Have we evolved beyond our means.

[chrisjs]

I would agree that different people tolerate and thrive differently on different foods, yes.

 

What does this have to do with the topic?

[chrisjs]

Oh I understand now. There's really no reason for plants to evolve to suit us, in theory we evolve to thrive off of them. But most plants we eat nowadays are different than their wild counterparts anyway, which I suppose is the whole argument against eating "unnatural" things like refined grains.

 

Personally I don't buy the whole vegan health argument anyway. I'm vegan purely for ethical reasons. I still want to make sure to eat as healthily as possible though, so whatever works wins. Some people might thrive with lots of gluten, others with lots of fruit. Makes sense as our species is pretty diverse compared to many others.

[Northstar]

Personally I don't buy the whole vegan health argument anyway.

 

I am curious as to why, could you elaborate?

[chrisjs]

I am curious as to why, could you elaborate?

I don't buy the argument that "vegan diets are healthier than meat eating diets" as a general rule. The fact is that we've evolved as omnivores and can live off a wide range of food sources.

 

I don't think a poorly designed vegan diet is any better than a poorly designed omni one, plus there are certain things like B12 and calcium that we need to be more mindful of.

 

Is a well designed vegan diet better than a well designed omni one? Probably--I think so. But the evidence isn't overwhelming enough to make that the main argument. I often hear arguments like "meat/dairy/xyz is POISON blah blah" which is completely false. Silly arguments just undermine whatever one's trying to get across.

 

So, I didn't mean to say that I don't believe a vegan diet can be or is healthy, I do believe it's healthy. But I don't think it's overwhelmingly healthier than a good omni diet.

 

I'd rather focus on the ethics of it all and then be able to illustrate that a vegan diet is healthy such that we don't "need meat."

[vegimator]

I am curious as to why, could you elaborate?

I don't buy the argument that "vegan diets are healthier than meat eating diets" as a general rule. The fact is that we've evolved as omnivores and can live off a wide range of food sources.

 

I don't think a poorly designed vegan diet is any better than a poorly designed omni one, plus there are certain things like B12 and calcium that we need to be more mindful of.

 

Is a well designed vegan diet better than a well designed omni one? Probably--I think so. But the evidence isn't overwhelming enough to make that the main argument. I often hear arguments like "meat/dairy/xyz is POISON blah blah" which is completely false. Silly arguments just undermine whatever one's trying to get across.

 

So, I didn't mean to say that I don't believe a vegan diet can be or is healthy, I do believe it's healthy. But I don't think it's overwhelmingly healthier than a good omni diet.

 

I'd rather focus on the ethics of it all and then be able to illustrate that a vegan diet is healthy such that we don't "need meat."

 

Yeah, this is exactly how I feel.