Popular TV and film actress Ginnifer Goodwin was a zealous and dedicated vegan for 2 years.
She was even a spokesperson for Farm Sanctuary’s Adopt-A-Turkey project in 2009, adopting an entire flock herself.
She revealed on Jimmy Kimmel Live that she stopped eating vegan after experiencing some health issues which she did not disclose.
Ms. Goodwin stated:
I’m always learning and growing and changing and there were some boring health issues, and so I did actually have to work some animal products back into my diet.
She said that the first animal food she ate after her stint as a vegan was a scrambled egg from a farm where the chickens run free and are treated like pets. She admitted that is was the most delicious thing she had ever tasted.
She also revealed that her meal before coming on the Jimmy Kimmel show was meatloaf with bacon! Mmmm. I’m sure Ms Goodwin wasn’t contacted for a testimonial for What The Health, the biased, non-scientific pro-vegan Netflix film!
Sounds a bit like Angelina Jolie who once said that veganism “nearly killed” her and that a big, juicy steak is her beauty secret.
See Ginnifer Goodwin’s entire interview at this link.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
This woman’s failure to eat a healthy diet as a vegan is in no way an indictment of the vegan diet. Most people know that when you embark on something like this you can’t just eat the way you used to without the animal products. You must actually plan how to eat until it becomes second nature.
Look at it this way: we spent our entire childhoods being taught by our parents how to eat, and in many cases Americans are fat, sick, and suffering from cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes in their 40s anyway. Those of us who did learn to eat a balanced diet as children, that is to say one with little or no fast food, processed foods, salt-fat-sugar overload, and that includes a healthy amount of veggies, greens and fruits, must re-balance it and learn how to be healthy as a vegan.
You simply cannot logically point to any one person’s failure to eat correctly on any kind of diet as a failure of the entire diet.
I couldn’t agree more. I’m a vegetarian for ethical reasons so I do eat eggs (only free range) but learning how to eat properly to be healthy is not taught in our culture that’s why there are so many problems with heart disease and diabetes as you mention, we all know this to be true. There are so many scientific studies out there that prove that eating red meat is bad for you, let alone the awful cruelty and pollution that happens with factory farmers. Each has to choose his own way at the end of the day but I know being a vegetarian or vegan can be done healthily if you’re willing to learn how.
Well, fortunately nobody who follows this blog is eating red meat that comes from a factory farm. Which is why studies will show red meat is bad for you, because the the meat they are studying is bad for you. Its raised on crap. Literally. Chicken crap.
We WAPF type of folks are eating red meat that was raised on a pasture, getting plenty of exercise and sunshine. It would interesting to see what a study using grass-fed meat would show…..
This presumptuous assertion of a poster who does not know the actress in question that she must have done the diet wrong, seems a poor basis for any argument. I hope he will learn to be a little less inclined towards such fallacious premises.
LOL not fallacious. Unless you are a very rare person, it is not only possible to be optimally healthy with a vegan diet, but if you do it right you have the best chances of being so.
Most people who become unhealthy as vegans simply failed to eat properly. It’s very simple.
By the way, there is no such thing as humane killing. It’s a contradiction in terms. Do you even know that the system that produces the milk you eat also produces little victims for the horrific veal crates, where they feed infant animals a synthetic milk substitute mixed with blood and imprison them in devices that keep energetic baby animals from running and playing? It’s disgusting. Humans don’t need to kill innocent animals or use their body fluids for our health, and your saying that we do need these things perpetuates a harmful untruth.
When you live in a world where you have to assume that people who disagree with you just don’t know enough to protect your own vision, you are in a sad and self defeating place. If you are unable to opt out of contributing to veal crate type practices without assuming that others are too ignorant to know about it, then that is something I can’t argue with. You will have to live the way you see fit and keep incorrectly assuming that I am just ignorant. I won’t be silly enough to go on the defensive for every emotional argument and projected intention you can throw at anyone with the audacity to disagree with you. very sad.
So you think that your dairy isn’t supporting veal? Right. Believe that.
