Oprah goes vegan

by Ellen Slattery, Posted May 24th 2008 @ 3:03PM

...well, not forever. Technically, only for 21 days, along with all animal products, caffeine, sugar, alcohol, and gluten. Oh, right: and she's calling it a "cleanse," in hopes that it will prepare her for her "inner makeover."

Now, giving up alcohol, caffeine, and animal products is a difficult decision, and one that shouldn't be taken lightly.

But, (big surprise), I have several issues with this. First of all, I dislike the word "cleanse." It's often associated with that ridiculous maple syrup/cayenne pepper diet, and don't even try to convince me that it works, because depriving yourself of food is simply unhealthy, I don't care if you feel "amazing" or not (most likely, that "amazing, high" feeling is the effects of oxygen depletion to your brain, sweetie).

And like I said, while changing your diet to be as healthy as possible can be a very good, positive step, I'm afraid that in this case, Oprah's fans (many of whom are sponges and cling to her every word) may see her choices as a way of food restricting or trying to get skinny, and start depriving themselves of necessary nutrients (or, more importantly, occasional fun indulgences). Won't this subsequently and inevitably lead to more food hang-ups among legions of Oprah worshipers?

To her (or her nutritionist's) credit, the recipes seem halfway decent. But the cleanse feels to me like another "certain foods are evil" campaign. I mean, yeah, so maybe we don't need to eat french fries and chocolate cake every day of our lives. But what ever happened to "everything in moderation?" Have we taken all the joy out of food and eating? It no longer seems like a way to bring people together or to relax; instead, it's a hurdle, a burden, a trigger, a crutch.

Can't we all (us and food) just get along?

Filed Under: On the Blogs, Celebrities
Tags: alcohol, caffeine, cleanse, diet, fans, fast, Oprah, summer, vegan

Chew on This

Royal Wedding Cake Details Revealed! - YumSugar

Make Your Own Pop Tarts - CHOW
Denny's Introduces a Maple Bacon Sundae - Eater
Whole Foods Opening Bars in Stores - USA Today
Rules Of Bar Etiquette -- For The Bartender - HuffPost Food

Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-24-2008 @10:42PM Big John said... She'll be off the wagon within 12 months.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

5-24-2008 @10:42PM sfmitch said... Dude - what's with all the hostility?

Why so negative to Oprah and her fans? I think it is a cool idea for someone to go Vegan for 3 weeks and report back.

Reply

Vote upVote downReport

5-24-2008 @10:44PM STH said... I agree, Ellen. Using the term "cleanse" in the context of giving up these foods implies that eating them makes you "dirty" somehow. Caffeine can have some unpleasant side effects, but that doesn't mean that most people can't consume it in moderation with no problems at all. And gluten? Whole grains are some of the healthiest foods you can eat!
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

5-24-2008 @10:44PM Shawna said... It's only three weeks. It's not like she's adopting this diet long-term (now *that* I might be concerned about).

Besides, I don't really think that caffeine, alcohol, sugar, or gluten are necessary for nutrition.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

5-25-2008 @5:03AM lizandrsn said... Sorry -
I'm fed up with Oprah being treated like a deity. She's human (just like the rest of us) and it's time she figure that out and deal with it. You want to eat funky meals? Great! I don't want to hear about it, and don't go off on me because I don't follow your every word. The Oprah lemmings are going to fall for this, and someone will be hurt or die from it. How will Oprah feel then???
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

5-25-2008 @5:03AM mczlaw said... Veganism is unnatural for humans. . .and pretty goofy besides.

Having said that. . .the moderation stuff just doesn't work for me (he says after plowing through 3 pints of the legendary Oregon Hood strawberries--with lightly sweetened mascarpone).

--mcz
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

5-25-2008 @2:40PM Buffy871 said... Oprah's gimmicky. Gotta keep those ratings up. Vegan is an incredibly healthy diet, but I can't see her sticking with anything for very long.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

5-25-2008 @3:25PM Litsa said... Nobody dies because of a vegetarian or vegan diet. Quite the contrary, a lot of people die because of NOT eating enough plant foods.

