Some of you may remember the 2004 documentary Super Size Me which depicts filmmaker Morgan Spurlock eating three meals from McDonalds every single day for 30 days and always supersizing the meal whenever suggested by a McDonald’s employee.
By the end of the 30 day fast food spree, Spurlock had gained 25 pounds and was suffering from liver dysfunction and depression according to his doctor.
Spurlock’s girlfriend (now ex-wife) during the documentary was Alex Jamieson, author of The Great American Detox Diet and a well known and longtime celebrity vegan.
When ideology trumps scientific facts, however, dietary obsessions die hard. On her blog Delicious Vitality, Jamieson shocked her fans by announcing that she had quit veganism.
A vegan for 13 years, Jamieson said that a whole foods, plant based diet helped her initially resolve some health problems. Â She also said it felt “clean and right” given what she had learned about the industrial food system and how horribly animals are treated in confinement.
Then, she said things began to change a few years ago. Â The burger that used to disgust her made her salivate. Â She had overwhelming urges to order salmon instead of her usual salad with tofu.
She said at first she denied her cravings and figured she was just mineral deficient.
More nuts, more juicing, more sea vegetables. Â For over a year, she tried everything in the vegan playbook to get the cravings to stop.
To her dismay, the cravings for meat and eggs continued and did not abate.
Jamieson writes that about that time she started to notice that most of her clients and readers were not vegan. Â Some of those who were vegan were not thriving and were even sicker and heavier than before they started an all plant based diet.
She noticed that shame was a common emotion experienced by vegans who began to eat meat again. This caused her to hide the secret of her cravings for meat and eggs even more tightly.
Finally, Alex decided that she had to experiment and see how her body responded to animal foods again. With the support of a few trusted friends, she began eating eggs.
Her body welcomed the change and wanted more!
But still she guarded her secret, stealthily buying animal foods and sneaking home to eat them in solitude.
It shocked her to realize that she had developed an eating disorder after 12 years as a vegan! Â The thought then occurred to her that she could help a lot of people by coming out of the closet and admitting her struggle and need for animal foods.
Doing so terrified her, however. Â She recalled the vicious backlash from the vegan community when celebrity vegan Ellen Degeneres admitted that she was eating eggs from her neighbor’s happy chickens.
Not so compassionate after all, are we? Â She thought.
Alex Jamieson describes her new truth with regards to animal foods as follows:
“People can still love animals and care about protecting the environment AND honor their own animal bodies and consume the foods that they need.
I believe you can love and care about animal welfare and still consume them.
I believe humans are animals. And some animals need to eat other animals to be healthy. Some do not.
I believe we should restructure the way animals are raised so that they live in more natural, comfortable, humane surroundings and stop force-feeding them 80% of all antibiotics used in the US.”
I applaud Alex Jamieson for her courage in writing a letter to her fans that will no doubt bring much ridicule and criticism from the vegan community.
Unfortunately, I don’t agree with all of Alex’s new truth. Â She also states that:
“I believe that a vegan, whole-foods diet saved my life and is a delicious, valid, healthy style of eating for many people.
I believe that a vegan diet should be promoted as one of many possible ways to get the body and life that people crave.”
While a vegan diet may prove helpful as a very short term, detoxifying solution for some people, it can never and will never prove to be a valid way to long-term health else there would be at least one traditional culture that practiced it successfully with multiple generations of fertility, healthy children, and degenerative and chronic disease free people demonstrating it’s positive effect.
Such a culture did not and does not exist according to the anthropological studies of Dr. Weston A. Price.
Not a single successful vegan population group could be cited by the science ignoring 2017 vegan documentary What the Health either!
Consider yourself warned, would-be vegans!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
What Sarah said…our guinea pigs do not eat meat…we are not guinea pigs.
Dean Wiebe some animal species are plant based because that is what their digestion is supposed to get. Humans are omnivore, not herbivore. Just open your mouth and look at those pearly canine teeth staring back at you. You can’ deny or ignore your own biology. Humans are supposed to eat some animal foods.
“Just open your mouth and look at those pearly canine teeth staring back at you. You can’ deny or ignore your own biology.”
After you open your mouth and look at your canine teeth, open your dog or cat’s mouth and look at their canine teeth. If you do not have a dog or cat, look up a few pictures of tigers or lions or wolves. Look at their other teeth too.
Gorilla’s have canine teeth too, yet they are vegetarian. It’s not the teeth you should look at, but the digestive system. Most meat eating species have a short digestive tract, and eliminate quickly, yet humans have long digestive tracts as most other non-meat eating species.
People will believe WHAT THEY WANT TO, regardless of what the truth is. People no longer live off the land as they used to. As one other poster noted, we wash off the beneficial bacteria… and we do so because we believe clean is better. That is not always the truth either.
