned, opening the door for the perfect opportunity.

Over the next couple months I studied several books, talks, and articles on the subject including The China Study by T. Colin Campbell. I even read peer-reviewed medical journals and discovered hidden treasures of knowledge (my grades in other classes took a bit of a dive). The evidence clearly supported everything my mother had learned through her studies. It is the only diet proven to prevent and reverse the #1 killer in America, heart disease. Many critics argue a plant-based diet isn’t healthy, to which I reply, “Do you know of any other diet that can cure heart disease?” I’m passionate about finding the most efficient way to do something, and from what I’ve found, this diet is the most efficient way to prevent the most common diseases in Western civilization. I’m more passionate about the results than the specific avenue I take, so if there is another diet out there that is sustainable and more efficient in disease prevention and overall health, I’ll abandon veganism and switch diets happily.

This "heart attack-proof" diet also prevents other health problems that most people believe are unavoidable like erectile dysfunction, rheumatoid arthritis, kidney stones, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes (and drastically improves type 1 diabetics; check out “Mastering Diabetes”) etc. It’s not that eating plants is some magic “cure-all” for disease, but it’s the consuming of animal products regularly that give us these diseases in the first place. Our culture focuses a lot of time, effort, and resources on finding better medicine to fix these problems when we are putting the wrong fuel into our bodies which leads to long-term health problems. Why not switch to premium fuel and avoid parts breaking down?

“But where do you get your protein from?”
“Where did gorillas, elephants, and rhinos get their protein?”
You still get all the correct amounts of vitamins and nutrients while eating this way. Many of us believe we need animal products to get adequate protein, but the more I researched the more sure I was that this fear is irrational. The only people who are protein deficient are either malnourished in a third world country, anorexic, or are otherwise not getting nearly enough calories. The commonly accepted myth is that plant protein is inferior in both quantity and quality of all amino acids. Nope. Each plant food has all the amino acids in varying proportions. You could literally eat nothing but potatoes and receive all your nutrients. I eat when I’m hungry, and I eat whatever is in my fridge, and without planning or calculating I end up getting twice the amount of protein I need everyday with all the amino acids; I don’t have to ever think or worry about it.

“But the fact we have canine teeth means we should be eating meat.”
Many people believe canines are evidence of a carnivorous (or at least, significantly carnivorous) diet. This isn’t true. Look at gorillas. They are the strongest animals in proportion to their weight, they have huge canines, and besides occasional ants, they’re completely vegan. Canines are used for asserting dominance in their species. They’re just for show.

One fascinating thing I’ve learned is about colesterol. We all know it puts plaque in our arteries and there’s the good kind and the bad kind, right? HDL is the good kind and LDL is bad (easy to remember by thinking H=Healthy; L=Legal). Here’s a pop quiz: which kind of cholesterol is found in a Big Mac from McDonald’s? LDL. What about in steak? LDL. How about Chicken? LDL. Ok what about Greek Yogurt? Only LDL cholesterol. Eggs? You guessed it, LDL. In fact one egg has more cholesterol than two Big Macs! This is one of the reasons why eggs legally cannot be advertised as “healthy” or “nutritious.” Any food that was, or was produced by, an animal contains the lethal kind of cholesterol. Whenever we consume these products we are increasing our risk of adding more plaque to our artery walls. Well what food gives us the healthy kind of cholesterol? That’s a trick question. Our bodies produce it all on our own. If a doctor tells you your colesterol is too low, you know he is referring to the healthy kind you need. No competent doctor would ever say “you don’t have enough plaque on your arteries.” How do you increase your HDL cholesterol? Quality sleep, exercise, and stress-reducing activities like meditation.

Obviously I started to be convinced that this diet made sense, so much so that I wondered if I should be eating this way. I reasoned within myself, "what lifestyle change would not be worth these results?"

It wasn’t until a few years after changing my diet I thought about how the meat ended up on my plate. I learned thousands of male baby chicks get blended up in a macerater everyday to keep costs down since they will never lay eggs, and their remains are thrown away. Cows and pigs are contained shoulder-to-shoulder living in their own waste in an environment perfect for spreading disease (lentils never caused a widespread disease). Male calves are killed their first week of life and their mothers visibly mourn, and countless more horrifying things. There was no way I could justify to God my funding of these actions, regardless of how anyone interprets the word, "dominion." I was one of those people who believed eating meat made me a grateful Christian since God made these animals for us. It’s hard to imagine the Savior condoning this practice. 

“But what about the Word of Wisdom?” others would ask.
“What about it?” I replied, loving that they would share their thoughts than to keep them quiet and responding with, “well, to each his own.”
“Doesn’t it say we’re supposed to eat meat?”
In addition to the restriction of alcohol, hot drinks, and tobacco, a major portion of Doctrine and Covenants talks about eating wholesome plants, with emphasis on consuming grains. Then when it comes to animals, the Lord states in verse 13, “And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used.” Let’s pause here. Of course it would please the Lord that we would eat in a way that would prevent disease, improve our health, and not contribute to killing baby chicks and throwing them in the trash. The only exceptions the Lord provides for when it’s okay to eat animals are during times when crops have trouble growing. If we have to choose between going hungry and eating an animal, of course the Lord would want us to survive, so He gave us animals to be used as spare food. I’ve also read in an Ensign that when President Nelson was called out for being a picky eater, he replied saying since he has performed countless heart surgeries, he avoids foods that lead to heart disease.

Thoughts started shooting through my mind like: “Without animal products, I don’t know what I would eat. I don’t even know how to cook! What would my friends think? Dating will probably become more challenging; this is going to make me even more awkward than I already am. What will happen to my precious ego? I used to make fun of vegans. What about all the relentless and inevitable tagging of Ron Swanson quotes about eating bacon I'll receive on social media?”

I decided to try this whole plant-based thing out just as a “trial period” to see if I liked it. At this time I was in my second semester in college. As a college freshman, I didn’t have the best diet or cooking skills. I wished a magical chef would appear and just cook all my meals for me. Alas, I did the best I could with the kitchenware I found at thrift stores. My mom emailed me some suggestions and I found simple recipes on Pinterest that were plant-based without added oil and learned from there.

I started to miss the way I used to eat. A lot! I remember once sitting in my car, scraping the cheese off a slice of pizza and just eating the dough... sobbing... while blasting Whitney Houston. A couple times near the beginning I would give in and get a greasy burger or something. But after a while of eating plant-based, meat didn’t taste as good to me anymore and I would feel heavy and sluggish afterwards.

Little did I know this “trial period” would become a permanent lifestyle decision that has become a huge part of who I am today, indeed one of my greatest of my life accomplishments and passions. I don’t see myself switching back anytime soon. I view it as a form of investment: a way to respect my future self. Eating this way has become second nature for me and I don’t feel at all inconvenienced. 

Since I have been living this lifestyle, and fully embracing it socially, several friends have permanently changed their diets to match mine and that is a very rewarding feeling. I firmly believe this is the healthiest way to eat, consistent with the entire word of wisdom (which, by the way, doesn't say anything about a moderation in all things) and not just a fleeting fad diet. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to explain to my roommate, yet again, what nutritional yeast is. Happy living!

*Disclaimer* ask your doctor if plants are right for you. Don’t sue me or whatever.