Adam Kochanowicz

This firefighter wants you to go vegan

Rip Esselstyn is the author of “The Engine 2 Diet” in which he recommends a vegan diet for an optimally healthy lifestyle.

Visiting Rip’s homepage, I did a Ctrl+F to search for the word “vegan” appearing on his page. Alas, only the strict guidelines for veganism itself are recommended in the diet itself. Okay, as a firefighter, we understand you want to give people guidelines they can understand. Unfortunately it is true that a large percentage of Americans don’t know what a vegan is, even if they think they do. However, I would have liked if Rip had given credit to the word “vegan”, the term for an extremely healthy diet discovered way before Rip’s book, I’m afraid.

Got High Cholesterol?  Veganism is Cholesterol-Free!

Esselstyn, a professional athlete said he was inspired to promote the vegan diet because of the high cholesterol plaguing his fellow firefighters.  In addition to other healthy outcomes of the vegan diet such as the reversal of Type II diabetes, cholesterol simply doesn’t exist in plant- and fungal-based foods.  Treating problems related to high cholesterol is a no-brainer!  Especially when heart disease is the number 1 natural killer of human beings.  According to “Engine 2”, all of Rip’s colleagues lost weight and cholesterol, some losing more than 20 lbs and one individual’s cholesterol dropping from 344 to 196.

Skinny Dudes

As Fitness Examiner Sarah Dussault mentions, “Engine 2” may be the Skinny Bitch for guys.  In “Skinny Bitch”, authors Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin use vulgar yet persuasive language to tell women to wake up and start taking care of themsevles.  Central to their methods is the vegan diet accompanied with nutritional modifications like substituting fresh fruit for coffee.  The book is starting a following, asking people to report their results from adopting the Engine 2 diet (the vegan diet).  Again, I understand the marketing idea here, but I wish Esselstyn would give credit to the vegan diet and the vegans who have discovered its benefits long before him.

Other Macho Vegan Men

Esselstyn isn’t the first “macho” posterboy for veganism.  Mac Danzig (right) wowed the rough-and-tough fans of Ultimate Fighting by fighting his way to the reigning championship.

And let’s not forget Kenneth G. Williams (below, left) who took on the “Go Vegan and No BODY gets hurt” campaign and book in which he argues the truth is diametrically the opposite of the conventional wisdom that the vegan diet is not suitable for bodybuilding.  If you don’t take their word for it, check out the whole vegan bodybuilding community.

I’m wondering how I feel about the sexist overtones of Esselstyn’s book.  The book is arguably targeted to the “manly” stereotype and even includes the question “can real men eat just plants?”.  On the other hand, one could argue that Esselstyn is trying to defeat a sexist stereotype about animal compassion.

On Being a Vegan

I like that Esselstyn didn’t just put together a recipe book (though it does offer a diverse helping of meal ideas for pizza and brownie-eaters like me).  He also outlines basic ideas for eating out, what we should look for and act on to make being a vegan easy.  He also provides tips for stocking which factors into my 5 tips on going vegan.  That is, the transition to veganism is made so much easier if you just have vegan food around already.