Is becoming a vegetarian/vegan worth it?

[Azuren]

My older brother went vegan recently. He lost a lot of weight.

This wasn't a good thing, as he was already in his "healthy weight zone". He lost a lot of muscle mass, despite being very active at his job (Electrician). He looks gangly and unhealthy now.

And before anyone chimes in with "he must not know how to be vegan": my sister-in-law is a souschef, and has managed to keep her body in a healthy state (she went vegan with him). He eats what she makes, and she makes healthy food that covers all bases. At the end of the day, mankind is omnivorous and we've evolved with as much in mind. Cutting out meat for some might work, but for many it can result in losing health, not gaining it.


Despite my hate for fish, I've always been a huge supporter of ovo-pescatarianism. Seafood and eggs for animal products, everything else follows vegan diet rules. The bonuses include:

Readily absorbed nutrients; many nutrients we need for our body can can obtained from plants, but the yield is much lower and requires vitamin supplements to make up for it. An example is vitamin A: yes, you can get it from kerotine, but the yield is low enough that a responsible dietician would recommend supplements instead. (Bonus Round: Do you have bad thyroids? Then kiss vitamin A goodbye if you're going to be a vegan, because you won't be able to convert it out of kerotine with bad thyroids)

Actual B12; you get B12 from a few things. Animals, animal biproducts, and... Dirt. So unless you're a fan of eating unwashed veggies, this is something you'll miss out on.

"Good" Protein; don't drink the Kool-Aid, kiddies, because the plant-based proteins you think are the same? They're not. They aren't as readily absorbed, and are just about as useless as trying to get Vitamin A out of kerotine. (Devil's Advocate Mode, Activate: While vegans don't get enough good protein, they do get enough protein. In fact, most people in America are getting too much protein)

Omegas; This is something that is almost exclusive to fish, so don't expect much of it elsewhere. You can get some from things like flaxseed, but as with most nutrients in plants, much of it is not readily absorbed.

And finally, not being full-on vegan means you can compensate with any multivitamins you want. That means no matter how unhealthy you are being, you can always override some of it with a supplement. Being vegan means you can't use most supplements, because guess where B12 supplements come from? Animals (for the overwhelming majority of options, anyway). Guess what you're probably going to be deficient on?

B12. Yay!