Balancing a vegan diet and health problems

A well-known vegan blogger says she became an omnivore because of diet-related health problems. Vegans react — with commiseration and disbelief.

Mon, Nov 22 2010 at 4:32 PM EST

PROTEIN: Do some vegans need eggs? (Photo: Andreas Kollegger/Flickr)

Just in time for Thanksgiving, a famous vegan blogger has de-veganized! Tasha of Voracious Vegan is now Tasha of Voracious Eats — after coming to terms with long-term health struggles due to her vegan diet.

Tasha describes her health ordeals in great detail in “A Vegan No More, ” the post in which she comes out as a new omnivore. Apparently, Tasha’s vegan diet was creating iron and Vitamin B12 deficiencies, which caused everything from depression to hair loss to stomach aches to heart palpitations.

Tasha’s confessions have provoked a wide range of responses within the vegan community. The most understanding concur that a vegan diet doesn’t work for everyone. Less accepting, somewhat paranoid vegans have come up with conspiracy theories. Writes Tasha in a post-coming out post:

There were quite an unnerving amount of people who suggested that I wasn’t real. Yes, seriously. Apparently, there are actually people in the world who believe that the meat industry has crafted my entire blog and persona in order to infiltrate the vegan community and then wreak havoc with my announcement to quit being vegan.

Whether or not you’re vegan, Tasha’s posts are fascinating reads — and important ones for the vegans out there who’ve been struggling with similar health problems or treating the problems like shameful secrets. Writes Tasha:

I delicately broached the topic of my ill-health with several vegan friends. I even made comments on other blogs and on twitter highlighting my struggles. The response was nothing short of shocking. In the span of just a few days I received an outpouring of e-mails from fellow ‘vegan’ bloggers, who told me in confidence that they weren’t really vegan ‘behind the scenes’. They ate eggs, or the occasional fish, or piece of meat, all to keep themselves healthy, but were too scared to admit to it on their blogs. I even received e-mails from two very prominent and well-respected members of the vegan AR community. One a published and much loved vegan cook book author, the other a noted animal rights blogger, their e-mails detailed their health struggles and eventual unpublicized return to eating meat. Many people sent me links to other vegans who had struggled with veganism-related health problems and had been forced to return to eating animals and animal products, or had decided to stop following a vegan diet, such as: Raw Model, Debbie Does Raw, Daniel Vitalis, Sweetly Raw, Chicken Tender, The Non-Practicing Vegan, and PaleoSister, to name just a few. It was refreshing to know I wasn’t the only one suffering from this problem, and the more I heard, the more it seemed I wasn’t even in the minority.

Honestly, I’m shocked that Tara felt she had to struggle with her health problems — and the related lowered quality of life issues — for so long before making changes. I hope her story encourages others — vegan or not — to be less rigid with themselves about diet and nutrition “beliefs.”

I keep an almost all-vegan kitchen — to accommodate my lactose intolerance, taste preferences, and most importantly, lackadaisical kitchen clean-up habits that don’t mesh well when handling meat and fish. But I often eat sustainable seafood and meat dishes when I'm out.

For Thanksgiving, I’ll be enjoying both a small organic steak and a vegan pumpkin pie. What about you?

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