Vegan Outreach: A Force for Good - with Jack Norris (vegan) , Part 2 of 2

Based on his knowledge as an RD, Jack has produced three publications including Vegan for Life: Everything You Need to Know to Be Healthy and Fit on a Plant-Based Diet, which he co-authored with Virginia Messina, another registered dietitian who is also a public health nutritionist. He also wrote a web-based book titled: “Vitamin B12: Are You Getting It?” and a web-based resource called “Staying Healthy on Plant-Based Diets.” Both are available at VeganHealth.org, a sister website of Vegan Outreach.

The first thing Jack shares in his book Vegan for Life, is a reference to the famous statement by the US Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in 2016, which is also echoed by similar institutions in the UK, Canada, and Australia. It states: “It is the position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that appropriately-planned vegetarian, including vegan diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. These diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, older adulthood, and athletes.”

Jack further speaks about the environment: “I think the biggest impact of vegan eating, in terms of society at large, is alleviating climate change and other environmental problems. So, whether it be through greenhouse gases, land use, water use, or pollution, a plant-based diet has a much lower environmental impact.”

Our beloved Supreme Master Ching Hai has for decades explained that kindness to all beings is a pre-requisite for spiritual upliftment. “If we consider ourselves higher beings, then we should carry out higher noble acts – protect the weak and the innocent, and not abuse our power by harming our friends, especially since they do us no harm. We should listen to the great wise religious leaders of the past and present, and regard our animal friends as sacred, cherished creations of God. And as a very basic gesture of dignity, respect, and kindness, we should be vegan. When we love and respect the animal-people, we will develop our own spirituality. When we are able to expand this love to all other beings of the universe, including the animal-people who are our co-inhabitants, we ourselves expand and become greater spiritually. A peaceful relationship with the animal-people, with no more killing, would attract to us an abundance of Divine blessings. And with the whole world extending such compassion to animal-people our planet’s atmosphere, of course, would stabilize and even change to a more heavenly-like, permeated with feelings of peace and love.”