Oh, agreed. I identify as vegetarian, and have little to do with animal products of any kind.

But, if people are happier eating meat, I see no point depriving themselves. From everything that's been said so far, the author of this book seems to be a bit of a vegginazi, if you ask me.

While it's true I really am not keen on that title, I'm eternally sceptical about things like this. What works for one individual is not a formula for happiness for everyone else, and until someone has clear, transparent, verified scientific evidence that their particular formula genuinely works for everyone, and a clear explanation of exactly why it works, I reserve the right to remain sceptical.

While it's true I really am not keen on that title, I'm eternally sceptical about things like this. What works for one individual is not a formula for happiness for everyone else, and until someone has clear, transparent, verified scientific evidence that their particular formula genuinely works for everyone, and a clear explanation of exactly why it works, I reserve the right to remain sceptical.

I have to admit, I really don't like the title either. It's a term that is used for a slender woman by people who are normally too damn lazy to get off the sofa.

The book has an entire chapter titled "Sugar is the Devil," explaining how refined sugar not only has no nutritional value (it's all been removed in the refinement process), but that refined sugar is "usually in foods that contain gobs of fat, lots of useless calories, and loads of cholesterol. So, you become addicted to foods (because they contain sugar) that have a large amount of fat, saturated fat, hydrogenated oils, and calories." The book cites studies conducted by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in which diabetes and obesity are directly linked to eating refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

Food manufacturers rely on our addiction to sugar, and use it in practically every product to keep us coming back for more. I've noticed this, myself: I love sushi, but I'll never buy the conveniently packaged sushi that you see in the supermarkets. That's because a major ingredient in that sushi is – sugar! I could hardly believe it when I read that on the ingredients label of the package! The fuckers even put sugar in sushi!

The authors suggest that one use the following substitutes as sweeteners: agave nectar or syrup, Stevia, evaporated cane juice, Sucanat, brown rice syrup, barley malt syrup, Rapadura sugar, Turbinado sugar, raw sugar, beet sugar, date sugar, maple syrup, molasses, and blackstrap molasses.

Based on all of the allowable sugars listed above, I gather that sugar itself isn't the enemy – it's refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup that are the enemies. But one also has to be wary of any sugars that food manufacturers deliberately put into their products just to keep us coming back for more.



I'm only halfway through the book, so I don't yet know if or how the authors explain why vegan processed foods are better for us than most other processed foods. Last night I did go to my local supermarket and purchased a processed meal by Gardein (a vegan food manufacturer that the authors highly recommend). I have to say that it ("Tuscan chicken breasts") wasn't bad at all. It didn't taste exactly like chicken, but it was satisfying.

I think author Rory Freedman is heading in the direction of becoming a raw foodist – at least, that's the impression I got from her interview that I linked in an earlier posting in this thread. Perhaps she's not a raw foodist yet, though, because it does seem a bit extreme. She says that she didn't even start out as a vegan, but was a vegetarian first. I don't think it's that easy to change our eating habits, and clearly being a raw foodist isn't for everyone.

-- Nephele

Now, last point. I hear a lot of people going on about how bad vegan and vegetarian lifestyles are. You can get dramatic nutritional deficiencies etc. While this is true, I'd like to point out that you can also get dramatic nutritional deficiencies if you eat meat. A healthy diet is about variations and and taking in all the vitamins, nutrients and all the other things that you need. Whether you eat meat or not.

Nephele, I'm really curious how your experiment will turn out, so I hope you'll decide to share!