On February 27th, Alex Jamieson made a huge public admission:
Please read the aforementioned blog post now.
————————————————-
Ok. Now my reaction…
Alex is right about one thing: This is a shock.
Alex is wrong about another thing: I don’t feel hopeful and I’m not breathing a sigh of relief.
Yes, I do appreciate her honesty about the whole thing, but I can’t help but find her blog post deeply disturbing on a number of levels.
I will try to enumerate them here. I’m going to list my reactions in no particular order, in an attempt to allow my thoughts to flow out more easily.
Here goes.
ONE
Alex was “vegan” for thirteen years. That’s no short amount of time. It disturbs me to imagine how someone who has lived the vegan lifestyle for that long could ever return to a diet that includes animals.
TWO
Alex states that some of her health coach clients were “sicker and heavier after going vegan than they were before.”
What does this even mean?
This is disturbing because there is not one “vegan diet.” There are innumerable ways to construct a balanced diet without animal products. Such a general statement about the implied failure of “the vegan diet” does nothing to pinpoint exactly what foods her clients were or were not eating.
THREE
It’s perfectly normal to have cravings. I’m sure there are plenty of vegans who have cravings for every imaginable variety of animal product. A craving that comes up at the beginning of one’s veganism isn’t necessarily any different than a craving that comes up later on.
Remember– Most of us do not go vegan or initiate a vegan diet because we stopped liking the taste of animal products!
I personally know of one vegan who has admitted repeatedly that his desire for meat never went away after he went vegan over 10 years ago. To this day, he continues to enjoy the sight and smell of meat. But, he does not give in to his cravings, because he chooses to align his actions with his ethical position. He is vegan for animal rights.
We don’t have to turn craving into consumption!
FOUR
I honestly feel sorry for Alex. I feel sorry for the inner turmoil she obviously endured for so long. I believe that she did have every intention of staying with her vegan diet.
But– Why didn’t Alex seek support from other committed vegans right at the beginning of her struggle? Why did she go it alone?
I don’t agree with her solution!
FIVE
It’s distressing that craving (i.e taste, palate pleasure) appears to be Alex’s only or primary motivation for going back to eating animals after thirteen years. This is made clear throughout Alex’s blog post:
“The impulse to order salmon instead of salad with tofu at my favorite restaurant was overwhelming.”
“I told no one of my own cravings for meat or fish or eggs.”
“I had to experience how it felt to eat animal foods again, if only to prove to myself that it wasn’t really all that good.”
“I would secretly visit restaurants or stores and buy “contraband” animal foods, scurry home, and savor the food in solitude.”
SIX
I just can’t fully agree with the statement,
“Trusting your body, living your truth, whether it be vegan, part-time vegan, flexitarian and carnivore is all inherently good.”
This is not about good vs bad. Let’s throw out those words altogether and talk about the real issue.
From the animal’s point of view, there is a very distinct difference between vegan and flexitarian. From the animal’s point of view it’s literally a matter of life or death. Staying vegan means something. Being consistent means something!
The above statement is troubling. People can just eat whatever they want and feel good about whatever that happens to be?
So– if my “body” craves bacon and I “live my truth” by eating bacon, then it’s all “good”?
Ask the pig how good it is.
SEVEN
It’s very sad to know that many people will use Alex’s story as an excuse to never go vegan. Certain people will reject veganism without ever having any personal experience with it at all.
Similarly, certain “vegans” and vegetarians will undoubtedly use Alex’s story as an excuse to go back to eating animal products themselves.
Do you think I’m making this up?
———————————————-
In the beginning and at the end, Alex was vegan for health reasons. She said it herself:
“13 years ago, when I decided to eat a vegan diet and live a vegan lifestyle, I did it for my health.”
Although Alex did align herself with other, valid reasons for “living the vegan lifestyle” (i.e. animal welfare, global hunger, and global warming), she didn’t appear to be vegan for reasons of animal rights.
For the sake of simplicity, I’m defining “animal rights” as the idea that all animals have a basic right not to be used, exploited, and killed. Animals are not commodities. Each being is owner of his/her own body.
Although I’m upset by this news from Alex, I probably shouldn’t be too surprised by it. Alex used to eat a vegan diet. Now she doesn’t. Alex used to have health reasons. Now she doesn’t.
CONCLUSION: ANIMAL RIGHTS!
If people who “go vegan” or “eat a vegan diet” do not also believe in “animal rights,” then those people will– just like Alex– be at risk of one day returning to using, exploiting and killing animals.
I believe this 100%:
People who are really, truly and fully vegan for the one, core reason of “animals rights” will NEVER go back to being non-vegan.
