A Vegan Diet is Not Healthy
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
Comments are closed.
Todd
November 27, 2013 at 5:24 pmVeganism is not sustainable… If the majority of humans were to go vegan tomorrow it would be devastating to the planet, and would speed up the process for the planet going dead… Science or not this is just pure logic… given that humans are NATURALLY omnivores and evolved into the humans we are today through meat, and veggies alike, mostly meat as it plays a key role in brain development. For every human to switch to only veggies would be devastating to the world… We are a keystone species for this planet, as well as its most dangerous species…
I am getting away from the point, but if every human were to eat nothing but veggies tomorrow our whole planet would have to be dedicated to farming vegetables and there just isn’t enough surface area or water for that matter to do that… gallons per cow, verse grain or not… simple logic prevails! Any grass eating animal, a cow, a sheep, elephants, etc… have to eat miles upon miles of square yardage of grass vegetation just to survive! The animal with the largest digestive tract in the world, and has to eat almost double it’s weight in vegetation a day to survive is the Koala.. and they are tinier than us!
If humans ate nothing but veggies we’d have to eat not twice are weight.. because we are kind of lethargic… but at least our body weight in veggies a day in order to be completely healthy… It’s just not sustainable at all.. I am sorry, but any vegan who believes this is just plain wrong.. it’s simple logic and observation…
Todd
November 27, 2013 at 5:30 pmI just have to post this before I get jumped on… yes I know their are vegans who eat normal three meals a day… but that is only because of your intestinal bacteria using your body fats and lipids to process and extract energy from vegetation, the more and more you eat veggies the harder and harder it is to extract those nutrients, and the longer and longer your intestines needs to be to get those nutrients!
It’s not a secret, look at nature, animal with the largest intestines… koala… a cow… four stomachs… etc… those animals HAD to evolve that way in order to get nutrients that could be lost, and have to eat pounds of veggies just to get those nutrients.
Going straight vegan for the entire world is just an awfully terrible idea, and vegans need to wake up and use their brain! I am almost pleading here.
Lyla
December 20, 2013 at 10:59 pmAlso, I’ve been vegan for 18ish years now and I don’t eat a whole hell of a lot more than my omnivorous friends. And the only time I can think of in which I have felt lethargic was when I was tricked into eating chicken salad made with actual chicken (as a joke, HAHA so funny) I came down with what I can only describe as a horrible episode of food poisoning.
To sustain the human population on plants alone would take WAY less land and resources than we use now. The UN has acknowledged this for goodness sake. I don’t want to demean you, but I wish you would do your research before stating bold conclusions.
ONE MORE THING. Our digestive tracts have much more in common with herbivores than any omnivore or carnivore. The length of the digestive tract must be thought of in relation to that specific animals size:
Herbivores have intestines about 10-12+ times the length of their bodies.
Carnivores: 3-6
Omnivores: 4-6
HUMANS: 10 -11
I’ve got a masters in biology, bring it on.
Lyla
December 20, 2013 at 10:43 pmTodd, I’m afraid you are VERY wrong about sustainability.
Look at it this way: An enormous amount of farmed land is dedicated to the sole purpose of feeding the animals we feed on. If that land were used directly to feed people, instead of feeding the food, we’d have a lot less hungry people. Not to mention that these “grass fed” supposedly more humanely killed cattle require massive amounts of grazing land PLUS the land their additional feed is grown on. And not only do you have to water the grains these animals eat, but you must also water the animals themselves. A cow needs gallons of water a day, especially dairy cows who have to drink three times as much water as milk they produce in a day, which can be up to 20 gallons. That’s a lot of fresh water just to produce your burger and chocolate milk. Breaking it down even further, ON AVERAGE:
It takes about 1180 gallons of water to produce a half pound of steak. That’s absurd.
Water needed to produce a healthy pound of wheat (which can feed more people by the way) is only 138 gallons.
