Is Oprah Still Vegan?

There may be trouble on the horizon. Radar Online Magazine is reporting something we’ve been feeling (we found this via Vegan.com). It looks like Oprah might not make her 21-days on this cleanse. She seems to be missing her alcohol quite a bit.

When I wrote my Oprah vegan update on Saturday, I was somewhat concerned, but still optimistic. Her blog seems to be petering off a bit. She doesn’t post every day (well, neither do we). But if she’s supposed to be blogging about her 21-day cleanse, I would expect there to be a discussion of what she’s actually eating and how the meals/snacks taste for each of those 21 days. Instead, the last few posts were more about her activities, and the posts are late. (It’s Tuesday night, and there hasn’t been a post since Saturday, and that post wasn’t online Saturday night when I wrote my update.) Granted, the woman is busy. But do any of us actually believe that it is Oprah herself who is writing her blog posts?

Anyway, Radar is reporting that Tal Ronnen is no longer cooking for Oprah (noted on her blog post Saturday night). Where’d he go? Why would he desert her in the middle of the cleanse? Could she and her staff be that demanding? Or was this planned, and if so, why didn’t the vegans helping her plan these 21 days get someone else to pick up the slack? On Saturday, Oprah wrote she was in New York and complained about the black bean burger she’d eaten. Although the food was good, it wasn’t as wonderful as what Chef Ronnen typically prepared for her. So what, you can’t find a decent vegan chef in NY? That’s as crazy as saying you can’t find a good vegan restaurant in Portland, Oregon.

I guess I’m a little freaked out by this. This was a mere 21 day experiment. 21 days of someone else shopping for you, and preparing your food. Okay, that’s probably her typical day-to-day experience… but I would imagine it would be rather easy to do this for 21 days. Morgan Spurlock, of Supersize Me fame (this is a link to the documentary in streaming video), was able to eat McDonalds exclusively for 30 days. I’m being a little flip here, but in reality, I’m saddened by this. Jane and I had really high hopes when we found out that on the first day of her cleanse, Oprah had written:

How can you say you’re trying to spiritually evolve, without even a thought about what happens to the animals whose lives are sacrificed in the name of gluttony?

It looked like we would have a mainstream champion for our cause; and what reach she has. Unfortunately, there is also a level of risk here which we have been optimistically avoiding. If Oprah “can’t” finish out her 21 day vegan stint, the world will know how “hard” it is to be vegan. She’s in the final stretch… Perhaps it’s time for all of us to send her some encouragement.