The Original Ex-Vegan is Back
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 พ.ค. 2024
- Today we're discussing one of the original ex-vegan dramas involving a woman named Alexandra Jamieson. Alex first came to be known through her appearance as "The Vegan Girlfriend" in the movie "Super Size Me." From there she went on to have a lucrative career as a vegan ambassador for the next 10 years, traveling around the world, getting paid top dollar for speaking engagements, and publishing three books. She shocked the world when, in 2013, she published a post on her blog entitled: "I'm not vegan anymore." There was a large public outcry in what would be one of the first big "no longer vegan" scandals of the internet age. This past week, she was profiled by The Guardian for their series "The Influencers Who Pivoted." In this video we discuss all of this.
‘I’d buy fish and hide it under kale’: the star vegan chef who developed a taste for liver:
www.theguardian.com/lifeandst...
I'm not vegan anymore (Alex Jamieson's blog post):
www.alexandrajamieson.com/ale...
Intro 00:00
Guardian article 1:33
Alex in Super Size Me 2:22
Guardian interview 07:20
Alex’s “No Longer Vegan” blog post 14:46
Alex’s Instagram post 22:43
How to fix “No Longer Vegan” announcements 24:20
Final thoughts 25:25
Outro 26:31 - บันเทิง
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Additional thoughts:
-“Vegan Cooking for Dummies” and “Living Vegan for Dummies” are still available-I find it wild to think she still makes money when people buy these books
-I don't think the enormity of opportunities this movie brought her can be understated. Traveling to 20 countries, doing a massive press tour, multiple book deals, lucrative speaking engagements. I can’t really think of a modern-day equivalent of that. The girl made a huge chunk of change from her “vegan” persona
-re: this being my first exposure to a vegan and not remembering it, Paul said he specifically remembers Alex from the movie and thinking she was “hot” and that it would be a “dream” to have a vegan girlfriend cook all this healthy food for him, and that the guy in the move “didn’t deserve her” 😂
Good to know which "vegan" books not to buy or recommend... 😏
@@biancat.1873 Avoid them all.
There is no healthy plants only diet.
We are omnivores.
Great perspective on the topic, love your channel! My wife and I regularly come across people who conflate being vegan & being plant-based. Vegans are resilient and find ways to improve their diet (i.e. whole food vs. vegan fast food), adjust things and avoid turning to meat at all cost. The motivation is very different for plant-based folks who might be in it just for the "trend" or for clicks. Keep up the great job with your videos; you are very mindful & not judgmental. As a vegan of 5 years, I will try to be as good as you in the future ;-)
You're so right about the two being conflated. I think often about how that's a challenge in championing veganism. On one hand, the diet _is_ (or I should say can be) so much healthier than the standard omnivore diet, but on the other hand it's about so much more than that and making veganism just about "health" is where people tend to get in trouble. And thank you so much for the kind words; they mean a lot to me! 🙏🏻💖
Paté! Paté! The worst goose-torturing liver spread! Okay, she was obviously just into veganism for health reasons and dived into her "vegan influencer" lifestyle without any concern for animals. Once that lifestyle became less novel, less satisfying or even less profitable, she moved on to her next grift, the "ex-vegan influencer." I can laugh, but I now recall something out of my own past. When I was in college in the late 1970s, I decided to become vegetarian for mainly environmental reasons. My college cafeteria always offered one vegetarian dish, usually containing cheese and eggs. Despite that, after several months, I began to feel very tired all the time. That probably had more to do with drinking too much, staying up late, and participating in athletics. After about a year, I gave it up. Now, forty five years later, I am about 4 months into being a vegan, originally for health reasons, but after watching Ed Winters TH-cams in which he debates college students, I have added animal welfare to the health and environmental reasons I give others who demand I justify my veganism. So far, so good!
Amazing!! It's never too late to return to a more compassionate lifestyle, and I applaud you for being open-minded and seeking out new information. And yes the paté part--like ??? Talk about a swing to the other direction 😖
Good luck! And I'm sure you know this, but don't forget your B12! I've had a deficiency in the past, and it's not fun, but it is easy to fix/address
@@msjkramey Thank you. Yes, I've been taking about 3000 mcg a week.
Before going vegan I was iron deficient. My doctor didn't prescribe meat. He prescribed iron supplements. I've also got hashimoto hypothyroidism and my vegan diet of over a decade has contributed to my health in so many positive ways that my Hashi symptoms are barely recognizable.
