Conversations with Vegan Women Leaders
015: Leila Dehghan On Being Forced To Quit Medicine Due To Health Issues And Embracing A New Identity
In this episode of Conversations with Vegan Women Leaders, we interview Dr Leila Dehghan, a medical doctor turned plant-based nutritionist.
The founder of Plant-Powered Qi Nutrition, Leila is passionate about food justice and health equity. She aims to find effective ways to address racial and socio-economic issues that affect health.
Her project “Food and Diversity” seeks to introduce a plant-based diet to people of the global majority (a term coined to refer to Black, Indigenous and people of color).
Leila is a member of the Advisory Board for the Plant-based Health Professionals UK, and has created the 21 Day Plant-based Health Challenge to encourage and invite more people to go plant-based.
In this conversation Leila discusses:
• Her experiences of growing up as a young girl in Iran
• Being made to feel like an outsider when she and her family moved to Austria
• How her perceptions about religion changed as she got older that led her to stop wearing the hijab
• The debilitating migraines that plagued her through childhood and medical school, leading her to be bedridden for most of her final year of study
• The loss of identity she felt when she quit her medical career due to these health issues that also included gastric problems and bulimia
• Why she became a nutritionist and the impact a whole food, plant-based diet has had on her health
• Her experiences of racism and discrimination and why she’s passionate about the Food and Diversity project
• And more
Visit the Plant-Powered Qi Nutrition website
Find out more about Plant-based Health Professionals UK
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