A Vegan Diet is Not Healthy

April 12, 2012

I’m mentally preparing myself for this one. Because it’s inevitable I’ll receive at least a few heated comments on this post. But that’s the cool thing – you can say whatever you’d like in your comment, the same way I can post whatever I’d like on my blog. So just keep that in mind if you don’t agree with what I have to say. And do try to be at least semi-courteous. You may or may not want to speak your thoughts to my face, but do remember that we are all people here, not just some nameless, faceless computer bots with gravatars.

So veganism. Generally defined as a diet and lifestyle which includes no animal products or animal by-products whatsoever. No meat, dairy, eggs, honey, etc.

I want to make two main points here about why I believe a vegan diet is not a healthy one long term. I’m not here to debate the ethics or morality of eating animals. Full disclosure: I am an omnivore. I eat meat. And I don’t believe it is cruel to do so. But that’s because I also believe all animals should be raised in an environment conducive to their health and well-being, i.e. not CAFO operations or battery cages.

I don’t believe a vegan diet or lifestyle is ecologically sustainable, either. If you want to delve more into that, I highly recommend reading Folks, This Ain’t Normal by Polyface farmer Joel Salatin. Life changing book.

So point number one about a vegan diet:

If You Don’t Do it Right, Don’t Do it at All

Did you notice that cheese puffs or white bread aren’t animal products? Do you know some vegans or vegetarians who are more like carb-etarians or junk-ans? Just because you don’t eat red meat or cow’s milk doesn’t mean you are automatically healthier. (By the way, the vast majority of all those ‘scientific’ studies that say red meat causes cancer were done using CAFO beef. Of course animals kept in confinement standing knee deep in their own poop, and being pumped full of hormones and antibiotics, and being fed a completely abnormal diet of corn and candy wrappers will produce some nasty meat that can absolutely cause disease in your body. Same thing goes for pasteurized cow’s milk. But I digress . . . )

Here’s the deal – when done right, a vegan diet makes a fantastic detox diet in the short term. Scads of people have switched from a junk food diet of processed and fast food, replaced it with a vegan diet full of raw vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and legumes and have seen their health improve drastically. All those foods are incredibly healthy superfoods! And the vast majority of people in the Western world would do well to abide by that sort of a diet for a few weeks or months.

But (and this brings me to my next point) a long-term vegan diet is not a wise way to go. Many people (like John Nicholson) find their health deteriorating at a rapid rate when following a vegan diet.

A Vegan Diet is Not Nourishing

This is so fascinating to me. Did you know that without plenty of healthy fats in your diet, you are not able to assimilate and absorb the nutrients in fruits and vegetables? This means you can eat kale and bell peppers until you are green in the face, but if you’re not consuming enough healthy saturated fat, it’s like you didn’t even need to bother.

And where do you find these healthy fats? Sure, you get them from coconut, avocado, almonds, and olive oil, but these sources are not always in season, not always convenient to purchase in your area, and are not always present in your diet in a high enough quantity on a given day to meet your body’s requirements to function properly. After all, 60% of your brain and nervous system are made of fat. We need fat for proper brain function, nerve signal transmission, and hormone balance!

But butter from grass-fed, pastured cows is rich in saturated fats, vitamin A, buytric acid, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA – a powerful cancer fighter), and lauric acid. Grass-fed, pastured beef itself is also rich in these same nutrients, as well as being a fantastic source of protein, amino acids, and vitamin B12 – which vegans must take as a supplement (a required nutrient our bodies don’t create – we must get it from animal sources).

