American Idol Winner Ruben Studdard Loses 100 Pounds On Vegan Diet
Filed under: film-tv, food & drink, television — Michael Parrish DuDell @ 5:03 pm
March 9th 2010
We all know a plant-based diet is one of the best ways to improve Mother Earth’s health, but did you know it’s also a kickass way to improve human health, too?!
Take for instance Ruben Studdard — the American Idol winner who recently lost 100 pounds by going VEG. Ruben explained his weight-loss on The Wendy Williams Show, saying, ”I went to vegetarianism about a year-and-a-half ago, and then about 6 months ago I started being completely vegan.” We love that story!
Ruben continues to explain how incredible vegan food is and brags about his vegan mac and cheese and greens. Yum!
Don’t believe veganism can take off the pounds? Just take a look at The Biggest Loser trainer Bob Harper who rocks a vegetarian (close to vegan) diet and constantly promotes veganism as a healthy way to live.
Check out Ruben’s appearance on The Wendy Williams Show below and visit GoVeg.com to get your free vegetarian starter kit.
Are we absolutely sure that an all veg diet is the best way to save the earth? How about a mixed diet of sustainably grown foods
Let’s not forget that methane is also a geeenhouse gas and one of the largest sources of methane gas – after burning coal – is rotting vegetation.
And let’s not also forget that growing veggies, just like growing anything, uses a lot of water.
Pasture-fed cattle, small birds and animals – all these have a low footprint.
I reckon I’d lose weight on a vegan diet too – but I’d also lose my joy of eating
Hi John, I am afraid I have to take issue with some of your logic and facts.
According to the EPA, the number one man-made emitter of methane gas is Enteric Fermentation (139 TgCO2 Equivalents), which is methane produced from the digestive systems of domesticated livestock.
The fifth largest man-made emitter is livestock manure management (44 TgCO2 Equivalents)
By rotting vegetation, do you mean composting, which is number 13 on the list at 1.7 TgCO2 Equivalents? Or could you be talking about non-man made emissions such as wetlands, which do emit the most methane, but I doubt anyone would advocate for destroying those.
http://www.epa.gov/methane/sources.html
As far as water use livestock production not only uses water directly, but livestock feed (corn, soybeans, hay)account for the majority of crops grown in the US, and over half of each crop is used for feed (ex: 80% of corn. Water usage numbers for livestock production do not take feed into account
A great breakdown of livestock production can be found at:
http://www.fao.org/ag/magazine/0612sp1.htm
And lastly, for the joy of eating, may I suggest http://www.vegweb.com for some amazing vegan recipes.
Lose your joy of eating? Wow, I eat way more tasty food now that I’m vegan. There are even lots of vegan “treats” like So Delicious brand ice “creams”, like the ones made from coconut milk. Absolutely decadent! Oh, and check out Daiya vegan “cheese” – it is without a doubt the best vegan cheese ever – it even stretches and melts like “regular” cheese.
I look forward to the day when the title on a post like this will be, “American Idol Winner Ruben Studdard Gains Health On Vegan Diet”. By perpetuating the myth that people lose weight on a vegan diet, you harm the arguments for veganism. You get healthy on a vegan diet, not skinny. And healthy is more important.
I don’t know much about Ruben, but that was class from start to finish. I’m a new fan.
There’s an interesting post over at the Health Journal Club that makes the case that people should just not eat anything that wasn’t a food 100 years ago. Gets rid of the aspartame, bleached GM flour, high fructose corn syrup garbage they try to pass off as food these days. If interested you can read on it here,
http://healthjournalclub.blogspot.com/2010/01/100-year-diet.html
That’s just a few of the many benefits of a vegan diet. But I think that exercise should help a LOT too.
Dan, I couldn’t agree more. I voted for Ruben on AI, but no matter how much they try to impart the contestants’ personalities he never came across to me as this grounded, aware being that he obviously is. I wish him every success.