Being vegan isn’t as good for humanity as you think

Post by bitL » Sun, Aug 14, 2016, 5:34 PM UTC

collyw wrote: post #41

bitL wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell that to someone forced to paleo diet due to health/performance reasons. We obviously don't have as complicated ingestion system as cows nor as simple as cats so we aren't "designed" to eat vegetables/meat only but most likely both.

I find it hard top believe that we need both. People have populated (almost) every part of the world for centuries, and have vastly different diets wherever you go. Indians are vegetarian in general, while I imagine that Inuits traditionally ate pretty much anything but plants.

Post by watchtheworld » Sun, Aug 14, 2016, 5:38 PM UTC

Turing_Machine wrote: post #39

watchtheworld wrote: post #14

The idea of the vegan diet being "good for humanity" isn't solely about land use which this article focuses on. It's mostly about use of energy. Vegan diet: food from land -> truck -> grocery store -> my mouth. Meat/dairy/what have you: food from land -> truck -> animal's mouth -> truck -> grocery store -> my mouth. And when it comes to meat it means years feeding and water etc. until the product can actually be sent…

"And when it comes to meat it means years feeding and water etc. until the product can actually be sent to the store. " Years? No. Chickens are normally slaughtered at around 40 days. Pigs, 4-10 months. Beef cattle around 14 months.

Post by toasterlovin » Sun, Aug 14, 2016, 5:49 PM UTC

marricks wrote: post #38

DiabloD3 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the larger problems I've found with the vegan diet is, where do you source your Omega 3 from? ALA (found in flax and chia seeds) has low bioavailability as opposed to EPA and DHA found in fish and eggs. Not only that, flax and chia seeds are very high in Omega 6, thus promote dangerous levels of inflammation. So, can a vegan please explain to me how your community has managed to solve this?

Fish get their Omega 3 from algae, and so that's probably the best and most direct way to get it. That's what Soylent does for Omega 3's using bio reactors. Also, vegans are healthier than the average population with lower rates of death in major categories like heart disease[1]. In other words, from the standard american diet to veganism, it's generally much healthier which I think is the better comparison to make.…

Post by WalterSear » Sun, Aug 14, 2016, 5:52 PM UTC

collyw wrote: post #57

WalterSear wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This issue puts most people in direct conflict with their own cognitive dissonance: objectivity goes out the window.

Provide some decent evidence. I see plenty of fat unhealthy looking vegetarians.

Post by solipsism » Sun, Aug 14, 2016, 5:58 PM UTC

collyw wrote: post #47

reflexive wrote: post #25

There is an implicit assumption that maximizing the number of people who can be squeezed on to the planet is "good" for humanity. I have never heard a reasonable justification for this. Anyone who's taken a long car trip in an automobile packed to maximum passenger capacity will intuitively understand the counterargument. I'm more sympathetic to the idea of maintaining a population level within which people can live…

I sometimes wonder if curing cancer and other diseases is such a noble cause. More people consuming more of the finite resources that we have. Its a difficult question, and I am thinking of lots of outliers as I type this. Extending a 70 year olds life by a few years is different from curing a child leukemia sufferer.