by Sean Croxton
There’s nothing wrong with changing your mind.
My gosh, if it weren’t okay to flip-flop in the event of new information, I would still be pushing the Food Guide Pyramid and watching my personal training clients get fatter!
In his book How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie writes, “…ninety-nine times out of a hundred, people don’t criticize themselves for anything, no matter how wrong it may be.”
In other words, human beings LOVE being right — the overwhelming majority of us will stick to our guns regardless of how conclusive the evidence to the contrary may be.
But not Susan Schenck.
Susan had fallen madly in love with her raw food vegan diet. So much so that she wrote a 700-page book about it!
Going vegan made Susan feel amazing. Her book, The Live Food Factor, even became a bestseller, making her a hero amongst the vegan community. She was on top of the world. That is, until…
Her diet stopped working for her.
Ouch!
This is a dilemma that many health bloggers and gurus fear the most — when the diet they have wholeheartedly advocated to thousands — if not millions – of people starts to head south.
So, what happens now?
Do they just fake the funk, incongruently pushing a diet that doesn’t work for them anymore.
Do they hide in the closet and chow down on a steak?
Or do they just come right out and say that they’ve changed their minds?
Susan bravely chose the latter. And, of course, she wrote another book, Beyond Broccoli: Creating a Biologically Balanced Diet When a Vegetarian Diet Doesn’t Work, to break down the science behind her decision.
In the first chapter of her book, Susan writes, “I refuse to get locked into dogma. Show me where I am wrong or some better way, and I will listen eagerly.”
Those aren’t the works of a flip-flopper, but rather a fact-finder. No amount of dogma can ever alter our unique nutritional requirements.
Just the facts, ma’am. Just the facts.
So, on today’s morning edition of UW Radio, Susan joined me to discuss a ton of topics, including…
* Critical nutrients — such as carnitine, DHEA, and vitamin B12 — that are contained primarily in animal foods
* Why the vegan diet is not suitable for children and pregnant mothers
* How the idea that we have not adapted to consuming meat is one ginormous myth
* The types of meat that are in fact toxic and cause cancer
* Why, although a vegan diet may work well for a year or two, it may not be good for a lifetime.
* Why nuts and seeds are not an ideal primary source of protein
* Flaws in The China Study, and how the Chinese are NOT vegans!
* Why most of the world would starve if everyone became a vegetarian.
This was a GREAT show! You can listen by clicking the PLAY button below or by downloading it on iTunes HERE.
Have a great weekend, friends!
Sean
I Wrote an e-Book About All the Things I’ve Changed My Mind About…
great interview!!! i hung out w/ raw vegans when i went raw (but not vegan) and never could convert, even though my raw foods healed my gut and body so completely. just read about Susan in the WAPF quarterly journal, and was excited to hear this.
you both are amazing and good job encouraging people to seek their own health!!!! not a religious dedication to one way of eating or another, but truly listening to your body and seeking to heal and nourish it.
i still consider myself a raw foodie at over 50% raw since 2003, but also shift seasonally. grass-fed beef, raw milk from the grass-fed cows, and home fermentation are all key to my growing family’s health.
Awesome interview Sean. LOL, we aren’t evolved to meat!!! I keep hearing this one over and over as well. Nice to hear some balance on these subjects. Keep it up my man!
Jon