It’s been a happy birthday so far. I admit I really appreciate Facebook, which I didn’t have for my last birthday — all the kind notes showing up on my “wall” make me very happy.
The vegan world has been abuzz with the news that Oprah Winfrey is on a 21-day cleanse, using only plant-based foods. The queen of all media is blogging about her experience here. I love what she says in her first entry:
Wow, wow, wow! I never imagined meatless meals could be so satisfying. I had been focused on what I had to give up—sugar, gluten, alcohol, meat, chicken, fish, eggs, cheese. “What’s left?” I thought. Apparently a lot. I can honestly say every meal was a surprise and a delight, beginning with breakfast—strawberry rhubarb wheat-free crepes.
Now, most vegans don’t go as far as Oprah’s going. I eat wheat and sugar everyday, and my wife likes a nice glass of wine quite regularly. Those of us in the animal rights community respect Oprah’s enormous cultural power; we know what she can do for books and presidential candidates. We also know that she’s been very candid about her many years of struggle with body image issues; the world has watched her weight fluctuate for two decades. Though veganism is much more than a weight-loss regimen (and indeed, there are plenty of plump vegans), I’m confident Oprah will be amazed by how much energy and “bounce” she has over the next seventeen days or so.
Oprah’s been inspired by Kathy Freston, whose Quantum Wellness is receiving widespread acclaim in the vegan community. With the explosion in the number of healthy vegan options available in many supermarkets, and with the rapidly rising price of meat and dairy products, there’s never been a better time to experiment. Give it 21 days, as Oprah’s doing. And heck, have a glass of wine and some pasta if you want.
Oh, and if Oprah doesn’t inspire ya, consider that animal agriculture is responsible for far more greenhouse gas emissions than all modes of transport combined. See this fine New York Times article: Rethinking the Meat Guzzler.
To put the energy-using demand of meat production into easy-to-understand terms, Gidon Eshel, a geophysicist at the Bard Center, and Pamela A. Martin, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan — a Camry, say — to the ultra-efficient Prius.
And the UN says:
Cattle-rearing generates more global warming greenhouse gases, as measured in CO2 equivalent, than transportation…
When emissions from land use and land use change are included, the livestock sector accounts for 9 per cent of CO2 deriving from human-related activities, but produces a much larger share of even more harmful greenhouse gases. It generates 65 per cent of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2. Most of this comes from manure.
This is the real inconvenient truth that my “green” carnivore friends are reluctant to digest.
Try joining Oprah, folks. You know, people have been telling me all day that I don’t look 41. I’m not botoxing, and Lord knows, I have weathered skin from so much outdoor activity. I can’t help but feel that my plant-based diet has a lot to do with it.
Enough birthday soap-boxing.
Is alcohol not part of a vegan diet? Why not? Gluten surely should fit into a vegan diet. It seems like she’s embracing every possible food restriction out there. I don’t get it.
She’s doing a cleanse that involves a vegan diet. The cleanse part means no gluten, no alcohol, no sugar. Plenty of vegans eat gluten and sugar and drink alcohol…
I’m so glad she’s doing this, but I hope she carries it out a bit longer so that people can see the real effects (both outside and inside) of a vegan diet. People generally don’t see Oprah as a “crazy Liberal,” so perhaps they’ll be more open to a vegan lifestyle than they would if, say, Greenpeace or Peta were to advocate it.
Yes, that’s the hope — that she may go back to sugar and wheat and wine, but not the meat and animal secretions…
Are your friends “green” carnivores or merely “organic” carnivores, Hugo? Because I have to say, one of the first things truly green carnivores generally do is reduce their meat consumption. Then comes organically raised, locally sourced, etc., etc. Some people are “green” for their own health, while others do it for the earth AND their health. And livestock raising doesn’t just take from the environment. Manure, for instance, allows us to grow more intensively and organically without depleting the soil (are your organic veggies guaranteed plant compost only?). And wouldn’t you know, but healthy vegetation helps clean the air! It’s about finding balance - and believe it or not, there is a way to balance livestock agriculture and environmental impact. I understand and completely respect your choice to live vegan, Hugo, but sometimes I wonder if you think much about where vegetables come from. :)
Some vegans don’t do (white) sugar and wine because both of those are very often processed/filtered with bone char, an animal product. But yeah, I think O is just “cleansing.”
I tend to stay away from white sugar and am a lover of agave.