That said, I dont believe veganism is a cure to hypothyroidism, BUT the lie that eating animals is EVER for HEALTH is counter to the science.
As a dietetics major, I've torn apart at least 100 RCTs, meta-analyses, and cohort/clinical trials. I've yet to find any convincing evidence that supports an omnivorous diet when compared with a vegan diet.
I have someone in my family who consumes cow flesh and has major iron issues. Me: vegan since 2016, no anemia, physical job... 🤷🏼 If someone who can't digest gluten craves regular bread and pasta, does that mean they should eat bread and pasta?? 😅
Also I kind of agree with the person who wrote that comment. She is NOT the victim.
Yes; I've heard of plenty of non-vegan anemics. And such a good point on the cravings; this was something I thought about including and that many of the blog posts from 2013 put well, that cravings aren't really iron(no pun intended)-clad proof of anything 🤔 Ironically (also no pun intended), this woman went on to make her entire brand about "giving in to your cravings" (see: her book "Women, Food, and Desire: Honor Your Cravings, Embrace Your Desires, Reclaim Your Body").
I remember watching this documentary. Wasn't vegan at the time and didn't remember the was a "vegan" in it either. I guess that's pretty accurate since there wasn't a vegan in this documentary. 🙃
😂 excellent point!
Oops, typo in my comment: * there was (not 'the')
I had never heard of her. I remember Super Size Me, but didn't watch it. Again I can't help wonder if she would have felt better with just a little vegan junk food? Maybe she just needed some dopamine. Of course I don't know her situation and am not a nutrition expert. I'm just a guy who has been vegan for 14 years.
Everyone feels better with a little vegan junk food 🤣 But seriously she seemed to have a very restrictive mentality and "restriction" almost always leads to "rebellion." For her to have seemingly "never looked back" 11 years later says...a lot.
100 percent the orthorexia was the issue. She wouldn't allow herself oil, sugar, or gluten - possibly other things. If she doesn't actually have a gluten allergy, that was needlessly cutting out a source of protein and other nutrients. Her cravings for animal products were probably cravings for calorie dense, dopamine spiking treats. But she can't see this because she probably did "feel better" eating the animal products because they were meeting that need. She thinks veganism is orthorexia because she hasn't made the connection between her cutting out nutrients needlessly on her plant based "health" diet and her failure to thrive on it. I believe the rest of her justifications for her behavior are founded on this house of cards.
Your comment is SO spot on!! Yes; if you look closely at the "detox diet" she wrote for Morgan there's lots of "diet culture"-y things on there like you mentioned, which is fine but doesn't really have much to do with reversing the damage from the fast food (except maybe the oil).
And you're spot-on with your analysis; I think so often that "instantly feeling better" that ex-vegans describe is simply eating sufficient calories for the first time in a long time, since somehow their mind has determined fish and eggs to be healthy enough for them to eat, whereas they had been avoiding protein and calorie dense plant foods through most of their "veganism."
What's actually shitty is people who don't what veganism is calling themselves vegan and later ex-vegan. They often don't know anything about nutrition either and seek answers/solutions from people who also have no expertise in health and nutrition. To the average person who also doesn't know anything about veganism and nutrition, this sounds like 'proof' against veganism while this actually only proves that ignorant people make poor choices and influencers make false claims for clicks.
Exactly!! 🎯 These people also tend to be led by their "intuition" and what they "feel their body needs" because they think, after a certain amount of public validation, that they're all-knowing (see: Alex trying to "fix" her problems by drinking more green juice and eating more sea vegetables). Also now that there's more public awareness around the words "health coach" and "nutritionist" being essentially meaningless in terms of nutrition training, it's pretty shocking she was coaching people on how to eat.
@@TotallyForkable Exactly! And doctors are not much better when it comes to nutrition, but one thing they can do objectively is measure whether your body's getting enough of essential nutrients (e.g. iron). Of course, self-proclaimed 'ex-vegans' never try anything objectively useful.
I completely agree! "I tried everything" but never so much as flash a glimpse of the blood tests? Supplements/dietary changes they tried with follow-up bloodwork? Hello??
Great assessment of this whole 'ex-vegan' thing Marielle!
I've yet to see a really altruistic vegan like an Ed Winters type person turn 'ex-vegan'. I'm never really that surprised when I see or hear of one of the so called 'doing it for my health' vegan influencers become ex-vegan. If they never mention or are rarely mentioning animal welfare, then it is likely just a matter of time before they join that ex-vegan club.
