Vesanto Melina

A variety of raw vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds that are all sources of protein.

Redefining Protein Quality:  What’s New About Protein?

by Vesanto Melina, MS, Registered Dietitian A paper published by the American Society for Nutrition makes the case for modernizing the definition of protein quality. This is a welcome development. The current definition is outdated and fails to protect public health because it assesses how well various proteins meet human requirements based solely on digestibility

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Fancy toasts decorated with a variety of plant-based foods.

Why go more plant-based?

by Vesanto Melina A half-century ago, vegetarian and vegan diets were viewed with concern by health professionals. In decades since, these have been the focus of vast amounts of research. Today, a dietary shift in the direction of plant foods is regarded as a very positive step by knowledgeable dietitians, MDs, nutritional scientists and by

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A gathering of like-minded people.

Plant-based Meetups

by Vesanto Melina Some people call our fair city “Vegcouver”.  One reason is that when we go to the helpful guide for plant-based eating, www.happycow.net , and search Vancouver BC, we find no less than 99 listings. (These include vegan and vegetarian restaurants.)   If we narrow our filter just to vegan restaurants, we still end

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Word cloud focused on Niacin with related terms like Vitamin B3, Health, Nutrition, Supplement, Metabolism, Medicine, Atherosclerosis, Cholesterol, Nervous system, Pellagra, and Nicotinic acid in various sizes and orientations.

Redneck: The Word’s History in Nutrition

Redneck: The Word’s History in Nutrition By Vesanto Melina, MS, RD I was surprised to learn that the word “redneck” has a nutrition-related origin. More than a century ago, in the Deep South, several factors—poor diet and racial tensions–coincided. A typical diet for poor whites and for black slaves centered on corn, salt pork (fatty

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Q&A: Iron on a Plant-Based Diet!

Vesanto Melina MS, RD with Alessia Vaz and Sophia Jhajj (U.B.C students) A common misconception is that those eating plant-based diets are more prone to develop iron deficiency. In fact, it has been found that vegetarians and vegans are no more likely to suffer from iron deficiency anemia than are their meat-eating counterparts. Continue reading

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The Kick Diabetes Cookbook

Preventing and Reversing Type 2 Diabetes

by Vesanto Melina and Brenda Davis Since 2000, the number of people in Canada with diabetes has doubled. Today, one in three Canadians lives with prediabetes or diabetes. Those 20-year-olds now have a 50-50 chance of developing the disease. The risk for some indigenous people is 80 per cent. Close to 40 per cent of newly

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