Oprah Goes Vegan! And So Can You!

After reading the book Quantum Wellness, by best-selling author Kathy Freston, philanthropist and media mogul Oprah Winfrey has decided to try a 21-day vegan cleanse to experience the tremendous health and spiritual benefits of a plant-based diet. Luckily for Oprah, transitioning to a vegan diet is now easier than ever before. Here are some helpful tips on how you can join Oprah by adopting a healthy and humane vegan diet.

“How can you say you're trying to spiritually evolve, without even a thought about what happens to the animals whose lives are sacrificed in the name of gluttony?” says Oprah. Like Oprah, more and more people from every corner of America are realizing that a plant-based diet is better for our health, the Earth and animals. Many of the world’s most progressive and renowned thinkers, humanitarians, writers, artists, and leaders-past and present-have also advocated for veganism and compassionate living.

The Dalai Lama
"Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures."

Albert Einstein
"If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals."

Mohandas Gandhi
"Spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants."

Albert Schweitzer
“While so much ill-treatment of animals goes on…while so much brutality prevails in our slaughterhouses...we all bear guilt.”

It’s no coincidence that some of the world’s greatest thinkers have advocated plant-based diets. Animals used for food production are not protected from inhumane treatment. Most states specifically exclude farm animals from anti-cruelty laws and the Federal Animal Welfare Act fails to include them. Consequently, every year in the United States, approximately 10 billion farm animals are raised and slaughtered under conditions so cruel, they have been banned in other countries. By adopting a vegan diet, you can cast a vote against cruelty to animals every time you sit down to eat.

The environment is also greatly affected by our dietary choices. According to the United Nations, “Raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined.” Right now, intensive animal agricultural practices are so severely degrading the land, water and air that a change in our diets from animal based foods to plant based foods must be swift, or the valuable resources on which our lives depend will continue to be eroded, depleted and polluted beyond repair.

A growing number of studies indicate that animal products can increase the risk of obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and other afflictions, while many plant foods can actually protect us from these same conditions. By following in Oprah’s footsteps and replacing saturated fat and cholesterol-laden animal based foods with healthy vegan alternatives, you'll be well on your way to better health and vitality.

With so many benefits for your health, the Earth and animals just around the corner, why not give veganism a try?