Kathy Freston is a New York Times best-selling author who is passionate about healthy living and conscious eating. She gave up some of her time to talk to us about her books on veganism- a lifestyle she champions for its long list of benefits on health and wellbeing.
The Lean
What can readers expect from your two most recent books The Lean and Veganist?
Veganist is a surprisingly approachable manifesto on what veganism is. I say surprising because people tend to think of the world 'vegan' as being staunch, strict or very disciplined. In fact it's about approaching it with flexibility and fluidity. It's about opening your eyes to the reality of what meat production does to the environment and what it does to your body. Veganist is all about the health, environmental and ethical implications of eating animal foods.
The Lean is more about weight loss and part of that weight loss is about moving away from animal foods. It is also about crowding out bad habits with really healthy, simple ones. I don't recommend cutting things out of your diet because it just makes you feel deprived and angry. We tend to go back to our old ways. In The Lean I talk about adding something in every day- something that is healthy, that makes you feel fulfilled and energetic.
One day, I say 'add in an apple', so every day for the 30 days you eat that apple. The next day I add something else so you are not only eating an apple along with your regular diet but you are adding two tablespoons of flaxseed throughout those 30 days too. By the end of 30 days you have leaned into some new habits and your metabolism changes. The chemistry of your body changes so you are not craving the old fatty, sugary foods that you might have before. It's effortless and it's not about deprivation.
The Lean is all about making a gradual shift into veganism, some people see it as a very black and white transition- how would you respond to someone who is critical of this method of easing in?
I think black and white doesn't work for anything. It's too severe, it's too polarizing. To change a habit that has been instilled in us from infancy is unrealistic and it certainly never worked for me. I think when something is too dogmatic and judgemental it's coming from a place of ego rather than a true and rooted place of wanting to change fundamentally.
I grew up eating every kind of fried chicken, cheese, pork chops and everything else. If you had told me that I had to just give up animal food all at once, every little spec of it - I never could have done it.
Perhaps I could do it for a few months or even a year but it would be just too severe of a change for me. But if I give up eating one meal at a time and replace it with something that is plant based then I find my way- I get more comfortable. I lean in gradually, I find restaurants that I like and I get used to grocery shopping in a certain way. Then I can stick with it because it's gradual. That to me is a method that really works.
Veganist is packed with research and interviews so can you tell us how long it took you to pull all the information together?
I would say it's been a decade of research but it's been gradual. I came into this through the ethical door. I was very interested in moving onto a plant based diet because I was bothered by what I was seeing on videos and what I was reading in the papers about how animal foods are produced. I thought that I wanted to stop eating animal foods for the ethical reasons but that my health would suffer.
I did a lot of research on how to stay healthy throughout. What I began to see was a mountain of evidence that supported plant based foods being far healthier for you. It became an obsession for me to research and talk to nutritional scientists and doctors and people doing really good studies. What I continued to find was that a plant based diet would not only sit in my soul well but it was doing my body a favour and the environment was thriving also because of my choices. It was a decade of research but it probably took me about three years to write.
What is a typical day like in your world in terms of what you eat and the physical activity you do?
I wake up pretty early and I have lots of energy which I never had as a carnivore. When I wake up, I usually have a bowl of steel cut oats and some berries with soya milk. I go for a hike; I live in southern California so there are a lot of hills around me. I go for a vigorous hike with my dog and when I come back I lift some weights.
Then I have a smoothie with some protein powder and some frozen greens, a little bit of peanut butter and some coconut water.
I will work for a couple of hours and then I will have a lunch. Typically that would be a big salad, a soup or a lentil stew or something like that.
I go out to dinner a lot. It depends on where I go, there is a wonderful restaurant down the street that has lots of vegan items on the menu even though it's not a vegan restaurant.
You talk about the concept of 'progress not perfection'- so why do some people think that veganism is about striving for that perfect status?
Victor Hugo famously said that 'perfect is the enemy of the good'. I strongly believe in that. If we think we have to be perfect, which is impossible, we will do nothing at all. A real profound and positive change starts with one step. I think that if we can just take that one step and follow it up with another and continually move forward- we get to a better and better place every day. I think that's the kind of change that sticks.
Who do you most admire in the vegan community?
I really admire the undercover investigators. They are people who get jobs in slaughterhouses and surreptitiously film what goes on. I honestly don't know how they do it. They love animals and they are advocating for animals and yet they put themselves in these situations where they see the most horrible sadness day after day. All so they can expose what is really going on. I just think that they are the unsung heroes.