Thank you for watching, John, and I'm so happy you enjoyed it! There is an influencer named Sophia Esperanza who seemed very much like a "vegan for the animals." She had a huge anti-speciesism tattoo on her arm, regularly visited slaughterhouses and did really hardcore types of activism. She announced a few months ago that she wasn't vegan anymore in a long rambling TH-cam video (that she seems to have now made private?). Predictably there was a lot of backlash and disappointment. That's the most recent example of "altruistic vegan" becoming an "ex-vegan;" I'm sure there are at least a couple others!
@@TotallyForkable Of course I just had to go check out Sophia Esperanza's TH-cam channel after you mentioned her lol! I dunno....looking at her channel it looks all about 'me, 'me, me' like you were mentioning in your video. Maybe she took all the animal rights type videos down from her channel, but all I saw there were things about her former modelling career, breast implants, shaving her head and other vanity type topics...definitely not what I was referring to when I mentioned "altruistic". More like her lifestyle is the antithesis of altruistic.
@@TotallyForkable Maybe not _that_ altruistic, tho. I don't remember where, & if it was a video or an article I saw, but apparently narcissists can be drawn to a lifestyle that makes them look like good people in the eyes of others. And not just in veganism. And then I remembered the Sophia Esperanza video & thought, that this doesn't feel like a too far-fetched explanation for her role in her former animal rights activism. (Which I only heard of. I never knew her & only saw her "no longer vegan" video)
@johnharrison9954 You're spot on that her channel is more of a vanity project than anything else. I never followed her too closely but apparently she presented as a pretty hardcore animal rights activist (possibly more on IG than TH-cam). And yes, her recent shift betrays the fact that she seemed to be more drawn to the performative element of activism than anything else.
@biancat.1873 yes I completely agree with this! On a livestream I did with Vegan of Course, Sky put it that for certain people "activism is a performance. And once their little performance is over they stop being vegan" [paraphrasing but that was the gist] 😂
The chipmunks are back! 🤗🥜🐿🐿
I didn’t realize that “vegan” referred to more than the diet. I considered myself vegan for years because I was completely plant based. And I called myself vegan. But I didn’t have the passion for animals. In my experience, using “vegan” to refer to the diet and not the surrounding feelings is pretty common so it sounds like there’s a problem with definitions going on here.
I did too--my first stint of "veganism" I would now call "plant-based," but called myself/felt like I was vegan at the time. The Vegan Society definition specifically denotes "a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude-as far as is possible and practicable-all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose." This is the most commonly accepted definition and I'd say most people who call themselves vegan have "not wanting to contribute to animal suffering" as their primary reason.
That being said, I don't think it's productive to police language for the average person--i.e. someone calling themselves "vegan" but they're only eating a plant-based diet. I _do_ however think with public figures/people making loads of money off of publicly claiming to be "vegan," that's where things get dicey.
If you call yourself one then it's a noun. A person who does not eat or use animal products.
If it's just the diet or something similar then it's an adjective.
@@TotallyForkable You're making things up.
You're referring to the doctrine, not the definition of a person.
When the 'ism' is added, it's no longer the same word.
That being said, no one practices anyway because it's too hard an inconvenient.
The ‘feeling better as soon as the animal product goes down your throat’ is also similar to addictions where the drug user feels the effects of the drug before taking it, usually in conjunction with the ritual around the particular drug (rolling cigarettes, making lines etc). Eating animal products while the climate collapses and the whole world is teetering on the brink of implosion is, to my mind, an addiction and the greatest most destructive addiction that ever was. It just happens that the ritual around eating animals and using their bodies is massive and complex and the reason the placebo effect of sniffing a little egg suddenly cures all someone’s ills.
Edit: also, it would be interesting if one of her ‘friends’ started shouting at women leaving abortion clinics with signs telling them they’re murderers and she continued to be ‘friends’ with them.
Absolutely agree that most people are addicted and in deep denial. They intellectualize and do whatever it takes to deny the reality. GREAT point on the abortion clinics. When put that way it seems pretty easy to understand!
Doesn't seem to me that she was ever truly vegan, since veganism entails the ethics part of it, not the health part.
I wouldn't necessarily tell someone who's "vegan for health" to stop using the term vegan, however if they eventually turn away from it that's when it could hurt the vegan movement.