Also, feel free to delude yourself that somehow you are some kind of statistical outlier in human biology who somehow can’t survive on the same plant nutrients that sustain the rest of us so very well – with the well known exception of B12, which is readily available in supplemental form. Biology is biology and there aren’t different kinds of humans, unless perhaps you’re talking about the huge number of people who lack the enzymes to digest dairy. (A substance made to sustain baby cows, not humans of any age.)
Also . . . way to ignore the part about there being no humane way to kill. This would be funny if it so wasn’t.
Indeed there is such a thing as humane killing. You can buy meat at the grocery store and be pretty well assured that the life that cow led was horrific, and so where the conditions of its death. OR you can buy meat from near by small farmers, who either choose to kill and butcher their animals on their farms- thus the cow is shot in the field while its chewing its cud (and it never saw the bullet coming!) or the farmer chooses to drive the cow to a local Abattoir where the farmer can look on (if they choose) to insure their cow is killed and slaughtered correctly and dare I say HUMANELY! I know my farmer, I know where her cows graze. I know I can call her and she can tell me every detail of this cows life and death. I can find out which paddock the cow spent its last hours of life in.
I buy my milk, cream and cheese from anther small farm. I know that the type of cow I am getting my milk from is a Jersey cow, I know her name is Lucy. I know that she is milked twice a day once at 6am and again at 6pm. 7 days a week. I know that her calf is allowed to live with her and another cow. When that calf is a little over a year old he will be slaughtered onsite and his meat will become the food for my farmer and several of his surrounding neighbors.
I go to yet another farm only a few blocks from my city home and buy eggs. I buy from a man and woman who keep tons of birds on their five acres and sell they sell their eggs to people who live here. They NEVER kill their chickens or other birds even once they stop laying- Trust me I found this out the hard way, when I asked to buy some- LOL!
Chickens can be killed by many methods- many of which are horrific. Or they can be killed by being gently turned upside down and placed in a plastic cone that is hung by a nail from a wooden post. Then their necks are cut, killing them with out them ever being allowed to become frantic.
You can tell by the taste and texture of your meat if the animal was in distress at its death. The meat I buy is wonderful, and I have nothing but gratitude for the farmers and animals them selves. I also take great pride in knowing that my son is watching me go to great lengths to find humanely raised and killed meat as well milk, eggs and cheese.
Can you as a vegan insure me that you know as much about the plantation and workers where your bananas grow? Can you tell me who harvested your quinoa, and what conditions that farmer and his family live in? As a recovering Vegan, I go to GREAT lengths to insure my food is ethical.
Why are you even on a pro meat, milk etc. website to begin with? I wouldn’t go to any vegan/vegetarian websites and start online debates- whats up with you?
awesome points. I love hearing about others who go to great lengths to opt out of the grocery store trap, as I do. It would be worth it to me to do it anyway. But it is just encouraging to hear your story. Thanks for sharing.
I have known a lot of vegans through a food coop I was involved with for years. So I have a good bit of experience with the type that just can’t seem to help but project all their angst on others. Thankfully, that is not all of them. But, yeah, I still don’t know what is up with the motivation to throw around wild accusations and leap all about all over the map to pretend to discussion that was obviously never meant to be productive. The few who can live their vegan lifestyle, stay healthy on it and stay happy on it, are a great resource. I love my veggies. And I’m so glad that I’ve been making this journey and now have good weston price info as well as still having the ability to make kale chips in my food dehydrator and such like.
Propaganda? Really? I think it’s hilarious how you guys all slam the folks who disagree with you, and the ad hominem attacks are especially amusing. You guys are apparently willing to be extremely harsh to silence any critical voice.
There -=is=- one diet that is healthy for everyone, and that’s a plant based diet. It’s sadly true that many people do -=not=- “do it right” and this is where you get the extreme stories of unhealthy results.
And – tribalism? Really?
