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Loading...12 Famous Vegans and Why They Made the Switch
As reported by RadarOnline last week, Usher has gone vegan, and he wants his protege Justin Bieber to join him, convinced that it’s the healthiest way to eat. Late last month, Rosie O’Donnell switched to a plant-based diet after nearly dying of what’s known as a “Widow Maker” heart attack. Then there’s Bill Clinton who adopted a near-vegan regimen (occasionally eating fish) a few years ago in order to reverse coronary artery disease. Other famous vegans who chose the diet for its health benefits include Carl Lewis, Ozzy Osbourne and Mike Tyson. Yes, that Mike Tyson.
Among those who made the switch in the name of animal welfare are Ellen DeGeneres, Alicia Silverstone and Dennis Kucinich, and each of them has been outspoken in their advocacy for that cause. Apparently it was after watching the 2005 documentary “Earthlings,” about the suffering of animals for food, fashion, pets, entertainment and medical research, that Ms. DeGeneres committed to the vegan lifestyle. The film, nicknamed “the Vegan maker,” was narrated by animal-rights activist Joaquin Phoenix who himself has been vegan since age three.
For Alec Baldwin and Russell Simmons, a sense of responsibility for the health of the planet rounded out their reasons for becoming vegan. The impact on the environment from the consumption of meat, Mr. Simmons wrote, is “mind-blowing.”
People, famous or otherwise, become vegan for health, ethical and/or environmental reasons. I can’t disagree with the arguments made for veganism and the way it advances both animal and environmental causes, but I continue to wonder about whether a diet composed entirely of plant-based foods is the healthiest for everyone.
Angelina backs off
A few years ago, as noted in The Telegraph, Angelina Jolie started eating meat again, saying, “I was a vegan for a long time, and it nearly killed me. I found I was not getting enough nutrition.” Maybe Ms. Jolie wasn’t doing it right, wasn’t eating a well-balanced vegan diet, and maybe she thereby did a disservice to the vegan movement by making that statement. Maybe she should have adopted Bill Clinton’s regimen.
Bill Clinton’s version
“I live on beans, legumes, vegetables, fruit,” Mr. Clinton said in a TV interview two years ago. “I drink a protein supplement every morning — no dairy, I drink almond milk mixed in with fruit and a protein powder so I get the protein for the day when I start the day up.” What I wonder, however, is why a healthy, well-balanced diet has to include supplements, powders and various fortified foods. I wonder why adopting a vegan diet has to involve careful considerations and special accommodations for nutrients such as vitamins B12 and D, iron and calcium. So I wonder — and I know I may start a firestorm with this one — if a vegan diet is natural. What do you think?
Portman’s story
As for Ms. Jolie, it’s possible, as she argues, that a plant-based diet, however well-devised, wasn’t ever going to provide the nourishment her body needed. Every body is different. Natalie Portman, after declaring her conversion to veganism in a well-publicized essay for The Huffington Post, switched back during her pregnancy because, as she told the Q100 Bert Show in Atlanta, “I felt like I wanted that stuff. I was listening to my body to have eggs and dairy.” Likewise, I remember being unable to stop myself from eating meat while pregnant, much as I tried, because I was feeling chronically undernourished without it.
Diet is a very personal choice, an expression of who we are, our values and beliefs, whether or not we’re deliberately trying to make a statement. That there are more and more vegans who are famous, however, has certainly raised the profile of the animal-free, plant-based lifestyle. Many advocates view Bill Clinton as the biggest “catch.” One vegan told The Associated Press: “It legitimizes it a lot. I like to point it out all the time when people are skeptical about veganism — Clinton’s a smart man.”
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Read more: animal welfare, bill clinton, ellen degeneres, natalie portman, plant-based diet, russell simmons, Usher, vegan, vegan diet, veganism
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Recent Comments from Causes
That headline is SO mainstream media ..........................
Technology of the XXI century has given us amazing opportunities in numerous fields. Experiments on animals…
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+ add your ownNicole B, thank you for your very thoughtful, intelligent comments. I am hoping that someday vegans will start to actually understand the science and history of our early ancestors, instead of making up stories about vegan lions in the Garden Of Eden and humans having the teeth and digestive tracts of herbivores!
