The inspiration to become veganized came at a late stage in life but I have been assured by other vegans it’s never too late!
Six months ago I was leading the typical life of an elderly meathead, and while perusing the shelves of the local library I discovered some titles by Anthony Warner AKA The Angry Chef, in particular his book The Angry Chef’s Guide To Spotting Bullsh*t In The World Of Food, subtitled, Bad Science and the Truth about Healthy Eating. Any writer daring to expose those who intend to mislead and misinform people about health and nutrution for financial gain is my kind of guy. I gotta read it!
Through metaphor, stories and science, he de-bunks many diet myths, and many modern-day internet gurus and celebrities fall in his line of fire. However, his attacks are intelligent and well-informed. He is not disparaging of those who promote false diets; indeed, he thinks most are not malicious or evil, but have just ended up believing something incorrect.
I found him to be an easy read and we shared the same frustrations and anger about the bad science behind healthy eating and our mutual interest in the debunking of food faddism and unscientific advice. I had just started thinking about becoming vegan and I wanted to do it right and for the right reasons. After I saw some disturbing videos exposing some of the darker aspects of animal agriculture, I was convinced I had to become a vegan. This is not a decision to be taken lightly, after all, I have been a meathead for over half a century!
Anthony Warner is not a vegan himself but is one of those great chefs who is also a gifted writer. His Truths About Healthy Eating are an indicator of just how bad things are in the way of confusing food science and the trouble sometimes dangerous food fads have gotten us. He is a master at exposing psudoscience and BS. I suspect he has even experienced some serious backlash for his open contempt of Gwyneth Paltrow, her website Goop and the Paleo Diet crowd, as well as others fully detailed in his book.
The ‘John Grisham” of food writers
If you were to ask me who was my favorite author of all time, the GOAT of writers out of the million or so books read in a lifetime I would say John Grisham, not totally for the stories he makes so interesting (usually about lawyers) but for the way he writes them. His style keeps you engaged, never boring, dialog crisp and sharp. That same style of writing is what so intrigued me about Anthony Warner and reminded me of Grisham. His angry but intelligent approach, sometimes dripping with sarcasm style is what I hoped to carry on in the same vein in a blog about the vegan lifestyle.
I am nowhere near as talented a scribe as Mr. Warner and my desire to create the Mad Magazine of the Vegan World requires contributions from outside talents who help us expose the truth about food, hence, the Pseudoscience Busters of The Vegan Swamp were born.
Anyway, the whole thing started by reading Warner and went on from there to all the Doctors who wrote about the vegan lifestyle from a personal health point of view. I am a dedicated vegan now and while The Vegan Swamp blog is a new venture it consumes most my time and I love every minute!