Vegetarian Image

 

Picture a Vegetarian

Does the vegetarian image keep you from becoming vegetarian? What do you think when someone speaks of a vegetarian lifestyle? What image comes to mind? Do any of these words fit with the image in your head: thin, scraggly, intelligent, hippie, rebel, tattoos, radical, body piercings, long hair, weak?

Weird Vegetarians

It probably was a group of well read, radical thinkers who first started to publicly question the meat-eating culture. No doubt, there are vegetarians that think that being part of a counter culture is great, so they try to look the part. However, most vegetarians look and act just like you and me.

Why did I become Vegetarian?

When I became vegetarian, I was a wife and mother of five children living in a nice house in a suburban community. After being on a high-protein, weight-loss diet, I experienced some health problems and visited my doctor. He said, "Choose a better diet." That Sunday I was reading Parade magazine and saw an ad for healthier eating and saw an ad for The McDougall Plan by John A. McDougall, M.D. & Mary A. McDougall. So, I ordered the book.

The Vegan Diet

I thought the diet recommended in the book was backed by good evidence and made a lot of sense, so I asked my husband, who had been raised on a Texas ranch, what he thought. He said, "It's okay with me if we become vegetarian as long as you cook." So, the seven of us became vegetarian (vegan). That was 24 years ago.
"You ask people why they have deer heads on the wall. They always say, 'Because it's such a beautiful animal.' There you go. I think my mother's attractive, but I have photographs of her." Ellen DeGeneres

Famous Vegetarians


We had no idea that there was a vegetarian image out there that we needed to live up to. We didn't grow long hair, pierce our bodies, or lose any strength. In fact, our new diet made us feel much healthier. Over the years I have met many vegetarians, and will admit, a few fit the stereotype, but most don't. It may surprise you that some very famous people are vegetarian.
"I take vitamins daily, but just the bare essentials not what you'd call supplements. I try to stick to a vegan diet heavy on fruit, vegetables, tofu, and other soy products." Clint Eastwood
Here are some: Richard Gere, actor; Orlando Bloom, actor; Carl Lewis, track & field w/10 Olympic medals, 9 gold; Alanis Morissette, singer; Mike Tyson, boxer; Martina Navratilova, tennis w/167 single titles, 5 at Wimbledon; Prince Fielder, major league baseball player; Vanessa A. Williams, actress & dancer; Alec Baldwin, actor; Shania Twain, singer; Leo Tolstoy, author (War & Peace ); Vincent Van Gogh, artist; Glenn Scolnick, former Steelers football player; Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist; Paul McCartney and George Harrison, singers (Beatles ); Alicia Silverstone, actress; Tobey Maguire, actor; Stic.man, Hip Hop artist; Alice Walker, Pulitzer prize winning author & feminist; Brendan Brazier, Iroman triathlete; Scott Adams, cartoonist (Dilbert ); Rosa Parks, civil rights activist; Portia de Rossi, actress; Rikki Rocket, drummer (Poison ); Leonardo da Vinci, artist & scientist; Mary Tyler Moore, actress; George Bernard Shaw, play write & Nobel Prize winner--to name a few.

Carl Lewis
Are these vegetarians weak, scrawny, inferior, tatooed, long haired hippies?