
The Fat Vegan

You may consider this title an
oxymoron—a figure of speech that combines two normally
contradictory terms, but in real life this concurrence is
all too common. You may also think the title is offensive.
My intention is to help, not to provoke anger. People who
have declared themselves “vegan,” have said “no” to eating
all animal-derived foods. At extraordinary personal costs,
many of these guardians labor tirelessly to protect the
welfare of all animals. Fat vegans, however, have failed one
important animal: themselves. Furthermore, their audiences
of meat-eaters and animal-abusers may be so distracted by
their appearance that they cannot hear the vital issues of
animal rights and the environment; resulting in an
unacknowledged setback for a fat vegan’s hard work for
change.
I have a vested interest in
helping vegans lose weight and become healthier. People
living the vegan lifestyle have already embraced the most
important tenet of the McDougall diet: consuming meat,
poultry, fish, and dairy-products is at the root of heart
disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, multiple sclerosis,
and intestinal problems. Ours is a growing relationship.
When I began my lifestyle-oriented medical practice as an
internist in 1978, I was interested in dietary change only
for the sake of my patients—I was unaware of animal rights
and environmental issues. Over the years I have grown to
understand that changing what humans eat is also essential
for planet survival; meaning eliminating cruelty at the
dinner table, and slowing climate change and pollution.
People who believe in any or all of these issues must stand
together; helping each other in order to make a difference
in the future.
My first vegan experience was
in 1977 in Honolulu, Hawaii. I was working as a resident
doctor at Queens Medical Center training to become an
internist. Jeff Lane, a young doctor, was my intern and a
vegan for ethical reasons—he did not want to harm animals.
Outward proof of his convictions was his nylon belt and
plastic shoes. But there was one glaring inconsistency:
Jeff was not the picture of good health. He was very
overweight with greasy skin and acne. I soon discovered why
Jeff’s health was so poor: most of his calories came from
potato chips and Coke—items easily available to him in the
hospital dining room, gift shop, and vending machines. He
was the ultimate “junk food vegan.” Yet, most vegans are
very conscious of food quality and still many are overweight
and unhealthy. What’s wrong with this picture?
Dietary Change Is
Terrifying.
Almost all of us were raised
on meat, poultry, seafood, milk, cheese, oils, flours, and
sugars. These foods have provided all of our life-sustaining
calories. To give these familiar foods up, in our minds,
means starvation. This would be akin to asking us to stop
breathing or go thirsty—unbearable, if not impossible,
tasks. I remember well my first experience with foods
different from those I was raised on. Mary, my wife of 37
years now, was pregnant with our first child, Heather, in
1974. We were living on the Big Island of Hawaii at that
time. Buzz and Susan Hughes, a couple we met at our
childbirth education class, invited us over for dinner.
Susan prepared a wheat and barley casserole, a Caesar salad,
vegetable side dishes, and a peach pie for dessert. The
meal was tasty, but a drastic departure from my usual beef,
chicken, cheese, egg, and ice cream menu. Even after second
helpings my stomach was still empty of its customary
fillings. On our drive home after dinner, I felt
unsatisfied and actually believed that I would be unable to
sleep through the night without “food.” I entered the front
door of our house, which led directly to the kitchen with a
well-stocked refrigerator. I eagerly opened the bottom bin
where the sliced turkey was kept and made myself a Dagwood
sandwich. After eating sufficient amounts of fat, protein,
flour, and sugar, I slept well.
Old Habits Doom Vegans
Fat vegans are as terrified as
anyone else of giving up their familiar protein- and fat-
centered diet. In their minds, this change would be akin to
starvation. How could they overcome the fear and still
transition to a vegan diet painlessly? By simply replacing
real animal foods with non-animal foods, that look, feel,
smell, and taste the same as the original. “What’s for
dinner?” Before, the answer was steak, fried chicken, pork
chops or cheese pizza. Now, as a vegan, the response is “soy
burgers, faux meatballs, meat substitute cold cuts, soya
chicken chunks, soy hotdogs, soy mozzarella pizza, and
mockduck (made with seitan).” Instead of animal fats and
proteins, fuel becomes vegetable oils and isolated soy
proteins. Olive oil and Earth Balance
spread replace lard and butter. Glassfuls of Elsie the cow’s
milk become soymilk. For dessert: a “dairy-free decadent
indulgence (ice cream)” and soy yogurt. Vegetables remain
insignificant side dishes, glistening with droplets of oil.
Calorie for calorie, in terms
of nutrition, the fake food is no better, and in some ways
worse, than the “real thing.” Isolated soy protein causes
greater
calcium loss, leading to osteoporosis and kidney stones,
and also produces greater increases in growth factors
(IGF-1) that
promote cancer and aging, than does isolated cow’s milk
protein. “The fat you eat is the fat you wear”—olive
oil and Earth Balance spreads are just as unattractively
worn on the thighs, hips, and buttocks, as are lard and
butter. Vegetable oils are often more
cancer promoting than are animal fats.
