My name is Evelyn. I am a 38-year-old mother of one and pharmacist from Austria who is writing this on my 10-year vegan anniversary! I wanted to thank you, Dr. McDougall; although I own many of your books, most of the essential information was free on the internet or came from your website. You are changing lives across the Atlantic and I will do my best to spread the truth I learned from you. Allow me to explain my personal health journey at length.
Throughout my childhood during the eighties in Austria, I ate a traditional Western diet: cows milk, corn flakes, eggs, sausages, fried meats, bacon, smoked ham and refined flours; along with some additional vegetables like lettuce, sauerkraut, cabbage and whatever fruit was local and seasonal. I was a frail and sickly child. Adding more sweets, I became a skinny fat teenager. I had no energy, acne and oily hair, suffered from painful menstrual periods and headaches. Therefore, I used NSAIDs often from a young age. I also remember being depressed and tired during what could have been the most beautiful and carefree years of my life. If only I knew then what I know now about food! While at university, my lifestyle did not change for the better. Several coffees a day, cookies, chocolate, ice cream and other fatty sweets were the day fixes for my late night chain smoking study sessions, plus recreational alcohol use on weekends. I felt seriously unwell in my body at my highest adult weight (60 kilograms/132 pounds at 1,63m/5’3 ½”). I started crash dieting from time to time, and even brought it down to 47 kilograms/103.4 pounds at times.
The next 6 years were spent mainly in London, and it was here I became much more health conscious. I went to the gym, walked long distances instead of using public transport and hung around at health food stores. l still did not fully give up meat and occasional smoking, coffee, sweets and recreational alcohol. My then boyfriend was Chinese (very trim), and our home staple foods were rice with soy sauce, some greens, some beans and spring onions. We had often feasted on noodles in vegetable broth and potatoes – simple foods. I became aware of the inflammatory effects of plant oils (even if I still believed in “healthy” oils) and learned from him to thicken sauces with corn flour, which is normal in Chinese cuisine in order to omit oils without losing the texture. When eating out, it was mostly simple Vietnamese, Chinese or Japanese food, low-fat options based on lots of brown or white rice. I never ascribed my then slim physique to my food habits until I read Dr. McDougall’s story about his experience in Hawaii as a plantation doctor.
It was back in Austria, a country that highly subsidizes animal agriculture and especially cow milk products, that I briefly fell for the then very powerful low carb propaganda. My diet changed to a combination of long starvation periods, raw vegetables and high protein foods, often animal-based. You could argue, as a young health professional with a background knowledge of human physiology, I could have known better. I am now ashamed, I was unable to apply what I know to my personal health situation. I felt gradually worse, too tired for exercise, had puffy eyes and swollen legs. I was unable to make the connection to my (as I believed then) kidney damaging “healthy“ diet. I even turned to the promises of orthomolecular supplements. After a few days of swallowing capsules from several plastic bottles a day, I did question my own sanity.
