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Animal activists, when promoting the vegan diet, often focus on the health benefits because they believe that people will care more about their own health than about animal suffering. We need to rethink this strategy. A vegan who is out of shape, has bad skin, or is sucking down potato chips, has no business telling anyone how to be healthy, and has little chance of convincing a meat-eater to go vegan on health grounds.

In this age of limitless vegan junk food options, the vegan diet is no longer a free ticket to better health. Most vegans, just like the rest of the Western world, are not healthy. The only difference is that many of the unhealthy vegans believe they are healthy by mere virtue of the fact that they are strict vegans, regardless of how many vegan donuts and corn dogs they consume. If you are still telling people that veganism will save them from diabetes and cancer, you are spreading misinformation. Because of the wide array of acidifying, sugary, processed vegan foods, it is quite possible to develop these life-threatening conditions while maintaining a vegan diet. There is nothing wrong with discussing health issues with the public, especially when combating the misconception that one cannot be healthy on a vegan diet. Eliminating meat and dairy is certainly an important aspect of optimal health, but so is eliminating many other ingredients that may still be vegan.

If you are vegan for health reasons, then by all means, promote the vegan diet on those grounds. Health-seekers will find your enthusiasm and experience inspiring. If you don’t actually know much about what constitutes a healthy diet, telling omnivores that they need to be vegan to be healthy will not be effective. Even if your statements about health are true, the fact that they come from a disingenuous place will show through. On the other hand, if you speak from a genuine passion for ending animal suffering, thoughtful, intelligent people will appreciate your honesty and integrity and will be more open to your message, even if they don’t agree with you.

Veganism is an ethical movement. It is not a health movement. Those who eliminate animal products from their diets purely for health reasons don’t tend to identify with the label “vegan.” Why would someone who is only interested in improving his health take advice from a vegan animal rights activist? People are more confused than ever about health issues these days, and are wary of those who push their health solutions for ulterior motives – whether those motives are financial or political. This confusion also causes dieters to shift their opinions every time a new study comes out. If you convince people to switch to a vegan diet for health reasons, all it will take to lose them is a new Atkins-like diet fad, extolling the virtues of a meat-based diet.

Even if a person doesn’t support the idea that an animal deserves its life, they can still look at the horrific conditions and abuses of factory farming and make a compassionate decision to eliminate or reduce the animal products in their diet. Public opinion is shifting in favor of animal welfare, so don’t perpetuate the perception that people don’t care about animals. But if you still want to show meat-eaters that veganism is a path to good health, then set a good example and actually be a healthy vegan.

Invisalign, which offers a series of removable trays to align the teeth, has become a widely popular alternative to traditional braces. Invisalign trays are nearly impossible to detect, making them especially popular among adults who don’t want the adolescent look of braces. Rather than being cemented to your teeth like traditional braces, they can be removed entirely when eating or brushing your teeth, so you no longer have to worry about abstaining from certain foods or not being able to floss properly. While Invisalign offers considerable benefits, there are negatives as well which should be considered. No one told me about these reasons to not get Invisalign. I offer them now so that other people can make more informed decisions:

