MRS BEASLEY AND ME
Monique Steinhardt talks to VV about ‘that dear Dr Barnard’ and how he made
her a vegan. Interview: SB
MONIQUE STEINHARDT is 77 years old and a new vegan. Here’s how it happened. In early December of last year, Monique was listening to her usual classical FM radio station when she found herself riveted by the voice of vegan doctor Neal Barnard talking about his book The Reverse Diabetes Diet. In an interview with presenter Margaret Throsby, Dr Barnard laid out the facts about how a low-fat vegan diet can prevent and reverse diabetes, as well as other chronic disease.
Monique wanted to know more. Recently she had been experiencing a tingling in her lower legs and had been having attacks of dizziness for years. Many times she could not get up from her chair and had to crawl across the floor just to answer the phone. Her GP wanted her examined by a specialist to check that it wasn’t an indication of angina. Monique did a bit of detective work and tracked down Vegan Voice. I picked up the phone and the first thing Monique asked me was whether I could help her change to a vegan diet.
We had a long conversation during which Monique informed me that she used to be a vegetarian until her doctor advised her to add some red meat to her usual (huge) plate of steamed vegies for lunch. The doctor insisted red meat was needed for iron. Monique reluctantly added the meat but told me her doctor would have been horrified at the small quantities. Then, when Monique heard Dr Barnard say that iron could be easily obtained on a plant-based diet, she decided to investigate. That’s when she called VV. “Why haven’t we been made aware that we can do without meat?” she asked me. “Why isn’t it common knowledge?”
Why indeed.
Monique went shopping the next day for soy milk, tofu and tempeh. I told her that if she didn’t like them she didn’t have to eat them and that there were many alternatives. “Yes, that lovely Dr Barnard said there was plenty of protein in plant foods,” she told me.
She then chose to swap her usual breakfast cereal for organic wheat biscuits and rolled oats, replaced cow’s milk with soy and swapped her animal margarine for Nuttelex (I warned her to be sparing with it as it was still high in fat and she should eat low fat for maximum benefit).
Monique’s previous diet was very simple and fairly healthy, so she was not a difficult person to convince. (Dr Barnard had already done that.) She loved fruit and veggies and did not want to eat meat or dairy. Easy. She told me she had always adored animals and could not bear the thought of them being hurt. “That’s been my worry all my life,” she said. “That’s why I’ve been a vegetarian for many years.”
You can read the rest of these interviews in the March-May issue of Vegan Voice.