So, you’re just plain wrong. Also, here’s a nifty graphic showing the toll the meat and dairy industries have on the environment aside from the waste of land, water, and grain.
http://happyleafeater.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/greenhouse-gas-emissions.jpg
Merry
December 3, 2013 at 1:44 amAs an ex-omnivore, I am in no position to judge anyone else; I can simply say that I have experimented with just about every diet out there for over 25 years, and the whole-food low fat vegan or near-vegan diet advocated by numerous physicians and TRUE nutrition experts, is far and away the best one I have ever followed. It seems to be that looking around me, there are plenty of people eating omnivorous diets with adequate fat content…and most of them are quite overweight and not very healthy. I work in a whole office full of them! Eating my current diet, as I have for the past several years, it is very easy for me to lose/maintain my weight, or gain muscle/weight (if I wanted), it supports me running 50 miles per week, working full time, while not getting sick and feeling and looking remarkably healthy well into my 40s. I, personally, am very, grateful I abandoned the weston prices, joe mercolas, etc etc, and listened to the voices of reason (such as those found in the doc Forks over Knives, REAL physicians, with real experience and expertise… not putting my faith in 100 year old books written by dentist/eugenicists, chiropractors, or journalists looking to jump on the bandwagon and make a quick $). And if you’re not speaking from experience, you’re speaking from belief… and that’s not something I’m willing to put my life and health on! I wouldn’t say the vegan diet is for everyone, I don’t know… but I damn sure wouldn’t make categorical statements about diets I had no experience with, and knew very little about, and broadcast them over the internet either.
Lyla
December 20, 2013 at 10:42 pmTodd, I’m afraid you are VERY wrong about sustainability.
Look at it this way: An enormous amount of farmed land is dedicated to the sole purpose of feeding the animals we feed on. If that land were used directly to feed people, instead of feeding the food, we’d have a lot less hungry people. Not to mention that these “grass fed” supposedly more humanely killed cattle require massive amounts of grazing land PLUS the land their additional feed is grown on. And not only do you have to water the grains these animals eat, but you must also water the animals themselves. A cow needs gallons of water a day, especially dairy cows who have to drink three times as much water as milk they produce in a day, which can be up to 20 gallons. That’s a lot of fresh water just to produce your burger and chocolate milk. Breaking it down even further, ON AVERAGE:
It takes about 1180 gallons of water to produce a half pound of steak. That’s absurd.
Water needed to produce a healthy pound of wheat (which can feed more people by the way) is only 138 gallons.
So, you’re just plain wrong. Also, here’s a nifty graphic showing the toll the meat and dairy industries have on the environment aside from the waste of land, water, and grain.
http://happyleafeater.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/greenhouse-gas-emissions.jpg
Lyla
December 20, 2013 at 10:43 pmDid not mean to post this here; the reply button placement is a bit misleading, whoops! Sorry!
Shelby
December 9, 2013 at 7:00 pmVegan diets are sustainable for a good amount of people but definitely not everyone. You need to do it correctly, make sure to take supplements, and get proper macronutrient profiles for yourself. I used to eat a diet of basically red meat and processed carbs and now i am mainly plant based, lots of fruits, veggies, nuts, healthy oils, but i will still have organic, grass fed animal products during dinner time 5x a week. I feel it is a good balance of wanting to be vegan but not wanting to completely get rid of everything i enjoy eating, and also getting all the necessary protein! :)
Austin Jordan
December 11, 2013 at 6:21 amAnother total spastic completely ignorant of the vegan diet.
Austin Jordan
December 11, 2013 at 6:37 amI’m 26 and have been vegan since birth. Rarely unwell, healthy weight, healthy skin, hair and nails. When do you expect me to become unhealthy from this vegan diet?
Dr. Vegan
January 7, 2014 at 5:34 pmThere are lots of good reasons to live a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle. As a nutrition Ph.D. (UC Davis) with over 25 years professional experience, I can say that vegans and vegetarians are healthier than omnivores overall, but you still have to watch what you’re doing. After all, we evolved as omnivores and until 8,000 BC consumed diets with about 65% animal : 35% plant derived foods. Since our genes didn’t change much in the last 10,000 years, our bodies still have nutrient requirements that are hard or impossible to address with vegan diets (or modern omnivore diets for that matter!) unless you supplement: vitamin B12, vitamin D, preformed vitamin A (retinol), iron, zinc, iodine, selenium, omega-3s (EPA+DHA), choline, and the sulfur amino acids (CYS, MET, TAU). I’ve seen many vegans who suffer from fatigue (low vit.B12, iron), weak immunity (low retinol, vit.D, vit.B12, zinc), and dull hair, brittle nails and poor joint health (all likely due to low sulfur-amino acids, omega-3s).
