Today, I see the tenacity of my youth for what it was, a form of egotistic superiority. Turning our noses up at people who don't feel the same way we do is an ugly look. Now, I realize that we are all on our own journey and we should honor each other. That doesn't mean we can't share what we have learned, but we should do it respectfully and in love.

The turning point in my life was when I started studying functional medicine. I learned about getting to the root causes of illnesses and realized there's no "one size fits all" approach to wellness. I had to come to grips with the fact that I was eating healthfully but wasn't feeling healthy. Something was missing.

So after 10 years as a vegan, I quit—and now I feel better than ever.

Was veganism better for me than the Standard American Diet? Certainly! But for me, just because something was better didn't make it optimal. I hesitated even writing this article. In my years writing about functional medicine health topics, I've received the most online hate from the vegan community. Those tactics don't change minds; they only divide.

I'm not here to convince you to eat one way or another. You can be a vegetarian or vegan and be in great health (like my friends Dr. Joel Kahn and Dr. Garth Davis). We all have different genetics, biochemistries, and microbiomes. We all have different requirements to thrive.

But for my own personal health journey both as a human being and a functional medicine practitioner, veganism wasn't right. Here's why: