"Natural" Foods and Diets, Vegan?

I'm writing this, because a friend just sent me this article by someone who stopped being vegan, because of serious health issues.

Over my long enough life to get senior discounts on Israeli buses, I've tried various "health diets."  I was vegetarian (ovo-lacto) for twenty-five years, which included a couple of periods vegan and even raw food only.  Besides becoming obese, I had no health problems, probably because by eating eggs I got all the protein, ameno acids etc.

Then I had a stressful time subbing in a junior high, besides my then high school job.  Suddenly I was very hungry and felt an uncontrollable craving for meat, poultry and fish.  Something told me that I ought to stop trying to get energy from "white chocloate," one of the worst candies ever invented and give up my vegetarianism. 

Unlike many vegetarians, I didn't preach that it was morally superior or more natural.  I started being a vegetarian after a few years of not really being attracted to meat, and then a doctor recommended a period of veganism after I had a bad reaction to a bee sting.

For those twenty-five years I felt fine as a vegetarian and had perfectly healthy pregnancies of my two sons.  I didn't take vitamin supplements most of the time.  For quite a few years, I've rejected the idea of vitamins, because they're admissions of bad eating habits.  Correct your diets and you don't need vitamins, unless there is a very specific health issue.

Now I eat very ordinary food, lots of vegetables, three proper servings of protein, plus snacks, fruit, salad etc.  During the week I get my carbohydrates from cooked vegetables, like carrots and onions.  Fruit has sugar.  I don't need any other carb.  I don't suffer food cravings either.  If I suddenly feel the need for "something" more satifying than fruit, I'll have a bit of goats yogurt, a couple of raw nuts or a spoon of sesame paste.  Those little snacks are generally much smaller than I used to take.  I also make a point of getting out of the kitchen as soon as possible and give my body the 20-30 minutes needed to let the food "register."

Some friends have gotten into veganism,  raw food and juicing.  They try to tell me that it's natural.  I insist that it isn't and remember how much food I used to have to eat to feel satisfied.  They eat enormous quantities, too.  A salad just makes me hungry.  Juice is just the "sugar" of the vegetable or fruit.  It's not "natural;" it's processing.  I like to chew.  Chewing is considered by the experts as stage one of digestion.

Jewish Law allows the eating of meat, poultry and fish with certain conditions, Kashrut.  When I was a vegetarian, I was taught that according to Jewish Law, you can only be a vegetarian if you have a specific health requirement or if meat/fish/poultry makes you feel ill.  You may not insist that it's morally superior.