Nevertheless, vegans can achieve optimum nutrition easily with a few conscious food choices (protein level, protein quality, esp. sulfur amino acids) and taking some supplements (a decent vegan multivitamin/mineral, vitamin D2, algal DHA, plus perhaps vegan glucosamine, methionine, cysteine or NAC).
If in doubt, ask your doctor to run a few extra blood tests: serum ferritin (iron status), 25(OH)D (vitamin D), red cell omega-3 fatty acid profile, etc. to see what’s going on. Unfortunately, the other nutrients aren’t that easy to test for.
Myself
January 17, 2014 at 10:51 amI’ve never seen such display of stupidity in my life.
The main difference is this:
Vegan people think no end of themselves and are egoistical people who forgot that their life must have a meaning. Noooooo, it’s all about what they eat. In this respect they are like animals. But animals are still above them, because animals are generally kind to humans, while these degenerates are not.
Normal people (because vegans are anything but normal) have some purpose in life and are not so much self-absorbed.
What is the point of your life on Earth if most of the time you are concerned with what you eat and how your sorry eating habits make you superior to others? Are you all mad? Is this a brainwashing cult? Do you really expect anyone to believe that we were brought on this Earth to worry exclusively about our eating? Why would you want to live longer if you are such useless, obnoxious people? Only to irritate more?
Get a life. You are ridiculous. And sad.
Animal
January 19, 2014 at 6:49 amI am 30 and have ALSO BEEN VEGAN SINCE BIRTH!
I can run faster and longer/lift more weight than anyone I know personally.
I feel great. Never break bones. Great teeth, skin, hair, nail, eyes.
Myself
January 19, 2014 at 12:30 pmAnimal: So, all in all, you are a healthy herbivore.
Good luck in your next life, maybe you’ll be granted a human incarnation.
Andreena Hofferden
January 20, 2014 at 2:30 pmI Have recently made the transition to a vegan lifestyle over the past 2-3 years, and I must say that I am much healthier and active than before, I have less digestion issues, and I have been able to successfully reconnect with my true spirit self. Although this lifetsyle works wonders for me, I would not recommend this lifestyle for everyone. People are forgetting that when these “statistics” are created by these researchers, that they are only using a small number of people. But every single person is different. Everyone’s body is different. According to your biological DNA, you may NEED meat in your diet, or you may not be able to even digest it. It really depends on you. It’s important to be able to listen to your body and what it’s trying to tell you.
Just as I do not go around looking down on those who eat meat (and I do not find anything morally wrong as long as the animals are being treated fairly and live happy lives before eaten), I do not appreciate when ignorant minds decide to take it upon themselves to try and force me to eat that which does not serve me. Diet is a personal preference and only your body can decide what is truly good for you, and what isn’t. There are no facts in this world, only opinions and theories. Thank you for sharing yours… and this was mine.
Is A Vegetarian Diet Healthy | Healthy Diet
January 29, 2014 at 11:52 am[…] http://www.laurelofleaves.com […]
double d
February 1, 2014 at 3:47 amSo when zombie apocalypse happens and there is no longer pharaceutical and nutraceutical companies producing the vitamins, minerals, fats, and proteins missing from a vegan diet… where are you going to get your supplements? Oh yeah, you are going to start hunting or you will slowly waste away. HaHa, I really think it says something if you can’t live without taking highly processed and laboratory synthesized components to supplement your diet. Has anyone yet studied the impact of all of those plastic supplement bottles, the chemical residues from extracting and processing the nutrients, or what about all of the methane gas human vegans produce? ;) Hey look, if everyone eats mostly vegetarian and has small amounts of animal proteins to supplement the diet, you’re going to be doing great. Oh yeah, that diet is called paleo (easily confused with atkins). No one should be a proponent of eating crap loads of meat and eggs. But we should all be proponents of more fruit and veg, something many vegans are still deficient in (or should I say grainatarians?).
