Monica_Hershaft
EPISODE #897

Stay Sick or Eat Meat? Facing a Vegan Crisis

Monica Hershaft

How to find a path to healing when your food choices get tangled in perspectives that damage your health.

Monica_Hershaft

In this Episode of The Human Upgrade™...

Monica Hershaft brings an interesting perspective to the choices of living your life vegan, vegetarian or animal-centric.

 

She grew up in a vegetarian, then fully vegan family. Her father, Holocaust survivor Dr. Alex Hershaft, co-founded the modern animal rights movement in the U.S. more than 40 years ago. 

 

She speaks to the ethical, moral and deeply traumatic reasons people choose veganism. Those points cannot be dismissed. Nor can the implications of a completely plant-based diet without animal protein on human health.

 

Monica shares her story of being an active, athletic teen and continuing veganism into adulthood. It was a trendy detox program at age 34 that triggered her rocky, decade-long health journey from debilitating sickness to finding health solutions. 

 

“It didn’t even occur to me as a child to think anything different because that’s just how I was raised and that’s how we ate,” she explains. “Eventually, when I did grow up and get sick, it took a while for me to even consider that it could be my diet. So, it was a very big pivot mentally to make that leap.”

 

She also wrestled with coming out as Paleo to her father and what discarding veganism meant for her family relationships. “I had to be willing to lose the relationship, to stand up for what my truth was,” she says. Healing her physical and mental health led the hard discussions: “I’m going to be eating animal protein at every single meal, because I believe that that’s how I can keep my life and my health,” she recalls saying. 

 

Years later, and with her health overhauled, it’s still the right choice for her. “Humane-raised Paleo-centric raised animal protein will actually heal you and repair your body,” she says.

“The human body can’t be vegan and healthy.”

Monica Hershaft

Monica’s now a bestselling author, motivational speaker, holistic health practitioner and nutritional consultant. She founded a top-rated holistic wellness center in Los Angeles and recently relocated to Scottsdale, Ariz., where she works 1:1 with patients to get their health back. She helps people heal from illness that other medical professionals often label a “mystery.”

You’ll gain valuable information from this conversation, such as:

  • how to assess your symptoms,
  • how to understand nervous system switching and blocking,
  • the important relationship between the vagus nerve and an allergic state,
  • food checklists to follow,
  • how to recognize harmful food propaganda,
  • why fungus and metals are the big thing (in vegetarians/vegans),
  • why animal welfare and good soil matters,
  • educational videos to watch,
  • programs to attend, and,
  • how to find help from functional, alternative and holistic professionals.

Whatever your food choices, this episode offers new insights and encourages you to examine how you may be viewing health–your own and that of the plants and animals with whom we share the world.

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  • The animal rights movement kind of started in our living room. I mean, PETA was also started in our living room.  – 3:04
  • I didn’t really get sick. I never really had any health issues, but I had this stuff brewing and it cumulatively builds over the years like little layers until finally hit that a tipping point. – 10:16
  • That exact same piece of steak that’s factory-farmed will actually make you sick and be bad for your health and hurt you. Whereas the opposite, the humane-raised paleo-centric raised animal protein will actually heal you and repair your body.  – 17:55
  • They were giving us a lot of supplements on this detox program and they kept sending me to the doctor to get checked out. The doctors kept telling me nothing was wrong with me.  – 27:35
  • What could someone have told you when you were 16 years old that would’ve gotten through to you, and said, “Eat some meat already,”  – 33:35
  • I literally started to get better as soon as I started eating animal protein and it keeps getting better and better, and I don’t want that to ever stop.  – 40:03
  • How much of this is individual versus how much of this is population-wide? Are there actually people who thrive as vegans?  – 44:36
  • I also am attracting people that have chronic mystery illnesses because of my story. That’s why I get a lot of those cases. We do the muscle testing, the applied kinesiology. So, I’m going to give you a brief little description of what we call the five layers to illness, which is just a pattern I’ve noticed in every single person’s body. – 47:57
  • Monica:
    But you’re also looking at a zinc and copper imbalance when you’re a vegetarian or vegan. Zinc is important for the pancreas to function properly.  – 54:27
  • I found out that if you do high levels of niacin, it makes you more choline deficient. And I was like, “Wait a minute. Doesn’t choline come from meat and eggs? I’m probably already choline deficient.” That’s how I figured out how I got sick. – 58:51

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