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Strict Vegan Diets May Be Dangerous


Alex
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Caught your attention hmm. I found this article right now about this guy who says you need animal products to survive. Of course I don't believe it though. Thought maybe some people whould like to read it. The site http://chetday.com/vegandietdangers.htm

 

Here's a part from the article, "I think it's important for most people, especially individuals like me who zealously followed strict vegan diets for several years, to eat some "clean" and minimally processed animal foods as their body needs point out to them.

 

I currently eat health food store butter and free-range eggs as well as deep sea salmon. I don't drink milk, though I will occasionally have some organic, raw milk cheese or yogurt made from cows that are pasture fed and not injected with antibiotics and hormones. I try to avoid all supermarket dairy products. In September of 2002, we added grass-fed, organic beef to our diets. I eat these animal foods when my body tells me I need them. I'll go for days (and sometimes weeks) without an egg, and suddenly I'll know by a strong craving that I need some eggs, so I'll eat them until that feeling goes away. Ditto for fish. Ditto for cheese. Ditto for beef and chicken.

 

The ovo-lacto vegetarian diet (plants and eggs and dairy) seems to me to be an excellent choice for those who wish to avoid eating animal flesh."

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He knows 'by a strong craving' therefore he does it? If I ate whatever I craved, believe me, I would not be healthy. Where's the evidence? Why ignore the evidence of the thousands of healthy vegans? He says most long-term vegans are liars and that they don't follow veganism IE they aren't even vegan... He also says that veganism can be bad for teenagers because they burn a lot of calories, and says that they require a 'spectrum of nutrients' then doesn't specify the nutrients. What nutrients don't we get from a vegan diet? And what stops vegan teenagers getting just as many calories as non-vegan teenagers? Most of that article seems nonsensical to me.

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I think he's just trying to justify by his 'bodily cravings" what are actually just a jones for cheese or beef or whatever he wants the taste of (and not 'needs the nutrients of'). Kinda like when my body 'craves" some vegan Pecan Joy candy!

 

Who is this Chet Day anyway? What is his background in nutrition? Just sounds like a disgruntled vegan/vegetarian to me.

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I think this guy has gone around and told a lot of church goers to eat his halleluah diet, and they are complaining that its not good, and that plenty of them are getting sick from eating lots of large salads, so he's trying to cover his rear. I also agree with Kathryn and Richard. Cravings...bs.

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The only healthy animal food is fish. The rest expect some chicken is garbage.

I don't know if I would call fish healthy. Maybe the least unhealthy would be more accurate.

Except that nearly all fish, at least in the US, are very contaminated with chemicals.

 

I would be afraid to eat the fish caught in the river near my house. Years ago we did eat snook caught here but knowing what runs off into the river, no way would I touch it.

 

I am starting an organic garden and I think I need to get soil samples before I grow.

 

I

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I found the craving thing a bit funny. It's sad that everything is becoming contaminated. There was this lake my grandpa took me to when I was about 6 years old, and there were a lot of dead fish around the shore. The lake was all nasty.

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The only healthy animal food is fish.

 

Fish (at least at the size humans eat) is high on top of the food chain, eating not only algae, but smaller fish, so any contaminants are concentrated in its flesh. Also, not only do they drink the water they are in, but they are surrounded by it, so if the water is contaminated (and most water is nowdays), they also pick that up.

Edited by Kathryn
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I just broke from my vegan diet because of that article. I am persuaded by fact and science and I can not deny that you can not get more scientific than: “I have come to this conclusion based on almost ten years of extensive postal and e-mail correspondence sent.”

 

I mean who needs control and experimental groups to control variables and then have your results peer reviewed, by other comptenet researchers, when you can just base conclusion on simple email and postal testimonials?

Edited by 9nines
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So true, on many points:

 

(1) "Although my suspicion is that the body does not treat water the same as it treats juice, my current thinking is that listening to our body's requests for liquid may be the most sensible approach."

 

He knows about what he is talking. Just the other day, may stomach was rumbling but knowing its language, after years of email and postal correppsondence with it, I knew it was trying to talk to me. It said, “my enzymes and acid broke down the nutrients in the orange juice you just drank, and after abosrbing them into our blood, water was left but I know that water was recently fruit juice, so damn if I am going to utilize it as simple ole’ H2O, so you better just drink some water or else I will give you some cravings you have never seen.”

 

(2) “My current understanding of juicing is that it works best when there's a balance of variously-colored vegetables in the juice.”

 

Again, he is so right. My juicer broke the other day. Since it was a recent purchase, I returned it to the store but the clerk noticed that I voided the warranty when I admitted I only used two colors of fruit and vegetables in it.

 

 

(3) "I was wondering if you've heard anything about the association between a predominantly raw food diet and a Chinese diagnosis called spleen deficiency?"

 

Wow, I was wondeirng what happened to my spleen. Sure wish I would have read this man's blog before my spleen went missing.

 

(4) "Since we are opportunistic omnivores by nature, it only makes sense that our bodies will run best on the fuel we were designed to run on: foods from both plant and animal kingdoms."

