Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Promotes Plant Strong Diet

In the land of half-smokes and hot dogs, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is making headlines by encouraging city residents to take charge of their health by eating more plant-based foods.

As a champion of healthy-eating initiatives, Mayor Emanuel has cracked down on junk food in school vending machines as well as worked to improve access to fresh foods in the city’s “food deserts.” 

He’s even been called America’s fittest mayor. Leading by example, for the past two years he’s competitively finished the Chicago Triathlon.

And now, as featured last week on Chicago’s WGN-9 News, Emanuel is endorsing the Engine 2 Diet, a plant-based eating plan that was created by former Austin firefighter Rip Esselstyn.

The segment begins with Esselstyn explaining “Essentially, what I’m trying to do is to get America to eat healthier. Right now we’re just drowning ourselves in … too many animal products…. We need to become a nation of plant-strong responsible eaters,” Esselstyn said about his diet.

After viewers are introduced to several vegan meal ideas, Emanuel talks about his wellness plan for the city, stating “We have to do a better job at how we eat and control our weight, which deals with both healthcare costs, as well as life expectancy.”

Watch the entire segment on Chicago’s WGN-9 News.

This isn’t the first time a city official has touted the benefits of meat-free eating. For several years, Chicago’s former Health Commissioner Dr. Terry Mason encouraged residents to join him in going meatless for the entire month of January as a way to improve public health. Now the chief medical officer at Chicago’s Cook County Hospitals, Dr. Mason was featured on CNN’s 2011 segment “The Last Heart Attack” stating: “we’ve eaten our way into a problem and we can eat ourselves out of it.”

Need some quick and easy vegan recipes to get started? Check out VegRecipes.org today!