ak
February 2, 2014 at 3:34 pmNo matter what someone says about nutrition, eating, etc., there’s going to be information to support or debunk it, period. People love to throw around the word ‘research’ as though just saying it automatically makes them right (i.e. how many times do you get some pretentious moron that says , ‘you know, next time you say such and such maybe you should do some research blah blah blah’). Or, give links to their ‘proof’, which is pointless because if a person doesn’t like what it says, they’ll just write it off as propaganda-how many times have you seen vegans accuse certain studies they don’t like of being ‘paid off by the dairy, meat, etc, industries’. Different things work for different people, & I don’t know why some are so threatened by that statement. I was a vegan for 8 years, & I feel that I’m much better off now that I’ve gone back into incorporating some animal products (cue the people that are inevitably going to tell me I ‘did something wrong’). That’s what works best for me. It may not for everyone. If a person feels they’re best off doing whatever diet, & it’s what works for them, great-different things work for different people.
Miks
February 15, 2014 at 1:49 pmA few anecdotal pieces are do not make strong case.
“Not nourishing” part – complete nonsense! There is more than plenty saturated fat in vegan diet. For f***s sake, olive oil is bursting with it. That’s why you pour it on salads.
Poor, weak and superficial review, which tries to end with strong conclusions. That does not favors for your integrity as a writer… shame.
Andrea
March 25, 2014 at 1:51 pmI could not agree more. I couldn’t imagine writing a review of a diet without doing the necessary research. Wow! I will not be exploring this website any further after reading this article.
Rebecca Bilot
February 17, 2014 at 4:09 pmI have to say I am not a vegan, I am vegetarian, and not because of the animals which I know goes against the normal thought here. I just don’t like meat and found that if you avoid or don’t eat meat and you are not a vegetarian people bug and push you on the subject all the time. If you state “I’m a vegetarian” you may get silly questions like how do you get your protein, but you aren’t pushed to eat something you don’t like. Now to the nutrition part. Using your same arguments here you could change out several terms and write this same article from a Vegan point of view as to why being an omnivore isn’t healthy. You start by assuming vegans eat poorly. Well so do omnivores. My husband loves meat and eats it all the time, he is not the picture of health that anyone should follow. His idea of a good lunch is a bag of Doritos and a cheeseburger. Sadly because he has a physical job and stays trim he feels he is healthy enough. But to be honest he probably doesn’t get his dietary needs met at all on most days/ weeks. That is why I think it is silly when people ask me about protein. I used to avoid meat and eat whatever I wanted because I too was small. Now I pay attention. I know the different things my body needs including many things I had no clue about before I went vegetarian other than protein. I actively search those things out and make sure I get them in a day. Not all vegetarians do this, nor do all vegans. But to say that omnivores are healthier because they eat meat is silly. Because just like not all vegans eat well neither do all omnivores. And to be honest if the vegans who don’t eat well start eating meat they probably won’t eat better.
Then there is the 2nd part of the article that goes to the lack of healthy fats. Well really come on that is also just silly. Plenty of omnivores get fat in their diet but guessing many of them are not healthy. People with bad eating habits are people with bad eating habits. Whether they eat meat or not. Becoming a vegan doesn’t make someone eat well. It is a common misconception. Eating meat though doesn’t mean you eat well either.
The truth of the matter is you can eat healthy as a vegan and get all the vitamins and nutrients you need with careful planning and thoughtful cooking. You can also eat healthy on a diet with animal products with careful planning and thoughtful cooking. Both take a lot more work than many people are willing to put in which is why many have healthy issues, and why we are seeing obese people suffering from malnutrition. This article doesn’t have any scientific basis, but in general this article is frustrating because you make too many assumptions to make your argument. You talk of the convenience and expense of eating right on a vegan diet, but then you wonder why people eat the crappy meat you so loathe in the article. Well, not all omnivores have the money to buy organic meat which is why so many suffer. I probably won’t read any more of your blogs if this is the best you have.
Donna S
February 17, 2014 at 7:08 pmI find it hilarious that people (who are not doctors or nutrition experts) feel the need to tell me that the way I eat is not healthy. If you line up a bunch of vegans next to a bunch of people eating a SAD (Standard American Diet) you will see which side is laden with heart and diabetic issues, and which side isn’t… hint – it wasn’t the side eating primarily vegetables.
