Virginia Messina, Vegan Dietitian

Nutritionist-Approved: Meeting Your Zinc Needs on a Plant-Based Diet Whether or not popping zinc pills will cure your cold or flu symptoms is an ongoing topic of debate. But it’s true that you need enough z […]

There is good evidence that vegan diets can prevent heart disease and they are likely to lower risk for cancer as well. But does going vegan improve your bone health? I see some post or infographic in social media […]

Although research on the Mediterranean Diet dates back to the 1950s, it was first popularized in 1993. That’s when three organizations–Harvard School of Public Health, the European Office of the World Health […]

Menus based on plant foods lie at the heart of some of the world’s healthiest diets. But while a common thread runs through these meals—lots of fresh, whole plant foods—people from around the globe have come […]

It’s easy to have a healthy vegan diet when you build habits around seven simple guidelines.

1. Eat legumes. They’re packed with protein, with the bonus of a big dose of fiber. (No protein-rich animal food […]

Most iron is found in red blood cells where it is part of hemoglobin, the molecule needed to ferry oxygen around the body. Without iron, the body has trouble delivering oxygen to cells where it’s needed for e […]

For almost all of human history, humans got their vitamin D from sun exposure. In fact, before the days of fortification, it would have been pretty hard to get enough from food. The only food sources were certain […]

Our earliest ancestors didn’t drink milk and didn’t need to worry about calcium at all. Milk didn’t appear in human diets until around 10,000 years ago, and even then it was common only in certain population […]

For most people, the only leafy green that comes to mind on Saint Patrick’s Day—other than a shamrock—is cabbage. But as long as we’re celebrating spring and all things green, it’s a perfect time to explore a […]

Most vitamin B12 supplements contain cyanocobalamin, a form of the vitamin that contains small amounts of cyanide. Once you’ve ingested the supplement, your body removes and detoxifies the cyanide, which is […]