OMG. Bill Clinton has become a vegetarian?

[quaoar]

Say it ain't so, Big Dog. No more Big Macs? No barbeque? Oh, the horror!

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room//index.html

In her blog on Saturday, Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who must have a “Google News Alert” setting for “tempeh,” wrote about how she read in the Times of India that former president Bill Clinton “is trying to be a vegetarian.”

Oh my god. What?

Bill Clinton not eating meat? A man whose very name brings to mind the word “pork?" Who has never met a nitrate he didn’t like? Whose all-night bull-and-barbeque sessions were sent up hilariously in “Primary Colors?” The man who once, after having consumed a 3,300-calorie lunch with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1994 that included meats, cheeses, seafood, and veal-stuffed ravioli, ordered a piece of chocolate cake to go?

Yes, we know that since then he’s had some pretty rough heart surgeries. And his daughter Chelsea has always been an avowed veggie, as Newkirk happily points out in her blog entry.

But still. The thought of Bill Clinton spurning meat is like the thought of him spurning blow jobs. Simply not possible.

[merwin]

1. He only likes other people eating HIS meat

[linazelle]

2. Better blow jobs than body bags, thievery and lies. n/t

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. Heh!

:evilgrin: I will always love the Big Dog!

[sasquatch]

3. I think it's because of his heart condition, not because of PETA stuff

Lot's of people take up vegetarian diets to lose weight and stuff like that.

[FreedomAngel82]

18. I agree

And since he had the clots and everything it's likely with that. I think it's a smart move with him because of his bipass surgeries he had.

[Dogmudgeon]

4. Salon? Snark, snark!

Add to the mix Ingrid Newkirk, and the potential for accuracy and insight falls faster than Big Dog's cholesterol level while taking Crestor.

Jeeze ... I eat meat, and I also like stuff like tempeh and the ever-laughable tofu. I can't say that I eat too many 3300-kCal lunches, though. (One tenth of that is more my speed.)

--p!

[Cha]

10. I'm thinking that's why he has

to swing the pendulum the other way now..the high calorie, junk food orgies of the past.

[Dogmudgeon]

14. Yes indeed

Sugar, especially, is a killer. It raises the insulin level so high that all those morbid processes start to grind your body down.

I'm so sensitive to sugars that I've had to switch over to low-cal low-carb most of the time. Even vedge diets pushed my triglycerides to 1000. And I didn't spend years eating rich, sugary food; it's the luck of my draw.

Clinton, though, is a big guy and exercises daily. He should not have a very difficult time recovering -- but he's got to cut down on the overwork now. A light day for Bill is 12 hours of work, 12 hours of play, and 12 hours of sleep -- he does one right after he finishes the last one.

And, incidentally, W. should also keep tabs on the exercise mania, which can cause a lot of stress damage to the body. (I might loathe his politics but I'm not too keen on him checking out early. At least not before his trial!)

--p!

[fortyfeetunder]

5. If we want the Big Dog to be around us a little longer

Maybe his heart surgery was a wake up call to eat better than he did in the past. If he wants to last longer, going veggie is a way to get there. Good for him. I'll have falafel and tabbouleh with him anytime!!!

[FreedomAngel82]

19. Me too

When my grandfather was having more problems with his health his doctor told him he had to leave off a lot of stuff with salt etc. Plus maybe he can start a "eat healthy" campaign to get people to eat more healthy in the country and not so much fast food. You don't have to go vegeterian of course. I couldn't never eat meat again (I love chicken and steak).

[Cleita]

6. If this is true it would be best for his future health.

However, the Pritikin Diet might be his best bet because it allows a small amount of meat.

[Cha]

7. You make a choice..if it's your health

or meat..hmmmmm..I choose health. It happened to me..this is actually good news in that Bill wants a long and healthy life..in spite of the snideness of the author.B-)

[evolvenow]

9. Yay! Veggie is the best choice,especially for anyone with heart challenges

I heard that many people after the tsunami became vegetarian, after seeing so much death.

Good for him, it will help is health and heal his heart.

