Veganist_ Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World - Kathy Freston [2]
Okay, you say, but why would you want to call yourself a veganist? Doesn’t that sound like something negative, like a racist or a sexist? No, no, and no! Just like the words “altruist” or “chemist” or “artist,” a “veganist” is someone who is intensely interested in a subject and wants to go on learning more. The suffix “-ist” means “one who does.” Veganists take action on what they learn—not necessarily in an “activist” way but in whatever works to make their individual lives better while perhaps also helping to make the world a better place.
The “-ist” also refers to “one who studies.” A veganist is one who looks closely at all the implications of his or her food choices—to his or her own body, to the animals and the land it takes to raise them and the drugs introduced to keep herds alive, and so on, and then decides how to act. I like the idea of upgrading an old word that had some off-putting connotations; for many the word vegan calls to mind dogmatic hippies who eat nothing but granola and sprouts. No thanks on that. What I’m talking about are people who don’t mix up being passionate about getting healthy and happy with self-deprivation, and whose radiant well-being shows in everything they do.
Eating a diet of whole grains, beans, vegetables, and fruits, along with meat alternatives like veggie burgers or “chick’n” patties or soy dogs thrown in, your body will change on so many levels. Your metabolism will straighten out, enabling you to lose weight, if you need to, in a slow, steady, sustainable way. You will no longer feel led around by the mood swings and cravings that fatty and processed foods can cause; your skin will clear up and take on a permanent glow; your circulation (and with it your capacity for sexual pleasure!) will improve; and as study after study has been showing, you dramatically reduce your chances of getting heart disease, stroke, and diabetes and quite possibly cancer.
As if these weren’t reasons enough, according to reputable scientists like Cornell nutrition professor T. Colin Campbell, PhD, and the Cleveland Clinic’s Caldwell Esselstyn, MD, among others, you can even halt and reverse many diseases when you embrace a plant-based diet. There is a must-see film out called Forks over Knives ( forksoverknives.com), which is a documentary about the work of these two amazing researchers. You’ll hear from them in this book, and also from other leading medical experts on diet and health. You will also find first-person accounts of people who overcame life-threatening and debilitating diseases through their shift to a plant-based diet.
But the personal health benefits are just one part of the story, albeit a very important one. What about the social and environmental benefits I mentioned above? It seems clearer every day that the planet thrives for every person who chooses to eat more plant-based fare, because animal agriculture is one of the top culprits in creating a host of very serious environmental problems. You’ve undoubtedly read other books or seen movies, newspaper articles, or blogs detailing the horrors of animal slaughter and meat “processing.” But, you see, here’s one area of our lives where we actually have some control. We can simply say, “No thanks; I’ll take the vegetarian option!” and stop participating in something that feels wrong.
This will be a bit of an adjustment, but going easy with yourself and leaning in will help enormously. Remember, all you have to do is take in the information, and lean toward better choices. Gradually. At your own pace. You can choose nondairy milks that, frankly, taste better than regular old milk. You can replace your beloved BLT and have tempeh (vegetarian) bacon on your sandwich instead. It’s really so much fun to find foods that are simply upgraded versions of the ones you