Post by Eliza Barclay, The Salt at NPR Food (11/26/13)

The decision to give up entire food groups can be a radical attempt to reform an unhealthy diet, as former President Bill Clinton demonstrated when he revealed in 2011 that he'd gone vegan, after heart bypass surgery.
But more often in this day and age, eschewing animal products is political.
And so that's why we were interested to read that former Vice President Al Gore, one of the world's most famous environmentalists, had — like his former boss — gone vegan, too.
The news appeared as a side note in an article published in Forbes about Hampton Creek, a San Francisco company that's trying to hawk its plant-based mayonnaise as a tasty alternative to the ubiquitous condiment typically made with eggs. (You can read our own Allison Aubrey's story on the same company here.)