The KInd Life Community Forum

I love Jillian Michaels and have read all of her books, I find her to be a strong role model for women. Unfortunately she is against vegetarian, and especially vegan diets! I listen to her podcasts and she did an entire show on the topic of veganism. A woman 70 lbs overweight asking for advice called on another show and asked if being a vegetarian was healthier (than being an omnivore) and Jillian flat out said no.

Now here's where I wanted to get a discussoin going...she currently only eats fish and gave up other kinds of meat for the love of animals. She's a promoter of coconut milk, but I don't know if that means she's given up all animal products besides fish. It's awesome that she's given up meat for animal reasons, and I'm not by any means criticizing her for " not going all the way." What I do find conflicting is the advice she gives out regarding meat. She said that we are omnivores and that we need a little bit of meat, maybe once or twice a week. She also said that it's fine if people want to be vegan, but they have to try REALLY hard to plan meals to make sure they are getting proper nutrition. While this may be true for junk food addicts, I think it's ok to make the assumption that a great majority of vegetarians/vegans are health conscious and know to eat a varied, whole-foods, plant-based diets and as Alicia has said, it is so easy to get all the nutrients you need without even really "trying."

As for the omnivore comment, I've read dozens of books that say that we, in today's day and age, are not meant to be omnivores. I could go on but I'm sure you've read it too.

As for eating a little meat, great she's telling people to reduce, but doesn't she know that animal protein is the PRIMARY cause for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, etc, etc?

Maybe she should read The China Study! Any thoughts?

What I read about that is that she believes that humans are omnivores and she doesn't eat meat because she loves animals, not for health reasons.

I am a big fan of Bob Harper's website and DVDs. He is vegan and even had all of the contestants on the Biggest Loser to his house for a vegan lunch in one episode.

The thing that bothers me, like some mentioned, about these kinds of statements (completely aside from ethical views) is the whole scaring people away from veg*n diets because it's apparently sooo hard to get all our nutrients. Everyone needs to be aware of what they are eating to get proper nutrition. Just slapping a piece of flesh on my plate doens't suddenly give me all the nutrition I need, but somehow that is what many people will focus on with veg*n diets and mislead others into thinking they have to be extra careful if they are going to eliminate animal products from their diets. B12, sure, we have to supplement, but the average SAD follower is getting far less of everything than a healthy veg*n is.

Personally, I don't care about other people's views. Whatever you do, there will always be hundreds of people who will have an opposing view. Be it parenting, how to run your business, how to exercise, diet and nutrition, finances ... you do one thing, lots of people will tell you are wrong.

I have a brother in law who is totally awesome in many ways but thinks that I am a total nutcase because I am vegan. He does like to state stuff like "I like my meat" or similar statements, but these days, they just wash off me. Plus I come from a family of butchers, my uncle runs a huge meat processing plant (reason 101 why I became vegetarian) and it does become such an issue of what I will eat or not eat at family gatherings it is insane... despite me saying 100s of times: I will bring my own food, don't worry.