Yes exactly; to me it's not really my concern when the "average joe" misuses it; but when it's a public figure with a ton of influence...
I agree that "feeling fantastic" after having one bite of animal flesh is an emotional response. After all, maintaining a lie is downright draining. She was never Vegan and maintaining that lie proved to be too much. Genuine Vegans are living their truth.
Isn't this just a no true Scotsman fallacy? Nowhere in the definition of vegan does it say "living their truth" or whatever.
You did a great job breaking this whole story down and in entertaining fashion. Thank you.
So glad you enjoyed it, and you are welcome! 💖
I don't think there's such a thing as an ex vegan. They just never were in the first place.
Perfect thank you! Saturday morning breakfast entertainment sorted 😊 I very much appreciate the content 👍
Ahh sounds perfect! I hope you enjoy it (the breakfast and the video 😂), and thanks for commenting!
There are alot of people out there that turn to “veganism” for some answers/truths in life that they are searching for. I was one of them and, for me, I found exactly what I wanted.
This person seems to still be searching for something and unfortunately is struggling with her ego and can’t seem to find anything.
I'd love a SuperSize Me or other documentary review video! Also, she wasn't even credited?
Great work! I hadn’t heard of her before. This video was SO satisfying…like on a cellular level.
LOL. Can't argue with that 🧫😌
Your comment section has such a positive community! It's really rare to see with youtubers
I heard that Morgan Spurlock was a secret alcoholic before/during the making of Super Size Me. That is why is liver was so messed up after the fast food diet apparently. Now Jameson turns out to have been a secret plant-based orthorexic. I wonder what other secret "-ics" were involved in the making of this movie.🤨
I hadn't heard that, but really good question! 🧐 They certainly didn't let the truth get in the way of a good story.
20:27 "i can scam a new group of people!"
Yep! Hence the "pivot."
Hard to argue with being satisfied at a cellular level. Checkmate.
😂 Mic. Drop. 🎤⤵
13:25 what in the actual heck?! presenting that as normal & cathartic. "oh hey, i am scamming the public too!"
Right?! Like, objectively, they were just validating each other's shittiness of lying to the public. And she's positioning it as, "see, there really are still good people in the world" 😂
I did my own n=1 study and corrected the following health problems with only diet, no supplements or exercise, you could easily try it too for a limited time
obesity, prediabetes, loose teeth, bleeding gums, sensitive teeth
cold sores, blocked sinuses, mouth breathing, left eye twitches (tetany)
heartburn, calf cramps, yellow stool, blood in stool
edema below the knees, painful feet when walking, sunburn is less
shoulder, back and neck pain after waking, lower back pain and stiffness
5+ Years on the carnivore lifestyle now :)
Eat Meat, Not Too Little, Mostly Fat
LOL
Wait, Marie Kondo pivoted? Eh.
LOL--I glanced at the Marie Kondo article and it was like "she used to be fanatical about keeping her living room clean. Now, with three young children, she won't always pick up their toys that are strewn about" 😂
@@TotallyForkable LOL. Good for her, I say.
💯
There’s nothing original about ex-vegans 🤣
True!! I'm sure it's been documented over time, but this seems to be the first big one of the internet age! Now there is almost a playbook for "no longer vegan" discourse but back then people were probably like wtf?!
Cute! 😂 great job marielle ❤
🤪🤗
Nice hit piece 👍 and congratulations on your well deserved success - whoa approaching 4k subscribers! I’m sure you’ll hit that 5k by the end of the year. 5 years of blood, sweat, & tears - finally paying off /s
Thank you! 🤗
💚🐾🌱💚🐾🌱💚🐾🌱💚🐾🌱
🤗💖
Maybe she had Cropathy
Definition: The unsettling realization experienced by a vegan upon learning that animal lives are unintentionally lost during the cultivation and harvesting of crops used to sustain a plant-based diet, leading to a profound sense of moral conflict and a re-examination of the ethical implications of their dietary choices. This term combines "crop" (cultivated plants) and "empathy" (the ability to understand and share the feelings of another).
Example: "As an ardent vegan committed to minimizing animal suffering, Liam found himself grappling with cropathy when he discovered the unavoidable collateral damage to birds, bees, fish, insects, rodents, and other small creatures that occurs during the production of his staple grains and vegetables."