Never, ever. It simply can’t happen.
I didn’t write this blog post to pick on Alex.
I’m writing this blog post to make this final point absolutely clear:
The focus of veganism must stay on the ANIMALS. The animals are the ones who are used, exploited and killed unnecessarily. Veganism is about helping THEM.
Freeheel Vegan 
11 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 3, 2013 at 2:56 PM
veganelder
I think you focused on the core point of this woman’s post. It started out being all about her (health) and it ended being about her. Her “need” doesn’t trump another beings life. I’ve never heard of this woman before and poking around on her website doesn’t entice me to ever hear of her again. I’m aware this is the age of self-promotion and attention seeking…but sorry…that sort of culturally condoned narcissism makes all kinds of hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Folks like Donald Watson are more my speed.
March 6, 2013 at 3:35 AM
Ally
Great post. I totally agree with all of your posts. 🙂
I agree with you that she must never have embraced the core values of animal rights.
I am a feminist. I will never believe that it is ok for a man to hit his wife. If I did start believing that, then I was never a feminist to begin with.
April 9, 2013 at 3:00 PM
Vegan Rabbit
Excellent post! I was reminded of my post about why vegan diets fail, http://veganrabbit.com/2012/12/31/why-vegan-diets-fail/.
From my post: “You can’t quit veganism. You either get it or you don’t. Anyone who “used to be vegan” but isn’t vegan now, was never really vegan to begin with.”
Here’s another one on the same topic: http://veganrabbit.com/2012/01/23/vegans-never-say-die/
“Ex-vegans” are a bit of a pet-peeve of mine.
I’ve gotten a lot of flack for saying that (someone even wrote a response to my post trying to make the argument that one could start and stop being vegan at will) and it’s nice to see someone else who gets it.
Have you read Vegan Feminist Agitator’s post in response to Alex’s post? It really makes the logical flaws and ego-centrism even more transparent: http://veganfeministagitator.blogspot.com/2013/03/im-not-not-murdering-anymore.html
April 19, 2013 at 3:52 PM
Primal Nutritionist
Why is it so hard for vegans to accept that not everyone can be vegan? Let it be.
April 19, 2013 at 8:08 PM
freeheelvegan
I cannot speak for other vegans, but I can speak for myself. Perhaps other vegans feel the same as I do. Here are some reasons why I cannot accept that “not everyone can be vegan.”
1. It’s been my personal experience for the past almost 5 years that eating a healthy vegan diet is very easy to do. My husband has had the same experience. We’re healthy, active, and thriving. My family has had the same experience. I have many vegan friends who also live this reality. I know numerous vegans who have been vegan for decades. All these people are evidence to me that the vegan diet works.
2. The explanations that I’ve heard from various “ex-vegans” are pretty flaky in most cases. These people often seem to self-diagnose their problems and blame the lack of animal products for their issues, instead of seeking skilled help.
3. I’m aware of 2 very specific examples (I read a blog post and I heard another vegan’s story on a podcast) of very committed vegans who’ve had legitimate health problems. They needed skilled help after being unsuccessful trying to figure out their problems alone. Even these committed vegans started to doubt their ability to continue being vegan, but yet they persisted in finding an acceptable answer to their problems. In both cases, they were able to find a solution to their issues within the vegan construct. They were deeply committed to veganism.
4. I don’t trust many “ex-vegans” because lots of them are all about bashing veganism once they return to meat eating. I’ve heard from plenty of these ex-“vegans” on paleo oriented podcasts, blogs and forums. Many of them also seem to get all “rah-rah-rah, yum-yum-yum” about eating animals after they were supposedly so concerned about animals before that. It doesn’t add up.
5. Regarding Alex J., the issue for her was not whether she “can” or “cannot” be vegan. She herself speaks only of her desire to give into her cravings. Cravings do not indicate the need to eat animal products. She did not seek any skilled help. She was clearly not committed.
For these reasons, I can only believe with my rational mind that everyone CAN be vegan, WHO IS COMMITTED TO BEING VEGAN.
I can’t just “let it be” when billions upon billions of animals are unnecessarily killed.
April 19, 2013 at 8:52 PM
Primal Nutritionist
I was a committed vegan who ate organic, local homegrown produce and I’m a nutritionist. I enjoy balancing my diet—always have. It didn’t work for me unfortunately. I ended up with some issues, nothing too major other than my hair thinning/falling out, fainted on period. It was fixed within a very short time of eating the good-quality animal foods. Maybe it’s my heritage (native American Indian and french? All I know is—I put in 150% effort to make it extremely healthy, but it still didn’t work. I can understand where she’s coming from, since my partner and I both experienced the same symptoms, my family and friends all experienced the same issues after some time.
