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We’re all for people like Mark Bittman and Bill Clinton, who advocate that more of us go vegan, at least part-time: Eating more vegetables will lower our cholesterol, decrease risk of cancer and heart disease, their argument goes. What’s more, laying off the meat and dairy is even good for the environment, which could use a break from the greenhouse gases let off in mass amounts by beef production. But veganism is slated to be one of the biggest food trends of 2011, and it’s our experience that when healthy food habits become trendy in America, they quickly get morphed into less healthy, more profitable versions of the original, and vegan food is no exception: Books like Jenn Shagrin’s Veganize This!, praised in today’s Vital Juice Everywhere newsletter for its vegan version of Doritos, are proof that just because something’s vegan doesn’t mean it’s healthy.
Oprah's "Vegan Challenge" has put meatless diets in the spotlight, but we're not sure all viewers are taking it the right way.
Veganism is a booming health trend, heralded not only by editorial lists, but an increasing roster of vegan diet books and cookbooks (think Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Appetite for Reduction, or Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Diet). And let’s not forget OPRAAAAAAAAH!’s new vegan challenge, led by “veganist” Kathy Freston, which is bound to launch meatless diets into popularity (at least for awhile). But as more and more people jump on the vegan bandwagon, the central messages of doctors and experts who promote a meat-free lifestyle are getting lost: Eat whole foods, lots of greens, and cut the processed crap out of your diet. They’re not saying that vegan meatballs and Twinkies will lower cholesterol; they’re urging us to eat lots of vegetables and cut the processed crap out of our diets.
The Vital Juice newsletter that landed in our email this morning not only featured a recipe for vegan junk food; it also sent confusing messages about what things like vegan Doritos will do for our health and appearance:
Meet your new slimming superheroine. Her name is Jenn Shagrin, but we like to think of this vegan chef as our junk food savior. Her new book, Veganize This!, transforms your fatty faves into animal-free delights in a single bound. The book is packed with 200 recipes that span everything from comfort food (mashed potatoes, meatballs) to haute cuisine (white truffle mac ‘n cheese) to brunch (hazelnut French toast). And her sassy sense of humor will have you giggling all the way to the kitchen.
Slimming superheroine? Junk food savior? Vital Juice keeps their newsletters short, but we wish they’d quit confusing animal-free with healthy, and stop spreading rumors that junk food can be slimming as long as it’s vegan.
These Twinkie is organic and dairy-free, but that doesn't mean it's good for you.
If you’re transitioning to a vegan diet and your cravings for processed food are so bad that you’re about to go hog wild at 7-Eleven, sure, Jenn Shagrin’s recipes are likely a better alternative than digging into chili dogs and Ben & Jerry’s. But don’t let anyone convince you that “vegan” is synonymous with “healthy”: Unfortunately, no amount of soy ice cream will give you the benefits of kale; vegan butter isn’t as healthy as beets, and even our favorite Babycakes brownie recipe doesn’t provide a daily servings of vitamin C, D, or E.
“Veganizing” recipes that contain more fat and processed ingredients (soy, wheat, rice, or oils) than whole foods may sate your cravings, but it won’t get you the promised benefits of a meat-free diet. And it certainly isn’t slimming or healthy, despite the implications of Vital Juice‘s message. In fact, vegan versions of junk food stand a change of turning off anyone who’s testing the meat-free waters: They won’t help anyone lose weight or feel great, and they will siphon a big part of your food budget, perpetuating the idea that eating vegan is too expensive for most Americans. (The money it takes to buy cookbooks and imitation ingredients goes a lot further when it goes towards brown rice, vegetables, and beans.) What’s worse is that some studies link processed soy — found in vegan “comfort” food like packaged meatballs — to cancer. The verdict is out on whether you should run from tofu, but many doctors agree that binging on soy hot dogs won’t yield great health benefits.
