With over 16 million workout videos sold since 1980, Kathy Smith has become a household name in fitness. A mother of two, Kathy also serves on the board of the USC School of Gerontology, the Women's Sports Foundation and is a recipient of the IDEA Lifetime Achievement Award from IDEA Health & Fitness, the world's largest professional fitness organization.
The Protein War! Vegan vs. Atkins
You’ve probably heard some buzz about the latest trend in celebrity dieting: going vegan, or going on a vegan “cleanse.” Oprah made headlines in May when she tried the 21 Day Vegan Cleanse from Kathy Freston’s book Quantum Wellness. This not only meant giving up meat, eggs, and dairy - it also meant to refined sugar, no alcohol, and no caffeine. As you can see from Oprah’s blog entries, it was a major challenge - but, not surprisingly, she lost weight and felt terrific.
Now Ellen DeGeneres has raised eyebrows with her decision to go vegan. She’s always been a major animal rights supporter and an advocate of local organic produce, but she’s also been a carnivore. Taking a cue from her fellow talk show maven, Ellen has chosen to go vegan - not necessarily to chronicle the diet on her show or blog, but to get into shape for her upcoming wedding to Portia de Rossi.
So what exactly is all the fuss about? Is going vegan, as Freston announced on the Huffington Post, actually the “new Atkins”?!
You’ve probably figured out by now that I’m a fan of moderation - meaning, I don’t usually recommend eliminating anything completely, especially if it’s a favorite food that’s going to make you feel deprived. And it’s possible to be a technical “vegan” while still eating processed junk food that just happens to be animal-free. But the good thing about Freston’s take on this way of eating is that it involves increasing your intake of veggies, fruit, and whole grains - and that’s always a good thing. (For some delicious vegetarian recipes, check out BeachBody’s latest newsletter.)
I was a vegetarian for many years, and I still love to cook wholesome vegetarian meals, or have a meat-free dinner at Real Food Daily. Ultimately I decided that being a strict vegetarian wasn’t for me - especially when I was pregnant with my first daughter. My body craved protein and I was deficient in iron. While some studies show that it’s entirely possible to have all of your dietary needs met on a vegetarian, or even vegan, diet - it didn’t always work for my body.
The comparison between vegan and Atkins is an interesting one. There’s the obvious difference: one involves eating no meat, and the other involves eating a lot of it. And, in my effort to avoid anything “extreme,” I’ve never been a huge Atkins fan because it eliminates so many healthy carbohydrates, and people often go overboard with the saturated fat that comes with some meat products. But, just like the vegan diet, there is something to be learned from the no-carb craze: the power of eliminating sugar and increasing your protein.
So maybe there’s a way to get the best of both worlds: eating more of the high-fiber fruits, veggies, and whole grains that you would eat on a vegan diet, while also getting more of the protein advocated by Atkins (albeit the lean and clean version). Call it the Kathy Smith Vegan Atkins Cleanse. Kinda has a ring to it, doesn’t it? Maybe it’ll be the biggest diet craze of 2009.
