Interviews

Michael Klaper, M.D.: Physician and author of Pregnancy, Children, and the Vegan Diet

Why did you decide to write Pregnancy, Children, and the Vegan Diet?
As vegan nutrition more and more became the center of my medical practice in the late 1980's, I was encountering women in my medical practice who were in their early stages of pregnancy and who had many nutritional questions. Virtually all of them were receiving adverse messages from friends and family about the potential inadequacy of a vegan diet for them and their developing child, and they were seeking reassurance that a vegan diet could sustain a healthy pregnancy and nourish the developing fetus. Fortunately, since a vegan diet seems to fulfill the nutritional needs of both mother and infant in an excellent manner, I was able to point out reassuring nutritional realities and guidelines, first as a brief handout, which eventually became expanded into Pregnancy, Children, and the Vegan Diet.

What do you feel is the most important thing a pregnant vegan woman can do during pregnancy to ensure the health of her child?
1. Eat enough food, of many different varieties - as fresh (and organically grown) as possible!

2. Take a prenatal vitamin to assure B-12, folic acid, and trace mineral sufficiency.

3. Get yourself as physically fit as possible in preparation for delivery (they don't call it "labor" for nothing).

4. Arrange a strong "support team" and take prenatal classes so she (the mother-to-be?) is familiar with the later stages of pregnancy and labor and delivery itself.

Do you get a chance to speak to children about the value of a vegan diet?
Less so now, since I am not traveling to the Vegetarian Summerfest and other places where children gather. However, my writings, radio broadcasts and other media activities hopefully, continue to get the message out to vegan parents and their children alike.

If so, how do they generally react to the information?
I find children are inherently more animal-sympathetic than adults, and thus, have a natural openness to the subject.

How did your medical peers react when they discovered you had switched to a vegan diet?
Since most of my medical peers do not feel that nutrition plays a significant role in either health or disease, most physicians could not care less as to what I personally ate. Many are mildly curious about the therapeutic effects of vegan diets in various medical conditions (rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, etc.), but very few have even considered utilizing the diet for themselves and/or their patients.

What are some of your favorite vegan dishes?
Steamed greens (kale, collards, Swiss chard, spinach, beet greens, etc.) with lemon juice over them, hearty vegetable soups and stews, salads of any kind, and portabello mushrooms with olive oil and garlic. Mmmm - I'm getting hungry just thinking about it...

Dr. Klaper

Do you have plans to write any more books related directly to vegan pregnancy?
Alas, that is a dream of mine, but with a "to do list" like mine, currently stretching two-thirds of the way across the known universe, it's unlikely that such a work will be produced any time soon...

What's in store for Dr. Klaper in the next year or so?
(Valiantly striving to complete a fraction of the tasks extending two-thirds of the way down the aforementioned "to do list.")

What are you up to?
I'm up to Item #38 on the "to do list," after: taking care of my invalid mother, brushing my teeth, watering the chard, kale, and sweet peas that we grow outside our front door, broadcasting two radio programs (one heard in the Washington, DC area by 200,000 people; the other one broadcast across the state of Hawaii), writing magazine articles, a dozen telephone consultations a week, editing chapters on vegan nutrition for other colleagues' upcoming books and articles, conducting an active medical practice to earn a living, trying to be a contributing member to the Maui community, a few minutes left over for eating, sleeping, and tending to other bodily functions, searching for the being who put only 24 hours into a day.

Do you travel the country and give lectures?
Not so much anymore. My mother has become virtually completely bed-ridden, and hovers almost constantly on the brink of departing this world. With her health so fragile, I am reluctant to travel far away at this time.

If so, where can people find a schedule of your talks?
Because of my aforementioned curtailed speaking schedule, I really don't have a travel/speaking schedule to speak of at this time. If people would like to hear my radio program, they can contact American Reports at 1-888-31-RADIO, or check out their website, and order cassette copies of my Washington, DC-based program, "Sounds of Healing."

What advice do you have for parents raising their children as vegans in today's world?
Set a good example of healthy eating and gentle, compassionate living.

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