Livy, small, organic farms on which animals live contribute only a fraction of the problem, agreed. And you know, as we’ve talked about on this blog many times, pure veganism is impossible — the sheer act of ploughing a field kills small animals. The goal is to live as cruelty free as possible. The single most helpful thing that any single human being can do — as the UN and the Times link make clear — is not to rethink transportation until they’ve rethought their diet. How we eat has a greater impact on nature than how we travel, and that’s a point that’s just not being made often enough.
Better to drive a Ford Excursion and be vegan than a Prius-driver who goes through the drive-through at McDonalds three times a week. Better still, of course, to be the vegan Prius driver — but hey, it’s all incremental!
It’s not entirely uncommon to see this exclusion of poultry and fish from consideration as meat. In fact, I’ve seen fish dishes listed under the vegetarian section. It’s almost as if they view that if the product is lean or good for you, then it mustn’t be meat. Well then, what do we think they are? Vegetible? A sub-category of meat defined by their nutritional value as to human consumption? I must say I don’t blame people for holding this view. For so long, Tyson and Fosters Farms have marketed chicken as a healthful alternative to beef and pork. Consequently, people mentally dissociate chicken meat from being meat more generally, when, in fact, there is no justifiable way to draw a distinction between the two. It’s just unfortunate that Oprah was so little informed on this subject when she was speaking on subject of veganism.
I dunno. It seems to me that it’s just more of the same old problem where veganism is treated like another diet, and therefore a way for anorexics to hide their problem.
a cleanse
Because food is dirty?
Wacky diets are fine, vegan or not, long as they don’t kill you; everybody needs a hobby. But the ideology influencing the language of these things is pretty gross. The anorexia connection Amanda mentions is telling; people who hate their bodies love to find ways to make their insides sound as disgusting as they think their outsides are. Diets don’t “cleanse” you or purify your essense or any of that.
“You know, people have been telling me all day that I don’t look 41. I’m not botoxing, and Lord knows, I have weathered skin from so much outdoor activity. I can’t help but feel that my plant-based diet has a lot to do with it. ”
How long have you been vegan–has this been a life time commitment? Your vegan lifestyle has probably been a factor, but I just turned 40 today, I eat meat/animal products (in moderation–with veggies/fruit) and I also have comments that I don’t look a day over 33. However, like you, I run & follow other exercise regimens, do pilates, get lots of sleep, wear tons of sunblock & hats (I’m blond & extremely pale) and drink red wine (good for the heart…). A vegan lifestyle can be healthy, but you have other positives that factor into your ‘youthful’ appearance. I don’t have children, and according to my friends/family, that will age you! (lack of sleep/worry etc.) You also are in a loving relationship, with a rewarding job around youthful people. But hey–there’s plenty of time for you to look your age!
A plant-based diet is healthy and good. I tried going completely vegan at various times and for various reasons. The last time coincided with a serious health-issue and made it worse. I had developed severe critical anemia. My doctor actually asked me if I ate meat, specifically red meat and then told me that she hated to say it, but that iron was more readily absorbed through red meat. So, I incorporated it back into my diet, along with every other type of iron-rich food sources (long story).
I wouldn’t underestimate geneticswhen it comes to ageing. Also, I think environment a factor, along with exercise. I think exercise key, but also agree with AMG insights…
“A vegan lifestyle can be healthy, but you have other positives that factor into your ‘youthful’ appearance. I don’t have children, and according to my friends/family, that will age you! (lack of sleep/worry etc.) You also are in a loving relationship, with a rewarding job…”
What, Mary, you haven’t heard of the fish tree? :)
And Amanda, you’re definitely on to something. Isn’t that Skinny Bitch book all about how veganism will make you enviably thin and stylish? The pair of authors is making the talk show circuit these days, I think.
And how you should never, ever take “chemicals” for anything. Because they’re bad. And how you should suck it up if you have a painful period because menstrual cramps are your body’s way of preparing you for childbirth. The crazy, it is endless.
Hugo, there you go again with the California Calvinism. Looking younger is a result of your virtuous, meat-shunning behavior? Next you’ll be telling us that God blesses you with wealth because you recycle.
Cleansing and toxic are two very popular and important words (marketing) in the alternative medicine/alternative healing/losing weight crowd. It’s a hot topic and makes a great sales pitch for marketing products.I mean, one doesn’t hear much about the cleansing benefits of using bran and prunes to achieve a good cleanse. It’s just not as sexy as other verbage.