• Although it is easier to brush and floss, any bacteria not removed from your teeth and gums will spend 20 hours a day locked inside the Invisalign tray. Your visits to the dentist may turn up more gum pocketing and plaque build-up than you are used to as a result. There can sometimes be a bad taste and odor from wearing the tray, particularly first thing in the morning.
• Every time you eat, you need to thoroughly clean your teeth and your Invisalign tray before putting it back in your mouth. For frequent snackers (like me), this can be quite a hassle, and may require you to adjust your eating schedule. On the other hand, this can be an added incentive for those trying to break bad eating habits or lose weight.
• You must be very disciplined and organized; leaving your tray out for more than 4 hours per day, even occasionally, will reduce the effectiveness of the treatment. If you often find yourself running to work or school in a hurry after breakfast, and have a tendency to leave things behind, you may want to think twice about Invisalign. Going without it out for an 8-hour workday is not an option. Also, even disciplined patients have a tendency to slack off over time. This will inhibit the effectiveness of Invisalign. Consider the length of your treatment when deciding which method to choose. I consider myself very disciplined but toward the end I got very sloppy. As a result, my last two trays didn’t fit exactly right.
• The treatment process for many people includes “shaving” your teeth down to create more space in your mouth for the teeth to move. This shaving is uncomfortable, but there is no lasting pain from it. If you have fillings in the areas needing to be shaved, the process is significantly more cumbersome and uncomfortable.
• At the end of your treatment your teeth may not be perfectly straight. The orthodontist can do nothing about it except take all new impressions and get a new set of trays, which can add months onto your treatment plan. With traditional braces, the orthodontist can make a quick adjustment to fix any misalignments.
• Although not scientifically studied, some people have complained about allergic reactions to the plastic used in the Invisalign trays. Allergy symptoms complained of include sore throat, cough, nausea, or constant throat clearing which goes away when the tray is removed. I did not experience any problems like this personally.
• Once the treatment phase is over, and you enter into the retainer period, you have to wear the Invisalign tray every night, indefinitely. If you’re already experiencing problems with allergies, gum disease, or tooth decay, this can be a serious issue. You may be able to work with your orthodontist to use a traditional style retainer, instead of the Invisalign tray. I have been wearing my retainer tray now for 2 years and I am completely sick of dealing with it.

Whether to go with traditional braces or Invisalign, will be dependant on your lifestyle, habits, and personality. While there are pros and cons to every option, don’t let that deter you from going forward with orthodontics. If crooked teeth are annoying you or preventing you from smiling and feeling great about yourself, then the benefits of orthodontics will far outweigh the downsides.

Even though the Invisalign braces were a big hassle, I am so happy with the way my teeth look. I smile a whole lot more than I used to and I never cover my teeth anymore.

Have you had positive or negative experiences with Invisalign? I’d love to hear about it!

Since starting down the raw food path, I’ve met a lot people struggling with answers to health and diet questions. Some people transition to a raw food diet quite easily, while others have to invent clever strategies for staying on raw food. Food cravings can be intense as our bodies struggle to kill off unhealthy intestinal bacteria and build up healthy internal flora. If you’re constantly struggling with binge eating, feelings of deprivation, or lack of health and vitality, staying 100% raw may not be your best path to good health.

A common strategy for transitioning to raw is to eat a certain percentage of raw food. This can be a great strategy, provided that when you are eating cooked food, you choose healthy cooked food. If you are eating 75% raw and 25% Twinkies and fried tofu, you’re missing out on the beneficial effects. Those processed foods are making your body more acidic and feeding the anaerobic bacteria in your gut, worsening your cravings.

Another popular strategy is to eat a lot of gourmet raw foods that mimic cooked favorites. There are dozens and dozens of gourmet raw food recipe books and a wide array of pre-packaged raw food snacks and desserts. Restaurants and grocery delis are adding raw selections to their menus. These are great for a fun delicious treat, but they are not part of a healthy, long-term diet plan. They tend to be high in sugar and fat, low in natural water, and lacking in substantial nutrients as compared with a fruit- and vegetable-rich diet. Eating raw junk food makes us feel sluggish and bloated, much like with any other junk food. The idea of staying raw at all cost is not necessarily the best strategy. Maintaining a raw food diet is supposed to be the means to being healthy. It is not the end in itself. If we are raw but unhealthy, then we have completely missed the point.

There is another alternative, and I’d like to suggest that it is superior to an all-raw diet that relies on fancy gourmet dishes and desserts: eating a mixture of raw foods and healthy cooked foods. The bulk aisle of natural food stores offer a variety of high protein, high fiber, mineral-rich, gluten-free grains such as quinoa, amaranth, and wild rice. These are all easy to prepare and can be mixed with raw fruits and vegetables for a very satisfying and tasty meal. Squashes, which are difficult to prepare raw, can be cooked and eaten plain to add healthy variety. Lightly steamed vegetables, while losing their enzymes, do retain most of their nutrition and cancer-fighting qualities.

