I had an interesting experience yesterday at work. A female co-worker of mine came up to me and asked if I had a minute. She wanted to talk, it turned out, about transitioning to a vegan diet. That by itself wasn’t all that surprising. After all, it happens relatively often in my life. What surprised me, though, was the reason. It turned out her husband had recently told her that he wanted to become vegan because no other “dieting” strategy was working for him. He wanted to lose weight and live a healthier life, and he saw veganism as a successful path towards his goals.

I realize that most of us adopted the vegan diet (or whatever similar eating pattern we currently have) primarily for the sake of animal welfare. But if we’re interested in helping animals to live happy and healthy lives, it makes sense that we’d be happy when a person chooses to adopt a vegan lifestyle for their own sake too. Knowing that another person is happier and healthier because they’re eating more plant-based foods makes me a happier person too, especially if I can encourage them along the way.

So, it took me a minute to think about what resources exist for people who are mainly interested in plant-based eating as a means to personal health, and here’s what I came up with:

Forks Over Knives – This movie just came out and obviously we’ve already talked about it on here. Quick summary though: animal foods make you fat, diabetic, cancer-ridden, etc. and plant-based foods do not. Got it? Good.

Skinny Bitch – I’ve never read this book (series of books now, I guess?), but it seemed to be all the rage a couple of years ago. It’s mainly for the ladies, but I don’t see why a guy couldn’t pick up the book and learn something from it. 

Engine 2 Diet – Featured in the FOK movie, this book is the “man’s version” of vegan eating for your livelihood. It encourages you to cut out animal foods, processed foods and oils from your diet, and demonstrates real results from a group of firefighters who adopted the diet to improve their health and found success.

Thrive – Brendan Brazier of Vega supplements fame wrote this book. He’s primarily an endurance athlete, and based on a recent talk that he gave in Lakewood, he attributes much of his success to his healthy, vegan eating and nutrition. The book describes how the two are connected and can benefit you.

Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness – I recently bought a copy of this book and I’m so far really enjoying it. Written by bodybuilder Robert Cheek, the book is geared towards people who want to work at bodybuilding at a competitive level, but the principles apply to anyone looking to get in better shape and make veganism a part of that journey.

Okay, that’s my small set of suggestions, but I know there’s plenty more books, movies, websites, etc. out there that I didn’t list. If anyone has more suggestions for vegan/vegetarian resources geared towards health let us know.  My co-worker was also concerned about raising vegan kids, so I definitely would appreciate a direction to point her there. Thanks all!