Armed with golden brown tofu and crunchy falafel, Yoannah Asiel spoke to students Wednesday about the benefits of religiously inspired veganism.
As the owner of Chicago’s Soul Vegetarian Restaurant, Asiel is a member of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, who follow a vegan dietary regimen free of all animal by-products. Early in her speech, she referred to Genesis 1:29 to support her claim that the Bible endorses the ethics of a plant-based diet.
“We got our instructions from God in eating,” Asiel said. “We can live to be 200 or 300 years old by treating our bodies properly.”
Asiel characterized the time spent switching from a meat diet to eating only vegetables as a transitional period. She proposed a diet that involves fasting every Saturday and sacrificing sugar and salt for three weeks a year.
“Prevention is the key,” Asiel said. “In Israel, children look forward to no salt. They ask, ‘Is this salt day?’ We want to eliminate salt and sugar from your diet.”
Brian Young, a graduate student at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, said he attended the speech because he was interested in the incorporation of Christianity and veganism.
“God gave us the plants to eat,” Young said. “Being a Christian, and with a speaker looking at it through a Hebrew perspective, the way we respect the human community must also be done for the animal community.”
Addressing the two meat-eaters in the audience, Asiel said fish and chicken are “not real” foods. She said that with water being polluted, chickens being injected with chemicals and fish harboring cancerous tissue, food has become a commercial industry unrelated to health.
“You’re not getting the real deal,” Asiel said. “It will catch up with you. This is also with animal by-products. An egg is an ovum. You are eating an unborn chick.”
Justice for All, NU’s animal-rights group, invited Asiel to speak. Jenny Abrahamian, co-president of the group, said it was interesting to see veganism related to the cultures of Africa, Israel and Jerusalem.
Asiel concluded her speech by answering questions and provided samples of “transition” foods for new vegans. Earlier, Asiel added her own interpretation of the saying, “You are what you eat.”
“Meat is killing people,” Asiel said. “We live to die. You don’t have to think like that. People who eat like a pig, start looking like a pig. Then they start acting like one and start grunting.”
