Is a vegan diet healthful?

DEAR DR. GOTT: I would like you to give us interested readers your opinion on the vegan diet.

There are members of my family who have taken on this way of eating for well over a year now. Yes, indeed, they have lost a lot of weight on it, but my concern is what it is doing or rather not doing for the body. Their color seems pale to me, for one thing, and when they come to my house, they eat whatever I have with gusto.

DEAR READER: I’m a bit confused. If they eat whatever you prepare, they are either being kind or they aren’t true vegans. This diet excludes all animal-derived ingredients such as meat, eggs and dairy products. Many vegans prefer not to eat any foods that use animal products as part of the processing, such as refined white sugar.
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