I ultimately have no problem with you folks eating whatever you want to eat, but when an article comes across on Facebook that attempts to use a lay person’s indictment of a well-known and widely-accepted way of eating, based upon their own apocryphal personal experience, you can be sure I’m going to come over to that article and provide the other side of the debate. You folks have been jumping all over me since I got here, read my first posting and the responses to it and try to see how rude and closed-minded YOU all are being. Remember, I’m responding to you folks trashing MY way of not only eating, but of being compassionate to the animals and living the smallest footprint that I can on this Earth.
Again: no way to kill compassionately. I don’t want you to kill ME, regardless of how “nicely” you do it. Animals also will go to any length they can to avoid being killed. They don’t want it. Killing is violent. I urge you all to at least read Carol Adams on the subject of how we treat animals vis a vis how we treat women in our society.
wow, that was awesome. brought him right down to the obvious irony of accusing others of exactly what he came on here to do.
Food for thought for anyone considering any of this and wondering about the rationality of the various “healthy lifestyles” out there:
quote: “the same plant nutrients that sustain the rest of us so very well — with the well known exception of B12, which is readily available in supplemental form”
If B12 supplementation is a necessity of a vegan diet for the people claiming to do it right, could a vegan diet have worked prior to the advent of industrial supplementation in modern society?
If not, does it really make sense that the optimal diet for the human body requires modern industrial practices in order to be optimal?
quote: “There -=is=- one diet that is healthy for everyone, and that’s a plant based diet. It’s sadly true that many people do -=not=- “do it right” and this is where you get the extreme stories of unhealthy results…
ultimately have no problem with you folks eating whatever you want to eat, but when an article comes across on Facebook that attempts to use a lay person’s indictment of a well-known and widely-accepted way of eating,”
How much sense does it make to decide that a diet requires people to be in categories of lay persons vs. experts where we must all come to all the same conclusions about everything to be allowed into the clergy class or bow to those experts who have gained admittance to be told how to eat, is the optimal diet for all of mankind?
I would say that Weston Price’s research into the many healthy cultures eating in many different ways, all resulting in healthy babies and happy healthy adults, goes a long way to debunking the notion that there is one narrow optimal diet that everyone must be on.
My daughters and I will be reading Dr. Price’s Nutrition and Physical Degeneration over the next year for our “health class”. I’m so excited. 🙂
I came here because this ridiculous bit suggesting that Ginnifer Goodwin is some kind of food authority is being spread far and wide and it ended up on my Facebook page. As much as I like her as an actress, I don’t believe that she should be touted as some sort of expert for having made a realization that she (by her own admission) has been eating incorrectly for several years.
I’ve been a healthy vegan for 15 years. I seek to change the world for the better and part of that means reducing the number of animals who are treated like things. Animals are more than units of production, they are living breathing sentient beings who deserve better. Killing them is harming them, regardless of what you tell yourself about how you’re doing it better than some factory farm – it’s still harming them. Don’t you see that?
By the way, the amount of water and energy and other resources that are wasted to produce meat is staggering. Feedlot beef is a disaster, but so is small-farm-raised meat. Cows destroy land and riverbanks. Animal waste is also a huge problem. Grain – a useful food for humans – is wasted feeding it to animals, which in the case of cows, turn 7 pounds of edible grain into one pound of meat.
I’m not here trolling, but rather to argue against something I saw that I think is completely wrong, which needs to be refuted. I’m not really surprised that you don’t like what I have to say, but this does not make me a troll, or my words propaganda, or me tribal. It seems that you folks are more into sitting around calling people names and agreeing with one another about how you have all these rights to do things that harm other species as well as our planet.
Oh, and the B12 thing is mainly because we have to wash our vegetables so carefully because of all the other toxic crap in the soil these days – including artificial fertilizers and pesticides, improperly composted manure, and rotting animal products like blood, bone and fish meal. Not to mention all the possible pollutants that vegetables can be exposed to in the shipping and handling stages, including raw meat – there has been cross-contamination from E Coli O157:H7. Soil naturally contains B12, and if you don’t scrub every bit of it off, or peel your veggies, you do get B12.
