vegangirl.com

Jed Gillen and Olivia

Jed Gillen, author of Obligate Carnivore and more recently co-creator of Liv Films, has never cared much about who he is offending or what idiots think of him. You’ll never catch him dogmatically adhering to a set of values just because “that’s what vegans do”. And if you try to debate him when you haven’t thought everything through, he will mop the floor with you.

These personal qualities allow him to accept interviews with websites such as “Let Them Eat Meat” without fear, and they also allow all such interviews to be fantastic.

I hope vegans everywhere read this article. I know from experience how easy it is to get wrapped up in being so “vegan” all the time that it becomes hard to relate to anyone who isn’t. And if we can’t relate to anyone who isn’t already living in our happy vegan bubble, then the we will forever limit the effects of our own efforts.

Based on just the intro to this article, we learn that it’s possible to earn the respect even of someone who intentionally set out to humiliate and discredit us.

I bought his book for two reasons: to help an entry I was writing about vegans with vegan pets, and to laugh at veganism at its most extreme. A vegan who argues that we should raise our miniature carnivorous felines as herbivores? Obligate Carnivore would surely represent the fringe of the fringe.

But I was wrong. On both counts. Rather than help my entry about vegan pets, it made me rethink it entirely until I decided not to write it at all. And yes, the book did make me laugh, but not by taking veganism to higher heights of absurdity. Obligate Carnivore uses vegan cats merely as a jetée to write hilariously about veganism and life in general; it is legitimately (and intentionally) amusing.

Read the full article entitled Interview With a Vegan: Jed Gillen

If I’d had the benefit of an article like this 5 years ago, I could have saved myself months of illness, frustration, and anxiety. The battery of tests that doctors performed on me failed to diagnose that it was my diet that was making me feel chronically fatigued and “under the weather”. Sore throat, headaches, muscle aches, and a general fatigue apparently do not fit into doctors’ narrow view of what gluten intolerance looks like.

This article, entitled “Gluten: What You Don’t Know Might Kill You” touches on a lot of different aspects of gluten intolerance, beyond just the immediate symptoms associated with it. If you have any issues with chronic illness, however slight, I highly recommend reading this article to see if gluten could be a part of it.

Remember, gluten intolerance can be a real blessing. It forces us to remove a lot of unhealthy foods from our diet, although not quite as much now that there are so many gluten-free junk food products on the market.