Vegetarian Star

Food writer and New York Times columnist Mark Bittman once said that “if pigs were raised in prison”, he “wouldn’t care as long as they tasted good.”

Ten years later, he tells what is seemingly a more caring storing about animal welfare.

“I don’t know if that means they’re subhuman or just different than humans, but there’s certainly no reason to mistreat them as badly as we do,” he told Josh Hardow and Michael Rau at the Library Journal.

“I guess if you’re going to kill them and eat them, you’re mistreating them to some extent anyway, but there are degrees of that.”

One has to question some of his motives for better animal welfare, as he added that if anything would affect the taste of meat, it would be the industry’s disregard for both animals and the environment through their mass production methods of bringing it to the supermarket.

But you must give him credit, as he’s including fewer and fewer meat meals in both his personal diet and his cookbooks.

While by no means a vegetarian (yet), in his newest book, Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes, he’s advocated switching to a more plant based diet.

It all started while he was revising one of his How To Cook Everything books (one of which is vegetarian) in 2005-2006. “If I’m eating less meat, and I think everybody should be eating less meat, maybe I don’t need 600 or 700 recipes including meat,” he said of his revisions.

While going all the way is ideal, part time vegetarians or flexitarians still have much to gain in terms of reducing food costs and improving health, not to mention lessening environmental impact and animal suffering.

And Bittman seems to agree.

“It was going to be called The Food Matters Cookbook, but if I could get people using the word “lessmeatarian,” I’d be ecstatic.

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When Candice Bergen was asked by wowowow.com, “Are you eating more organic food than you were a year ago?” he response was:

“I haven’t eaten red meat for 40 years. I wish I could give up chicken (except free-range) but then I’m down to fish which seem a) tainted, and b) endangered. By the way, I don’t not eat meat mainly for health reasons but also because I had an epiphany walking through Les Halles at the age of 23 that eating meat is disgusting, arrogant, oblivious and unconscionably cruel. Moving on … I try increasingly to eat only organic veggies and fruit.”

Talk about wowowow! We’re glad she’s aiming for organic fruits and veggies, but does the former Murphy Brown and Boston Legal star actually think she only has chicken and fish left after red meat? What is it about some people that can only use one hand to count the number of protein source available to them? 

After chicken and fish, she’s down to seitan, tempeh, tofu, pasta, beans,yogurt, legumes, nut butters, grains, and not to mention the dozens of fake meats.

Surely, as famous as Candice is, she could even hire a personal vegan chef like Anthony Kiedis did to whip up all things completely vegetarian-not just excluding red meat-in her kitchen.

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Dita Von Teese was spotted having lunch at Tobey Maguire’s favorite vegan restaurant, Real Food Daily.

We have to give the burlesque beauty entertainer both a thumbs up and thumbs down.

Von Teese worked with PETA in a campaign to encourage pet owners to spay and neuter their animals and was also set to star in a Beauty Without Cruelty campaign in cooporation with Chanel, to show how animal cruelty was unnecessary in the cosmetic industry.

But she has a collection of vintage furs she’s not ashamed to discuss.

“PETA’s totally aware of me,” she once told PEOPLE. “I’m not working with PETA to tell people to be vegetarians or to stop wearing fur. I am there to strictly speak about spaying and neutering your pets.”

PETA had responded by saying, “She said she has some vintage furs she wears occasionally. PETA often works with a celebrity on an issue they feel comfortable supporting, whether it’s supporting spaying and neutering, or speaking out against products that are tested on animals. So they may not be an animal rights activist, but their contribution to any of our campaigns is appreciated.” 

Could her recent visit to a vegan restaurant mean she’s leaning towards vegetarianism and will feel comfortable supporting this issue in the future?

If so, this beauty could make a nude, pro-vegetarian ad that would make a habitual steak eater try tempeh.

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Paul Harvey, news commenter and talk radio host, recently passed at the young age of 90.

He became famous over the years for his sign-off, “Paul Harvey…Good Day.”

Many may not know how he made a good day for animals.

