My Vegan Friends

Hey, my friends are nice people, mostly.  They love animals, and the planet.  Or, they are allergic to meat.

And then, there is Dr. MacDougall.  Well, based on his interview with Jimmy ("what is your authority") Moore, he is certainly not in it for the spiritual reasons.  He represents all that is wrong with our medical and nutrition professions.  He has no authority.

When I first started listening, it sounded like an exchange at a typical holiday dinner around here, except after someone yells out,

"Atkins diet KILLS PEOPLE!!!!  I saw a study!!!!!!" and then everything settles down and someone offers a piece of pie.

At the last dinner, I met a new vegan.  We were talking about diet and I mentioned that I used to be vegan but now am pretty much the opposite.  She had an interesting response, unlike our Dr. MacDougall (who has ALL this DATA showing that Atkins KILLS people!!!!!!).

"Hey, everyone is different."

Cool.

I unfriended another vegan this weekend

I am pretty slow to cut people off, I think, but it just got too much to deal with.  She's not really a good friend, just someone I run into here and there and we chat.  We used to have more in common when I was a vegetarian.  Since then, diet discussions have been made off limits.  Forget politics, even though we share similar views on most points.  Oh, and Atkins is dead and he died fat and with heart disease because that is what she read on the internet.

I have seen her go ballistic with other people, too, including her very sick, footless diabetic friend, and decided that I had just had enough.

I remembered Peter Dee's post with his link to a youtube video concerning vitamin B12.  I think many of the symptoms fit her to a T.  Then I felt a little bit more compassion for her illness until I caught myself.  It has always been her choice.

Maybe it is not B12, maybe it is protein.  Another friend did some yardwork for her once, and she said, "Hey, I'll buy you lunch."  When lunchtime came around, she went to the store and bought a granola bar and a Diet Coke.  Poor thing!  (I mean the gardener!)

Under Construction

I have wanted to say so many things since Our Mister Moore leaked out a few youtube teasers with his interview with Dick MacDougall, but I didn't even know where to start.  This topic warrants a whole series.

Here's the short part.

I followed the MacDougall diet religiously for as long as I could stand it.  I got fatter, and felt miserable.

Warning:  listening and watching this is like watching a train wreck with an entire load of fingernails crashing into another train head-on, carrying a load of blackboards.  Just do the ole'NLP trick, put the podcast in a frame, turn it into "black and white", and move it away in your mind during the scary parts.  This will make the podcast seem less like one of my famous holiday get-togethers.