[Tanada]

Alex Jamieson, the Vegan Chef from the docudrama Supersizeme has renounced Veganism in her blog.

Dear friends,

I am no longer vegan.

And I am still passionately devoted to helping as many people reach their ultimate health as I can. By helping them accept their cravings and working with their unique bodies to create lives of meaning, freedom and radical self-acceptance.

I’ve been thinking of how to tell you this story for some time now.

What I’m about to share may come as a total shock to you.

You might want nothing to do with me after today.

But I’m really hoping that you feel hopeful and breathe a sigh of relief.

13 years ago, when I decided to eat a vegan diet and live a vegan lifestyle, I did it for my health.

My body was suffering from years of unhealthy eating and a whole-foods, plant-based diet rebooted my entire being. Quickly. It was a relief and a miracle, in my mind.

The more I learned about how our food culture operated, how animals are raised in such unhealthy, horrifying conditions, and how animal protein production adds so significantly to global warming, I resonated deeply the vegan way. It felt good and clean. It felt right and my body thrived.

For a great long while.

And for a while, I thought many of the world’s problems could be solved if more people ate this way. We could end hunger if we fed grain to people instead of cattle. We could end global warming if we reduced the fertilizer, trucking and refrigeration required to produce meat. We could end the obesity epidemic.

What I ate aligned with what I believed.

And that was that.

But then, a few years ago, something began to shift.

Much more at her blog http://alexandrajamieson.com/im-not-vegan-anymore/

Commentary by others here,
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/ ... -veganism/

[Pops]

I don't know anything about this person or being a vegetarian or even what "vegan" means for that matter.

But I can tell you from my advanced experience that absolutism in anything is a tough row to hoe. I think a person can allow great and profound beliefs to make them crazy, and worse, to drive everyone around them even crazier. I've done it and seen it here at po.com for a decade - and a decade before that on various other "social" media and ... just look around, polarization is everywhere in the meat world as well. It is ruining our politics in the US; people are less and less connected even as we are increasingly connected. We can narrowcast our goofiest ideas out to self-selected strangers who then cosign and make us think we are less goodies - so we double down.

Interestingly, as I ruminate on it, the ability to expound on my particular POV and argue my absolutes to the very digital death with all online comers seems the perfect endgame for the self involved Me generation.


I remember making fun of the Permie Guru Tobie [Something] who moved to the country - then found he didn't like country folks so he moved to town - then (I think I read recently) found he didn't like town so he went mobile. Of course he (just like me) was pontificating all along the way on the very logical reasons for the latest change of course.

Online is funny
.

[Ibon]

Interestingly, as I ruminate on it, the ability to expound on my particular POV and argue my absolutes to the very digital death with all online comers seems the perfect endgame for the self involved Me generation.

.

Great post Pops. This is a pathology that needs more attention. In some places it is being addressed

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/techn ... d=all&_r=0

people are less and less connected even as we are increasingly connected.

Well said. Another way to see this is that the internet promises empowerment when it actually is herding us all into a homogenized neurological sameness. We have been royally duped by this technology.

Do you guys know that there is a wonderful self monitoring device that is staring at us every time we sign on to po.com. Look at how many posts you have made and divide this by the years you have been here. Use this to balance your time on line with getting out in nature or in your workshop or garden by budgeting your comments and posts down to less than one a day per year.

This also helps you think twice before you post. Is what I have to say contributing something or just spewing my narcissism?

[GoghGoner]

Maybe the most important lesson I have learned is nothing is absolute. I credit social media platforms on the internet for helping to mature me in that regard. The interactions with people that disgusted me (like climate skeptics) were helpful and formulating absolutes into thread posts on various topics that I now I no longer agree with was even a better influence on my maturation. I see quite a bit of criticism directed toward the social internet places but, in my own experience, they have also played a beneficial role. Looking back at my posts, they serve as my diary.

I prefer a vegan diet for many of the reasons as she listed in her blog but I am quite flexible with what I eat.

[dinopello]

My primary diet philosophy is variety and don't be a glutton.

My secondary diet philosophy is take time to prepare good, highly flavorful (lots of garlic, pepper, and other spices) meals from scratch. Cooking for me is therapeutic - like gardening.

You can pretty much each whatever although I think it's fortunate if you like vegetables (which I do). And, I try to mix up the proteins. Again, variety and moderation. It's not rocket science.

Let me add since this is thread about Supersizeme. On my way back from a 4 day hiking trip the driver wanted to stop at McDonalds as if it was a kind of treat. I did, for the first time in about 10 years get a McDonalds burger. It was completely awful. I should have waited the 3 hours to get home and make a real hamburger. Gross.

[Newfie]

Mostly spewing narcissism. For sure. But I'm working on that.