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Oprah’s Vegan Challenge–Most Harpo Staff Could Handle It

Written by Vegetarian Star on Tuesday, February 1st, 2011 in Film & TV, Food & Drink, TV Hosts.

Oprah Winfrey

In case you missed it, Oprah Winfrey hosted Kathy Freston and Michael Pollan on her show today in an episode which featured the story of how her 378 staffers at Harpo Studios went vegan for one week.

The Harpo Studios cafeteria has already implemented Meatless Monday. Could the entire staff abstain from all animal products for an entire week?

The short is answer is, most could.

Out of the 378 who signed up for the challenge, 300 successfully completed it.

Video editor Rich was overjoyed about his results. Rich lost 10 pounds as well as migraine headaches and his need for antacids. Rich said he opted for vegetables and whole grains versus simple carbohydrates.

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Oprah Goes Vegan And Takes 378 Harpo Staffers With Her

Written by Vegetarian Star on Monday, January 31st, 2011 in Food & Drink, TV Hosts.

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey impressed us a little when she went on a 21-day vegan cleanse a couple of years ago on the advice of author Kathy Freston.

Now, O has given the diet another try and she gave the order to 378 of her employees at Harpo to do the same.

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Kathy Freston "Veganist"

Kathy Freston "Veganist"

Kathy Freston is at it again!

The woman who’s written best selling books like Quantum Wellness Cleanse and convinced Oprah Winfrey to try a vegan diet is set to release another title in February, Veganist: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change The World.

What exactly is a veganist? Freston has started a blog for the book on her website, where she explains the term.

“Someone who moves toward eating a plant based diet so that they are as physically healthy as they can be, environmentally friendly, and a kind and thoughtful human being. And it’s not about being pure or strict; it’s about being informed and having fun while living according to values like kindness and thoughtfulness. Truly, I believe in progress, not perfection!”

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Alexis Stewart, the vegetarian daughter of household diva Martha, and her co-host Jennifer Koppelman Hutt, recently welcomed Kathy Freston, author of several books on wellness and the same woman who convinced Oprah Winfrey to go vegan for a few weeks.

As expected, Freston was there to enlighten the Whatever ladies’ audience on what a vegan diet is and how following a plant-based diet can eliminate many health issues.

Freston’s transition to veganism didn’t happen overnight. As a girl who “grew up in the South eating chicken fried steak,” she found it easier to go vegetarian first, giving up her old standbys of chicken and steak.

“I gave up eating one animal at a time,” Freston said.

Sounds like a plan. Can you start giving up one animal next month by eating a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner instead of a bird?

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Daphne Oz

Daphne Oz

Daphne Oz, author of The Dorm Room Diet, and daughter of the famous daytime television host and heart surgeon Dr. Oz, has accumulated a wealth of information from her father, holistic nutrition adviser grandmother and vegetarian mother over the years. Daphne took her knowledge and wrote a book aimed to teach people how to fuel their bodies with food that gives energy, fights disease, and is healthier for the planet. The Dorm Room Diet contains an entire chapter especially dedicated to thinking about the impact of food on the environment, in addition to a chapter filled with vegetarian recipes.

Throughout the book, you remind readers of the benefits of being vegetarian (discuss how you get your nutrients without meat, pitfalls of meat protein, only vegetarian recipes in the book) without actually telling people to go veg. Was this done on purpose as a way to promote a vegetarian lifestyle without being preachy or did it naturally fall into place?
It naturally fell into place, partly because I have no idea how to cook meat, and partly because it’s a lot easier to purchase, store and cook vegetarian dishes when living in the dorm room. I’m glad you saw it as a natural way to promote the vegetarian lifestyle, and introduce readers to flavors, textures, and substitutes they might never have considered before, because that was certainly a goal of ours throughout the chapter. So often, knowledge and a little nudge is all people need to change old habits.

