| Pemalite said: Everytime a Vegan tries to push their ideology on me... I eat two steaks instead of one that night... Because screw them. - They have no right to tell me what to do. With that said... If you live in the Arctic regions you will eat nothing but meat, no plants can grow there... And those people live long, happy and healthy lives. The human body is rather extroadanary at how it adapts itself to certain diets... For instance one bloke would eat a dozen eggs a day for decades, normally that should result in high cholesterol, but it didn't, his body adjusted. Just eat it in moderation and you will be fine, there are a few nutrients only found in meat and a few nutrients are found in high concentrations. Plus it tastes amazing. |
I agree that it's counter productive to attempt to push your ideology on someone. Just understand that most omnivores do it too, whether they realize it or not. Look at the person who responded to this thread with nothing more than a picture of a steak for example. Also consider that the overwhelming majority of public health care dollars are caused by diet and lifestyle choices, so those people with poor life choices are forcing the effects of their ideology on others in a different way.
As for the rest of your points, most of them are decidedly incorrect. Aboriginal arctic peoples had much shorter lives than those who lived even only a little bit further south. Analysis of mummified inuit peoples from the artic show that they were suffering atherosclerosis (the first stage of heart disease) or worse. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N7Sk1ZRohU Other studies have shown that remains from wealthy and powerful ancient people (who ate more meat and exercised less) showed they were far less healthy than commoners (who ate little to no meat and exercised more).
There are no nutrients that we can get only from meat, that's commonly believed but is a complete falsehood. I think it's very dangerous for people to counsel others towards specific diet and lifestyle recommendations based on conventional wisdom, rather than scientific fact. You could actually be recommending they do things that harm them, as you have done here. What nutrients are you referring to? I'd love a citation.
There are nutrients that are not found in plants, and some people get these by eating meat. But guess what? Our bodies are also made of meat, and we get those nutrients the same way the animals do, by synthesizing them in our own bodies. Our bodies can create vitamin D (which, despite its name, is actually a hormone), and our body can convert some kinds of nutrients into other kinds (for example, we can convert ALA indo DHA and EPA). The main exception cited is vitamin B12, but that's created by bacteria. Animals typically have it because they're used to eating from the ground. If humans still ate vegetables right from the ground, and drank non-chlorinated drinking water, then we too would have all the B12 we need. Factory-farmed animals are now being given B12 supplements (among a coctail of other supplements and antibiotics they're given), so you're just eating supplements after they've been filtered through animal flesh when you eat factory-farmed meat.
People have different starting levels of cholesterol. Someone that can eat eggs every day without a cholesterol problem likely just has a low starting value of cholesterol. Correlative studies on cholesterol so no relationship between diet and cholesterol only because they fail to take into account that people have different starting levels. However, studies that study people's cholesterol level before increasing their intake and afterward invariably show that eating cholesterol-laden foods increases cholesterol levels in the body.
When it comes to optimal health, I don't recommend an omnivorous diet or a vegan diet, I recommend an *evidence*-based diet. One that is based on the preponderence of the best scientific evidence, research that's funded by governments and academic institutions rather than studies conducted by corporations or other vested interests who know what result they need to obtain before they even start and who don't publish data that doesn't agree with their agenda. I would never recommend a diet or lifestyle choice online based on conventional wisdom as I could inadvertently be counselling people to choices that will kill themselves. However, recommending choices based on the preponderence of the best and the least-biased evidence, that's logical to me. And right now, that's a plant-based diet. One study looked at buddhists in Japan, many of which are vegan, but some of whom eat small amounts of meat. All participants in the study ate high quality whole foods, but those that ate strictly plant-based whole foods were dramatically healthier and more vibrant than those who ate meat even only once a week. SOURCE: http://nutritionfacts.org/video/plant-based-diets-and-diabetes/
| Fei-Hung said: Getting healthy isn't just about eating well but also living well. Whether you are a a vegan, vegetarian or a meat eater, you need to exercise. I know fat vegetarians, especially people from India. Their cooking has a lot of oil, butter and sugar. One thing a lot of people forget is that our ancestors used to do a lot more physical work and walk a lot more. Even if they were vegetarian / vegan, they would walk long distances. If you can manage an all veg diet, that's great, but if you can't, then it's important to control your consumption and to exercise. |
You're right that there's more to being healthy than just eating well. Exercise is important. However, one study looked at sedentary vegans vs. omnivorous marathon runners. Overall the sedentary vegans had better heart health than the super-fit omnivores. SOURCE: http://nutritionfacts.org/video/arteries-of-vegans-vs-runners/
And vegetarians overall are healthier than omnivores, but they still don't average in the healthy BMI range. Neither do pescetarians. Only vegans do. And that's despite junk-food vegans pulling down the average. I don't disagree with a word you said here, but I think it's important to keep it in context. Exercise is a factor, and stress reduction is a factor, but diet appears to be the single biggest factor.
| m0ney said: All vegetarians look pale and weak, but they all claim to feel great. Go figure. |
Are you assuming all veg-based people are like the small few you've seen? Your statement is completely false. The *only* American weightlifter to quality for the most recent Summer Olympics was vegan. Growing numbers of athletes are going vegan, and often for performance reasons rather than ethical or health. While animal protein and plant protein are equal at building muscle, animal products increase inflammation in the body so people on plant-based diets recover more quickly and can effectively work out more times per year. SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZrWIJF0i-s
