Towards the end of my SuccDem Berniecrat phase I was basically addicted to Steven Crowder’s Youtube videos since I wasn’t aware of any socialists making sense in the transgender debate (I didn’t find out about Magdalen Berns until after she died, but thank god more radicals have started to speak out since). I found out about Lierre through her interview with Steven around that time and wanted to read this book ever since.
The title’s pretty self-explanatory: it’s a polemic against vegetarian and vegan diets. She was a vegan for 20 years, so it’s also partly a memoir of her own experience and journey back to eating meat. She explains many of the health issues she encountered along the way and gives scientific explanations why. I loved it so much because, not only is Lierre’s writing extremely engaging, but she also references her statements to hell and back.
One thing I wasn’t expecting was her to explain that the Standard American Diet – recommending low cholesterol and high carbs – is unhealthy, too. She explains that grains and carbs could be fueling the ‘diseases of civilization’, rather than cholesterol and fat. The Paleo diet’s intrigued me since I watched a documentary about it on Netflix in late 2011 or early 2012. That touched on the potential issue of grains and carbs too, but I don’t remember it getting into the science at all, which Lierre thankfully does. She also doesn’t explicitly advocate for a Paleo diet, but some of her references point to Paleo sources.
My only gripe’s that it has kind of an anti-civ tinge to it. I could be wrong, but it seems like she doesn’t think technology and a healthy planet can co-exist. I still highly recommend it, but I’d be interested in hearing her opinion on how successful she thinks the strategy of this next book might be.
Book available at https://bookshop.org/books/the-vegetarian-myth-food-justice-and-sustainability/9781604860801.
Originally published at https://wspus.org/2020/10/our-new-journal-world-socialist/.