Why are we so afraid of carbs?!
Probably because the meat and dairy industry have made it so with these trendy diets. If you look back at the cultures and civilisations that have historically had the best health and lived the longest, they have always been carb based diets. When I say carbs, I mean whole, unrefined carbs. That means grains and potatoes and yams (sweet potatoes)- not cookies and cakes. If you look at Asia, China and Japan, for thousands of years- their main staple has been rice- white rice at that. They have traditionally had very low rates of cancer and heart disease.
If you look at what are called the 'blue zones'- 5 places in the world where people live the longest and are the healthiest; they have had very little meat in their diet. Maybe once a week they will have small amount of meat- the rest of it has been carbs, herbs and vegetables. I would imagine that these high protein low carb diets are propagated by the animal agriculture industry. It's sadly to our peril. We may look slim and strong if we are eating that food at first but what's happening on the inside of our bodies to our arteries and our kidneys- that's all bad news. It's wise to look at the long term of what is happening to our health. If we want to stay healthy long term it has to be a plant based diet.
If you could recommend something to watch to enlighten people on the reality of meat and dairy production what would you choose?
I love a video that you can find online called 'Glass Walls'. It's narrated by Sir Paul McCartney. It's fantastic- they go behind the scenes of slaughterhouses to show what animal food production looks like.
Is it as bad as Earthlings?
It's pretty bad, but that's the thing- the truth is pretty horrifying. That is why slaughterhouses don't have glass walls because they don't want the public to see what goes on. Earthlings is horrible- it focuses on all of the different animal industries- 'Glass Walls' is just about food animal production.
Many vegans face resistance over their lifestyle, so how often do you face people who oppose your choices and how do you cope with it when you do?
I understand because I used to be that way too. I used to think that I needed meat and dairy to be healthy. I enjoyed the way that I grew up and the traditions that my family ate. I completely understand defending your lifestyle. Nobody wants to feel attacked or criticised. I approach it with the attitude of being generous, by inviting over people for dinner and cooking really delicious food. Just being open and informative in a very gentle way. I don't get into debates because that's just polarising. I think when we're promoting a kind diet it makes sense just to be kind. That is the way people open their hearts and their ears to what's really going on.
Of all the people you have come into contact with who have transformed their lives with a vegan diet, whom has stuck with you the most?
There are so many wonderful stories about huge weight loss and people recovering their health. I love the story of this young woman I just interviewed, her name is Paula; she is 25 now. She was overweight in high school and had pimples all over her face. She felt insecure and outcast. She stumbled on something about veganism and decided to give it a try. Her weight came off and her skin cleared up. She found her confidence and she became an advocate for this way of living. I looked at her and the way she was before; she was insecure and wasn't shining as a human being. She has been completely transformed by the way she eats now. Hers is the generation that will change things. It's the young adults in their twenties now who will be opening new restaurants and having families. They are the generation who will change things.
I know you lost weight initially when you started being vegan, so do you have to count calories now to maintain your new weight or is it just a matter of eating in moderation?
I never, ever count calories and I'm not believer in moderation either. When you eat a plant based diet, it's so full of fibre. Fruits and vegetables, whole grains and yams (sweet potatoes) have so much fibre. It fills me up and slowly releases the glucose into my system so I have steady energy all day. I don't get those wild cravings- I eat fruit- natural whole fruits, so I am not craving refined sugar either. I eat as much as I want, I never tell myself I can't eat something, if I want a second or third helping, I have it! I am totally satisfied and my weight is exactly is where I want it to be.
You are involved in lots of different things such as your blog, contributing to the likes of Huffington Post and TV appearances, so how do you juggle it all?
I am both introvert and I enjoy a little bit of time out. Writing is a very quiet career. I spend a lot of time in my home office researching and quietly writing by myself. When I am promoting a book, there are a lot of TV appearances, radio shows, connecting with people and giving talks. As soon as I am worn out from all of that, I retreat back to my home office and I start writing on the next project. Its kind of a perfect balance for me.
What's next for you?
I am writing a new book for young adults. For the millennials who are in college and just getting out of school. It's about being 'veganish'. Young adults and millennials don't like to label themselves. They don't believe in anything being black or white. I agree, I'm on the same page. This is really about just supplying the information so that someone their age can make their own educated decision. The book will be full of recipes that can be done in one pot or a microwave- very simple and very tasty!
Kathy Freston's books 'Veganist' and 'The Lean' are out now and can be bought from Amazon and www.kathyfreston.com.
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