Oprah is doing a vegan challenge for 21 days! Billed as a cleanse, she is also giving up alcohol, caffeine, and gluten. As Colleen and Lisa discuss in this week's podcast – she may just go back to eating dead animals at the end of the three weeks. But what ever happens, by highlighting how a vegan diet is beneficial to humans, animals, and the environment, Oprah is bringing a positive message to her viewers that has the potential to save countless lives.

Well, I feel like I got baptized in Vegan Land today.
– Oprah

The news was announced on her May 20 show that featured Kathy Freston, bestselling author of Quantum Wellness. In her book, Freston describes the 8 pillars of wellness, with "the mother of all pillars" being conscious eating. "...conscious eating means you stay aware of where your food comes from, how the animals are treated, and how the environment is affected by the foods that you eat. You take in the energy of whatever went into creating that food," she says.

Back in March 2007, we wrote about Kathy Freston on veg.ca, after she had three excellent articles posted online by the Huffington Post: "Vegetarian is the New Prius" , "A Few More 'Inconvenient Truths", and "One Bite at a Time: A Beginner's Guide to Conscious Eating." In the latter, she offers suggestions for die-hard meat-eaters who want make the transition to a vegetarian (or mostly vegetarian) diet. See our article for a summary and links.

Oprah is blogging about her experience and sharing vegan recipes by chef Tal Ronnen throughout her journey. Please send her a message of encouragement.

Who is Tal Ronnen? He has performed cooking demonstrations on numerous television shows and works with hotels, businesses and schools, including Hyatt, Hilton, AOL, Yahoo and New York University, to assist with vegetarian menu options. In 2004, he started Veg Advantage, a nonprofit education organization to help food-service operators integrate vegetarian options into their menus.

He has also worked at the top vegan restaurants in the United States, including Sublime in Fort Lauderdale, Candle 79 in New York City and Madeleine Bistro in Los Angeles. In 2007, Tal assisted rocker Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders in opening her restaurant, VegiTerranean in Akron, Ohio.

Tal's signature dishes include a key lime and avocado cream dessert parfait, Old Bay tofu cakes with vegan horseradish crème and artichoke tortellini with saffron "cream" sauce.