The Original Ex-Vegan is Back

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Today we're discussing one of the original ex-vegan dramas involving a woman named Alexandra Jamieson. Alex first came to be known through her appearance as "The Vegan Girlfriend" in the movie "Super Size Me." From there she went on to have a lucrative career as a vegan ambassador for the next 10 years, traveling around the world, getting paid top dollar for speaking engagements, and publishing three books. She shocked the world when, in 2013, she published a post on her blog entitled: "I'm not vegan anymore." There was a large public outcry in what would be one of the first big "no longer vegan" scandals of the internet age. This past week, she was profiled by The Guardian for their series "The Influencers Who Pivoted." In this video we discuss all of this.

‘I’d buy fish and hide it under kale’: the star vegan chef who developed a taste for liver:

I'm not vegan anymore (Alex Jamieson's blog post):

Intro 00:00
Guardian article 1:33
Alex in Super Size Me 2:22
Guardian interview 07:20
Alex’s “No Longer Vegan” blog post 14:46
Alex’s Instagram post 22:43
How to fix “No Longer Vegan” announcements 24:20
Final thoughts 25:25
Outro 26:31
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Additional thoughts:
-“Vegan Cooking for Dummies” and “Living Vegan for Dummies” are still available–I find it wild to think she still makes money when people buy these books
-I don't think the enormity of opportunities this movie brought her can be understated. Traveling to 20 countries, doing a massive press tour, multiple book deals, lucrative speaking engagements. I can’t really think of a modern-day equivalent of that. The girl made a huge chunk of change from her “vegan” persona
-re: this being my first exposure to a vegan and not remembering it, Paul said he specifically remembers Alex from the movie and thinking she was “hot” and that it would be a “dream” to have a vegan girlfriend cook all this healthy food for him, and that the guy in the move “didn’t deserve her” 😂

TotallyForkable
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Before going vegan I was iron deficient. My doctor didn't prescribe meat. He prescribed iron supplements. I've also got hashimoto hypothyroidism and my vegan diet of over a decade has contributed to my health in so many positive ways that my Hashi symptoms are barely recognizable.

That said, I dont believe veganism is a cure to hypothyroidism, BUT the lie that eating animals is EVER for HEALTH is counter to the science.

As a dietetics major, I've torn apart at least 100 RCTs, meta-analyses, and cohort/clinical trials. I've yet to find any convincing evidence that supports an omnivorous diet when compared with a vegan diet.

juliadepuy
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Great perspective on the topic, love your channel! My wife and I regularly come across people who conflate being vegan & being plant-based. Vegans are resilient and find ways to improve their diet (i.e. whole food vs. vegan fast food), adjust things and avoid turning to meat at all cost. The motivation is very different for plant-based folks who might be in it just for the "trend" or for clicks. Keep up the great job with your videos; you are very mindful & not judgmental. As a vegan of 5 years, I will try to be as good as you in the future ;-)

remilemaire
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Paté! Paté! The worst goose-torturing liver spread! Okay, she was obviously just into veganism for health reasons and dived into her "vegan influencer" lifestyle without any concern for animals. Once that lifestyle became less novel, less satisfying or even less profitable, she moved on to her next grift, the "ex-vegan influencer." I can laugh, but I now recall something out of my own past. When I was in college in the late 1970s, I decided to become vegetarian for mainly environmental reasons. My college cafeteria always offered one vegetarian dish, usually containing cheese and eggs. Despite that, after several months, I began to feel very tired all the time. That probably had more to do with drinking too much, staying up late, and participating in athletics. After about a year, I gave it up. Now, forty five years later, I am about 4 months into being a vegan, originally for health reasons, but after watching Ed Winters YouTubes in which he debates college students, I have added animal welfare to the health and environmental reasons I give others who demand I justify my veganism. So far, so good!

prieten
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I remember watching this documentary. Wasn't vegan at the time and didn't remember the was a "vegan" in it either. I guess that's pretty accurate since there wasn't a vegan in this documentary. 🙃

thebowandbullet
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I didn’t realize that “vegan” referred to more than the diet. I considered myself vegan for years because I was completely plant based. And I called myself vegan. But I didn’t have the passion for animals. In my experience, using “vegan” to refer to the diet and not the surrounding feelings is pretty common so it sounds like there’s a problem with definitions going on here.

btheend
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I agree that "feeling fantastic" after having one bite of animal flesh is an emotional response. After all, maintaining a lie is downright draining. She was never Vegan and maintaining that lie proved to be too much. Genuine Vegans are living their truth.

lorihowell
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What's so strange to me is the number of these ex plant based eaters who talk about cravings as if that's the signal that they need to eat meat again. I crave spicy sweet chili doritios but that doesn't mean I should eat them for my health. But rather than meat anyway, it sounds like she was craving fatty foods; she may have been eating a really low fat diet. She talked about trying more protein and green juices, but not adding more healthy fats into her diet.

