Oh dear. Another high-profile vegan
goes public with her vegan failure.
Alex Jamieson is most famous as Morgan Spurlock's vegan girlfriend and inspiration in the iconic movie,
Supersize Me.
Ravings on Cravings
I've heard plenty of much less famous people talk about craving animal food "after a while of not having any." But in 17 years without animal foods, I've
never had these cravings. When I'm not near animal food, I don't even think about it.
When a smoker
craves nicotine, it's a dangerous addiction. When an
alcoholic craves just one drink, we
recommend medication and support.
When someone
craves a sugar hit, we don't applaud their instincts and
buy them chocolate.
But a craving for animal products is the body asking for what it naturally needs? Let's think again.
I have not yet reached vegan nirvana - I'm not disgusted by all animal products. I still enjoy the smell of cooking meat, eggs, or cheese. However, I have no drive to eat them, perhaps because I am already fully satisfied - not only with my awareness of cruel the animal industry is, but also all the evidence on how unhealthy animal products are for my body.
Even when I was clinically vitamin-B12-deficient and had a series of injections as treatment, I did not feel any craving for animal products with their B12 (and cholesterol, saturated fat, etc). Where were my body's "natural cravings" then?
Vegan Diet Satisfaction
Alex described her long struggles against her cravings. (Hint 1: if you're craving your friends' meat burgers, it might be time to eat with different friends.) But her weapons were apparently green juices and nuts, for extra nutrition. Here's
30BananasADay's reaction to her story.
For any diet change to work, you must be
nourished and satisfied. I stopped eating animals on the
recommendations of Dr John McDougall, who supports a very low fat but satisfying starch-based diet with sound medical references and overwhelming clinical success.
The only limitations on starches are if you are trying to lose a lot of weight fast (which clearly, Alex did not need). Could this starch satisfaction be the reason I've never craved animals?
Veganism vs Your Health?
Most people won't stay vegan if they feel bad and only get worse. Of course not.
Alex believed she was an ethical vegan, but she changed because she felt bad and couldn't find the solution. She is not the first. Others complain of unwanted
weight gain after going vegan.
Here's a
true vegan health crisis story to admire. This woman was not just enduring a few cravings on her high-raw vegan diet, and she persisted until she found a vegan solution.
Given these stories, shouldn't vegans pay
more attention to good health as a major and necessary support for the vegan cause? Instead, we hear that it's a nice benefit if it happens, but not the real reason to be vegan. Or worse, that health considerations
hinder the vegan cause and
damage vegan outreach.
If "veganism is not about health" because of its
origins, isn't it time to accept that the vegan health horse has long since bolted and is not going to return quietly to the stable no matter how much we shout? We have to deal.
Let's promote sound vegan health information, instead of just distancing ourselves from the bad...even if only so that ethical vegans don't suffer health crises in public. It's not a good look.
I don't have all the answers, and I'm certainly not perfect. But I am still vegan.
