Tina works as a registered dietitian — she has a master’s degree in clinical nutrition and was working at Aalborg University Hospital as a chief dietitian for ten years. Just now, she has started her own private clinic called GreenSoul, which specializes in plant-based nutrition, but is open to anyone who needs dietetic advice or treatment. But be prepared to get inspired to eat a little more plants than before. She is a vegan herself, after all.
Amongst her chief interests is also sustainability, as she was participating with a vegan food stall in the local festival in 2015 and 2016.
What is your personal motivation for becoming vegan? Was it out of love for the environment or animals?
One of the reasons, though not the first one, was the love for animals, but nowadays it’s hard to separate, because there are many more factors, even though often interrelated. I was doing yoga and went to India for four weeks. As the level of hygiene is generally lower, it was safer to eat solely vegetarian food. I did so and found out that I didn’t miss meat at all. When I came back, I started discovering more and more recipes and ways to live as a vegetarian. In my work, I’ve been helping people with all kinds of allergies and intolerances and advised them about cooking without milk and eggs, but I’d never really tried it myself before.
I also started discovering more and more about how the animals are treated, and that it’s basically a form of slavery. I saw a movie called ‘Earthlings’. That was really the one that moved me a lot, I cried and my husband was sitting in the room next to me asked me: ‘What are you watching?’ ‘I’m watching a horror movie’. ‘Turn it off then’. ‘No, I must see it — I have to really know it in my heart’ And since then I knew I was becoming a vegan and I knew exactly why. It just took me an additional few months because I knew I had to be very secure about my nutrition. I didn’t eat meat at that time, but still had eggs and milk and fish. Only after a few months, I could say I was a vegan. It is such a strong drive and I can honestly say I never feel tempted to eat something that is not vegan. It’s just not an option for me. The horror that lies behind the animal agricultural industry, is so deeply imprinted in my mind. I feel the fear so deep in my heart, that all desire for a piece of cake is completely gone. But if you serve vegan cake for me, I will dig in.
How did your family and friends react to this change?
I know some people have struggled with it, as they’ve been arguing with their families and friends and had no understanding. About me… People were just being curious, which is maybe because I have a background in nutrition studies. People know I’m skilled in nutrition, I really am, not to brag, but it is my profession. So, they knew I would be sure about my diet. And I guess that’s why they’ve just been curious. They were asking about more specific motivation.
I grew up in the countryside. My parents had a little farm. They were not living off it, but we had some animals: cows, pigs and cats. And of course, they took some of these animals and slaughtered them and we ate them. I knew that and I didn’t like it, but still, I had it for dinner and I had my plenty share of roasts and meatballs. I had my own little male calf as a pet, after all. When he grew too big, he met the same fate…
I still have family members who have big dairy farms and live from that. They’re my close relatives and, of course, I love them, because they’re good people. And I know some are, maybe, not going completely vegan, but definitely, I see friends and relatives cut down on the meat and dairy. We all have to discover it our ways, it’s a shift of paradigm.
As a child, you’re raised in the countryside and you are being taught that that is just the way the world is. The American social psychologist Melanie Joy describes how it is a cultural belief that meat is natural, normal and necessary. That we have animals to feed ourselves. We all, or most of us, learn that it’s the natural process. And soon we forget because the food tastes good.
Did you personally have problems with the taste itself?
It’s not that I didn’t like meat. I always liked meat and I’m sure I would like the taste of it even today. That’s not the question for me. I just don’t care about the taste anymore. I have other tastes that satisfy me, I don’t need the meat but I’m not arguing that it doesn’t taste good, because it does. That’s why so many people eat it.
What about, for example, milk?
I don’t think it’s natural to take the calf from its mother and then feed it a little and then kill it and eat it.
Many people don’t think about why we get dairy. They don’t think about why the female cow always gives milk. It’s because she’s always pregnant having a calf which is immediately taken away from her. That’s the only way she can keep producing high amounts of milk every day. I think many people still have the romantic idea of how the milk is produced at a little farm, but that’s not the way it is. And that’s what that movie Earthlings showed me and that animals have deep emotions.
What about the sustainability factor of veganism?
During the last years, there have been many debated about the environmental question, and you can see that the way we get animal products also builds up in it. It’s all related.
Some people ask me why I don’t care about starving kids in Africa. But that’s also caring exactly for these starving children because we can’t feed the humanity on this planet the way we’re eating today. It’s not sustainable in any way. We need to cut down meat very drastically. And from my knowledge as a nutritionist, I know we don’t need meat in a diet. It’s a myth. So that’s also caring for these starving people everywhere in the world because we could have so much more food if we didn’t have this huge animal agricultural industry we have today.
What do you think is a common mistake people make with their diets?
Many people think they can get the right amount of protein and the right nutrients like iron, calcium and zinc only when they eat animal products. There are studies showing that you can do perfectly well without meat or with very little meat and animal products in your diet.
