Why vegans should strive to be healthy?

[beforewisdom]

I have a new friend who is vegan. She eats haphazardly and doesn't like to listen to advice. Fortunately, she LOVES animals and will do anything if it helps promote good things for animals.

I've seen essays around from time to time to the effect that vegans should strive to take care of themselves as it gives a good impression to non-vegans and encourages non-vegans to give veganism a try.

It has been a while so I have no idea where to find those essays.

Does anyone have a URL off the top of their head?

Thanks in advance

[etherspin]

forget URLs or books, hire an amateur actor to jostle and jibe them at a party ... try to throw your friend on the subject of nutrition, give her an earlashing like she will never forget , she will know her b11 from her d4 by Tuesday , I guarantee it ..

seriously though I don't have a link but as it is the biggest criticism and also the main excuse most people employ for continuing to exploit animals we HAVE to know our stuff .. also its a really big change in diet.. funnily though I know people including some vegan from birth who live on white bread,donuts ,caramel, fried food etc and absolutely thrive as vegans .. bastards!

[xJimx]

I don't have any links I'm afraid, but to me this argument is so basic it's probably best not to over-intellectualize it anyway.

Basically, if you look like you couldn't fight your way out of a paperbag you're going to struggle to convince anyone that veganism can be healthy.

[Konstantin]

I don't have any links I'm afraid, but to me this argument is so basic it's probably best not to over-intellectualize it anyway.

Basically, if you look like you couldn't fight your way out of a paperbag you're going to struggle to convince anyone that veganism can be healthy.

^^^
Yep. There's so much ignorance around that nobody goes vegan and doesn't get criticism that you can't live well on plants. As another thread discussed, often the best way is to fight people, or ask them why you happen to be able to run/cycle/lift/pose/etc. far better than them. Pointing out how much Jim Morris/Carl Lewis/Rich Roll/Scott Jurek/Mac Danzig etc 'struggle as a vegan' help, but if they see you looking and feeling good, it has to be good evidence.

Many people have a sample size of one when they consider how healthy vegans they know are. I like to think those that have me as their one will note that I manage OK and have nice guns.


Edit: Another thought along those lines it is helps loads to have a basic knowledge of nutrition. Protein and calcium are easily brought up and being able to explain the reality in 2 sentences helps. If you can show that you know what you're eating and you know it's sufficient it takes away a lot of doubt, especially when in doing so it becomes obvious that the doubts come from a complete ignorance of nutrition.

[beforewisdom]

Thanks guys. I asked for links because my acquaintance is a bit oppositional ( duh, she is a vegan ). A friend of hers is concerned because she eats very haphazardly. However, she is very enthusiastic about doing what it takes to help animals. We were hoping that a link from a prominent AR activist was available as she would be very likely to take that to heart versus looking at a "talk behind the woodshed" from a friend, as an intrusion.

[baldy]

I think no matter how healthy you strive to be, someone will always think you are unhealthy. Everyone's perception of what healthy is very different.
Some people think you got to look like someone off a cover of a magazine to be healthy other people just want decent results when they have blood tests.