Vegans are healthier long term than their meat eating counterparts. Vegans have much less instance of diseases, heart problems, obesity, and will even get colds and flu less frequently than meat eaters. I became a vegan last summer, and so did my son. The winter before we became vegan, my son had gotten no fewer than six colds. This last winter on a vegan diet he has not even had a runny nose or a cough. He is taller, more muscular, and has better sleeping patterns than the average for children his age. So don't worry about long term...she'll live a very long, healthy life if she stays vegan. :)

The magic of the vegan diet is not that it makes you a healthier individual on its own, it forces you to look at what you eating and how it affects you and others. I never cared about nutrition before I became a vegan. Veganism helped me understand that my body is constituted of what I eat. I don't know the exact statistic, but I think that your body is largely made up of what you ate in the past 8 months. And I don't want to be a downer, but it always helps to do the occasional nutritional check, to make sure you are getting all the vitamins and minerals you require. Maybe you could encourage your daughter to do this.

I have been Vegan for about 4 years and Vegetarian 4 years prior to that. I have noticed that I don't get sick as often as I used to with colds/flu. I went to the doctor recently and had a full blood workup to see where I stand with vitamins and minerals (ie, B12 and iron) and my doctor said that my vitamins and minerals were more in range than most people he sees. The only thing that was low on my panel was sodium, I don't use much salt. I think the diet is great.

Eating animal fats and proteins has been associated with heart disease, colon and lung cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, kidney disease, hypertension, obesity, and various other degenerative diseases. Cows' milk has perfect quantity of fat and protein for young calves, but quite a lot for humans. But research carried out on vegans worldwide shows a diverse plant-based diet improves health and wellness and yields various positive health benefits. It offers protection against major killers like heart disease and cancer.