Access to scientific studies

[bluedragon]

Today I had another of those annoyng discussions with a doctor, friend of my parents, who believes that my vegan diet not good in the long term and is always trying to convince me to eat "at least some meat from time to time". The problem is I have trouble sustaining my point of view because she is always telling me about some study made by Yale or other prestigious institution prooving that without animal protein, the brain will gradually degenerate or various other things. When I tell her that I too have read about studies on the internet, she tells me that you cannot trust what you find on the Internet.
So my question is, if I wanted to really see for myself a certain study prooving that vegan diets are ok, where could I find one of theese? I mean, even though I can estimate wether a site is trustworthy or not by the way the information is organized, as well as by comparison with hundreads of others, maybe I should see for myself that there really exists a study prooving that humans can sustain a vegan diet. I mean, I'm sure it exists, but the only reason I'm sure is that other people that I don't know have posted this on various sites I didn't know before accessing them. How do I know these people are right? What if among them are some whos intentions are not the best, the same as in the medical community and media propaganda?

[funchy]

PubMed has all sorts of medical studies, though for free most of them only give the abstract. This is a site that doctors use to read up about other doctors. PubMed Home

The sad thing is that studies need funding. Who funds studies about food -- usually it's the growers or producers of that product. Remember when eggs suddenly were good for you? Guess who funded it. The study that supposedly claimed dairy caused weight loss was traced back to the milk farming industry.

Also check out the Physicians for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). It's a group of doctors and scientists who educate about health living without the negatives of too much meat in the diet. Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) - Neal Barnard, M.D., president

But you don't need a huge study to provide what is obvious and logical. Any of the newer nutrition books will talk about essential vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. Address what his big objection is about veganism. Is it the protein myth? Is it that he doesn't realize we can get B12 from vitamins and nutritional yeast without eating meat? It sounds like he just has out of date nutritional infomation.