While the Met Gala is renowned for its over-the-top fashion and camp-like themes, the biggest night in fashion is making headlines for a whole other, more sustainable reason. For the first time in its 73-year history, the Met Gala is officially going plant-based – with its menu.
The Met Gala and its Plant-Based Menu
Celebrity chef and restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson was tasked by Anna Wintour to bring chefs who also had unique stories to tell. He sought out a group of 10 up-and-coming New York-based chefs who would help create a sustainable plant-based menu for the Grande event.
“We thought it was important to really talk about what’s present, what’s happening—how food is changing in America,” Samuelsson said. “We want to be the future of American food, of plant-based food. That conversation is happening now.”
These chefs included Fariyal Abdullahi, Nasim Alikhani, Emma Bengtsson, Lazarus Lynch, Junghyun Park, Erik Ramirez, Thomas Raquel, Sophia Roe, Simone Tong, and Fabian von Hauske.
“I am honored to participate in an initiative that highlights the incredible work of these 10 New York chefs at the Met Gala,” said Samuelsson in a press release.
What do the chefs think about the plant-based menu? They absolutely love it.
“The world looks much different now. There’s nothing to hide behind as we move through a rapidly changing world,” said Sophia Roe. “Climate change, food sovereignty, global value chains, accessibility, species conservation, and industrial accountability must be the driving force in every facet of our lives, and yep, that means fashion too. What better way to integrate these necessary action-forward conversations into the fashion sphere than with the Met Gala?”
Vegan singer Billie Eilish is co-hosting the Met gala
Billie Eilish/Instragram
What better way to get guests to enjoy a plant-based diet than by having a plant-based lover host the event?
“I’ve been vegan for, damn, seven years,” the 19-year-old Grammy winner revealed to actor Orlando Bloom during the “Ask a Legend” segment of her June Vogue feature,
“I learned about the dairy industry and the meat industry, which I already knew about. Once you know about that kind of thing and you see it it’s really hard to go back. And, even now, while I have many friends that eat dairy and meat and I don’t want to tell anybody what to do, I just can’t go on in my life knowing what’s going on in the animal world and not doing anything about it.”
Should I go plant-based?
It wouldn’t hurt – in fact, it would help a great deal.
For one, a study published in the BMJ found that the more we eat highly processed foods, the higher the risk of overall cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease.
That said, various research has proven, time and time again, that following a plant-based diet won’t only reduce your risk of heart disease, but people who follow a plant-based diet tend to live longer (1).
Want to know more?
While hard work and fast wheels have helped him on the track, British GP legend Lewis Hamilton has revealed that the secret to his success also lies in what he eats, particularly a plant-based diet.
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References
Budhathoki, S., Sawada, N., Iwasaki, M., Yamaji, T., et al (2019). Association of Animal and Plant Protein Intake With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality in a Japanese Cohort. JAMA internal medicine, 179(11), 1509–1518. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.2806
Srour, B., Fezeu, L. K., Kesse-Guyot, E., Allès, B., et al. (2019). Ultra-processed food intake and risk of cardiovascular disease: prospective cohort study (NutriNet-Santé). BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 365, l1451. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l1451
Tong, T., Appleby, P., Bradbury, K., Perez-Cornago, A. (2019). Risks of ischaemic heart disease and stroke in meat eaters, fish eaters, and vegetarians over 18 years of follow-up: Results from the prospective EPIC-Oxford study. BMJ. 366. l4897. 10.1136/bmj.l4897
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