^ïortlani» (Observer
M ay 16. 2012
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Area/Oriental Rugs:
Vegetables Cure Much of our Health Problems
Vegan
confessions
by
D onald K aul
If you invented a
pill that offers long
life, good health, and
a body to be proud
of, you'd make a for
tune. Bottles would
fly off the shelves.
H ow ever, sug
gest a change in be
havior that achieved the same re
sult, and what do you get? Catcalls,
derisive comments and rude e-mails.
Such was Michelle Obama's re
ward when she launched her "Let's
Move" campaign more than two
years ago. All she did was recom
mend feeding our kids better meals
— fewer sweets, more vegetables,
less calories— combined with more
exercise.
You would have thought she'd
advocated giving the little dears rat
poison for lunch. Sarah Palin was
characteristically obnoxious in her
response, flaunting her passion for
s'mores (that chocolate bar-toasted
marshmallow-graham cracker hor
ror) while she mocked the First Lady
for attempting to substitute the judg
ment of the "Nanny State" for that
of parents. Even for her, it was dumb.
After all. Let's Move addresses a
real issue: the super-sizing o f our
children. Studies have estimated that
nearly one in five of our young
people are obese, and more than a
third of them are overweight.
Apparently we're raising a
generation of youngsters
who think the basic food
groups are fat, salt, and sugar,
and that changing the bat
tery in your Gameboy is exer
cise.
This isn't merely a recipe
for being fat; it's an invita
based diet is far, far healthier than for people who don't eat meat or
the meat-based model.
dairy. Grocery stores, while better
Studies have found that a little than they used to be, still aren't
meat is better for you than a lot, no great.
meat is better than a little, and a
And you have to get used to that
vegan diet — no meat, fish, eggs, or sickening silence on the other end
dairy products (in others words, 90 of the line when you tell the person
percent of the farm economy) — is who's inviting you to dinner that
best of all.
you don't eat meat, cheese, fish,
Good luck trying to sell that one. soup made from beef stock, or any
The Bad Food lobby is one of the thing else he or she was planning to
most powerful in Washington, up cook.
there with guns and oil. Any sug
The way I handle that is .. .1 cheat.
gestion that our toxic agricultural I'll order fish in a restaurant and eat
what I'm served in someone else's
home. And when I go to a ballgame,
I declare hotdogs a vegetable for
the day. Mostly, though. I'm a ve
gan.
W hy not? C atholics, for ex
ample, profess a high moral stan
dard but still sin from time to time.
That doesn't m ean they're not
Catholics; it simply means they're
human. As a m atter of fact, I’m
thinking of starting a Church of
industry is less than noble will bring the Holy Vegetable and offering
instant political extinction. (Can you o n lin e c o n fe s s io n b o o th s to
imagine a politician trying to win vegans who fall off the wagon
Iowa on a vegan platform? A gay from time to time. They could con
atheist would have a better chance.) fess, be assigned a small penance,
I myself am a vegan of sorts, and and receive absolution.
I'm here to tell you that it's not an
The life of a vegan is hard enough
easy life. You're OK when you can without walking around feeling
cook your own food (really), but guilty all of the time.
going out is hard. Most restaurants
OtherWords columnist Donald
offer very limited, unappetizing fare Kaul lives in Ann Arbor, Mich.
* You 're OK when you can cook your own
food (really), but going out is hard. Most
restaurants offer very limited, unappetizing
fare for people who don't eat meat or dairy.
Grocery stores, while better than they used
to be, still aren't great.
tion to diabetes, heart disease, os
teoporosis, asthma, and even can
cer.
Actually, the main problem with
Ms. Obama's efforts is that they’re
too timid. If you really want to make
the nation healthier, you have to
declare war on American agricul
ture in general and meat in particu
lar. There are mountains of persua
sive research that indicates a plant-
$25.00Minimum
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