The reality is that the cravings are an excuse.

TheOwlQueen
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100 percent the orthorexia was the issue. She wouldn't allow herself oil, sugar, or gluten - possibly other things. If she doesn't actually have a gluten allergy, that was needlessly cutting out a source of protein and other nutrients. Her cravings for animal products were probably cravings for calorie dense, dopamine spiking treats. But she can't see this because she probably did "feel better" eating the animal products because they were meeting that need. She thinks veganism is orthorexia because she hasn't made the connection between her cutting out nutrients needlessly on her plant based "health" diet and her failure to thrive on it. I believe the rest of her justifications for her behavior are founded on this house of cards.

goldfishlaser
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The ‘feeling better as soon as the animal product goes down your throat’ is also similar to addictions where the drug user feels the effects of the drug before taking it, usually in conjunction with the ritual around the particular drug (rolling cigarettes, making lines etc). Eating animal products while the climate collapses and the whole world is teetering on the brink of implosion is, to my mind, an addiction and the greatest most destructive addiction that ever was. It just happens that the ritual around eating animals and using their bodies is massive and complex and the reason the placebo effect of sniffing a little egg suddenly cures all someone’s ills.

Edit: also, it would be interesting if one of her ‘friends’ started shouting at women leaving abortion clinics with signs telling them they’re murderers and she continued to be ‘friends’ with them.

ohbli_oh
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I have someone in my family who consumes cow flesh and has major iron issues. Me: vegan since 2016, no anemia, physical job... 🤷🏼 If someone who can't digest gluten craves regular bread and pasta, does that mean they should eat bread and pasta?? 😅

jenerlee
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What's actually shitty is people who don't what veganism is calling themselves vegan and later ex-vegan. They often don't know anything about nutrition either and seek answers/solutions from people who also have no expertise in health and nutrition. To the average person who also doesn't know anything about veganism and nutrition, this sounds like 'proof' against veganism while this actually only proves that ignorant people make poor choices and influencers make false claims for clicks.

thebowandbullet
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I had never heard of her. I remember Super Size Me, but didn't watch it. Again I can't help wonder if she would have felt better with just a little vegan junk food? Maybe she just needed some dopamine. Of course I don't know her situation and am not a nutrition expert. I'm just a guy who has been vegan for 14 years.

v_zach
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Great assessment of this whole 'ex-vegan' thing Marielle!
I've yet to see a really altruistic vegan like an Ed Winters type person turn 'ex-vegan'. I'm never really that surprised when I see or hear of one of the so called 'doing it for my health' vegan influencers become ex-vegan. If they never mention or are rarely mentioning animal welfare, then it is likely just a matter of time before they join that ex-vegan club.

johnharrison
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Doesn't seem to me that she was ever truly vegan, since veganism entails the ethics part of it, not the health part.

I wouldn't necessarily tell someone who's "vegan for health" to stop using the term vegan, however if they eventually turn away from it that's when it could hurt the vegan movement.

RatsPicklesandMusic
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You did a great job breaking this whole story down and in entertaining fashion. Thank you.

bgrune
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The Guardian articles were frustratingly anti-vegan back when Super Size Me was ground breaking. It wasn’t until a few years ago, when it became common knowledge that eating animal products was destroying the planet, that The Guardian changed its tack and started adding the occasional pro-vegan article. For profit, I assume, they still slip the occasional anti-vegan article in, or another article might have an anti-vegan sentence or two just to keep their animal eaters engaged.

kerryfirehorse
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20:27 "i can scam a new group of people!"

modest_meghan
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Great work! I hadn’t heard of her before. This video was SO satisfying…like on a cellular level.

MoonBeams
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Perfect thank you! Saturday morning breakfast entertainment sorted 😊 I very much appreciate the content 👍

mrmiller