Raw food is supposed to be about energy, vitality, and good mental and physical health, and for a lot of people, it is. If you aren’t one of those people, don’t beat yourself up over falling off the raw food wagon. Concentrate on good health first. Once you clean out the toxins and unhealthy bacteria and build up a healthy internal ecology, your body will demand nutritious, natural foods. Junk food won’t even look like food anymore. You’ll know raw food is the best diet for you because your body won’t want anything else.

Raw junk food aisle at Green Life Groceries

Americans are on a constant search for the answers to our health and weight problems. Whenever we find a new answer that seems to make sense, we think our problems are over for good, and we argue vehemently over the rightness of our newly discovered health “truths”. But even when we make a positive shift in our thinking about health and diet, we can’t seem to change our bad habits long enough to see ongoing positive effects. For every change in direction toward a healthier society, there is a line of junk food products catering to those who follow that direction. All we ever seem to do is upgrade to a more expensive brand of fat and sugar addiction.

When I first went vegan in 1995, vegan convenience foods, if you could find them, were geared toward the health-conscious more than the ethical vegan, so going vegan was a near guarantee that you’d be significantly healthier than you would have been otherwise. A tofu pup or veggie burger was a big step up from a hot dog or meat burger. Getting off of dairy typically made for a huge health improvement. These days, just going vegan alone is no longer a path to good health. Go into a natural food store and you can find cookies, donuts, pizza, pot pies, and even corndogs, all with a “vegan” label on the package. Just about anything you ever ate on the Standard American Diet is available, either in stores or online, in vegan form. This is great for animals because it’s easier than ever to go vegan. But it is very detrimental to junk food vegans who believe that the vegan diet is an automatic ticket to good health.

In 2004, when I was forced to give up gluten after discovering that I was allergic, my consumption of processed junk food was nearly eliminated out of necessity. Pasta, bread, and vegan pastries, which had dominated my diet, were no longer options. I was elated about my newfound health and energy. But then I discovered the gluten-free pastas, the huge variety of gluten-free desserts, and even the amazing gluten-free, vegan bakery in Seattle, where I lived at the time. With so many people giving up gluten, the gluten-free food market has exploded. Once again, anything you ever ate on the Standard American Diet, can now be found in gluten-free form.

Even the Atkins diet, which has thankfully lost its appeal after sending people to the hospital for high blood pressure and kidney failure, has it’s own line of Atkins junk food. When Atkins first came out, I’m sure many people felt much healthier. Having to limit carb intake to less than 20 grams per day essentially forced followers to remove processed junk food from their diets. But Americans, rather than breaking themselves of poor dietary habits, flocked instead to low carb versions of breads, pastas, and cookies, approved for the Atkins dieters.

I really thought I had this whole health and diet thing figured out when I got into raw foods. All the packaged foods were out of my life again and replaced entirely with fresh produce. I felt so amazing, physically and mentally, like I never had before. I no longer suffered even so much as a bad day. A year and a half later, I don’t feel that way anymore. In fact, sometimes, I feel quite lousy. And it wasn’t until today, when I was walking through the raw food snack aisle of the natural food store, that I put it all together.

Americans have started to make a new shift toward eating more raw food. Naturally, a market has opened up for pre-packaged, raw convenience foods. There are crackers, cookies, chocolates, and dozens of raw energy bars. There are raw recipe books with recipes for “buffalo wings” and “strawberry shortcake”. Once again, I’ve made the shift in thinking to a better way to eat and live, but I’ve been unwilling to make a genuine change in my poor lifestyle habits.

We are in a health crisis in this country, and simple answers with no substantive changes are not going to fix it. We need to go back to eating actual food that grows in nature, rather than in a laboratory. We need to make dinner from scratch. We need to learn to appreciate the taste of a tomato by itself. Or, at the very least, we need to stop tricking ourselves into believing that we can feed our junk food addictions and achieve optimal health at the same time.