Actively involved with many animal treatment issues, such as puppy mills, animal fighting, seal clubbing, and factory farming, Harvey personally worked with all six CEO’s of the Humane Society of the United States.

Two years before the Federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act was enacted, Harvey began reporting on decisions the House Agricultural Committee made in regard to animal slaughter. After visiting a slaughterhouse, he urged for the end to some of its practices through his syndicated newspaper column.

He also endorsed ballads protecting farm animals, such as the recent Proposition 2 in California and Proposition 204 in  Arizona. 

To learn more about what this man did during his long lifespan on earth, visit the Humane Society’s blog.

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“If you are vegetarian, you can look incredibly healthy, and if you eat animals, you can look as if you are dying.”

—-Singer Morrissey, formerly of The Smiths. There’s still time to enter to win a free CD. We’re giving away five copies of Morrissey’s latest album, Years of Refusal. Not many places where you can still get something for free. But neither rain, nor sleet, nor bad economy will stop us from showing the love for our readers.

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Chrissie Hynde’s sarcasm may be just as entertaining as her musical performances.

The rock musician recently performed in Austin, Texas in the backyard of a barbecue eatery.

Yes, the VEGAN Chrissie Hynde performed in the backyard of a barbecue eatery.

Known for her outspokenness on her diet and lifestyle even on stage, she made a crack that, “I’m glad to see that Austin may become the first vegetarian city in Texas.”

She also asked people to stop killing cows “because change is possible.” 

Hey, while performing at a place known as a flesh fest, you know she had to say something.

Even if veggie tamales were served.

As hard as it may be for her, she tries to keep her composure on stage. Once while performing with Neil Young, she remarked, “I’m trying very hard not to say anything about the fact that all I can smell is burning flesh.” 

Hynde once said that she didn’t care if she headlined a tour or not as long as she didn’t have to share the catering with meat eaters.

But even megastars have to share a performing venue with them.

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Jenny McCarthy recently did an interview with Michigan Avenue Magazine where she revealed she’s gaga over Botox.

“I think plastic surgery is fun if it makes you feel good. I’m all for looking better, so I plan on doing whatever I want when the time comes. I love Botox, I absolutely love it. I get it minimally, so I can still move my face. But I really do think it’s a savior.”

While plastic surgery is one thing, we’re sending a big boo to Jenny for proclaiming her love for Botox.

Botox isn’t just any cosmetic. It was tested on animals before it was approved and hit the market. But it’s still being tested on animals. Every box.

Because Botox is a toxin, every batch must be tested before it’s packaged and shipped. Allergan injects mice until it finds a dose at which half of the animals die, or “lethal dose 50,” and use this to gauge the potential harm to humans.

There are different opinions in the vegetarian community about the use of animals in medical research. But it’s safe to say that the use of animals for purely cosmetic purposes doesn’t win approval from any of us.

And who says it makes you look better?

David McWilliams recently made a comparison between Botox and credit and the economy in the Sunday Business Post Online.

“Botox works, but not in the way it is intended. In fact, cosmetic surgery works in the sense that you can’t take your eyes off a woman who has had a lot of “work done”.”

“But you (or at least I) don’t look at her in the way that you find her attractive, but in the sense that you find her weird.”

“Last Friday, in New York, I had one of those moments. I was introduced to a young woman and I couldn’t take my eyes off her face.”

“Her brilliant, bleached-white teeth, her perfect button nose, her sensual bud-like lips and her blemish-free skin, all had the opposite of the desired effect. She was a freak, a classically beautiful woman, but a freak nonetheless.”

“What made her freaky was not just the lack of any expression in her face but behind that very lack of expression lay a profound absence of a scintilla of interest, curiosity and love of the things that make people interesting – the blemishes, the character faults, the glitches.”

“This statuesque product of human ingenuity was not beautiful, but repellent. She was playing tricks on herself and inviting the rest of us to share in her conceit. All the Botox and fillers were making her feel like someone she was not and in so doing threw the gauntlet to other women to do likewise.”

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A big slice of vegan birthday cake goes out to the following vegetarian or vegan celebrities today.

• Ira Glass (50)

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