The New Power Vegans
More and more business moguls are switching to a plant-based diet. Just a few weeks after former president Bill Clinton revealed that his diet is almost completely free of animal foods, including dairy, an article in Businessweek describes “The Rise of the Power Vegans.”
Among the new class of ultra-vegetarians listed in the article are hotelier Steve Wynn, publisher Mort Zuckerman, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, entrepreneur Russell Simmons, and Ford chairman Bill Ford. Newscorp’s Rupert Murdoch and Viacom CEO Tom Freston describe themselves as having vegan wives. (“I live in the shadow of a power vegan,” says Freston.)
The article suggests, with a mild tongue-in-cheek edge, that going vegan is becoming the new way of differentiating yourself from the masses. You used to be able to buy a jet, lay off thousands of employees or get a trophy wife. But today you have to be more inventive. And since vegans only number about 1 percent of the population, that’s a good way to go.
But the article goes a little off-track in saying that going vegan is expensive and therefore a luxury for wealthy people. In fact, unless your menu is especially exotic, a meat-free diet is no more expensive than any other and often less so. Plus, you’re likely to save a lot on medical bills. With their lack of artery-clogging foods, vegetarians tend to be a healthier species all round.
Businessweek quotes Wynn as saying that his new diet has allowed him to get off Lipitor. And Freston says that “it’s probably a good thing in a CEO. At least they won’t be toppling over like those McDonald’s CEOs.”
Read the article article.