In his review of Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating, comedian Kevin Nealon wrote,"This book was so good, I wanted to eat it." The same is true of Davis and Melina's "sequel" to Becoming Vegetarian.
Becoming Vegan represents the very cutting edge of vegan nutritional research, a currently fast-paced field. Davis and Melina share Vegan Outreach's conviction that it is of the highest importance to be the best-informed--and thus healthiest--vegan possible, even if doing so undercuts the fantasies about veganism being easy, perfect, and infallible. They don't treat animal products as poison, and don't contend that just removing these products from one's menu leads to a healthy diet. Rather, they methodically discuss all the various aspects of good nutrition (including phytochemicals and functional foods) from a vegan perspective. Once they have built a solid understanding of the issues, they conclude the book with systematic plans for working toward optimal health, offering tips, shortcuts, and a few recipes.
In their writing, the authors don't try to sugarcoat the truth. They summarize the results of research on vegans--including the negatives as well as the positives--and spell out the limitations and shortcomings of the research to date. Treatment of the myths is anything but reverent, from raw foodism and ultra-low-fat diets to "milk causes osteoporosis" and other correlation-based claims. Many people will be surprised at what studies actually say about vegans (for example, a 1999 analysis showed vegans to have a higher rate of heart disease than lacto-ovo vegetarians or fish-eaters).
Their take on the role of fat in the diet is very balanced and illuminating. Although ultra-low-fat diets have been found to have some level of effectiveness in treating people with pronounced coronary disease, it doesn't follow that this is the optimal diet for healthy people, any more than saying that, because chemotherapy has some level of effectiveness against cancer, everyone should be on chemo! The book's treatment of essential fatty acids (EFAs) is the most thorough I have ever read, explaining very clearly the problems with maintaining the appropriate ratio of omega-6 to omega-3.
Perhaps the highest praise that I can offer is that, after being vegan for many years, reading Becoming Vegan has altered how I eat--for the better. Vegan Outreach now sells Becoming Vegan (see catalog).