Kathy Freston - Veganist: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World

The views expressed in this book are not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice.

I encourage you to seek the advice of a doctor (preferably one who is up on the current nutrition research) before changing how you eat, especially if you have a serious medical condition. To find a doctor, you might try contacting the American Holistic Medical Association for a referral: 216-292-6644. You can also search their database at http://www.holisticmedicine.org/.

F IRST OF ALL, LET ME TELL YOU RIGHT OFF THE BAT THAT HIS book is all about the leanleaning in to a shift in whatever way or whatever pace feels right to you. Its about checking out some new information that could change your life, and then pushing yourself ever so gently in the direction of health. Its not about making a radical conversion. Its not about strict discipline. Its more about empowering you to take your health into your hands in a practical and easy way, while at the same time arousing a broad spiritual awakening. Making profound changes in your life is never a straight path, and it shouldnt be; its a gradual awakening with lots of twists and turns that happens in its own time. I am hoping that by providing you with ten life-changing promises fulfilled by moving toward a plant-based diet, you will find that that awakening time is at hand now (or soon!).

You dont have to do anything at all upon hearing these promises. You can just sit with them, knowing that if you are ever ready for or desirous of change, there is a way to get there. Or you can just nudge yourself a little, and make small changes in what you eat, so that you gradually build a momentum of healthy choices. Either way, the information in this book will open your eyes in a way you may never have considered.

The most exciting thing is that so much is possible. So much is within our power to make better. We can be healthy and happy. And we can do it so easily, simply by adjusting and tweaking our favorite meals so that they are healthier versions of the things we love. Still delicious, still hearty and satisfying. Just healthier. I promise.

Let me tell you a little about me, first of all, so you dont think that I came out of the womb a veganist. I was born in the South and grew up on chicken-fried steak and cheesy grits. I loved nothing more than a vanilla milkshake and barbecue ribs. I had an appetite for meat like anyone else, and I didnt think twice about it. I wasnt a thoughtless person; I was just enjoying my life and eating what tasted good and what I was told was good for me. It wasnt until I was in my thirties that I started considering where my food came from. When I made the shift to being vegetarian, it was gradual. I gave up eating one animal at a time. Id come home and tell my husband, Im not cooking any more steak. Hed roll his eyes and say, Whatever. And some months later, Id be standing in the kitchen saying, I cant put chicken on the table anymorehe was a little more perturbed about that. Later still, when I said I couldnt bring myself to buy cheese anymore, he thought Id lost my mind. Luckily, by then, I began hitting my stride with this lean toward a plant-based diet. I found so, so many delicious foods that were actually the same as our favorite meals, but without the meat. Sometimes I brought home meat alternatives (vegetarian versions of chicken or ribs, etc.) and sometimes I focused more on beans, legumes, and whole grains (like black bean burritos with guacamole or lentil soup with cheesy bread and salad).

I actually began to love this food, and so did my husband. He told me, If I thought I could have eaten this well as a vegetarian, I would have gone that way a long time ago. There was no loss. No stringent diet or bird food. We simply lightened up on the animal-based foods and replaced them with plant-based fare. Before too long (it was a period of a few years, actually), we had a vegan home and were entertaining friends and family with unbelievably delicious (and nutritious) food.

Mind you, my husband is still not vegan not even vegetarian (although he is certainly leaning in that direction). I am, though, and in our home we have only vegan food. Im flexible with him (I dont bug him when he orders fish at a restaurant) and he lets me be me. Some of our friends and family have changed their diet because they love the food and see what a difference its made in me, and some of our friends simply find it interesting cuisine for the time spent at our house. In all cases, Ive been thrilled to see how people have gravitated toward and been interested in hearing more. Hence the book!

I want to shine a bright light on the whole world of positives that flow from the decision to eat a plant-based dietpositives for your health (eliminating meat leads naturally, even effortlessly, to weight loss; blood sugar balancing; prevention, even reversal of heart disease; etc., etc., etc.) but also for your mind and your spirit, positives in terms of feeding the world and keeping the earth from deeper peril, in terms of putting money in your pocket and saving precious natural resources and deepening your sense of kinship with life.

You see, following a vegan (or vegan-ish) diet is a choice that has no downside. Its a home run, a good-for-everyoneand-everything solution. It can help you lose weight, heal your body from disease, and start making the world a more peaceful and livable place. And its as delicious and inexpensive as it is good for our planet Earth.

In an effort to find a word to describe this magnificent tapestry of good that surrounds the choice to eat only food that grows on trees or from the ground, I landed on the term veganist. (Actually, my husband, after listening to enough of my spiels, said, Honey, youre a veganist! and it stuck.) I intend it as a soft word, a forgiving word. Its not about hard lines or purity or perfection but about intention and holding ideas loosely and taking steps in the direction of the kind of person you want to be, leading the kind of life you want to lead.

Okay, you say, but why would you want to call yourself a veganist? Doesnt that sound like something negative, like a racist or a sexist? No, no, and no! Just like the words altruist or chemist or artist, a veganist is someone who is intensely interested in a subject and wants to go on learning more. The suffix -ist means one who does. Veganists take action on what they learnnot necessarily in an activist way but in whatever works to make their individual lives better while perhaps also helping to make the world a better place.

The -ist also refers to one who studies. A veganist is one who looks closely at all the implications of his or her food choicesto his or her own body, to the animals and the land it takes to raise them and the drugs introduced to keep herds alive, and so on, and then decides how to act. I like the idea of upgrading an old word that had some off-putting connotations; for many the word vegan calls to mind dogmatic hippies who eat nothing but granola and sprouts. No thanks on that. What Im talking about are people who dont mix up being passionate about getting healthy and happy with self-deprivation, and whose radiant well-being shows in everything they do.