Beyond Broccoli: Creating a Biologically Balanced Diet When a Vegetarian Diet Doesn't Work

Beyond Broccoli is written by Susan Schenck, who herself was a raw vegan for six years, followed by a year of raw vegetarianism (including raw dairy and eggs), and ending with her returning to raw and lightly cooked meat. "Going raw" proved to have so many benefits that Schenck wrote a 2-time award-winning book about it, The Live Food Factor. But after a few years, she began to exhibit health issues. Her research, spurred on by Dr. Stanley Bass, led her to conclude that it was a deficiency of vital nutrients found fully formed only in animal products that were causing the problems.

The book then begins with the author's story of why she resumed eating animal products and how she manages to stay raw even so. It also includes a chapter on other vegans and vegetarians (some who eat raw, others who eat cooked) who made this decision for health reasons.

The book addresses vegetarian myths; why human's brains have shrunk 11% in the last 11,000 years; the importance of animal foods in pregnant and lactating women; man's dietary history of eating meat for 2.6 million years; how the vegan diet affects the brain and emotions; critical nutrients found only in meat, eggs, and dairy, as well as some found in meat only; the difficulty of getting enough healthful protein on a vegan, especially raw, diet; the dangers of soy; the different metabolic types, which explains why some succeed on a "veg" diet while others fail; the dangers of overeating animal protein; how to eat meat so that it is not dangerous; the benefits of eating raw or lightly cooked meat and how to do it safely and make it taste good; spiritual, moral, and environmental issues with eating meat; the importance of eating "clean meat" from compassionately raised animals; eating a high raw, Paleo diet, which is what we evolved eating; the importance of eating raw; flaws in the China Study; the benefits of a low glycemic diet; important foods if you choose to be a vegan or vegetarian; and more.

Susan Schenck, LAc, earned masters degrees from Indiana University and Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. She has read literally hundreds of books on nutrition and coaches people on weight loss and eating raw. She is currently enjoying her life in Ecuador, where she reads, writes, attends writing groups, and relishes her retirement from academic teaching.