Continue again (sorry it is so long)
Please note that in the Garden of Eden, not even the lions ate other animals, which goes against its very biology, and that of the ancient cave lions, the human desire to not have to live in fear of predators. You also have to remember that there were less of back then us then, making it easier to live in harmony with nature, and not over take, because there were no large companies that think they could do what they pleased. Even to this day i try and plant seeds of every plant I forge from, Like they, unknownly, did as they wondered. I have had a love of nature since I was young and through studying native tribes that stick to traditional ways and through studying studies done, I do not pity them. I envy them, except the areas that were ruled by controlling religion instead of common sense and respect.
Anyways, I have to go, my youngest brother decided to take apart his computer tower for the sixth time this week and want me to put it back together (I swear he does it on propose) and don't think I will be back on this article for a while, if ever (I may forget about it) I have two jobs lined up and then an interview for an official job.
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I believe 3-6 hours of work, not including the constant watch-outs and common household chores, over the one hour as I have watch people make clothes in the ways they would off and it takes a minimum on 2 1/2 hours with everything already gathered and ready, to get the leather ready, as well as flinting the spear tip (stone or wood) would have took time.
The last time I called them "primitive" or "savage" was when I was 13. I came to the conclusion myself that "primitive" and "savage" were nothing more than ones view point on a culture that they couldn't understand after watching a documentary about the Roman Empire vs the Nordic and Germanic people, so those words have long ago been thrown out of my vocab. I have also known that ancient man (I call them ancient or ancestors), knew more than we did, and I follow the idea of giving thanks to the animal, even if I am not the one who killed it, for giving me its flesh. The idea of it willingly giving it comes from the belief that if an animal was not willingly it would not have died at that time. (I avoid factory farm meat). I try and follow many old rituals of my ancestors giving thanks not only to animals but plants as well.
I do not believe in the bible as it was not written during the events, any event, that is in it, man wanted a prefect world full of harmony and peace and created the Garden of Eden in order to believe that there once was a place like that. Please note that in the Garden of Eden, not even the l
Thank you for this ~ Don't believe Clinton would EVER EVER BE A VEGAN!!!
Douglas: You basically just told me what my doctor told me (for the nutritional part) when he informed me to start eating meat again and to never go back on the vegan diet when it diet failed me. The healthiest meat a human can eat is raw because it contains enzymes that react positively with human digestion tract, I asked several doctors on this, and they have all agreed, if free from parasites it is healthier. You said that there were no indigenous people that couldn't go vegan and I gave a couple examples. Their diet has one thing in common. Raw meat.
While you are right on the fact that many studies have been done, I have concluded myself several things from reading studies that say man evolved eating meat and ones that say that man evolved eating a plant based diet. Many that say plant based have studied remains in areas where the environment had edible plants year round, and those that say man evolved eating meat studied those from environments where edible plants were not available year round. I believe man evolved as omnivores in the beginning and then later evolved, or adapted, digestivally, to handle the increase of plant/decrease of meat or the increase of meat/decrease of plant.
I believe 3-6 hours of work, not including the constant watch-outs and common household chores, over the one hour as I have watch people make clothes in the ways they would off and it takes a minimum on 2 1/2 hours with everything already gathered and ready, to get the leather ready, a
(cont)............... Oh, yeah, Natalie Portman. She tried veganism for a bit, became almost bone thin and when pregnant, returned to eating a healthy diet which included meat. Yeah, I really want to look like she did in Black Swan.........NOT! If I thought being vegan would give me the intellect of a world famous scientist, it might impress me. If I thought being vegan would turn me into a world class Olympic calibre athlete like Shawn Johnson, I might try it, but not eating meat isn't going to make me 40 years younger, 5 inches shorter and put muscles in places where they never were "before". Beauty sells, so make-up companies use celebs such as Ellen DeGeneres to represent Cover Girl, and the jury is out as to whether Ellen actually uses that product as they test on animals. Supposedly, Cindy Crawford uses some facial cream with a "special melon" that keeps her looking beautiful. Hmmm, face-lifts and cosmetic surgery also probably help.
