Vegan RD for the Animals
About Me & This Website
My name is Krissy Zaier and I am a registered dietitian. I created this website to provide free nutrition information for those either following a vegan diet or interested in learning about a vegan diet. This site offers information on vegan sources for individual nutrients, a sample meal plan and links to useful resources and recipes. The goal of this website is to promote a vegan diet and give people the tools and knowledge that they need to improve their health. I also wanted a space where I could gather and store information and resources that I use frequently.
I became a vegetarian in January of 1987 when I was 14 years old. At that time the decision was based solely on ethical reasons. I saw a movie titled "Faces of Death" which showed the inside of a slaughterhouse and I knew that I would never eat animals again. In the beginning I didn't really care about nutrition but I felt that inflicting that much pain and suffering onto another living and feeling being was morally wrong and I could not support such a cruel industry by continuing to eat animals.
As many vegetarians and vegan discover, once you adopt a diet different from the norm you are often attacked and questioned relentlessly on the validity and safety of your diet. No one questions a junk food diet of burgers, fries and sodas but once they learn you have given up animal products everyone in your life will become a nutrition expert and worry about: "Where do you get your protein? Where do you get your calcium?". These questions will become very familiar to you when you adopt a vegan diet and it is questions like these that drew me to the study of nutrition. As I have studied nutrition I have been thrilled to find that a healthy vegan diet is not only a compassionate choice but is arguably the healthiest diet for humans and the planet.
Plant-Based vs. Vegan
"Plant-based" is a vague diet term and it can mean that the person is mostly eating plants but they might still include some animal foods and wear animal products such as leather. Usually someone following a plant-based diet is focused primarily on health but they might not adopt a completely animal free lifestyle. Veganism is not a diet. Veganism is an ethical movement. According to The Vegan Society, "Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals."
From a health perspective it is possible that someone could follow a mostly plant-based diet including small amounts of animal products in their diet and still be healthy. However, I believe that a vegan diet with no animal products is the best diet to protect against chronic diseases, protect the environment and decrease the suffering of animals.
"My body will not be a tomb for other creatures" - Leonardo da Vinci
Me and Goober at Rancho Compasion, a farm sanctuary created by vegan cheese queen, Miyoko Schinner.
My Education and Experience
Graduated Summa Cum Laude from San Francisco State University with a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics (2006)
Attended San Francisco State University's dietetic internship program (2006-2007)
Passed national examination to become a registered dietitian (2007)
Working in Northern CA hospitals as a clinical dietitian since 2007. I see patients ranging from those in critical care requiring intubation and tube feeding to nutrition counseling for patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and end stage kidney disease. I am currently with Kaiser Permanente (2014-present)