Comparison of Real
and Fake Food
(Percent of calories) |
Item |
Fat |
Protein |
Carbohydrate |
Fiber |
Burger |
65 |
35 |
0 |
0 |
Soy Burger |
28 |
62 |
10 |
5 |
Cheese |
70 |
28 |
2 |
0 |
Soy Cheese |
60 |
10 |
30 |
0 |
Lard |
100 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Earth Balance |
100 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Olive Oil |
100 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Ice Cream |
55 |
7 |
38 |
0 |
Soy Ice Cream |
20 |
13 |
67 |
4 |
Duck |
75 |
25 |
0 |
0 |
Mockduck |
0 |
65 |
35 |
0 |
Do You Really Want the Same
Food?
In 1986 I started planning for
my first live-in program at St. Helena Hospital in the upper
Napa Valley in Northern California. This community is
largely made up of people of the Seventh Day Adventist
faith. Their church is known for supporting vegetarian
diets. Naturally, I asked the local people where to eat.
They recommended the A&W restaurant on main street, Highway
29, on the west side of St. Helena. That evening I ordered
their famous “veggie burger.” My first bite told me a
serious mistake was made. I complained to the man behind the
counter, “I ordered the veggie burger and you gave me a beef
hamburger.” His response, “Thanks for the compliment—our
veggie burger tastes so real.” I threw the burger in the
trash and walked out. It was disgusting—A burger so greasy
and beef-flavored, that I expected to find chunks of bone
and blood vessels.
The Natural Human (Near)
Vegan, Starch-based Diet
Fortunately, there is one
single big solution that will revitalize people, cut food
and health care costs, protect animals, and reduce
environmental pollution, overnight: reestablishing the
natural human diet of starches. My battle to spread
this message relies on those people most ripe for change:
especially vegans of all shapes and sizes. The switch is a
simple one: rather than getting calories, like all other
Americans and Westerners—and most vegans—now do, from fat
and protein, the primary fuel becomes carbohydrate from
starches. Rather then starvation, this change means fuller
satisfaction and radiant health. The more you eat the
trimmer and healthier you become.
All large populations of
active, healthy people, throughout written human history,
have obtained the bulk of their calories from starch.
Examples of people once thriving on common starches include
Japanese and Chinese in Asia eating sweet potatoes,
buckwheat, and/or rice, Incas in South America eating
potatoes, Mayans and Aztecs in Central America eating corn,
and Egyptians in the Middle East eating wheat. Men following
diets based on grains, vegetables, and fruits have
accomplished all of the great feats in history. The ancient
conquerors of Europe and Asia, including the
armies of Alexander the Great
(356 - 323 BC) and Genghis Kahn (1167 - 1227 AD) consumed
starch-based diets. Caesar’s legions complained when they
had too much meat in their diet and preferred to do their
fighting on grains.
You Are What You Eat: The
Low-fat Vegan
At every step of recipe design
and food preparation, starches replace fake meats and dairy
products manufactured from soy, seitan, sugar, salt,
artificial flavorings and other chemicals. Oils, even the
“healthy ones,” are banned.
-
Bean and grain burgers
replace Boca Burgers .
-
Add rice to your bean
chili instead of Gimme Lean .
-
Oatmeal for breakfast
rather than greasy sausages and breakfast links.
-
Olive oil is substituted
with low-fat salad dressings.
-
Leave the soy cheese off
the whole wheat pizza.
-
Replace oils in baking
with fat replacers like “Lighter Bake,” prune puree, or
applesauce.
-
Just leave the oils out of
the recipe whenever possible.
-
Have fruits for dessert.
-
Finally, for faster,
greater weight loss minimize the use of all processed
plant foods, which means simple sugars and flours.
There is really no excuse for
not making this big change. Even my intern, Jeff Lane, had
alternatives while working a 100-hour week in the hospital.
The dining room served oatmeal and cold grain cereals with
fruit juice for breakfast. For lunch and dinner Jeff could
have chosen salads with vinegar or salsa, rice, potatoes,
sweet potatoes, corn, beans, low-fat vegetable soups,
vegetables, and fruit. The end result would have been—with
a little basic knowledge and minimal effort—he, as an
influential doctor, could have been an extraordinary
crusader.
Vegans Are Ripe For Change
Being vegan says to me
this is a person with outstanding character. Vegans
are self-sacrificing and committed to making a difference.
When everyone else is certain that it is our God-given right
to mistreat and kill cows, pigs, chickens, and fishes in
order to be properly nourished; a vegan would rather risk
protein and calcium deficiency than to harm these beautiful
creatures. Of course, this deep sacrifice ends with the
discovery that plants provide all needed proteins, amino
acids, essential fats, vitamins, and minerals (including
calcium) without the inherent risks of flesh and dairy.
Vegans are self-confident. They remain steadfast even when
mom, dad, dietitian, and doctor are visibly angered by their
religion of “veganism.” Vegans are industrious. To avoid
eating animals in a world where beef, chicken, and cheese
are mixed in with everything in the market and on the menu
is a daily struggle. Reading labels, turning down
invitations to dinner, and occasionally, going hungry,
require more effort than the average person is willing to
muster.
Obviously vegans are
exceptional people. With this one simple shift to a
starch-based diet the word “vegan” will become synonymous
with terms like healthy, trim, active, young, strong, and
energetic, and finally the most important adjective,
earth-changing. |