What’s your favorite recipe from the book and why?
My favorite recipe is the Nuttier Butter, just because it’s so easy and versatile–I would spread it on whole grain toast for breakfast, eat a spoonful before working out for a powerful shot of protein, fiber and energy, and even used it as the base for a spicy thai peanut salad dressing for dinner sometimes. Plus, it’s such a cool variation on the average peanut butter that adds omega fats and fiber.

The Dorm Room Diet sounds like it’s aimed at college students. How can a regular, working adult benefit from some of the advice in the book?
The advice in the book is really targeted at anyone looking to break free of the deprivation of fad diets and establish a permanent, healthy lifestyle that puts you in total control. The tips and tricks are targeted at anyone short on time, space, and/or money who still wants to make an effort to establish healthy habits to last a lifetime, so it’s equally helpful to people spending their time in a dorm room or a cubicle!

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American Museum Of Natural History Hosts The Museum Gala

Kathy Freston had a chat with Dr. Dean Ornish, best known for his diet and lifestyle approach to treating  on protein, healthy body weight and weight loss.

Here are a few highlights:

On the dangers of animal protein:
DO: Diets that are high in animal protein are usually high in saturated fat, which promotes both heart disease and cancer. A recent study reviewed by Dr. Steven A. Smith in The New England Journal of Medicine found that high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets accelerate atherosclerosis (blockage in arteries) through mechanisms other than traditional risk factors such as changes in cholesterol and triglycerides.

Should you count calories or fat?
DO: In my experience, if you eat predominantly a whole foods, plant-based diet that is naturally high in fiber and low in fat and in refined carbohydrates, and if you eat it mindfully, you don’t have to count anything to lose weight. You feel full before you consume too many calories.

What are those good carbs again?
DO: Good carbs are whole foods. These include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and soy products in their natural, unrefined, unprocessed forms.

Because these good carbs are unrefined, they are naturally high in fiber as well. The fiber fills you up before you eat too much. For example, it’s hard to get too many calories from eating apples or whole grains, because apples are naturally low in calories and high in fiber, which causes you to feel full before you consume too many calories.

Read more at the HuffingtonPost.

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Kathy Freston Celebrates Her New Book 'Quantum Wellness'

Author Kathy Freston interviewed Dr. Michael Greger of the Humane Society of the United States to get his thoughts on the possible connection between recent outbreaks of the flu virus and factory farmed meat.

According to Dr. Greger, the first hybrid mutant strain of swine flu was found in a factory farm in North Carolina, where hundreds of pregnant sows were crammed together in crates.

Dr. Greger believes these conditions provide the environment necessary for viruses to emerge.

But does touching or eating meat actually increase your risk of contracting the virus?

“There are certainly lots of viruses people can pick up from handling fresh meat… There have been a number of cases of human influenza linked to the consumption of poultry products, but it’s not clear whether swine flu viruses get into the meat. Regardless, the primary risk is not in the meat, but how meat is produced. Once a new disease is spawned from factory farm conditions it may be able spread person to person, and at that point animals–live or dead–may be out of the picture.”

But in the end, it probably pays to go veg anyway.

“We’ve known for 20 years that the immune function of those eating vegetarian may be superior to those eating meat. First published in 1989, researchers at the German Cancer Research Center found that although vegetarians had the same number of disease-fighting white blood cells compared to meat eaters, the immune cells of vegetarians were twice as effective in destroying their targets–not only cancer cells, but virus-infected cells as well. So a more plant-based diet may protect both now and in the future against animal-borne diseases like pandemic influenza.”

Read Dr. Greger’s online book about bird flu at birdflubird.com.

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John Lennon Super Live 2009

“Give up meat one day and then two days maybe. It’s a very, very intelligent idea.”

Yoko Ono, on Twitter, giving a shout out to the Meat-Free Monday campaign.

Going veg for one day a week sure is tasty AND intelligent.

Kathy Freston has already blogged all the fascinating statistics on the effects of eating less meat.

Like the fact that if everyone did a Meat Free Monday (or Friday, Saturday or Sunday), the United States would save 1.5 billion pounds of crops normally fed to livestock.

That’s enough to feed the state of New Mexico for over a year!

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