So U think Vegan is healthy?

[BlackSwordsman]

That is interesting but I beg the question as to what other factors are happening here. There is a Cardiologist whom is 98, been vegan 70+ years with zero medical conditions who swears by the diet. There is also a 110? year old woman who is also vegan.

Right, so you have isolated examples.

I don't know too many details but I did find:

• alex jamieson Never was vegan
  

Also I dug a bit further and found she isn't a nutritionist, she is a health coach.

Right, a qualified health coach, unlike 30 Bananas a Day and the author of the blog article above which are examples of people unqualified to give health advice.

But to be honest I don't buy into the dogma of Vegan long term being unhealthy, mainly because in my medical observance I have found it to be too much the opposite.

And yet you provide a blog article titled "Alex Jamieson was never vegan in the first place"? Who is "Ed Coffin" to say such a thing?

• These people and most of their followers are not vegan and never were. They probably ate their oil-free, sugar-free, plant-based salads while online shopping for leather shoes and buying tickets to take their kids to the circus. We need to start calling these people out before they ever even get a chance to be "ex-vegan."
  
  She says herself, "I believe you can love and care about animal welfare and still consume them." That's missing the WHOLE point of veganism! Clearly, this woman was NEVER vegan and what makes it even more annoying is that she spends most of her letter blaming actual vegans for being "purist" or "attacking." This is typical defensive behavior -- direct the blame on someone else.

I already said I was dumbfounded by this approach by vegans to claim that "this person was never vegan in the first place", and defending it isn't a great idea.

The author of the blog you provided believes that vegans must not wear fur or leather (or wool or silk) and must have a coconscious moral objection to the consumption of animals by humans. Anyone who doesn't fit that criteria, according to him, "isn't a real vegan".

He uses labels because he thinks of himself as better than other people. Let's say, that he would at least agree that Jamieson was a vegetarian - right? And we know that, in the US anyway, about 3/4 of vegetarians return to eating meat with the average length of time spent being vegetarian being 9 years. Now his claim that the 75% is only relevant to vegetarians and not to vegans I'm afraid is not right - I found at least one vegan who said in a speech that she believes the number for vegans is "probably higher" than the number for vegetarians (I'm not re-searching for the video right now though, sorry). I can't remember her exact reasoning, but one thing we do know is many people go from vegan to vegetarian and back - one example being Natalie Portman.

Now my perspective is that people need to be more concerned with their own health as a moral issue than with the food they consume. I'm not saying that there aren't moral issues with food as well, but that your own wellbeing is a higher moral priority - it trumps other morals. That's why, for instance, in extreme cases people will even resort to cannibalism to survive.

That is true, although some people a lot actually go vegan and do honestly avoid all animal products outside of the realm of foods. It is no surprise. I did a random google Article search on Alex. I half assed my effort towards that, purposely actually but I am sorry for the lack of depth on my part.

Isolated examples, not really there are quite a few more, Neal Barnard, M.D. is a good source of information on it from a more medical perspective.

Veganism is not as rare as one might assume at first glance.

I feel like screaming (not out of anger but of frustration) see the problem with america is it leads the polls in Obesity, False dietary information, lack of dietary education, and as a German I have to point out the average joe is not all too bright. (figuratively speaking)

I tell clients all the time, get your information anywhere BUT america. The information is near non-existance so for them to turn away from vegetarianism is no surprise. Marketing, false information, and negativity from peers is mind blowing.

Americans tend to have a "herd" mentality, when in a country of meat-eaters means peer pressure will most likely have a major effect.

oday, six to eight million adults in the United States eat no meat, fish, or poultry, according to a Harris Interactive poll commissioned by the Vegetarian Resource Group, a nonprofit organization that disseminates information about vegetarianism. Several million more have eliminated red meat but still eat chicken or fish. About two million have become vegans, forgoing not only animal flesh but also animal-based products such as milk, cheese, eggs, and gelatin.

Traditionally, research into vegetarianism focused mainly on potential nutritional deficiencies, but in recent years, the pendulum has swung the other way, and studies are confirming the health benefits of meat-free eating. Nowadays, plant-based eating is recognized as not only nutritionally sufficient but also as a way to reduce the risk for many chronic illnesses. In July 2009, the American Dietetic Association weighed in with a position paper, concluding that "appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases" (Journal of the American Dietetic Association, July 2009).

Compared with meat eaters, vegetarians tend to consume less saturated fat and cholesterol and more vitamins C and E, dietary fiber, folic acid, potassium, magnesium, and phytochemicals (plant chemicals), such as carotenoids and flavonoids. As a result, they're likely to have lower total and LDL (bad) cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and lower body mass index (BMI), all of which are associated with longevity and a reduced risk for many chronic diseases.

here's some evidence that vegetarians have a lower risk for cardiac events (such as a heart attack) and death from cardiac causes. In one of the largest studies — a combined analysis of data from five prospective studies involving more than 76,000 participants published several years ago — vegetarians were, on average, 25% less likely to die of heart disease. This result confirmed earlier findings from studies comparing vegetarian and nonvegetarian Seventh-day Adventists (members of this religious group avoid caffeine and don't drink or smoke; about 40% are vegetarians). In 2009, in a study involving 65,000 people in the Oxford cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC-Oxford), researchers found a 19% lower risk of death from heart disease among vegetarians. However, there were few deaths in either group, so the observed differences may have been due to chance.

Research suggests that a predominantly plant-based diet can reduce the risk for type 2 diabetes. In studies of Seventh-day Adventists, vegetarians' risk of developing diabetes was half that of nonvegetarians, even after taking BMI into account. The Harvard-based Women's Health Study found a similar correlation between eating red meat (especially processed meats, such as bacon and hot dogs) and diabetes risk, after adjusting for BMI, total calorie intake, and exercise.

Sorry for the extremely long post but the above are direct quotes from Harvard Medical University.

The other thing to consider is Vegans are extremely health conscious or at least "real vegans" are (those whom have been for many many years).

This means they exercise and know where to get what.