Stay Sick or Eat Meat? Facing a Vegan Crisis

… 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.