Page 57 - Fall2010

All Thumbs Book Reviews

The World Peace Diet the fact that while Gandhi tried very hard to
By Will Tuttle PhD achieve pure veganism, he simply couldn’t do
Lantern Books it. He had to resort to raw goat milk to survive.
Then there is Christianity and we are told
I want to start off by saying something nice that Jesus was a vegan. It is a mystery to me how
about this book. The front cover has a colorful, anyone can make such an assertion when one
pretty picture on it. And then there’s. . . well, of Christ’s more well known feats was feeding
that’s about it. Moving on. five thousand people with bread and fish. Tuttle
The basic premise of this book is that vio- goes on to insist that the Apostle Paul was not
lence against animals leads to violence against a legitimate, good Christian because he was not
people. I will actually agree that people who sa- a vegan. I’m sure Christians worldwide will be
distically abuse animals often fit the pattern that intrigued to learn this.
ends in human violence. This author goes further, We next see this incredible, selective schol-
however, by asserting that any animal-based arship and bias go to work on nutrition basics.
agriculture is de facto violent to animals, and We are told about the “myth of complete protein.”
anyone who eats or is in any way an accomplice Tuttle claims that animal fats contain bad trans
to animal-based farming will become violent fat. He provides no reference for this “fact” and
also. Anyone familiar with the scientific method I doubt he could find one if he tried. He might
knows you only need one counter example to stumble onto the fact that butter does technically
shoot a theory down. Shooting this one down contain natural trans fat but it is not the harmful
is almost too easy. The Amish and Mennonites form that he and everyone else warns against.
present a major problem for his theory. There is no evidence that he knows anything
At this point a trend is emerging that con- about this distinction, however.
tinues throughout the book. Tuttle repeatedly The pattern continues as the author moves
ignores any inconvenient evidence that does on to other specific nutrients. Vitamin B is a
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not suit his agenda. He insists that confining subject he clearly can’t avoid. His claim is that B
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animals in any way is an act of terrorism. Con- is abundant in the soil and we could get it from
fined animals are tormented animals. Therefore, plants except for industrial processing methods.
according to Tuttle, since factory farms are evil, If this is true, am I to believe no vegan-oriented
veganism is the only dietary solution. farmers out there are willing to produce veggies
Tuttle never even considers small grass- that are not subjected to industrial cleaning?
based, humane farms. As far as I can tell he has Tuttle continues by pointing out that the
never been to a farm anything like Joel Salatin’s vegan diet is higher in sixteen out of nineteen
Polyface Farm. I’ve been there many times. I’ve nutrients than the Standard American Diet. Now
seen chickens that were completely free-range there’s high praise. Nutrients that are conspicu- Tuttle
and able to bolt if they didn’t like it there. They ously absent from his list include the ones Weston never even
didn’t go anywhere. All the animals there look Price found to be so crucial to real health—the
quite content and happy. However, this option fat soluble vitamins A, D and K . Tuttle does considers
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would muddy Tuttle’s agenda, so he ignores it. not say one word about them. I would guess he small grass-
Tuttle then attempts to add credibility to doesn’t dare. based,
veganism by claiming it is promoted by major We learn later that testosterone is a night-
world religions, and he makes several references mare. Come to think of it, I didn’t notice much humane
to Gandhi. True to form, there is no mention of Continued on page 61 farms.

FALL 2010 Wise Traditions 57