I choose to eat a plant-strong vegan diet because it is far healthier than the crap I was putting in my body before. Most people have no idea they are eating a GMO-filled, antibiotic laden, chemically processed diet of bad health. Comparing a modern day vegan diet to indigenous people is so off-base. The “study” is from the 20s and 30s is is no reflection of how people eat today. Your “main man” Weston is outdated… but if it makes you feel better about what you are putting into your body – then by all means – eat it. But please don’t judge other people’s choices…
Max
February 19, 2014 at 1:38 pmThere were 2570 deaths among 73,308 participants during a mean follow-up time of 5.79 years. The mortality rate was 6.05 (95% CI, 5.82-6.29) deaths per 1000 person-years. The adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for all-cause mortality in all vegetarians combined vs nonvegetarians was 0.88 (95% CI, 0.80-0.97). The adjusted HR for all-cause mortality in vegans was 0.85 (95% CI, 0.73-1.01); in lacto-ovo-vegetarians, 0.91 (95% CI, 0.82-1.00); in pesco-vegetarians, 0.81 (95% CI, 0.69-0.94); and in semi-vegetarians, 0.92 (95% CI, 0.75-1.13) compared with nonvegetarians. Significant associations with vegetarian diets were detected for cardiovascular mortality, noncardiovascular noncancer mortality, renal mortality, and endocrine mortality. Associations in men were larger and more often significant than were those in women.
results from a massive study from pubmed. argument over hoorayyy
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23836264
Mark
February 23, 2014 at 2:21 amGood article to generate so much comment for over 2 years. I’m not vegan but my diet is very close and we are called the fruit bats amongst our friends. I eat a little meat and fish, and treat is as something very special, not a staple. A couple of small portions every week or two. Although i have also gone without for long periods of time. To address health and ethical issues I’m also careful to seek pasture fed, free range etc. I don’t use animal fats. I dont eat factory food. It’s been that way for over 40years. A true vegan is more than just a diet but also a philosophy about the ethics of exploitation of animals. I fully admire a person with the commitment to fully adopting a vegan lifestyle and believe they can easily live healthy lives.
Johanne Nielsen
March 24, 2014 at 4:31 amYou have no idea what you are talking about.
Humans are not born to eat meat and drink other species’ milk.
You support cruelty and killing of innocent animals, because you THINK you need meat and dairy. Do you eat your meat raw?? No did not think so – your stomach could not handle it = you are not born to eat meat!
Andrea
March 25, 2014 at 1:44 pmThere is a lot of negativity and spite coming mostly from the people who are non-vegan but on the opposing side as well. I was interested to read the comments, but found that most people are taking the “My way or the highway” stand. Why don’t we all just eat what we feel is best for OUR OWN bodies, minds, and eat what fits well with our own ethical and moral views on food.
I appreciated this article because it shows an opposing point of view to what I practice for my dietary needs.. I like to see both sides and why. The words behind the comments are less than interesting. It makes you look pretty basic when you name-call or talk down on someone who leads a different life style.
Love,
A (astonishingly healthy) Vegan
Joe Lucier
April 9, 2014 at 3:09 pmLots of food for thought. First comment, and I may be repeating what others have said but I did read through a lot. Your first statement is:
I’m not here to debate the ethics or morality of eating animals.
Therefore, you are admitting it is a non-winnable argument since you are not brave enough to even include it in the discussion. It is a way of justifying immorality by eliminating it from the debate and pulling out the most important issue of the entire debate, suffering and compassion. We are beings of compassion. War is not good, peace is better. Killing is not compassionate, reducing suffering is best.
Every bite we take of food is a moral decision for everyone. Denying that is not being honest.
As a vegan, I would like to highlight these points, from personal experience.
