And such a dumb statement comes from someone with a medical profession. Millions of people in this world couldn't afford meat or wouldn't eat it because of religious/ spiritual reasons. And most of them are a lot healthier than the average obese American who lives on a coke/ hamburger/ donut diet and calls that an advanced lifestyle.
And please don't get the extremist hardcore PETA vegans confused with "normal" ovo-lacto vegetarians. It makes quite a difference whether you can cover your protein needs with the nutritionally more valuable animal proteins that you find in dairy products, or whether you have to compensate with less valuable vegetable proteins. But even that isn't a problem as long as you eat enough legumes, which are a great protein source.
The problem of a purely vegan diet is a vitamin B12 deficiency that you can only prevent by taking supplements.
I would have expected a more qualified comment from you. But apparently, being a nurse over there doesn't require much knowledge about nutrition.