LiveKindly recently reported that writer,
director, and comedian Kevin Smith discussed his switch to a vegan diet
on the podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.
In February, Smith suffered a massive heart
attack. On the podcast after his surgery, he said that his nutritionist advised
him that with a 100 percent blockage of the artery, it was “definitely time
for him to change his diet. He added, “[The doctors] were like, ‘you know, if
you go plant-based you’ve got a really great chance of dropping your
cholesterol.’
Almost immediately, Smith decided to ditch meat,
dairy, and eggs. He noted that for the first two weeks he ate “nothing but
potatoes. Following famed magician Penn Jillette’s diet, Smith focused on
eating “sides, like boiled or baked potatoes, slowly adding in more
vegetables.
About a month after Smith went vegan, his doctor
ran tests and remarked that the results looked “fantastic, even deciding to
lower the celeb’s Lipitor cholesterol medication because his levels had dropped
so drastically.
Smith’s daughter, actress and MFA supporter Harley
Quinn Smith, is vegan and according to the actor has been “bugging him to
ditch animal products for years.
Eating animal products is linked to many health
problems, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, stroke,
Alzheimer’s disease, and an overall shorter lifespan. In fact, a
study from the American Heart Association found that a plant-based diet is the best choice for reducing your
risk of heart failure—regardless of whether you have a history of
cardiac conditions.
Additionally, a recent study from Harvard
Medical School found that at
least one-third of early deaths could be prevented
if everyone switched to a plant-based diet. What’s more, researchers at the Mayo Clinic reviewed
multiple studies and found that compared to shorter-term vegetarians, people on
a vegetarian diet for more than 17 years enjoyed an increase in life expectancy
of 3.6 years.
But eating meat isn’t just harmful to our
health; it’s literally killing our planet and causing unthinkable animal suffering.
At factory farms, animals are subjected to
intense and horrific abuse: gruesome mutilations; cramped confinement and
overcrowding; and violent, bloody slaughter. If we treated just one dog or cat
the way the meat, dairy, and egg industries treat billions of animals, we’d be behind bars for animal abuse.
So what are you waiting for? Protect animals and
your health by switching to a vegan diet. Click here to
get started. And check out our Pinterest
page for thousands of recipe ideas.