1) People can be good vegetarians and bad vegans. I was a bad one and am now on track. Not all vegans are alike and should not be treated as such. Every diet can be done wrong and unhealthy. But, when done right, veganism is optimal
2) Every moment in our lives can be an opportunity for compassion, that is a universal goal, no matter what diet you undertake. That is our responsibility as a human being. When people see the suffering generated by factory farming, when they see the waste of resources wherein a child will die of starvation because the resources go to a one meat eater instead of 20 starving children, they will be affected. If people do not know the suffering, we must forgive them. If they are made aware of the suffering they are causing and still insist on causing suffering, they should reflect and transform. All living beings should have the opportunity to be free of suffering, especially when they are easily manipulated by a stronger bullying species.
Phil
April 10, 2014 at 2:05 pmIt is laughable to think everyone can eat grass fed beef and therefore this makes eating meat ok. According to FOX NEWS online only 3% of meat is raised in pastures and the remaining 97% is raised in factory farms. We currently use 127 million acres of land for those grass fed cow pastures. So lets extrapolate to the fact to raise all cows as grass and pasture fed we would need 1.23 billion acres of the 2.48 billion acres in the entire continental USA. Then what about the chickens, pigs, lambs? Same deal? Albert Einstein was a vegetarian. Before he died he said unless the entire human race adopts a vegetarian lifestyle they will destroy the planet and make it uninhabitable for human life. That is because 51% of all greenhouse gasses produced and 80 percent of all rainforest deforestation come from raising animals for food. I am a vegan fitness trainer and can bench press double my body weight, have not been to a doctor in 20 years and never get sick. So you think your health is so great eating meat? You are killing the planet in the process for your own personal tastes. It is impossible for the earth to sustain human population explosion on a meat diet.
Chris
April 14, 2014 at 4:42 pmVEGAN = believe in their own lies…dreamers…let’s try esckimos people to become vegan…
VEGAN = similar with ”fanatic religious”…
Anorexic Breatharian
May 15, 2014 at 3:02 pmWhy vegans say that meat avoidance is a non violent practice? After all, animals killed by human beings don’t suffer as much as animals killed by other animals. In fact animals are usually eaten alive by predators and I guess they suffer a lot. Animals which die for natural causes suffer a lot too, because such animals are not hospitalised.
Moreover, wild animals either injuried or close to death are often full of opportunistic parasites, and they can spread illness to humans very easily. They may drag their body for many days, suffering a lot until they die. The real victims in this world are carnivores, because they’re close to extinction. We should do something to help them. I blame the alleged morality of several vegans because they want to replace their ethic inside the laws of nature. We are not better than nature. We should be humble.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/03/vegetarians-feel-unhealthier-lifestyle-graz-study-finds
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24712525
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24667752
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24667136
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24516625
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24397861
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24105324
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23965907
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23495729
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23859997
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23356638
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21872435
Such publications are just a small sample compared the whole scientific literature.
laura brown
May 19, 2014 at 10:45 amThere is simply no scientific data that supports this article. (other than perhaps convenientheoriesforyou.net ? ) Not to mention the cruelty and environmental destruction inherent in factory farming, which further makes the shift to a vegan diet worthwhile as well as imperative.
The Position of the ADA (a highly non veg slanted resource, used to show how off base this article is)
“It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes. A vegetarian diet is defined as one that does not include meat (including fowl) or seafood, or products containing those foods. This article reviews the current data related to key nutrients for vegetarians including protein, n-3 fatty acids, iron, zinc, iodine, calcium, and vitamins D and B-12. A vegetarian diet can meet current recommendations for all of these nutrients. In some cases, supplements or fortified foods can provide useful amounts of important nutrients. An evidence- based review showed that vegetarian diets can be nutritionally adequate in pregnancy and result in positive maternal and infant health outcomes. The results of an evidence-based review showed that a vegetarian diet is associated with a lower risk of death from ischemic heart disease. Vegetarians also appear to have lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension and type 2 diabetes than nonvegetarians. Furthermore, vegetarians tend to have a lower body mass index and lower overall cancer rates. Features of a vegetarian diet that may reduce risk of chronic disease include lower intakes of saturated fat and cholesterol and higher intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, soy products, fiber, and phytochemicals. The variability of dietary practices among vegetarians makes individual assessment of dietary adequacy essential. In addition to assessing dietary adequacy, food and nutrition professionals can also play key roles in educating vegetarians about sources of specific nutrients, food purchase and preparation, and dietary modifications to meet their needs. “