We’re excited that more people want to try eating vegan food, and Oprah’s definitely doing her viewers a favor when she gets them to hear Michael Pollan and Kathy Freston’s point of views on food. We just hope that consumers aren’t duped into thinking that vegan is synonymous with healthy. If you’re trying to lose weight, lower your cholesterol, and reap the benefits of high-nutrition foods, then you’ll have to cut the sugars, fats, and processed foods, regardless of whether theycarry the label “organic,” “vegan,” or “non-GMO.” If a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, then junk food and dessert made with any other fat would do the same bad shit to your bod.
“Just because something’s vegan doesn’t mean it’s healthy.” This is true, but I think your means for backing up this statement are flawed and misleading. While you don’t state it directly, I get the vibe that your article seems to imply that vegans can’t be healthy if they eat animal free junk food occasionally. I know that’s not what you’re saying, but I think that’s the impression readers will get. It also seems to imply that vegan versions of junk food can’t be healthy. I believe you are mistaken.
It is true that some of the benefits of a vegan diet come from its abundance of whole foods, greens, and processed foods. However, a great deal of benefits come from type of fats vegans ingest. With the exception of a few types of vegetable oils (palm kernel, coconut, etc.) you won’t find any saturated fat in a vegan diet. You may find hydrogenated oil, but most vegan butter substitutes I’ve encountered are non-hydrogenated. Also, you won’t find any dietary cholesterol in a vegan diet.
So as long as they lack hydrogenated oils or oils from the few vegan sources that contain saturated fat, vegan meatballs and Twinkies are more healthy than their non-vegan counterparts. Vegan icecream and butter, although not as beneficial as kale or beets, are definitely healthier than real icecream and butter for this same reason.
Just because something’s vegan doesn’t mean it’s healthy, but it usually does mean it’s healthier.
Also, I’d wish you’d stop confusing slimming with healthy. The Atkins diet is slimming, but certainly not healthy. Eating food with unsaturated fat may not necessarily be slimming, all oil is high in calories, but unsaturated fat is an essential part of a healthy diet.
I wasn’t even going to comment on your claim about processed soy, but I think it illuminates something about your article. The reality is, processed soy has not been LINKED to cancer. SOME studies have indicated that highly processed, isolated soy isoflavones may cause pre-existing breast tumors to increase in size in mice. Products containing minimally processed soy flour do not, and soy protein has been linked to breast and prostate cancer prevention due to its phytoestrogens. The fact that you’d twist this small and misleading shred of data for your article shows that this article isn’t meant to elucidate the media’s inaccurate treatment of the relationship between veganism and health. The article is an unwarranted, careless, and shameless attack on veganism. I suggest getting your facts straight before you mislead readers with articles like this.
“The money it takes to buy cookbooks… goes a lot further when it goes towards brown rice, vegetables, and beans.” Who says you can’t do both? I don’t like to see Appetite for Reduction thrown into an article about unhealthy bandwagon veganism without an acknowledgment that it IS full of healthy, whole food ingredient recipes.
Vegan = Cholesterol free. No matter what. There’s some health value to Shagrin’s recipes. And, hell, I don’t want to eat nuts and sprouts every day as a vegan. Would you?
Hi Ashley,
I definitely don’t think all vegans should/can eat nuts and sprouts every day, nor do I think the only way to be healthy is to deprive yourself of all snacks, desserts, or processed foods. My point is just that vegan junk food isn’t “slimming” and healthy like Vital Juice makes it out to be.
I’s true that plant-based foods don’t contain cholesterol, but they can still be high in the saturated fats and trans-fats that our bodies use to make cholesterol. If you’re just snacking on some of Shagrin’s Doritos every once in awhile, and eating mostly vegetables, whole grains, and legumes the rest of the time, then not to worry. But if you’re just swapping out your old diet of junk food and meatballs for a “veganized” version without adding enough whole foods to the mix, then you’re not going to reap the full benefits of a vegan diet (and you’ll probably feel like crap, just like you did before).
I’m all for eating healthier versions of things you crave. (I do write a “healthy baking” column, after all; I wouldn’t recommend that anyone eat my whole wheat chocolate chip cookies on a daily basis, either.) But I just hope that veganism doesn’t turn into another disappointing fad diet because people think that vegan junk food is going to help them lose weight, prevent cancer, and gain energy.
Hope that helps clarify,
Briana