That any diet has to be well planned to be healthy is quite clear. No matter if plant based or containing animal products.

The strict vegetarian diet saved my life so far (I have one of the so called "incurable diseases"). I am not dogmatic in any way, but this stuff really works for sick people, I can assure you that 100%. My choresterol is down to 140.

If somebody is sick, it may be necessary to skip certain foods, which are harmless for usual healthy individuals, but definitely not harmless for the sick (or otherwise weakened). I also had to skip sugar and gluten for quite some time!

My health improved so much due to temporarily adapting a 100% plant based diet, that I can safely drink coffee again and eat some fish and matured cheese and similar (I am not a vegan and not planning to become one permanently).

And any time I encounter pains, I just need to eat some fresh fruits or chopped vegetables, and those pains are gone. Which does not happen with bread or meat, those usually increase the fever and pains.

The only "problem" with vegan food are a few fanatics, who try to force others to adapt this diet permanently for whatever reason. I doubt that a famous tv celebrity will become like that, she would immediately loose huge profits. Nobody of the tv bosses likes crazy fanatics.

And, the vegan diet is partially very difficult to adapt for somebody not used to skipping all animal products and not really willing to do it. I can tell you that nobody who likes certain foods (real matured cheese, soft cooked eggs, smoked salmon, real chicken soup etc) will ever be able to keep this diet longer than the health really requires.

-- litsakouzina.blogspot.com
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

5-25-2008 @4:00PM tim said... Dear readers, surely we must not lose sight of what is important in life.And that is that life on this planet continues. Before you comment on these remarks do some detailed research and you will find to your unpleasant surprise that this planet is heading for some huge disasters (nothing new right) but the time frame is important. We have 18 months to COMPLETELY change things. Prince Charles has just announced this but other officials will not release this for fear of absolute panic.The money people who control media have built there bunkers etc and chosen the ones who they think they can protect, it will do them no good, the disasters will end there lives also. The only way to stop this is to go vegetarian or vegan as it can stop 80% of global warming. According to the UN 2006 report on agriculture 18% of Co2 emmissions comes from animal raising, more than all the cars,trucks,trains,plains,ships combined! Artic sea ice could all be gone by 2012, if this happens we will all die from the methane released. Do the research, go veg and save the planet!
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

5-26-2008 @12:01PM Hyperfocal said... Oprah is a master marketeer -- her product is herself. Her ratings are dropping like a rock, and sales of her self-titled magazine are tanking. It's no wonder she's doing something over-the-top to draw attention to herself... it's purely business.

She'll be scarfing Krispy Kremes in a few weeks, just like the rest of us.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

5-26-2008 @11:58AM Tammy said... There's red wine in her "Tempeh Creole" ... Even if it's cooked, you can never get all of the alcohol out of it ...

Not sure if that "Tempeh Tuna Salad" actually has tuna in it or if they're trying to say take the bean cakes & gussy them up like you were going to make tuna salad but forgot the tuna ...

Her 21 day "cleanse" would literally kill me IF I followed those specific food choices ... and didn't have an Epi-Pen / Paramedic / ER nearby ...

Silly Tim ... You honestly believe something that Prince Charles says?? Did you believe that he had given up Camillia for Diana?? Sorry, but Chuck's just another bloviating bovine like Al Gore (who seems to be packing on the pounds a lot lately - guess his diet's not healthy) ...
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

5-27-2008 @10:01AM chaosotter said... For the 10,000th time, silly people of the world: if you haven't got celiac disease, gluten is NOT BAD FOR YOU.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

6-04-2008 @4:39PM eyerolling said... People do die from being dumb with vegan diets.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1363354

And cleanses are silly, and unhealthy.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

6-10-2008 @4:08PM Patrick said... You guys should check out this awesome vegan blog:

yosoyblog.blogspot.com
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

6-10-2008 @7:57PM Thea said... Hmmm. perhaps some of you Na-Sayers need to look at factory farmed, steriod treated animals that you are consuming everyday - Vegan is not just healthy eating, or just for animals lovers - it is conscious eating. We are destroying our planet with this Western diet - read up, then comment.
Reply