But that doesn't make any sense because 1) animal collateral is super low and 2) if it were true, most crops are grown for animal feed so if you still wanted to harm less, you'd still avoid animal products.
@@reaperkollyns6495 Summing up the acreage used for animal feed:
34.1 (corn) + 2.65 (sorghum) + 1.25 (barley) + 0.63 (oats) = 38.63 million acres
Now, let's calculate the percentage:
38.63 million acres (crops used for animal feed) / 320 million acres (total US cropland) = 0.1207 or 12.07%
Therefore, when considering corn, sorghum, barley, and oats used for animal feed and excluding crops with significant human uses and hay production, an estimated 12.07% of total US cropland is used to produce crops primarily for livestock feed.
Based on 2019 data from the USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS)
@@reaperkollyns6495 animal collateral...*Magnitude of Impact**: In the United States alone, up to **67 million birds** are estimated to be killed annually due to insecticides. Additionally, millions more suffer from reduced breathing, weight loss, and other complications³.
@@reaperkollyns6495 Animal collateral...Over the past four decades, **Europe has witnessed a staggering loss of over half a billion birds** from its total population. The primary culprit behind this decline is the widespread use of **pesticides and fertilizers** on farms. These chemicals have devastating effects on bird populations by disrupting their food sources and overall health¹.
@@reaperkollyns6495 Collateral damage...Pesticides: Exposure to pesticides, especially common crop pesticides, has been linked to serious harm in bees. These chemicals damage bees’ ability to navigate home, leading to a 50% decline in honey bee numbers over the last 25 years in the US and UK1.
O Original Ex-Vegan est de volta! Trazer carne de volta mesa no a soluo. Venha me visitar se desejar.
Concordo! Obrigado por assistir 😊
Can we all please stop eating products containing soy, corn and almonds.
I will show here with soy why these products are promoting major animal suffering and bad industrial farming practices.
Soybean seeds contain about 36% protein, 19% of oil, 30% carbohydrates, 5% crude fiber, and 5% of ash
Source: "Soybean seed physiology, quality, and chemical composition under soil moisture stress"
About 85 percent of the world’s soybean crop is processed into meal and vegetable oil, and virtually all of that meal is used in animal feed.
Some two percent of the soybean meal is further processed into soy flours and proteins for food use.
Approximately six percent of soybeans are used directly as human food, mostly in Asia.
Source: "Gentle World As We Soy, So Shall We Reap"
100% of that oil is consumed by humans as 88 percent of soybean oil is used for human consumption (mostly cooking oil) and 12 percent is used as an alternative to petroleum oil.
Ninety eight percent of soybean meal is used for animal feed (poultry, hogs and cattle mostly) and only one percent is used to produce food for people.
Soybean meal is the material remaining after solvent extraction of oil from soybean flakes, the meal is heat steamed and ground in a hammer mill.
Source: Michigan State University - "Where do all these soybeans go?"
Soybeans are the most valuable agricultural export of the United States.
Source: "Top U.S. Agricultural Exports in 2017"
China consumes around 17 million metric tons, U.S. consumption is 12 million metric tons.
Just these top 10 countries consume 48 million metric tons of soybean oil, so at most only 19% of each bean is oil, that means about 194 million tons of soybean meal.
Source: "Soybean Oil Domestic Consumption by Country in 1000 MT"
The fiber would be a waste product like cotton seeds were but now is sold very cheaply to the industrial animal factory farms as feed.
Without this cheap source of fiber for the animal feed there would be much less industrial animal factory farms and farmers would need to allow animals to graze in pasture.
The more unhealthy plant oils humans consume, the more industrial animal factory farms can be supported with cheap waste fiber as the oil is the real commodity.
So the people who are consuming plant oils are allowing the industrial animal factory farms (cheaper because less land is needed) to proliferate and outcompete farmers using regenerative techniques.
There are many other crops which have waste fiber that contribute to industrial animal factory farms, e.g. corn, almonds
Eat Meat, Not Too Little, Mostly Fat
Can't tell if this is parody 😂
@@TotallyForkable No, just a lazy carnivore doing a 'copy and paste' 😉
@@TotallyForkable Look up each source!
@@Meathead-10810 You could boycott factory farmed animal products as well. That seems more direct. Although I'm not sure this has anything to do with this video.
@@nullethosechoes I do when I can afford pasture raised meat. Most of my meat is factory farmed for now unfortunately.