There is a delightful article in the current, March 23, edition of Newsweek, by David Noonan, titled, "I Can't Believe I'm Still a Vegan." (Periscope, Pg 16.)
Noonan opens with:
"More than halfway through my sixth decade, I have learned to live with the routine insults and occasional horrors of passing time--the daily aches and pains, the eroding senses (say again?), the too-frequent diagnosis of cancer and other life-threatening illnesses among my peers. I accept these blows, big and small, as the price to be paid for the joys I've known and whatever wisdom I've been able to acquire over the years. I accept them because, well, I really don't have a choice. There is one thing, however I will not abide: getting fat.
"It would be simple enough to let it all go. As millions of middle-aged Americans have discovered, it's a hell of a lot easier to grow a belly than to not grow one. But I don't want to be one of those guys in the XXL golf shirts who look like they are about to give birth to a basketball. And I don't want to increase my risk of diabetes, heart disease and other health problems associated with obesity. Which is why, in early January, as my holiday food intake helped push my weight past the 210 mark for the first time (I'm six feet tall) I became a vegan...."
I won't share more because magazines keep close tabs on how many clicks an article gets, so please give this link a click and give the article a read -- and even better, forward it to all of your friends:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/189291
What a great opportunity it presents for letters to the editor about the benefits of a vegan diet. Noonan has covered health. Readers enjoying plant based diets can corroborate his experience, and we can expand the discussion to the livestock industry with regard to the cruelty of factory farming (see www.factoryfarming.com for information and shocking photos) and the devastation of the environment.
Newsweek takes letters at letters@newsweek.com
Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published. And please be sure not to use any comments or phrases from me or from any other alerts in your letters. Editors are looking for original responses from their readers.
Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)
Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com to read reviews and see a fun celeb-studded video and an NBC news piece on Karen Dawn's new book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of 2008."
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Date: Fri Mar 20 17:12:57 2009