Well, at least she has her own flock of turkeys to get some arsenic-free turkey meat from. Sorry I couldn’t resist ::giggle:: But seriously, I think that some animal products are helpful to maintain a healthy body.
Sarah O, that is such a childish thing to post. If she had to shelter all of us from each other, I would be extremely offended to see anything about that good for nothing Obummer, but that isn’t her job, now is it!? She is an expert in her field and she does a great job doing it. If you would leave a blog of this quality because your pretty little eyes can’t stand an AD, then you probably didn’t need the information to begin with… stop being a terrorist.
Agree!!!
While I agree with you about being hypersensitive to advertising, calling her a terrorist is unfair, inaccurate and uncalled for.
i stick with what my great grandparents ate: venison, fish, potatoes, veggies, dairy, beef, pork, fruit, cheese. homecooking, without alot of sugar.
I wish she a bit more specific in the health issues she had. My husband’s friend started eating a vegan diet about 4-5 years ago and was diagnosed with lupus a couple years ago. She also had straight hair that turned curly?!?
Some people’s bodies really jive with long term vegan, and some don’t. The Japanese didn’t had dairy in their diet til the west introduced it recently, and they are having problems…. It depends on a lot of different factors the whole meat and dairy thing. I feel great without meat, but I need some cheese here and there and an egg. That’s just right for me.
I was a strongly committed vegetarian for a long time and frequently felt like a *should* go vegan and would try it every now and then but when I did it seemed like I could never get enough to eat. Eventually the cravings for meat turned me to traditional foods, and also the recognition that if I was going to eat eggs and dairy I might as well eat meat, too because the animals are dying anyway so refusing to eat the whole thing is wasteful. Some time later I tried to make a fancy vegan lasagna for my mom when she was visiting and was shocked at how much more difficult the preparation was. You really have to use a long list of ingredients to achieve a somewhat well-rounded vegan meal. Dinner preparation is so much simpler now and I don’t have to worry that my family is getting everything they need to be healthy.
I was about to comment on this charming interview but while scrolling down to do so I had to get passed a political ad. It was very anti-Obama (“Look what will happen to your investments if Obama is re-elected”) I understand that political action is sometimes called for re: food, farms etc and I am always glad to see this in your blog, Sarah. I’ve enjoyed your blog now for over 6 months and find it to be one of the highest quality of information and writing . However if such ads with partisan politics and scare tactics will be a regular part of the page in the future I will not continue to follow, regretfully. I come here for info and insight re: health, food, wellness etc. Your blog has been the best I’ve found in that category!
I opt out of ALL political and religious ads and always have. Sometimes ads slip through and I really don’t understand how that happens but it would be best not to automatically assume these are the same views held by the blogger. Please know that I do my very best to keep as many garbage ads off here as possible but unfortunately the ad filters are not 100% perfect.
Sarah O, I think you need to take a deep breath and look around at all the political JUNK that is being pushed on us from every avenue! There is no possible way to stay/keep it all away! (How I wish!) However, to target this particular blog for your derision seems a little judgmental and narrow minded. OOPs! I am not trying to be rude; I think it is rude to try to put people in a box. I may not always agree with you or Sarah, but I would not divorce myself from something over a difference of opinion on politics or most other mainstream topics. It is always ok to have your opinion, just don’t ask others to tippy-toe around it. It doesn’t change the truth of what IS true. Let Sarah put whatever she wants on her blog, and if you don’t agree, that is ok; she still has a great forum and lots of really bright individuals who come here to share whatever is valuable for each of us to sift through and use what helps us in our particular situations. As weary as I am of the political garbage, I am more weary of people not allowing others to have their opinion.
VERY WELL PUT!!!!
I’m glad she listen to her body and most likely her doctor. Eating vegatables,fruits, grains and some meat is good for the body. Too much of anything can be a very bad thing!
Good for her she listened to her body. Simple as that- God gave us this complex body to care for and our bodies send us messages if we listen. Eat healthy- which is a challenge in the good ole USA!!