[Freddie Stubbs]

11. Trying to be a vegetarian? He tried monagamy, and

that didn't work out too well either. ;)

[linazelle]

13. If only extramarital affairs was all we had to worry about in a president.

I long for the good old days. Sigh.

[Selatius]

12. a 3,300-calorie lunch

Man, that's enough calories to last me three dinners, but for me, pushing 1,000 calories per dinner is a bit excessive and unusual.

[shockra]

15. I was hoping Chelsea would give her dad a talking to...

After his heart surgery.

Looks like it. :)

[Dogmudgeon]

16. Attention: Vegetarians

One Size Does NOT Fit All.

Please keep this in mind.

Keeping to a strict vegetarian diet for a year nearly gave me diabetes and pushed my triglycerides to about 1000. Sometimes that happens. Your experience may have been much better.

Staying aware of what keeps one well is the best dietary guidence of all. For a lot of people, it's plants-only, but for many others, it's a different diet.

Besides, our common enemies are hydrogenates, processed sugars, artificial xenoestrogens (usually pollutants) and factory-model agricultural/animal husbandry practices that turn both foodstuffs and food animals into exotic organisms. In such a world, no one can say for sure what Homo naturalis really is.

--p!

[Cleita]

17. This is true.

My late husband had to eat meat when he was on dialysis. There were no if ands or buts. The doctor, nurse and dietition were very firm about this.

[alfredo]

21. My wife's endo directed her to eat meat. I was a veggie until

we married. I still eat little meat

[Bouncy Ball]

23. My triglycerides have never been so normal.

And my overall cholesterol is down, my bad cholesterol is way down and my good cholesterol is up. It's working out great for me!

[Dogmudgeon]

24. I wish I could say the same

It appears that I am especially sensitive to starch and the relative lack of B-12 in a vegetarian diet. What I eat is usually low-cal low-carb, which is basically meat (not a lot) and vegetables (a whole lot). Nobody knows which regimen I'm on!

I share the vegetarians' disdain for factory farming and husbandry, and the cruelty visited on animals, but there is not much in the way of natural-feed meat out there and there is as yet no anti-cruelty certification group as there is for cosmetics. I don't think the contamination situation is a whole lot better for the vegetarians because the plants take up pollutants, too. And modern farming kills huge numbers of field animals. These are highly unnatural developments and we're starting to pay a high price for them.

I have come to the conclusion that a lot of modern ailments are from the whole food chain becoming contaminated with highly exotic chemicals. Polysorbate 80 doesn't bother me as much as halogenated plastic manufacture byproducts like PTFE. They turn into estrogen-like chemicals that wreak havoc on sex hormone synthesis and have been associated with cancer, birth defects, obesity, and autoimmune diseases.

The food chain has become a mess, and it's going to take decades to clean it up.

--p!

[Lorien]

20. Good for him!

my dad has a whole host of health problems from his nearly all beef and pork diet (including a pacemaker). If he went veggie, he'd probably lose 50 pounds and gain 20 years of life. As things are, I doubt that he'll be with me for long. :-(

I went veggie earlier this year, and I feel great!

[Bouncy Ball]

22. Wow.

What to say to that?

I say good for him if he is. I became a vegetarian back in early April and feel great. I mean, damn, the guy survived a heart bypass, you want he should eat tons of saturated fat from here on out?

And the line about the BJs is just weird.

[Catchawave]

25. I'm sure President Clinton is watching his diet now that he....

...had a near death experience? Probably more red wine and less red meat ? It's common knowledge that Chelsea's a veg*an and am sure she's having a positive influence in his overall recovery from bad eating habits.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

26. If true, don't stand downwind of him.

All those legumes do have..somewhat noxious side effects.

[CarolNYC]

27. I don't know if he's a vegetarian...

..but I know he went to Wendy's at lucnhtime week before last. Maybe he got a salad. :)

[Piperay]

28. HURRAY, that's WONDERFUL

I certainly hope it's true, that way he will live a nice long life! :thumbsup:

[GoneOffShore]

29. Vegetarian?

That's an Indian word for 'Bad Hunter', isn't it?