Can we live as vegans and be healthy? Sure we can, but the vast majority don’t. Their error as a majority does not mean people cannot live this lifestyle in a healthy manner.
According to sources I have read or listened to over the years, there have been societies that have thrived on a vegan diet. In our so-called civilized society, you don’t find this happening today, as the vast majority of civilized society lives off of processed food.
Notice how here in America that with all of our so-called science and technological advances our health is extremely poor. This is by design of the powers that be. Just examine what the FDA allows and how they protect the corporations instead of us. Look at Monsanto and the corruption involved in the GMO industry. The list goes on and on.
Whether we live as vegans or meat eaters, it is extremely hard today to do either safely. Each person has to do what they feel is right for them, but that choice doesn’t always mean they have made the correct choice for better health, it just means it is the choice that makes them feel better.
It is very hard to eat healthy. I choose to live mostly a vegan lifestyle, however, I also choose to eat a piece of fish once in awhile. I also choose to eat a couple of eggs once in awhile. Why…because I want to. I grew up on it and it’s hard to stay away completely. I also eat a little turkey (organic) on Thanksgiving. So sue me.
BTW….I still crave the junk food I used to eat so much off in my twenties many years ago. Does that mean I should eat it? According to the logic I have seen here so far, that is what I should do. Instead, I KNOW that I should not eat that junk, and I choose to fight those constant desires and deprive myself of those unhealthy foods. That is my choice.
What I hate to see is how so many people think others should think as they do and attack them when they don’t, or if they change their mind. Make the choice that best suits you, and allow others to do likewise. If someone doesn’t like my choices, that is their problem, not mine. I’ll do as I want to and I won’t worry about the opinions of others.
Do I believe the vegan diet is the healthiest? I do. Do I believe that people live that lifestyle as they should? No way…and that is why so many fail at it. When they aren’t healthy living on the vegan lifestyle, if they can afford it, they should get tests done to see what is missing in their diet, then they can make corrective measures. Instead, they will just say it isn’t working, blame everyone else, say the diet is in error, and all the while they are merely missing the correct nutrients in their diet.
As I said earlier, people will believe what they want to believe, regardless of what the truth is.
Hello Greg – I am not sure if anyone responded directly to your post or not but I wanted to say I appreciated all you said; thanks.
I too am “mostly vegan” though I am not sure I will always be this way. I messed around with all sorts of ways of eating over the last 20 years (vegetarian, vegan, raw, omnivore, etc.). About 10-12 years ago I learned about cooking whole foods … and ever since then we have eaten ‘from scratch’, whole foods, etc. After having a really rough few years, last year I was diagnosed with MS. Hmmmm…. In November I began the “Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis Diet” (OMS) which is mostly vegan with some fish oil daily and fish occasionally. Swank (not connected with the OMS diet) did a huge study on the effects of diet and MS and saturated fat is a big ‘no no’. This seems to go directly against the ‘nourishing traditions-type people’ (I followed that diet for a few years before starting the OMS diet). The people in Swank’s study sometimes did not show improvement with their MS until 3-5 years into eating a strict diet. I want to give this an honest try and see what happens.
I have all sorts of theories or ideas in my mind about WHY I got MS, but I’m not sure any are correct or maybe they all have some roll to play? The biggest idea: I was formed in a totally toxic environment and lived in a toxic environment for the first 25 years of my life. Drinking, drugs, smoking and almost exclusively fast food from conception to 25 years old … how can anyone expect a healthy body after all of that abuse???
Now I am thankful for the knowledge I have gained. I enjoy a variety of whole, fresh, organic, non-GMO foods every day, including a few green smoothies daily. If I go back to eating a little bit of meat, it will be grass-fed, organic. I don’t care how much I have to pay for it. And if I cannot afford it, I just wont eat it. GMOs, pesticides, and all the other toxins we expose ourselves to … it’s no wonder there are so many dis-eases today.
Anyway, my comment about the canine teeth – my point was, meat-eating animals have these vicious looking teeth that can rip apart the raw flesh of another animal. They have claws to assist them and short digestive tracts to quickly move the flesh through. Their whole design is different (like you mentioned about the digestive systems being shorter vs. ours being much longer). God made us humans a little bit different. Yes, we have “canine teeth” but they look nothing like the teeth of a dog or a cat!!
Hey Joanne, i liked your comment and just wanted to say… about MS.. i recently read a great book called “The truth about B12” ( put it into google and have a look at the youtube videos connected to this book – by the author… ) and it seems that b12 deficiency can sometimes look just like MS! I was really surprised and shocked to find this information out and hope it can be helpful for you… Warmest Wishes…
Gorillas are anything but vegetarian or vegan. That is a propaganda myth. The amount of bugs they purposefully eat in a day would shock you!
Could Not have said it any better! Thank You!
Greg, This was said perfectly and I agree with you 100% exactly what I wanted to say.
