When I tell people I eat plant-based food, they invariably respond with one of the following questions: (1) Where do you get your protein? (2) Where do you get your B-12? and (3) What can you eat besides carbs? These questions are sadly laughable given the obesity and disease rates in America and the number of people who exist on diets of sugar, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oil, saturated fats, processed and other toxic foods.

Unhealthy people often ask me where I get my protein. It shows how divorced people have become from reality and reminds those of us who care about the well-being of animals, our health, and clean air, land, and water how much work we have ahead of us to educate our fellow citizens about the protein myth and other related issues.

The success of the animal killing industry depends heavily on concealing the truth about factory farming and what people actually eat. The casting of aspersions on the health benefits of plant-based eating originates from the same industry that has killed millions of Americans with the ingredients they inject into the animals they inhumanely confine, torture, slaughter, and sell for massive profits that have them laughing all the way to the bank. Watch the movie The Insider and learn about how the tobacco industry concealed the truth about nicotine as they watched it kill millions of people. These corporations generally aren’t focused on your health, the environment, or animal welfare. They care about profits, and they will deceive you until you die in order to fill their coffers.

In response to the most common questions, you may ask: Where do you get your fiber, B-6 and B-12, Omega 3 and 6, protein, vitamins A, B, C, D, E, K, selenium, chromium, potassium, magnesium, and iron? Is it in the cheeseburgers, ham, hot dogs, butter, cream cheese, or steak that you eat? What do you do to combat the pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics, pus, blood, feces, and chemicals in the animals you’re eating that are causing millions of people to die of cancer and heart disease?

I eat organic food in its original state, unaltered by processing factories that fill them with artificial preservatives, hormones, antibiotics, modified feed, broths, and artificial flavoring to give them taste they don’t have. Who do you think is healthier? I get more protein from eating plant-based food than people who eat animals. Animal eaters have been duped by the animal agriculture industry into believing that eating animals is healthy and necessary to survive. It’s not. Consider reading The Food Revolution by John Robbins. It’s a good place to start if you want to learn the truth about the food you eat.

The American Dietetic Association (ADA), the world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals, issued a summary of a vegetarian diet. Unlike studies published and funded by companies hiding behind the meat industry, such as the so-called Center for Consumer Freedom (CFC), the ADA is a nonprofit enterprise comprised of professional dietitians, researchers, and educators that has sought to maintain the health of American citizens for generations.

Here are a few of their findings on vegetarian lifestyles:

1. Vegetarian diets are appropriate for all individuals during all stages of life, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Vegetarians meet or exceed the requirements for protein intake and tend to have more optimal protein consumption than omnivores.

2. Vegetarian diets tend to be lower in saturated fat and cholesterol and have higher levels of dietary fiber, magnesium and potassium, vitamins C and E, folate, carotenoids, flavonoids, and other phytochemicals.

3. Vegetarian diets are associated with a number of health advantages, including lower blood cholesterol levels, lower risk of heart disease, lower blood pressure levels, and lower risk of hypertension and type 2 diabetes. Vegetarians tend to have a lower body mass index (in other words, they’re not as fat), and lower overall cancer rates. Heart disease and cancer account for 50% of the deaths in the United States.

The good news is you can end your support of these inhumane practices today by choosing to make gradual changes in your life that align your heart with your actions. You don’t have to do it all at once. Here is a Guide to Compassionate Living to help you get started and an easy and free way to sign up for plant-based recipes via email.