Omnivores Healthier Than Vegetarians in Indigenous Cultures

I read an awesome anecdote about my main man Weston A. Price over on The Healthy Home Economist’s blog (she wrote a great article about how 75% of vegetarians return to eating meat). The study Price documented is very telling about how a vegetarian or vegan diet is unsuited for humans. Here she is in her words:

Dr. Price traveled the world in the 1920′s and 1930′s visiting 14 isolated cultures in the process. During this adventure which he documented in great detail with amazing pictures in his masterpiece Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Dr. Price concluded that while the diets of these natives varied widely, nutrient dense animal foods high in the fat soluble vitamins A, D, and K (also known as Activator X) were the common denominator. Consumption of these animal foods were revered in these communities as they bestowed vibrant health, ease of fertility, healthy children, and high resistance to chronic and infectious disease.

This discovery was a disappointment to Dr. Price who had expected to find the vegetarian cultures to be the healthiest cultures of all. But, the vegetarian cultures he examined displayed more degeneration than the omnivore cultures which surprised him given that these vegetarian cultures did indeed have superior health than the Americans of his day.

A sad commentary on the state of health in the Western world with our plastic, packaged, chemical-filled foods, but a true insight into the path to optimal health – it includes animal foods!

If you are looking for quality sources of sustainably raised beef & dairy, check your local farmer’s market (find one near you on the Local Harvest website) or have it shipped to your door from Beyond Organic.

I also want to highlight an absolutely beautiful, almost poetic look at this topic from Kristen of Food Renegade. Her post, Why I’m Not a Vegan, spoke volumes to me about this issue. I think you’ll find it well worth reading.

What has been your experience with a vegan or vegetarian diet?

This post is linked to Simple Lives Thursday, Fight Back Friday, Sunday School

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Sean
June 28, 2013 at 1:57 am

Honest, as a vegan myself I think saying everyone should be a vegan is impractical and rude. Not everyone will because how they were raised and we they belief. And I think the word diet is a word that sets up failure, I think of veganism as a lifestyle. Also, you bring up some interesting points, but I can’t say I complete agree with them. I saw my doctor not too long ago, and she said my body is running more efficiently than when I was eating meat.
1. Ryuukun
  July 9, 2013 at 2:21 pm
  
  It’s not the meat, it’s the sweets .
cheapest car insurance in massachusetts forum
July 10, 2013 at 5:18 pm

I savor, result in I found just what I was looking
for. You’ve ended my four day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have a nice day. Bye
Kristian
July 20, 2013 at 4:56 pm

Wow, i can not even begin to debunk all the bullshit you managed to put into such a short blogpost.
You didn’t raise even one actual and factual proof for the shit you say and you honestly seem a bit confused and ignorant of nutrition as a whole.
But whatever, after all you actually sat down and decided that you wanted to make a fool out of yourself.
http://drmcdougall.com/misc/2007nl/nov/b12.htm
Onawa
July 25, 2013 at 1:35 am

My husband and I are vegan– me for 3 years or so, and him since he was a baby and meat made him sick. We are very fit, with lean and muscular builds. We have a lot of energy, and we spend our days using our minds, so we are not suffering physically or mentally at all. I cook all of our foods (unless I make a raw desert or zucchini pasta) and I love to balance our nutrition. I find that, as there are different types of inclinations in all folks, folks need different diets. For the author, and those who eat meat, they probably need it. For my husband and I, we feel sick when we do, and my stomach just does not process it properly, giving stomach aches and slowing everything down. I am sure to supplement with PLENTY of coconut oil and nooch, and we enjoy ourselves some goat cheese on top of many dishes (mmmmmmm). To each their own. I am not convinced that all humans are of the same “type” or “category” of human, as it is clear to me that intellectually/philosophically, we are very different, with some minds being wired in ways which cannot comprehend how other minds are wired.
Onawa
July 25, 2013 at 3:11 pm

ALSO! A “vegan diet” is not a diet at all– veganism is the absence of a thing (animal products), while a diet is a set of things to be in-taken. So a vegan diet does not exist, only those who do not eat animal products, therefore a vegan diet cannot be deemed at face value to be healthy or unhealthy, as one would have to know what IS present in the diet in order to analyze such. I live just outside of Portland, OR. where one can get “Vegan Bacon Cheesy Gravy” on just about anything they order, and the food carts are no more than stylized grease buckets. I have never seen so many obese vegans in my life, but it is not the mere absence of animal products that got them there– it is the presence of low-quality non-animal products. And again, to each their own. I am a happy, healthy, herbivore (plus goat cheese:).
Vava
August 13, 2013 at 9:07 am

