Where is denise minger

Ninety pounds. Ribs like a birdcage. Hair ripping out in clumps every time I brushed it. My raw vegan honeymoon had exploded, and I was left writhing atop its shrapnel—stuck in that awful space of knowing something was very, very wrong but not knowing how to fix it.

I loved him so much for not asking if I was okay. Their murmurs bled through the wall and mixed with the slurp of tide on shore. That, friends, was the beginning of my Regret Phase.

Most of my teenagehood—the time people usually spend going on stomach-butterfliesy first dates and buying prom dresses and getting drivers licenses and being cool, none of which I experienced—was spent destroying and then recovering my health.

I remember little else. So much felt like a waste. This blog started as an attempt to turn a period of strife into something that could help people—and it ended up being one of the most rewarding endeavors of my life. After all, how else would I ever have met YOU? Which brings me to the whole point of this post. Something about that prompted me to reflect.

A lot. And you know what I realized? You have no excuse for not remembering. In some ways, Regret Phase II might seem justified. People died. So many. One right in front of my eyes. Loved ones got cancer and diabetes and broken bones and lupus and other scary things. There were breakups and break downs. Gang shootings happened outside my front door. I had ferocious, claws-out brawls with partners who drew out an anger I never knew I had.

I narrowly dodged a van abduction while being followed down the street at night. I got trapped in Mexico with no money during riots that closed the border. I was pregnant, and then not pregnant. In March, a friend died in a motorcycle crash a few hours after leaving my house. He left his broom here. I sweep with it every morning. The problem was what I did with them all. Amidst these challenges, these ripe opportunities to learn and grow and evolve, I utterly stagnated as a human being.

That is my regret. I got jaded and lazy and went on autopilot. I complained about my situation but changed absolutely nothing.

I let this poor blog nearly die. And I neglected my most important goal in life: continual self-betterment. As the big started approaching, the reality of this stagnation hit me big time. Where did my 20s go? What came of it all? By the time I was fifteen, I was a full-on vegan—eating healthy by default, because I was allergic to everything bad for you—and thoroughly believed that animal foods were not only contributing to unnecessary suffering, but were also terrible for the human body.

It was sometime in But after reading the glowing testimonials of raw vegans who claimed they resolved every health problem under the sun or under the clouds, here in the Northwest , I decided to become a raw vegan and see what happened. Nothing but fresh fruit and vegetables and smoothies, and some nuts here and there—all unheated. As usually happens with this diet, I felt incredible for the first few months, but eventually landed in a pile of nutrient deficiencies and dental cavities at the tender age of Although most of my diet is still raw fruits and vegetables, I eventually added back high-quality animal products like fish, free-range eggs, organ meats, shellfish, and broth made from bone.

This has been a very happy medium for me. You are often referred to as "Denise Minger: ex vegan. Speaking of "ex vegans," was it more or less difficult to view food ethics through a black and white lens? Oh, it was much easier. Is a piece of bread on your plate more ethical than a piece of meat? When you switched back to being an omnivore, how were you able to reconcile the reintegration of animal products into your diet with your ethical dietary views?

So there was a limbo period where I was eating animal products, feeling much better physically, but still wracked with guilt because animals were dying for my benefit. I also started questioning whether my desire to be vegan was truly altruistic, or if its appeal was more about relieving my own guilt. I doubt even the most passionate vegan would rather see one kitten die than see ten mosquitoes die, even though the latter is quantitatively more deaths.

Why is this? In the end, vegan ethics are a human construct, influenced by human psychology and human bias. In my case, acknowledging this made it easier to stop thinking of animal food consumption as something inherently wrong. I still love animals, but given the broader context of our food system, my goal now is to support only humane farms that treat their animals well, and encourage others to do the same.

How would you describe your current view toward the ethics of the omnivorous diet? But conscious omnivores are perhaps in an even better position than vegans to help transform the way farm animals are treated. This is at the core of omnivore ethics—working towards a major reform of the way we incorporate animals into our food system.

So why on earth would you willingly dive into something as vicious as food politics? Is this issue just that important to you, or do you simply enjoy being called names? Lifestyles are very different for different groups Why did we ever think vegetable oils were good for us? America does not actually eat low fat. Humans can actually do well on a true low fat, whole foods diet How does this other metabolic state work? Is fiber necessary? Denise Minger: Raw Vegan Vs. Denise Minger, author of "Death By Food Pyramid" visits Perfectly Healthy And Toned RadioDenise Minger is a health writer and lecturer with a reputation for aggressively challenging today's leading voices of conventional wisdom.

A precocious academic whiz and autodidact who started college at the age of 16, Denise's own diet-related health problems plunged her, total immersion style, into the world of nutrition research-first in attempt to heal her own body, and then to help others do the same.

Denise currently lives a "real food" lifestyle in Portland, Oregon. A fascinating read and a show not to miss! Hosted by Dr. Lauren "Lo" Noel.

Denise Minger is one tough cookie. As a health writer and researcher, she has zero patience for dietary dogma and does one heck of a job at beating the tar out of conventional wisdom. Denise Minger, author of the new book Death by Food Pyramid, reveals the truth behind what the food pyramid recommends. I also happily listen to her skewer the China Study. Denise provides an effective counter-punch to many of the pillars of conventional dietary wisdom and government nutrition policy have been a massive failure, and led to widespread diet-related obesity, disease and assorted health problems.