Like #32: Vegan / Vegetarianism

"As with many white people activities, being vegan/vegetarian enables them to feel as though they are helping the environment AND it gives them a sweet way to feel superior to others. For further evidence, note how the vegetarian world has increasing levels of extemism (no meat, no dairy, no eggs, no fish, nothing that has been cooked, etc)...But wait, aren’t there white people who eat organice, grain fed, free range cattle and chicken? Yes, these white people are wracked with guilt knowing that they are eating a dead animal, contributing to rainforest deforestation, and global warming."

While Deschanel is actually no longer a vegan, she is very much associated with this life style for a few major reasons.  First of all, her sister, Emily Deschanel, and her have both been vegan at one point.  Her sister has been a vegan for about 15 years, and Zooey was also a vegan for a time period, including during her judging role on Top Chef Masters, where the contestants were asked to make her a vegan meal that is also free of soy and wheat.

Deschanel's appearance on an episode of Top Chef made information about the actress' dietary needs common knowledge to the American people. The clip from Top Chef, which appears above, features Deschanel and her friends judging the meals the chefs have prepared. Deschanel's allergies are portrayed as a great challenge to the chefs, perhaps even suggesting that her diet makes her a high maintenance individual of sorts whose lifestyle could only be supported by income and time that the upper middle class has.  This is probably part of the reason that upper middle class people can afford to be vegetarians or vegans, even with other food allergies.

In August 2009's Self Magazine article, Deschanel also shows this aspect of her image by giving the recipe for a vegan chocolate treat, and her other recipes are also vegan.  However, now that Deschanel is not a vegan, she also struggles with the guilt of that choice, as Lander postulates, saying in response to if she is still a vegan.  "Not anymore. My older sister, Bones star Emily Deschanel, has been a very, very committed vegan since high school. I wish I could be like that, but I’m not. I have a lot of food sensitivities—I can’t eat wheat or soy—and it was very difficult to eat and get enough calories. It was even impossible to eat at a vegan restaurant. "