I stopped eating animal products because my body told me to do so, after a deep cleansing fast and a week of deep meditations several hours a day. Same with alcohol: it just told me “I don’t need it anymore”. When I started to get connected to my body more, it started to do amazing things that are healthy to it; it’s weird but very scientific, not just new age mumbo jumbo… Once the mind is not influenced by junk (after deep silence, no TV, no city energy), it starts unfolding wonders. Same with the body: once it’s cleansed and not influenced by junk in the environment, it will tell you what it really wants and needs.
I agree that all bodies are different, and that a non-balanced diet is deteriorating health, be it carnivore or vegan! There is no argument about that. Listen to what your body really wants and needs. Mine doesn’t need crude animal energy in it. Maybe yours does?
It all depends on what you want to do/be in life. If “normal healthy life” is all you desire, then it’s one thing. But if you’re looking into the beyond, it’s an entirely different conversation.
Plant energy is much subtler, and for growth in meditation, all animal products should be excluded. Once in a while a meditator grows even beyond eating plants – there are people who don’t eat food at all and live blissfully on pranic energy alone (feeding directly from the sun’s energy which is the utmost quality). But it’s not something everyone should practice, years of meditation and cleansing precede this “miracle”.
As for this posting… Your reasonings are very nice, but I don’t think it’s correct to post banners saying “Vegan diet is not healthy”. If you are into banners, better write “Unhealthy diet is not healthy”. It’s kinda like writing “Water Kills” (yes it kills if it has cyanide in it, but does it mean anything?) In the modern world where all the superfoods, all the sources of vitamins, minerals etc are at your fingertips, where seasonal differences don’t affect the food chain much, research conducted in the 20s and 30s of the past century is nothing more than a sad memory: of course they didn’t have quality protein sources! of course they were vitamin deficient! But look at incas and mayans: all they had was a magic chia and quinoa seed, and they were not deficient at all… We have so many resources to completely forget about meat if we CHOOSE to, if we WANT to – it’s not a question of deficit anymore. If we know how to eat right, veganism does NOT deteriorate health. There are entire casts in India and Nepal (higher casts) who don’t eat meat since birth – and they happily survive for thousands of years preserving sacred knowledge… so even indigenous peoples research reasonings are not entirely valid…
Vegan Diet IS Healthy – If You Do it Right | Bob McCauley's Blog
August 13, 2013 at 9:49 am

[…] self-claimed health expert has announced that the Vegan Diet is not healthy over a long period of term. And how would she […]
Tom Steinbach
August 20, 2013 at 11:23 am

Good article but a few things to clarify:
1) You are not an omnivore because you eat meat. You are herbivorous as a species, what you eat doesn’t change that.

2) Our bodies do make B12. However, it is made by bacteria in the lower intestine whereas it is necessary for absorption in the upper intestine. So it is made by our bodies, but useless.

I am also reading Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. It is a great read. Nice post.
Jessica M.
August 28, 2013 at 9:30 am

Absolutely love this post! I think you tackled all the right spots and have fired up the vegans. I’m finding the vegan comments very comical. I’m pretty sure the lack of meat makes them a little crazy. (I’m being serious). I’ve noticed all vegans to be a little wacked out and very touchy (about all subjects not just veganism).

p.s. I was a vegetarian for 6 years and would never go back.
1. Lori Winter
  August 29, 2013 at 11:56 am
  
  Thanks Jess! By the way, I clicked through to your blog and loved your ‘fun facts’ from your wedding favors. Congrats!
Josie
August 29, 2013 at 11:47 am

What I have extrapolated from the pages above is that vegans believe they are physically healthier than meat eaters but that nobody really wants to hang out with vegans including other vegans. They could be healthier but there could be a number of other factors at play and one would need to review each study to formulate their own conclusion.