Douglas, you have not only poor reading comprehension, but your sarcasm is unwarranted and certainly lacks credibility. Why on earth would you accuse me of "devoting" myself to this article when I commented in it once in weeks, only to point out the inaccuracies you made, yet I participate in many, MANY other discussions in Care.2 on a daily/nightly basis? I posted once, followed by SIX lengthly novel-lengthed posts from you. I think the definition of "troll" fits you far more than it does me, Douglas. I have the box checked to "get comment replies" and one came into my IN BOX, so I read it. It was yours and I replied to it, but you are the one who came in here after a long absence and stirred up the pot again.
The whole, ENTIRE point is that nobody who has a logical thinking brain should base their nutritional habits after some celebrity who is more than likely, being paid to hawk that plan. Half the "celebs" supposedly promoting diets, and especially vegan diets are not vegan. Read the article........Natalie Portman, Angelina Jolie........neither are vegan, although both were for a very short time. I get SPAM in my e-mail every day with offers of diets from Angelina Jolie AND Jennifer Anniston (at the same time). They hate each other. I've gotten them from Pamela Anderson......she is not vegan but is a paid spokesperson for PETA. Let's see, Brittney Spears, Oprah, and the list goes on. Oh, yeah, Natalie Portman. She tried veganism for a bit, became almost
Last sentence continued. . . stress hormones as well as requiring 15 times the land area to produce, 25 times the water, 20 times the energy etc. See Ecological Footprint by Bill Rees.
I agree with you that you & others should follow your inner voices on this matter as well as medical science as you know it. I hope these pieces of research provide you with greater options as well as round out what you already know on the subject. A general rule is that; life-on-earth is designed honouring the productivity & sacredness of every living animal creature alive. Animals are transporters of seed & matter for the plant kingdom. We are servants to the greater wisdom of the plant kingdom & all of life. The wisdom of life is far beyond the wisdom of any individual or to the institutions which she or he may be affiliated with.
Continued: . . . we should reconsider our colonial chauvinism (self-righteousness).
Food trees send roots down tens of metres into the earth's substrate, pumping water, mining minerals & developing deep nutrient factories along their extensive roots. Food tree 3-dimension leaf canopies in polyculture (trees, vines, bushes, herbs, vegetables, mushrooms etc) photosynthesize 92 - 98% of solar energy producing rich food. In comparison 2-D 'agriculture' (Latin 'ager' = 'field') photosynthesis is only 2 - 8% with root systems only centimetres (inches). United Nations studies from 3-D Agro-forestry, permaculture, forest-gardens & studies of indigenous polyculture because of this super-efficient natural force alignment are considered 100 times (10,000%) more productive than 2-D agriculture. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/design/1-indigenous-welcome-orchard-food-production-efficiencies
Nutrients from such productive human stewarded ecospheres include high-quality: bio-available protein amino-acids, essential fatty acids, complex carbohydrates, complete mineral diversity, abundant vitamins, enzymes, phytonutrients & more which is not available from agricultural mono-crops & animals fed these deficient products. Animal meat supposed nutrients are not particularly bio-available for human nutrition because of embedding in complex fat molecules & other rigid structures, concentrate complex synthetic chemicals, heavy metals, stress hormone
Nicole, There are many perspectives on human history. We are indoctrinated by our colonial institutions into a belief that; our ancestors were 'savage' (Latin 'sylva' = 'tree'), 'primitive' ('primary' meat-eaters. This concept doesn't fit with more recent bone-analysis identifying protein sources in human bones which go back beyond 6,000 years (4000 BC). Hierarchal colonial institutions believe they must impose a worldview of supposed colonial superiority in order to achieve subservience.
Time is included in the analysis because it points to the practicality of any food system. Petr Kropotkin points to one hour per day in his studies in Russian Siberia published as Mutual Aid, a factor of Evolution in 1905. Henry F. Dobyns in his study of the Timucean peoples of Florida arrived at the same conclusion but details more about orchard based efficiencies. Charles C. Mann in 1491 compiles many researchers over the whole of the Americas. The bible arrives at these same conclusions in Genesis. There are many sources for Ethnohistory (perspectives of indigenous peoples) available.
We now understand our indigenous ancestors to be technical masters of the biosphere with both deep knowledge, natural science, complex mentorship education & detailed practice. Considering that; the Operating Instructions for Spaceship Earth are deeply seated in biosphere knowledge & the ability for our indigenous ancestors to sustainably keep such a rich productive environment, we sho
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