Vegan Nutrition with Jill Nussinow, MS, RD

Jill Nussinow is a Registered Dietitian, culinary educator, cookbook author, speaker and consultant and all around proponent of a plant-based diet. She teaches vegetarian and vegan cooking at Santa Rosa Junior College in California and other places around the US. She has a son who is almost 15. One of her greatest joys is sharing her enthusiasm for vegetables and pressure cooking with anyone who will listen.

How do you get started on becoming a Vegan? I ask because my daughter has stop eating beef or pork and I would love to help her be successful in her quest. Also are there different types of vegans? What should I tell her and how can I cook to please her now.

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The best thing to do regarding following a vegan diet is to read a book like Becoming Vegan, written by dietitians, Vesanto Melina and Brenda Davis. It will provide all the information that you need to understand a vegan diet.

There are different types of vegans:

raw food vegans, who only eat uncooked food
ethical vegans, who follow the diet because of their ethics
medical vegans, who follow the diet because of their health and eating honey may be OK with them
the rest of the vegans, who have various reasons for following a vegan diet, including environmental concerns

Cooking for your daughter will involve thinking of the center of the plate in a new way. There are so many vegan cookbooks that I don't even know where to begin. You can check out my cookbook, The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment, which revolves around seasonal vegetables paired with other vegan foods, as well as The Everyday Vegan by Dreena Burton, or others on our list (www.vegfamily.com/book-reviews/index.htm).

You can replace the animal protein with soy products such as tofu or tempeh, seitan (wheat gluten), beans of all types, and even some of the "imitation" meats to start. It's best not to include many processed foods as part of your diet, vegan or not, so "fake meat" may be good for a transition but not a steady diet.

Once you get familiar with the new foods you can likely incorporate them into family meals, and not just for your daughter. One of the best things that anyone can do for personal and planetary health is to eat more meatless meals. Good luck on the journey helping your daughter.

Visit Jill's website TheVeggieQueen.com and her blog theveggiequeen.blogspot.com.

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Disclaimer: The advice given here is for eductional purposes only. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease without consulting with a qualified health care provider.

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