 

No bias there. I mean someone that thinks we are “opportunistic omnivores by nature” wouldn’t have a bias, would he? So add that unbiased attitude, with his very scientific methodology (cravings, emails, popular health food stories that of course are never trying to sell something, etc.) and who would doubt this guy?

 

 

 

 

Forgive me, I was entertaining a silly mood.

 

Seriously, this guy is completely opining. There is no research backing any of his opinions.

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It's true that Vegans are more prone to strokes and heart attacks, though. Also, diabetics need meat, there is no way around it. Instead of attacking this guy, let's just say there are some people who cannot do without meat. it's a fact. And the food is delicious. I only recently converted to veganism, and of all people, I know how hard it is. So people, let's be more gentle. It's alright to eat meat once in a while, even for a vegan.

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It's true that Vegans are more prone to strokes and heart attacks, though. Also, diabetics need meat, there is no way around it. Instead of attacking this guy, let's just say there are some people who cannot do without meat. it's a fact. And the food is delicious. I only recently converted to veganism, and of all people, I know how hard it is. So people, let's be more gentle. It's alright to eat meat once in a while, even for a vegan.

 

I disagree with virtually everything you just said. Vegans eat a cholesterol free diet most of which is low fat (or good fat) which makes the risk for strokes and heart attacks nearly zero. (esp when compared to what Americans in general are eating) Ive seen patients who have vegan Drs cure them after a heart attack, take away their risks for a second, and clear out their arteries to the point of being taken off of all medicine. Diabetics dont need meat, and actually meat and dairy can not only make the disease worse, but in a lot of cases cause it. I have taken a few of my patients and talked to them about altering their diet for just a few weeks, asking them to go vegan, or vegetarian and saw vast improvements. Some diabetics have even be cured by a raw vegan diet. Veganism isn't hard, if you do it for the right reasons and you are well informed of what is in the food you are consuming, it is actually quite easy.

 

Im not a vegan nazi or anything, even I have moments where cheese either sounds kind of good, or it was in something I didnt know about.. but I would never touch meat again, ever. I dont know about what other vegans feel but the term vegan is something given to someone who works to eat what is right and wouldn't feel very good if someone ate meat "sometimes" and called themselves vegans. We have a msg to send to the world, and an example to show, we need to keep our standards high. I dont want to have a bad run in with someone who thinks vegans sometimes eat meat because they know a "vegan" who does. And I really dont want them to expect me to come to their house and just because I'm there think I would eat ANYTHING they made simply because their impression of veganism was wrong.

 

When I was a vegetarian I wrote a blog and now would be a good time to share it.

 

"What she eats isn't any of my business, it's quite true. But it is absolutely my business when the general population becomes more and more confused about what the term 'vegetarian' means. Are sweets with gelatine in them okay? Is chicken stock okay? What about beef fat? Rennet in cheese (from a calf's stomach lining)? Turkey only on Christmas Day? What about organic meat? Or meat sometimes?

 

I'm here to tell everyone that none of the above foods are vegetarian. Plainly and simply, if a food comes from the flesh of an animal - no matter what that animal happens to be - then the food in question is not, and never has been, vegetarian. No matter how often a person eats meat or what animal that meat comes from, if they do so they are not a vegetarian.

 

While I'm on the subject, there is no such thing as a pollo-vegetarian, or a pesco-vegetarian, or a porco-vegetarian. If you eat meat or animal flesh of any sort, the title of 'vegetarian' does not apply to you. It never did, and it never will.

 

So what should a fish-eater call themselves? How should they explain their dietary preference? The term that seems to be taking over and becoming increasingly familiar is simple - pescatarian. Nice and simple, and easy to understand.

 

In the meanwhile, leave the title 'vegetarian' to those who deserve and have earned it - to those of us who respect all animal life enough to refuse to eat it."

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It's true that Vegans are more prone to strokes and heart attacks, though.

Source for that?

 

Also, diabetics need meat, there is no way around it. Instead of attacking this guy, let's just say there are some people who cannot do without meat. it's a fact.

Source for that?

 

It's alright to eat meat once in a while, even for a vegan.

No, it's not alright, regardless of if you call yourself vegan or not. And if you eat meat every once in a while I wouldn't call you a vegan.

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It's true that Vegans are more prone to strokes and heart attacks, though.

 

Was your post intended to just stir up the vegans?

Kind of like poking the sleeping grizzly bear, "let's see what he does"

If not:

 

Dr. Ornish and Dr. Esselstyn - heartattackproof.com - are famous for reversing heart disease with vegan diets.

No meat based diet has ever stopped or reversed heart disease.

A vegan diet is the only cure for heart disease.

Drugs and surgery aren't cures even if they can extent a life.

 

Nobody needs meat. Not even diabetics

 

The Standard American Diet is usually the cause of diabetes.

Most people blame the carbs, so they think meat, which is carbless, is the answer.

More than 50% of the calories consumed in the USA are refined carbs.

Refined carbs = garbage.

Only 7% of the calories consumed in the USA are from whole plant foods.

A whole food vegan diet can cure diabetes. A junkfood vegan diet, probably won't help much.

 

It may not be too health dangerous to eat meat once in a while.

But it's definitely not vegan.

Our bodies can take an incredible amount of abuse and still survive.

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