Famous Vegans - Andrew Gunsberg

Andrew Gϋnsberg, 2007.

Andrew Gϋnsberg

Born Osher Gϋnsberg on March 29, 1979. He is a British-born Australian television, radio presenter and photographer. He was born in London, but immigrated with his family to Australia when he was only 4 months old. He is commonly known as Andrew G. He hosts the reality series Australian Idol, Paula Abdul's Live to Dance and The Hot Hits Live from LA. He has a website and a blog.

Quotes by Andrew Gϋnsberg:

"I was 19, unemployed and could only afford one meat meal a week. Then I started to realise that I felt healthier and better. All the weird rashes went away and my brain got clearer. The cleaner I kept my diet, the more obvious benefits I felt."

He became a vegetarian when he was 22 and vegan a few years later, after reading a book by Greg Chappell, a former cricketer from Australia.

"Chappell talked about his vegan diet and said he was fitter and had more clarity now than he did when he was considered the greatest batsman in the world. He came at it from a health perspective and that’s what got me into it."

"Mastication is one of my favourite things – it’s right up there. There’s a Buddhist saying: ‘When you walk, just walk; when you eat, just eat.’ When I sit down to eat, I like to think about how it got to the table, who grew it, who picked it, who prepared it and brought it to you. When you think about all the energy that’s gone into making something good, why would you ever eat a burger from a franchise again?"

"People often look at vegans strangely because they don’t eat meat. They heap vegans in to the ‘crazy dreadlock’ brigade."

In 2005, he appeared on the Australian version of the television show Ready, Steady Cook. About that experience he said:

"The looks on the faces of the ladies in the audience when I whipped out the tofu was similar to the look you see on peoples faces when they view two dogs rooting on the side of the road – puzzled, curious, but all together uncomfortable. Oh well, I believe it was the first time that Vegan cooking has been attempted on national television, so I’m stoked!"

Quotes are from his 2007 interview with Cooking with the Stars and his blog.