Another observation I’ve made is that many vegans on this page assume all meat eaters follow the standard American diet. If they do follow the standard American diet, they very well could be unhealthy, fat and diabetic. It’s probably false to assume this unless someone mentions they are swilling gravy as their beverage of choice. Uneducated vegans could also be unhealthy if they make unhealthy food choices.

With that out of the way…

Not everyone views killing to eat as barbaric and some people even view it as their duty to feed their family. Maybe they feel respect for the animal they kill or maybe they don’t but many people do what needs to be done. Some say grace before they eat the food they’ve killed. Many vegans are athiests and thank no one for the food on their plate. Some meat eaters will judge and condemn them for their seemingly loose morals in the same way vegans judge the actions of carnivores. Just an observation…

Not everyone eats factory farmed meat. Some meat eaters wouldn’t dream of purchasing their food from a store or have no such luxury. Some people living hand to mouth don’t even have a computer to contribute anything meaningful to the debate. Consider that a good part of the world lives in poverty and arguing food choices seems like a moot point.

12 oz steaks dripping with blood versus copious amounts of money for b12 shots. A very compelling argument for hungry people. Many of the crops produced in 3rd world nations are quickly shipped off to rich vegans in the west in the same way meat is shipped off to the burger consuming populus.

The vegans will then argue that their crops require a fraction of the land needed to raise meat and if we all just became vegan we would solve world hunger. As long as there is greed, that will never happen. There is enough food to feed the world. It is all about distribution.

My point? Contribute to your own survival. Grow a garden or catch a fish. Be grateful for your own survival. Nobody needs a 12 oz steak daily for survival but if you feel you need some red meat occasionally, eat it. Supplements are fine if you can afford them but appreciate that many can’t afford them. Live your life with a healthy degree of humilty and moderation and if you have the opportunity to truly see how others live please appreciate that as well.
1. Lori Winter
  August 29, 2013 at 11:52 am
  
  Love love love this comment. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Josie!
  1. Josie
    August 30, 2013 at 8:55 am
    
    Thanks Lori!
skeptifem
August 31, 2013 at 9:50 pm

Anyone who says something is a ‘detox diet’ loses credibility with me. What toxins are you talking about? Its nonsense. I’m sure you think a ‘cleanse’ is good too.

You have presented no evidence that non-CAFO beef does not cause cancer.
David
September 19, 2013 at 9:56 am

Lets use your logic on not wanting to “debate the ethics or morality of eating animals”, so to be consistent in with your logic, you should respect the rapist and child molester who does not want to discuss the ethics or morality of raping or abusing children so lets leave that out of the argument and just talk about if sex feels good… just forget the sex is taking place during a rape or taking advantage of a helpless child! Why would you care about the ethics or morality part of the conversation? It is irrelevant…. right?

What a lame clueless post!
1. Josie
  April 3, 2014 at 9:35 pm
  
  This is a flawed argument as you presuppose that it is unethical to eat meat. Your conscience may tell you it is unethical however this is the very thing in debate. Inevitably someone is going to bring up the fact that many animals eat other animals. Is a cat a kitten abuser because it eats a mouse? Most animals are protective of their own species first but even the occasional animal will throw it’s own under the bus.
  
  You certainly have a right to your opinion. You also have the right to build a compelling argument on behalf of animals everywhere and I think your heart is in the right place. I don’t think your argument is logical though and I respectfully disagree with your comparison.
Z.N
September 19, 2013 at 10:17 am

So I take it the author never tried a vegan diet? Read The China Study, read 80/10/10 by Doughlas N Graham.