Good for her that she decided to come out and do what she chooses.
It’s just no natural. We are omnivores by design.
Thank you Heather; God’s design is perfect. We are all snowflakes and will have to find what works best for all, but meat and everything else is a gift from God for us. My animals are happy and I love them; I also eat meat and thank God for His blessings.
I know a few vegans, as it is a popular way to eat for those who are highly into animal rescue programs, of which I am a part of.
Good for them.
However, I call myself a compassionate carnivore!! 🙂 I prefer to eat meat from happy animals raised in their natural habitat. I do not do well on a vegetarian diet, and would feel sick if I did so. (vegetarian / vegan). I have to eat protein in the morning or I will feel sick the whole day.
That is just my body type. Others may be different and it is important for us to listen to our bodies to see what is right for ourselves. We can’t go around preaching what is right for others, even though there are basic truths that are common among all people — eating REAL FOOD!! 🙂
I understand, but there have never been any societies that are vegan/vegetarian so how can it be good if no one has ever had any ancestors that did that?
To Chris … the world started as raw vegan, so its a part of all of our ancestors ..
compassionate carnivore! you must be kidding right? when they hang the animal upside down and slit it throat as it bleeds out for as long as 10 minutes, is that humane? rhetorical querstion.. there is no compassion.. free range/organic/humane and all this other mombo jumbo is just a cover up to hide how ugly this industry really is.. Anyonbe can thrive on a vegan diet, the problem is our bodies are so used to animal protein that you must gradually adjust (almost like when someone tries to quit smoking).. So many great meat alternatives out there now, its not too late to save yourself.
Maybe you don’t feel well because your body is being cleansed of the nasty crud from animal proteins, cholesteral and fear from the animal when he died,you should watch “Best Speech You Will Ever Hear” by: Gary Yourofsky Oh my, it is amazing, and powerful.
id say bravo to her for waking up the the truth, i was so happy to hear a vegetarin friend of mine say she is going to start eating chicken to improve her health, she also used to be vegan and become quite sick on it.
A vegan lifestyle is very unhealthy. I’m glad she finally decided to start treating her body well.
You obviously know NOTHING about veganism..It’s about not going along with something so wrong, such as animals being raised and killed just so people can eat their lifeless bodies. we should be better than this, otherwise, why are we even here if we won’t learn from our mistakes?- adaptt.org
There are vegan or vegetarian societies on earth.
Yes, but they’re also the shortest, and the shortest-lived people on earth.
It has been shown that for instance, Indians (from the south) who are vegans will get ill when moving to a western country. The reason is, that their produce isn’t as clean as ours, and so they eat, without knowing it, little bugs with their greens, which give them the B12 and protein they’d not get otherwise.
Once they move where the food is washed properly and is actually free from any bugs, suddenly they experience B12 deficiency and protein deficiency.
So, even though they THOUGHT they were vegan, they really were not. Once they are REAL vegans, suddenly they can’t live on those foods any more.
Most people that are vegan don’t know how to be a proper vegan and therefore as many have said on here get weak and sick. There are awesome ways of getting exactly what your body needs without having to resort to eating meat or dairy. Plus you should avoid eating soy products as much as possible as soy isn’t good for the liver. fermented soy is ok because of the bacteria in it. a wide variety of leafy greens have great sources of proteins and amino acids as well as nuts and seeds. however, b12 is i admit harder to come by. no plant or animal makes b12. the only way to get b12 is from bacteria and micro organisms. the b12 in meat comes from the animal eating something that had the bacteria on it and therefore passes on the b12. the best and cleanest sources for b12 are in the soil we grow our veggies in and nutritional yest. and washing our veggies to a squeaky clean isn’t good cause you are robbing your body of the nutrients only found in the soil.
Jason, I agreed with most of what you said, but with one caveat: soy in any form isn’t good for those of us who have auto-immune thyroid disorders, like Hashimoto’s.
The problem with not washing your veggies to squeaky clean is that you run the risk of getting a good dose of pesticides with your veggies and fruit. My dad’s an organic fruit farmer, and while he runs a tight, clean ship, I was shocked at how much can actually be used on ‘organic’ produce. Not to mention you really don’t want a dose of worms with your food!
While the best solution, of course, would be to be able to grow all your own food…for a lot of us, that’s just not practical. :/
Hello Jason, Also when people eat meat the b12 is gone, because heat from cooking meat destroys the b12. And the majority of b12 deficient people are meat eaters. Do you know of the site adaptt.org? This site has tons of information on it about food, religion etc.
Wow.. Thanks for the information Ursula…
There is no such a thing as a protein deficiency, it doesn’t exist as a medical term. The only way you can be protein deficient is by not getting enough calories.
What does this prove exactly???
Yep….Junk food ‘super-sizes’ you each time you intake that junk….