June 4, 2013 at 1:34 AM
Vegan Rabbit
I completely agree with your entire comment. 🙂
May 7, 2013 at 10:16 AM
Danielle
What some of you guys need to realize is that many peoples’ bodies are quite different. Like some of us can’t drink milk, or our bodies won’t function without a certain type of food. People are the same but also different. Just because your bodies function well without animal protein (or at least you say it does) doesn’t mean others’ will. She did it for 13 years and realized it just didn’t work. Leave her alone. You say vegans have “compassion”, What compassion? All I see is that you point all of your feelings at animals. Do animals create the medicine you will need later on in your life when you get older and on the verge of death? Are they the ones that treat your body after you’ve had an accident or some ill-fated disease? I think not. From what I see, cows and chickens don’t give a flying hoot about you all. There’s nothing wrong with loving animals. But to the extent that you don’t care about what HER body needs, and only her staying within the vegan community and supporting animals and such is the most selfish and in compassionate thing. You are not compassionate what so ever.
May 9, 2013 at 11:39 AM
K Edwards
I find this to be a very good analysis of what Alex wrote. It’s one thing to eat a plant based diet, but quite another to build a business on such and propose to “teach” others (and based on her 13 years experience, I would have considered her an expert) and then say, I changed my mind. I often have cravings for a bag of chips – I realize it’s a salt craving (not something I need – for sure). If I give in to it (which I sometimes do) I will regret it when I’m bloated and have to carry all that blubber around on my next run. I guess we all just want to tell our story, maybe it’s as simple as that. Alex got lot of attention, that’s for sure. I don’t think anyone who’s benefitted from the great health that a vegan diet provides will jump ship anytime soon.
June 10, 2013 at 5:06 PM
vegangsterARNP
danielle.. my my…. I haven’t see such a well written comment, from such a literate person with such little importance. “chickens don’t care about you, so why do you care about them?” WHAT NONSENSE!!!
Compassion to human oppressors is not part of the philosophy of veganism, but not eating using or wearing others to best of our ability is. YOU are not compassionate. YOU eat others. YOU WEAR others. You USE others who have absolutely no say in the matter. You are not owed compassion.
I cannot remember the quote completely, but it goes something like this:
The test of a truly humane person can be seen in how he/she treats those from whom he/she benefits nothing.
veganism IS NOT ABOUT BEING VEGAN. veganism is disallowing exploitation of others.
This is total BS, because being vegan has not got anything to do with health and nutrition, (although those are a bonus) and NONE of you are experts…
Not wearing cow skin doesn’t hurt the health. Not using products with animal fat in it doesn’t hurt the health. Not going to ciruses doesn’t hurt a human’s health. Not bringing your kids to an animal prison aka zoo, doesn’t hurt human health. So WHAT stops you all from these things????
As a Nurse practitioner I AM informed about nutrition, and am licensed to discuss how to eat and get all the nutrients necessary for growth and health maintenance of ALL life stages. Not eating cow/goat/sheep milk doesn’t hurt the health, not eating cows, pigs, chickens, goats, etc, doesn’t hurt the health. Not eating animals from the sea doesn’t hurt the human health. When there are ways to get nutrients without HARMING others, and taking their lives, YOU HAVE TO BE INSANE to continue living your lives the way you are.
Nutrtitionists are not registered dieticians first of all, are hardly regulated, anyone can be one, and if that doesn’t say it all, i don’t know what does.
January 30, 2015 at 9:03 AM
Mekeel
So, I was a LIFELONG vegan and I just started including cow and turkey flesh, as well as some fish and shellfish into my diet. I know, it sounds insane! How could I “crave” something I had never experienced? How could I eat an animal??? Another “being”?
I cannot explain why I (at nearly 40 years old) began to feel on a very deep level that my physical body needed very specific nourishment that only animal foods could provide. Somehow I innately knew… When I took my first bite of cow it was a very intense and mindful/heartful experience. I cried and gave thanks to all of the energies responsible for the moment…and then I smiled and felt as if a puzzle piece fell into place. I cried some more out of sheer gratitude and a feeling of satiation, FINALLY!
I have lived my entire life feeling like something was missing nutritionally! I NEVER THOUGHT IT WAS MEAT! I was raised an ethical vegan with saving the planet and personal health as bonus effects. I LOVE AND RESPECT ALL LIFE! I do not feel that I am worth any more or less than another.
If a cow or turkey or fish needed me for nourishment, I would gladly return the favor. We are all connected.
Peace~