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Ellen's Switch from Southern Cooking to Veganism

For talk show host Ellen DeGeneres the second time is a charm. Her first attempt at letting go of meat, dairy and eggs 15 years ago only lasted six months. She points to her southern upbringing in New Orleans and Texas for her love of sausage with red beans and rice and other meaty meals telling the Associated Press, "Until four years ago I would be driving past these cows on pastures, and think 'What a lovely life that is,' and I'd go and order a steak." She and wife Portia de Rossi now follow a strict vegan diet with the help of personal chef Roberto Martin, author of Vegan Cooking for Carnivores, a new book for which Ellen wrote the afterward. Though the change has been hard, she is happy with her switch, "I've always called myself an animal lover. And yet I ate them." She watched films on the meat industry and read books to shore up her resolve. Eventually the message stuck. "It takes a click, just one light bulb, and you're like 'I can't do that anymore."