Here is the Alicia Silverstone Oprah video of her Jan. 27, 2010 appearance and interview, discussing ‘The Kind Diet,’ her new book, detailing her transition to a vegan diet and lifestyle. She was featured on an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show devoted to food safety and food processing entitled Food 101, with additional segments featuring the documentary Food, Inc. and best-selling author of ‘Food Rules’, Michael Pollan. Details and video are below after the jump.

The actress rose to fame in the 1990s with her appearance in movie Clueless. As she reveals, she confronted health issues including asthma, acne, insomnia, and constipation. Through changing from a “steak and doughnut diet” to a vegan diet, three years after appearing in the 1995 movie, she reveals she was able to overcome her health issues. She said:

“I used to have all those white marks on my nails and they were very brittle, and now they’re so strong I cannot bend them. My eyes got really white, and I feel like I look less puffy.”

She also discussed her lifelong history as an animal lover and noted that seeing a film on how animals are slaughtered was a turning point:

“I just took a look at my dog and said, ‘If I’m not willing to eat you, how can I continue to eat these other creatures that have the same desire to live, are just as funny, just as cute as my dogs?’”

More details including photos and transcript are on Oprah.com: Alicia Silverstone’s Kind Diet

See also: Video: Go Grocery Shopping with Alicia Silverstone and Recipes and Cooking Demo Videos.

A preview video is below. More video will be added when available.

YouTube Link

Alicia Silverstone Oprah Video: The Kind Diet 1-27-10

Snoop Dogg made a memorable appearance on The Martha Stewart Show on November 18, 2008. Watch the full episode and see photos here. In her introduction, Martha Stewart read some of the emails she had received from Snoop Dogg (whom she first met backstage during a taping of Late Show with David Letterman) declaring herself a “homegirl from New Jersey” as she puzzled through the language.  Snoop Dogg later gave her some hilarious lessons in Snoopguistics.

In addition to preparing showing Martha Stewart and viewers how to prepare Cognac mashed potatoes, the rapper also talked about his reality TV series Fatherhood which will have its season 2 premiere November 30, 2008 and showed a clip in which he encourages his son to become the first member of the family to go to college, acknowledging that he himself became successful only through luck.   He also briefly mentioned his forthcoming Christmas album which will have predominately rap tracks and a couple of R&B tracks.

Photos via Mama Pop – Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart…You Can Thank Me Later via Serious Eats

Video via Dave and Thomas Dailytimekillers – Awesome! Snoop Dogg on Martha Stewart

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• Video: Willie Nelson and Snoop Dogg – “Superman” (Live Performance in Amsterdam)
• Video: Snoop Dogg and Akshay Kumar “Singh Is Kinng” Bollywood Music Video – Behind the Scenes
• Snoop Dogg “My Medicine” Music Video Ft. Willie Nelson (Official)
• Snoop Dogg “One Life to Live” Promo Video & Photos
• Video: Snoop Dogg on “One Life to Live” and Behind the Scenes 5-8-08
• Video: Snoop Dogg Portrays German Singer Roy Black

Video: Snoop Dogg on Martha Stewart 11-18-08

Shallow Nation, in making note of this particular Philadelphia story, does not take trans fat lightly, so to speak. Even the Mayo Clinic devotes a full page to the dangers of trans fat; it raises our bad cholesterol and lowers our good cholesterol simultaneously! Thus no one can claim that trans fat concerns are the obsessions of mere “health nuts” and thereby disparage them. How and if government should respond is another issue altogether, although we must say we would not be too upset if the government banned the use of arsenic if it were used as a food additive, even though our palate might suffer, temporarily.

Apparently, it became quite humorous when local Philadelphia bakeries appealed to City Council for exemption from the city’s trans fat ban:

Over the protests of the city’s Health Department and testimony from younger bakers from Center City and Chestnut Hill, bakers from South Philadelphia, Port Richmond, North Philadelphia and elsewhere said they could not reproduce their delicacies without the partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and shortenings.

“In the event that this would have gone through, we would be looking to go elsewhere,” said Richard Haegele, born 75 years ago over Haegele’s Bakery in Mayfair. He inherited the bakery from his father, and runs it with his son, Glen.

The Haegeles and other bakers said they had unsuccessfully tried to reproduce their delicacies – such as Polish chrusciki from Szypula’s in Port Richmond, cannoli from Termini Bros., and pound cake from Stock’s. Some bakers brought versions of their specialties with and without trans fats so officials could compare.

Philadelphia Metro Blog has an amusing bullet-point account of some of what when on at the meeting:

• Representatives from nearly 10 bakeries around the city carted in boxes upon boxes of baked goods made with and without trans fat. It was like the food version of “Miracle on 34th Street,” when they brought in the sacks and sacks of letters addressed to Santa Claus.
• Councilman Juan Ramos: “Philadelphia is nationally known as a trans fat-free city, this amendment would create confusion across the country.”

• Ramos, again: “This legislation [banning trans fat] not only attracts customers to our city’s restaurants, but also saves lives!”
• Councilman Brian O’Neill: “There’s a fine line between educating the public and becoming the food police.”
• There are no penalties or fines involved with violating the ban on trans fat in Philadelphia. Seriously, nothing.
• Councilman Frank DiCicco and Dr. Kenneth Smith (who has a PhD in economics, not an MD) of Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health got into a rather heated exchange over what the point of this actual ban was. DiCicco said that there was no difference in allowing people to choose to smoke cigarettes and allowing them to choose to eat cake that may be bad for their health. He makes a good point.
• O’Neill: “There should be a way where we don’t have to criminalize Stock’s pound cake.”
• Ramos, who is adamantly for the ban on trans fat and having the bakeries follow it, admitted to patronizing each bakery represented at the hearing at least twice each in a long speech about how much he loves their food. This caused Councilwoman Joan Krajewski, who sponsored the amendment to the ban, to pipe in and say, “What you’re saying is you’re willing to amend it then, right?” Ramos: “What I’m saying is, I like the cakes.”
• Both Councilmen O’Neill and Wilson Goode had to leave the hearing early before having a chance to eat any of the baked goods. They both looked disappointed.
• The amendment ultimately passed with a favorable recommendation out of the committee, 5-1, and will likely pass into law at an upcoming Council session.
• At the conclusion of the hearing, the entire room descended on the baked goods and started pigging out. No one was touching the non-trans fat stuff.

Shallow Nation also makes note that as the Wikipedia trans fat entry (said to need additional citation) points out, trans fat was developed and put into commercial use in 1911, as Crisco. Crisco has recently been reformulated to contain zero trans fat. This is not to say we endorse or use the new Crisco, but it does lead one to wonder why Philadelphia bakers can’t find success with trans-fat free Crisco.