Update: Some more Oprah-related news for you – if you didn’t get a chance to see Oprah’s puppy mill exposé last month, she’s running it again tonight. More on that here.

Author Kathy Freston's fantastic new book, Quantum Wellness, has been getting a ton of buzz lately, not least because it inspired Oprah Winfrey herself to try veganism for three weeks. Kathy also appeared on Ellen yesterday, and a lot of people have been asking about the book, so by way of an introduction, here's PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk with a quick review:

No matter where on the "wellness continuum" you may be, Kathy Freston's new book, Quantum Wellness, is an absolute must-read.

The concept is simple: You just have to make one small change, and before you know it, you're on the road to getting your spiritual, mental, and physical act—or "wellness," as Kathy likes to call it—together. This may sound like a tall order, but that's the point of the book—tall orders turn into small orders when you break them down into achievable goals. What could be easier?

My favorite parts of the book are the two chapters that Kathy devotes to "conscious eating." I challenge anyone to read these chapters and look at a package of ground beef or drumsticks the same way again. Chapter Five, in which she talks about the now-famous "21-day cleanse" that Oprah has embarked on, also deserves an honorable mention. Who knew that casein, an ingredient in dairy products, is also used to make industrial-strength glue? Try digesting that!

Best of all, Kathy devotes 55 pages to putting conscious eating into practice with mouthwatering recipes such as seared "chicken" strips with shitake mushrooms, stir-fried veggies, and teriyaki sauce over brown rice. Yum!

And in other important news, here's Oprah on Week 2 of the new diet.

-Jack

latimes/Creative Commons

When the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the U.K. studied the relationship between mental disorders and eating meat and dairy products, they found that "a higher national dietary intake of … dairy products predicted a worse two-year outcome of schizophrenia." It’s a testament to the wildly varied interests of the folks in our Vegan Department that this was the very first thought that popped into their minds while they were skimming through the latest tabloid gossip about Britney’s exploits in the psych ward (she’s apparently been asking for ice cream). But that’s what happened, and that’s how this friendly letter to Brit’s parents was born. The letter suggests putting the suffering star on a vegan diet to help her get her emotional and physical health back to a place where it won’t be daily fodder for Perez and The Superficial. TMZ covered the story yesterday, and I’ll let you know if we hear back from James and Lynne Spears.