The author says all these wonderful are awesome, and yet he is an omnivore, check the human anatomy man, check what causes global warming, check what causes environment pollution, health problems, it 90% in food, so if you dont believe in that, you have lost your cause, just another ignorant pro meat article.
Karla
October 4, 2013 at 5:53 am

I was vegetarian for 27 years, from the age of 9, I lost my 20s to ill health and have been chronically, life limitingly I’ll now for 4 years. My body just couldn’t deal with the day to day stresses any more, I even left my job because of it. 2 months ago I made the very difficult decision to eat meat again, I was vegan by this point and it was the hardest thing I ever had to do to eat meat but here I am, 2 months on, starting to cope with every day life again. I have comments all the time on how well I look and can do something every day if I like without having to worry about resting. I are a reasonably healthy, balanced diet as a vegetarian but I wasn’t reasonably healthy for it. I don’t care what anyone else thinks, I know my body and I know it is starting to get stronger, my brain starting to clear, I can concentrate, I can remember things and I’m not irritable all the time!
Shaun
October 6, 2013 at 10:14 pm

This entire thread is exactly what’s wrong with society today. “I’m better than you bc I’m vegan.” “I’m better than you bc I’m an omnivore.” “I’m better than you bc I’m Christian.” “I’m better than you bc I’m republican.” “I’m better than you bc every morning I do 10 jumping jacks and kiss my cat 3 times.”

To each their own!! Everyone needs to get over themselves. You’re all pretentious narcissists. Some people live healthy lifestyles eating meat. Some live healthy lifestyles as vegans. Everyone is different! Body, mind and soul! Geeze. A lot of you should be ashamed of yourselves.
Shaun
October 6, 2013 at 10:19 pm

And where the hell does anyone get off comparing eating meat to rape!? That’s QUITE the leap there don’t you think? This whole thread disgusts me.
Felipe
October 21, 2013 at 3:31 pm

I like meat, sharks like meat, cats like meat, dogs like meat, birds of prey like meat. Go tell one of those to be sensitive about eating clean natural meat. Let me know how that goes for you.
Alice
October 28, 2013 at 5:16 pm

I believe you need to do more research if you think a vegan diet is not healthy. Yes, there are versions of a vegan diet which are unhealthy, just as there are versions of an omnivorous diet which are unhealthy. A junk-food vegan and a junk-food omnivore will both get health problems and be deficient in many nutrients if they just eat lots of processed food, or in the junk-food omnivores case if they eat lots of meat and dairy and processed foods but don’t touch fruits and vegetables. Also I recommend researching b12. All animals produce a small amount of b12 in the intestines. So where do the animals which you eat get their b12 from? They get it from the fruits, vegetables, and grains which they eat! B12 deficiency is common among people of all diet backgrounds because b12 is a delicate nutrient. If fruits and vegetables are sprayed with lots of pesticides which leech into the dirt and lots of chemicals are used in the soil then most of the b12 gets destroyed, which has lead to so many people becoming deficient. I recommend choosing organic whenever possible, because the soil has more active b12 for the foods to absorb, and I also recommend testing yourself for b12. Many other things such as consuming alcohol and smoking cigarettes as well as environmental pollution can lead to the body having problems absorbing b12 even when enough is consumed. If you have a problem properly absorbing b12 then getting b12 injections is the best approach because it’s carried directly into the blood stream, and if you don’t have problems absorbing it but you simply get too little in the diet then you can take b12 supplements. As far as a vegan diet being unhealthy I highly recommend reading The China Study and other books by Caldwell B. Esselstyn, T. Colin Campbell, Dean Ornish, Douglas Graham, and John A. McDougall. Eating the diet which you want to eat is up to you, but to imply or state that meat and dairy is more nutritious than fruits and vegetables or to state that all vegan diets are not healthy long-term is simply not true.
Brittany
November 8, 2013 at 8:11 am

Yes, Vegan Hypocrisy 101… bashing people’s comments and calling them idiots is a great way to have an intellectual debate. Bravo.
Ian Schenck
November 13, 2013 at 12:21 am

