Meatless Cowboy

I (Suzy) was at the Food For Your Whole Life conference this Sunday and Monday. There was constant promotion of a mostly plant-based diet, rich in walnuts since they are high in omega-3s (and since California Walnuts was the sponsor). There was also quite a bit of talk of the benefits of a vegan diet. Vegans tend to lead longer lives. Vegans suffer significantly less from heart disease and hypertension. Vegans have better sex.

Ok, I made the last one up. But one of the take-away messages from all this veg-focused talk was more or less, "If you haven't at least considered going vegan, you haven't thought that hard about your health."

Example: Rocco is a cowboy. Rocco ate meat and animal products almost exclusively. Rocco developed heart disease risk factors and the heart of an 85 year old man at the age of 53. Then Rocco went vegan. The famous Dr. Oz and his renowned friend and colleague Dr. Roizen used this Rocco example time and time again during the conference. Why? Because it took one month of veganism to reverse much of the negative effects of Rocco's lifelong love of butter and cattle with a side of porkfat. Rocco is now committed to the vegan lifestyle.

Extreme example? Yes. And this doesn't mean I'm yet sold on a future vegan lifestyle come July 1. But it was at least reassuring to hear that only a month of this may reverse the negative effects of my teenage love of Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwiches with Fries dipped in the Frosty.