For 40 years, I have attended seminars where the speaker said, "You will never get a vegetarian/vegan completely well." It used to make me mad because I was a vegetarian and was healthier than I had ever been. But then again, for the first 19 years of my life I subsisted on a diet of Hamburger Helper, TV dinners and Jell-O, so the change to vegetarian eating - whole grains and vegetables - was a drastic improvement. Even though I was an expert in vegetarian eating, after 21 years it caught up with me. I started getting really ill. My protein levels were plummeting, and the more protein I ate, the worse I got. Finally after some tests, we discovered I had become allergic to all the vegetarian sources of protein! I was in a serious quandary - my kids were raised vegetarian, my friends were all vegetarian, I encouraged vegetarianism in my practice - my whole life was wrapped up in it!

This was to be a major life change, but I had no choice. Once I started eating meat again, my health drastically improved. The evidence was there. Something else surprising happened. There were eight of us women who hung out together. We were all health care practitioners, very active and "healthy," and all vegetarian. When I confessed to eating meat, I found all seven of the other women had been secretly eating meat too because they were also getting sicker and sicker.

Now, armed with a new reality, a meat eater out of necessity (and now by choice) and a vegetarian at heart, I really paid attention to my patients and honestly analyzed how well they did on various diets. I have now been observing vegetarians, vegans, commercial meat eaters/standard American diet, and purists (eating only pasture-raised meats and eggs, organic vegetables, whole grains, etc.) for 18 years. These are my conclusions:

First, if the person was raised a vegetarian from birth, and allowed to eat raw cheese, yogurt and other dairy products and eggs, they can do quite well if the rest of their diet is lots of vegetables and minimal processed foods.

If the person was raised a meat-eater, then converted to vegetarian or vegan later in life, they do very well initially (even for years), but then they get progressively sicker, and the only way to restore them to health is for them to eat meat again.

Vegans are the most difficult to get healthy. Not impossible, but difficult. They come in sicklier, and have to take many more supplements and spend much more time in the kitchen preparing foods in order to get well. But with the right combination of foods and supplements, it is possible.

If a purist (see description above) from birth goes off track, it's a breeze to get them well. If any category above becomes a purist, this is the easiest group to get well and stay well.

I now have a good balance in my diet and, having been on both sides of the fence, I can help with any dietary choice.

Holly Carling is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Licensed Acupuncturist, Doctor of Naturopathy, Clinical Nutritionist and Master Herbologist with more than 32 years of experience. She is currently accepting new patients and offers natural health-care services and whole food nutritional supplements in her Coeur d'Alene clinic. Visit Carling's website at www.vitalhealthandfitness.com to learn more about Carling, view a list of upcoming health classes and read other informative articles. Carling can be reached at (208) 765-1994 and would be happy to answer any questions regarding this topic.