It makes me feel really old that I feel like I have to explain to a younger generation who Alicia Silverstone is. Like, I swear, little kids, she used to be really, really relevant, and we all thought she was going to be a big movie star with staying power, like Meryl Streep or Demi Moore, and the she proceeded to piss it all away by making a mindblowingly large number of terrible movies all in a row. It’s actually possible that she hasn’t made a single good movie since Clueless. (I am not open to the possibility that Clueless was not a good movie. As if!)
Anyhoo, Alicia’s been a vegan, like, forever, and now she has a book about it. It’s called The Kind Diet, and it’s about subsisting on really, really good weed. No I’m kidding. That’s the book Jennifer Aniston’s working on. Alicia’s book is about eating vegan, which means no dairy or meat. It’s actually a very healthy way to eat and it is much kinder to animals and the environment. I ate a pure vegan diet for awhile, and it was the best I’ve ever felt in my whole life. And then I stopped and now I have pre-diabetes and I basically have to eat meat even though it completely grosses me out when I have to do so. Even fish. But apparently I’m going to die of insulin shock if I don’t eat meat; at least that’s what the doctors say.
If you don’t feel like you can spend money on a book Alicia Silverstone wrote about anything, try picking up The China Study instead. It’s a purely scientific book (i.e. no animal rights angle) about the physical and environmental benefits of a vegan diet.
The vegan diet is so hard to follow though. Most vegan foods, like Fake cheese and what not are expensive. I tried made it 2 days. Turns out the pesto I bought that I was super excited by had cheese in it. I quit so I could eat it, because lets face it, that shit was delicious.
Oh Right, Silverstone changed my life with clueless and by changed it, make me super happy and stuffs.
I skimmed through one of the Skinny Bitch books once. I got to the chapter where they said eating cheese was not natural…and slammed it shut.
Beef, Chicken, Fish, whatever. I can understand not wanting to eat things with a face (even though I find them delicious).
But a world without cheese is no world at all.
Still, I heart Alicia.
For ten years I gave up on all flesh except for fish, birds and bacon. How could you not eat bacon? I guess it might be possible but give up cheese? Them’s fighting words.
Any studies ever show that vegan is healthier than a diet high in fish, berries, etc?
When I found out how bad for you soy is, I completely ruled out veganism. It was such a shock, they try to hide the dangers of it because it’s in so many different types of foods. People can eat what they want I suppose, but for me eating something like cheese and milk is far more rational than something that can mess with my hormones enough to lead to breast cancer.
Are these doctors from Mars? Die from insulin shock without meat? That’s ridiculous. Dude, if you hate meat, don’t eat it. You know my diabetes diatribe so I won’t go into it, but Sasha my goodness girl. My father is a doctor and is delighted that I’m vegan and my whole family eats that way a few times a week (when I cook). I need to kick these doctors. Meat is NOT the enemy, but if you love it then eat it. If it grosses you out, then don’t.
Makes sense to me, I have a friend who was vegan but had a health issue and her doctors forced her to start eating chicken.
I’m a type one diabetic. Although pre-diabetes is a precurser to type two, there is nothing in meat that would keep someone from going into insulin shock. Meat isn’t magical. I eat it, yeah. But diabetics don’t have to. It’s important that someone get nutrients in their diet. The protein from meat can be found in other sources (ex nuts). So diabetes isn’t really affected by meat….
And oh yeah, insulin shock is related to low blood sugar. Sugar is found in any sort of food that has carbs. Carbs are NOT the food group that meat fits into, so that really wouldn’t have any effect on that either. In order to keep blood sugar up, I’d eat anything that has carbohydrates (specifically simple sugars) in it. Also, insulin shock isn’t a sign of prediabetes. Prediabetes is related to high blood glucose (hyperglycemia). Insulin lowers blood glucose…..insulin shock would be hypoglycemia. That’s usually something competely different. Some people simply have hypoglycemia, sometimes its a symptom of another ailment.
Diabetes means that your body
a) in the case of type one, attacks itself and eliminates the ability to produce insulin, therefore forcing the victim to go on insulin shots or a pump
or b) in the case of type 2, has been run down by an unhealthy lifestyle full of sugary foods, or simply bad genetics, and has developed a resistance to your own insulin. This can usually be corrected by a healthier diet, but if the person refuses they usually have to go on insulin shots like a type one..
DIET FOR A SMALL PLANET IS A GOOD ONE TOO.
oh i love alicia silverstone. i liked several of those movies she made after clueless. come on, the babysitter (mmm jeremy london), excess baggage (mmm benicio del toro) and blast from the past (err brendan frasier has never been hot) were quite entertaining. but, im a fan of meat so i wont be buying her book.
I liked Excess Baggage too! Granted it’s not an Oscar winner or anything… Oh the good ole days of Benicio del Toro :)
I won’t buy her book, but I will forgive her for every terrible project she has ever been a part of (Miss Match anyone?) because she was, is, and will always be CHER HOROWITZ.
I love her. I actually met her one time. I was like 16 and doing a summer program at UCLA, and I saw her about to film a failed TV show (may have been Miss Match; I’m honestly not sure) and I kind of crept up and asked for an autograph. Someone around her (maybe an agent or someone who worked with the show) told me to leave, and she told him to back off and gladly gave me an autograph and thanked me for being a fan.
That same summer I saw Katie Holmes on set (but not really involved in anything) of First Daughter. I did the same thing, and she rolled her eyes at me and told me I should go to class.
Katie Holmes really did that? That’s lame. She’s lame. Lame is my word of the day.
You should have been like “Fuck you Joey Potter!! You are a dirty whore for getting it on with that teacher!” and then just walked away. Seriously though, who is Katie Holmes to roll their eyes at a fan? It’s not like she is Madonna or anything. She doesn’t deserve Pacey ;)
It must be extraordinarily difficult to peak professionally at age 16. I wonder if the same thing will happen to Kristen Stewart. Look at Macaulay Culkin too. He peaked at age 9 or 10.
Alicia seems like a happy, balanced person, though. That’s success all right, especially in Hollywood.
i was vegetarian for ten years, vegan for two of those. i honestly felt absolutely no difference when i started eating dairy products again, and then later when i started eating meat again. everyone told me my body wouldn’t be able to handle meat anymore but it didn’t happen that way. i ate some bacon and i was like, damn i feel exactly the same! except with more deliciousness in my life!
also heart clueless big time. i must have seen it in the theater like 5 times.
Being a vegan seems so socially limiting to me. Virtually every restaraunt on the planet has a vegetarian menu or a vegetarian alternative (even steakhouses), but vegan is so difficult you’d almost have to bring your own food or just drink your dinner…which is not a terrible idea. Still, you get the idea.
Vegan recipes require a TON of ingredients – many of which you just can’t pick up at any ol’ grocery store. If you have a Whole Foods (and can afford thier insane prices) then it’s much easier, but the Piggly Wiggly? I don’t think so.
…this doesn’t mean I don’t love Cher any less. Just to clarify