Take the Vegan Challenge for Better Sex and Other Benefits
Categories: Healthy Eating, Eat This
PrintTake the Vegan Challenge for Better Sex and Other Benefits">
Become a vegan for five days and have better sex. That's just one of the many advantages suggested by Meghan Telpner, certified nutritionist and author of 'Making Love in the Kitchen', a column on the National Post's The Appetizer blog.Telpner is encouraging readers to take up that aforementioned challenge and try out her online vegan program from September 15th to September 19th. It may or may not make you skinnier but Telpner believes it will make you healthier and educate you on how to improve your lifestyle by making better food choices. Below, she discusses the benefits of eating whole foods and how you can join her program.
Q: Why are you encouraging people to go vegan for five days?
A: For one, it's better for their health and the environment. It's not to convert anyone; it's just about incorporating more vegetables into their lives. Five days is a manageable amount of time. It's not too little, but it's enough so you get to experience how to be a vegan at work and when you go to a restaurant.
Q: Basically, vegan means not only a meatless diet but no animal by-products either like dairy and eggs. Are you asking people to essentially eat like a rabbit for a week minus the pellets?
A: It's not salad for every meal as some might imagine, it's really satisfying food and it's food that's high in protein. You eat things like beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains. I also encourage people to use lots of spices.
Q: How does this five-day vegan program work?
A: It begins with a tutorial I provide participants with on-line. It costs $12 and you receive a link where you can download the guide - an e-booklet of 40 plus pages, which includes the full program. It discusses reasons to go vegan, meal plans, shopping lists, recipes and exercises. The recipes I provide are not complicated.
Throughout the five days, I will be blogging about vegan food, and I'll be addressing challenges like eating at restaurants. As well, I will coach through Twitter, giving tips on vegan food. It's group supported, so people can post comments and give each other ideas. I'll also be responding to people's posts. Having a group makes people more accountable. Click here to find out more about the 5-day vegan tutorial.
Q: What's the goal of this vegan challenge?
A: I want people to come out with an awareness of how much meat they consume and how it makes them feel. I want them to know what a meat-free meal looks like. I think we've been raised with this idea that a meal needs some sort of meat.
Q: For people who love meat - what's in it for them? Why would they want to go on your diet?
A: First, I never refer to something as a diet. I'm simply educating people towards a whole foods lifestyle that's as unprocessed as possible.
Q: What are the benefits of this non-diet, vegan lifestyle you're recommending?
A: People should notice more regular bowel movements. An increase in plant-based foods means more antioxidants, phytonutrients and fibre. What they will get is boosted immune function, more energy and more hydration. They will also have clearer skin and better sex.
Q: Are you saying vegans do it better than carnivores?
A: I'm just saying you have better sex because your blood flow is better when you're a vegan.
Q: What sort of challenges can people expect to face taking on a diet of this kind?
A: Some people will probably have cravings - even if it's just something like cheese. The biggest craving is likely to be salt, especially if you're used to processed food, which contains a lot of salt.
Q: Why do people need to do your program at all? Can't they simply stop eating meat and try it out on their own?
A: A lot of people don't do vegetarian properly. They eat pasta, bread and cheese. We're accustomed to food being instant but it can take more planning to eat well. People need to make sure they're getting enough whole grain like quinoa, brown rice and millet.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
richard 9-08-2009 @ 12:34PM
Miss Telpner said
"A lot of people don’t do vegetarian properly. They eat pasta, bread and cheese."
What a bunch of crock & bias !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarian
"Vegetarianism is the practice of following a diet based on plant-based foods including fruits, vegetables, cereal grains, nuts, and seeds, WITH OR WITHOUT DAIRY EGGS AND CHEESE !
[1] Vegetarians do not eat meat or game, poultry, fish, crustacea and shellfish, and products of animal slaughter.[1][2][3] Variants of the diet exclude eggs and/or some products produced from animal labour such as dairy products and honey.
The VEGAN diet is a " form" of vegetarianism which excludes all animal products from the diet, including dairy products, eggs, and honey. Most vegetarians consume dairy products, and many eat eggs. Lacto-vegetarianism includes dairy products but excludes eggs, ovo-vegetarianism includes eggs but not dairy, and lacto-ovo vegetarianism includes both eggs and dairy products."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarian
What's wrong with a VEGETARIAN eating pasta, bread and cheese if they are not vegan?
When very extreme Vegans try to speak for
ALL Vegetarians, it often reflects their own dietary bias!
Miss Telpner promotes strict Vegan diets
that omits dairy and eggs, and many grains
that should be clarified, corrected
and stated up front before passing judgment & comments on
" some Vegetarian diets as being done incorrectly!"
Why do vegans feel the need to pass their biased vegan
judgment on someone else's VEGETARIAN diet as not being done properly? Vegans and Vegetarians are not one and the same !
The statement should be ""A lot of people don’t do VEGAN" properly. They eat pasta, bread and cheese."
& Leave the reference to Vegetarians out of it!
Reply
Richard 9-08-2009 @ 1:12PM
Here is sample of the food pyramid for
a VEGETARIAN DIET.
http://www.mstherapycentres.org.uk/food_pyramid.htm
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vegetarian-diet/HQ01596
It's not vegan diet _ pasta, eggs & dairy are allowed
in VEGETARIAN diets, unlike the stricter vegan diet
So why try to CONFUSE readers ?
Having Better Sex for each person involved,
is about much more than having good blood flow.
There are OTHER important components to having Great
or Better Sex!
if You're not having good sex?
Consult a Physician, Psychiatrist or a Sexologist along with a Dietitian.
Reply
Meghan 9-11-2009 @ 1:04PM
No one likes an angry anything so chill out. For starters, I am not a vegan, nor do I ever claim that I am. People can eat whatever they like. I am simply stating that diets that use bread, pasta and cheese as their staples are not going to be health supportive over the long run. As a side- when did following the food pyramid help anyone get truly healthy?
Reply
Cara Rice 9-13-2009 @ 4:02PM
Wow, Richard - you could really use a yoga class.
I don't think Meghan is suggesting that everyone (or "vegetarians") give up pasta, bread & cheese. Perhaps you should have checked out her website/blog before calling her methods crock & bias. (If you had, you would know it's not crock, and she's definitely not bias.) You also have to realize that the story was "edited & condensed" (as noted at the bottom of the story), so maybe her original answer further clarified what she meant.
My understanding is that she is simply suggesting there are many more healthful alternates to the usual pasta, bread and cheese - and that often vegetarians rely to heavily on these three as staples. She's not trying to convert anybody. I'm a vegetarian too (although I'm not hung up on the "technical" classifications as per Wikepedia, as are you) and can sometimes rely too much on these foods because they are fast and easy. I'm following her "5 Days Vegan" program simply to open my world to some new healthful, unprocessed, homemade recipes that don't include pasta, bread and cheese. And if I happen to feel great after... I might just continue.
Also, you should keep in mind that these archaic pyramids you worship are often sponsored by dairy or grain councils. You don't think maybe they're the bias ones???
Reply