I just came across the following email I received last November (before I had this blog) from an old friend which I thought could be helpful:

“I ended up drifting from the vegan diet while in Taiwan because my nails were constantly breaking and my vegetarian girlfriend insisted I try eating meat again. I thought, ‘Well if a vegetarian is insisting I eat meat, maybe I should?’ Actually many other people were constantly urging me to eat meat there too, telling me I’m too thin etc. The carnivorous diet didn’t effect my health at all really, besides effecting my nails.

“I experienced immediate re-strengthening of my nails within 2 weeks of adding meat back into my diet. Tried going off meat again a few times, but nails would start breaking again.

“During this period I was against supplements for some reason, until reading Paul Pitchford’s Healing with Whole Foods and decided to try taking a B-complex and no meat. It worked! So I went veg again and have been for over a year. Guide to Cruelty Free Eating confirmed what I experientially discovered. Great that you’ll save countless more from needing to do the research and self experimentation on their own. I haven’t tried the mega doses of sublingual B yet – I’m going to try that too as I must have been quite deficient in B’s. I remember seeing somewhere that B’s are related to hair and finger nail nutrition, though I haven’t seen it recently. But taking B complex solved my nail problem.

“It’s great to have found my way back to VO. Thanks for still being here and all of the work you’ve done and are doing!”