Just like any diet, a vegetarian diet can be unhealthy or healthy, depending on how the person plans it. Instead of relying on random studies from the 30s, or whenever, you should read more current research. Read this position paper by the American Dietetic Association for actual information on vegan/vegetarian diets.
http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/2009_ADA_position_paper.pdf

The one thing you are correct on is that vegans should take B12 supplements, or consume foods fortified with B12 on a regular basis. No, this is not ‘natural’, but it is practically the only barrier to eating a healthy vegan diet (socioeconomic condition/food scarcity notwithstanding) in our modern society.

I applaud your efforts to include more sustainably and ethically raised animals in your diet, but please do not use false information to make yourself feel superior to others.
Jess
November 13, 2013 at 5:24 pm

Everyone. Please just stop. You are your own person. Eat what is healthy and works for YOUR lifestyle. There are enough things in life for everyone to fight about. Just let each other be.
Jessica
November 13, 2013 at 11:55 pm

This chick can not expect not to be slammed when she is having a dig at vegans and vegetarians and saying that their way of life is not healthy. You are insulting and incredibly misinformed. Science has proven that meat and dairy has a negative effect in the human body, and causes cancer, disease, diabetes. Cows milk is especially linked to breast cancer and infertility. There has been many, many studies and experiments done to prove this, go read the book ‘The China Study’ you will get a rude shock!

You trying to persuade people that the vegan way of life is not healthy is really wrong because it is not the case and actually the complete opposite. I think you can live a healthy life eating lots of greens, fruit, seeds, nuts, legumes and meat, BUT you can live a healthier life without meat.

We are not omnivores by our anatomy nor by our nature, our ancestors were actually frugivores and only started eating meat for survival, we are no longer eating for survival. Look up charts and research of herbivore and carnivore and omnivore and you will see that we are not omnivores, our digestive tract, alkaline saliva, teeth etc are nothing that of a omnivore. I would suggest you do some research before you put ridiculous false articles up.!
1. Aaron
  August 7, 2014 at 10:21 am
  
  Frugivores? I read that the oldest human remains ever found dating back more than two million years we shown to hav had a meat and plant based diet based on studies done on it. So how do you know humans were frugivores? Or that humans ate meat out of desperation to survive? Were you around back then? Speaking as a former vegetarian, I believe that cutting all meat and animal products simply limits the nutrients our bodies get. And if you require pill supplements to compensate for lost nutrients, then how is that diet normal? I did not function better as a vegetarian. I simply lacked proper nutrients. I never took pills to compensate, and my health got worse. Rather than start putting pills in my body or scarfing down protein bars, I reincorporated lean meats not my diet and now feel much healthier. And from the standpoint of someone working in the navy, how many SWCC and navy SEAL guys do you think are vegan or vegetarian? And yet those men are the most physically and mentally tough people you will meet. Working at special boat team 12 gave me a greater appreciation for having a balanced diet. As their CST, there is no way I could keep up with them during PT if I was still a vegetarian.
  1. Aaron
    August 7, 2014 at 10:25 am
    
    *were shown to have
Easy
November 16, 2013 at 3:54 pm

Educate yourself!
Michelle
November 25, 2013 at 4:29 pm

Before writing something with such a strong claim please complete strong and varied reaserch. If you honestly think meat, dairy, or eggs are healthy fats you were tought with extreme bias. Products from other animals increase the risk of heart diesease, cardiac arrest and cancer. Actual healthy fats are avacados, nuts, vegtable oils (etc..). This article was poorly reaserched, and that is not my opinion it is a fact, likewise veganism IS healthy which is also fact.
yaconsyrupinfo.net
November 27, 2013 at 2:40 pm

After I originally commented I appear to have clicked the
-Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now each time a comment is added I receive 4 emails with the exact same comment.
Is there an easy method you can remove me from that service?
Many thanks!