In the so-called blue zones like Okinawan in Japan or Loma Linda in California, people live to the oldest age. Most centenarians (people that live over a hundred years) all have one thing in common — their diet is either free of animal products or with just a very little. It’s less than 5 percent of the diet that’s animal products.
And that’s just the living proof that people can live long and have a healthy and valuable life on a diet with very little or no animal products.
Is it really that easy?
A lot of saturated animal fat and red meat is not very good for your health. It’s related to heart disease, type 2-diabetes and colon cancer It’s very good to leave it out, but it depends on what’s left on the plate — and if what’s left on the plate is not mainly what we call whole food plant-based diet, it’s not very healthy either.
You can have the most extreme example: You put all animal products out and then you have a white toast with jam for breakfast and maybe some fries with ketchup for lunch. It’s vegan but it’s not healthy, because there are no whole foods left in the diet. And if you live from that diet, of course, you will get some serious problems with your nutrition and you will get a lack of iron and protein.
People need to see what I’m cutting out but also what I’m choosing instead. It must be healthy nutritious food. People need more information. There has been a lot of campaigns from the Vegetarian Society about the need to put out more official information about how to build a healthy diet when you don’t eat meat, fish, eggs and dairy products. We start to see small changes, like the new campaign about how we don’t need dairy to get calcium, and it made the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration (Fødevarestyrelsen) actually change some of the wording in the explanation about alternative sources to calcium. But still, there is a long way to go.
What are the best things that you could eat?
Plant-based wholefood. And vegetables, it must be a huge part of the diet. And to say it the simplest way — eat the rainbow. Have some green vegetables, have some red and yellow vegetables, have some purple things. Just eat a variety of these. Try to think of that every day. Have some full wholegrain bread. And some seeds. Like linseeds, sesame seeds — it’s fantastic for calcium and they’re highly nutritious both in protein and in all kinds of minerals. Have some nuts, because they’re also very highly nutritious, have healthy fats and proteins and lots of minerals and fiber. Not to forget some berries, like blueberries and strawberries and have some fruits.
One of the most important food that people are not used to eating in Denmark — that’s beans and lentils. Like dry beans, because they’re high in protein and again, fiber. They are very nutritious and have very high levels of iron, calcium and zinc that you usually get from meat or dairy.
Why are people not implementing beans more into their diet?
Because we don’t learn it. I myself never had it when I was growing up, it was not part of my family’s diet. Not at all, not speaking about things like falafel or hummus. I never knew how to cook these things. They were never in my mother’s kitchen cabinets because she made traditional Danish cuisine. And I don’t think they learned a lot of it in the school kitchen. Maybe it depends on the teacher, maybe there are dedicated teachers who could show the kids how to cook beans, how to soak them first. People think it’s too much hard work because you must soak them first and then cook them. It takes a little time but it’s a matter of getting used to it. You cook a huge portion and put it in a freezer. It’s quite easy and I think we need to implement it.
Today, things are more available in supermarkets than they were some time ago, and you can buy canned lentils and beans in a regular supermarket, its not only baked beans anymore.
What do you think is the biggest challenge that our society is facing now?
Well, I think the climate and how we are going to take care of the planet. Of course, that is the biggest question now, and there are many places we can work on. One is food and nutrition. That’s what I stand for. And it has to come from both down — the people — but also from the government’s side. They need to make some arrangement.
Every change came with very few people starting a movement like the school children now with the climate strike. Wow. It gives me goosebumps. And it really shows that people, especially young, really do care about the planet.
It all came like a big change for me — before I was a person who was consuming a lot. I would be buying lots of new fancy clothes without thinking it through. Now I’m different and I only buy secondhand clothes.
If there’s a special thing I need, like some sports gear or something I can’t get second hand, I buy it new but then I try to find the most sustainable brand and buy from that. But otherwise, it’s only secondhand clothes. With my new clinic, I opened now — half of the furniture is second hand and half of it I bought new, but only because I couldn’t find it in the second-hand stores, Then I buy something that’s made from sustainable wood. But I always try to see if I can recycle.
But I can still be tempted when I see cheap things in the supermarket — but you need to ask yourself whether you really need it that much.
Our last question to you is if you could share any message with the youth in Aalborg, what would it be?
I think you are amazing. I think the youth today you have so much knowledge and so much drive. I think you’re a tough generation. You’re doing great. People like you, who are volunteering in their free time. So just carry on and keep believing in what you’re doing.
You own the future and it must come from you because apparently, my generation is not stepping up. I’m glad you are.
Interviews conducted by: Viktoriya Dimitrova
Article written by: Tereza Čechová
Edited by: Viktoriya Dimitrova
Interviewee: Tina Beermann
Photography: Hilda Bakhshi