LogFAQs > #934995873

Artemis86 posted...

My dad is vegan, but he also has extensive knowledge in nutrition, and only brings it up when people ask why he's in such great shape at his age (he's tried to convince me to adopt a bit of it, and I have, but even he admits it ain't a cheap lifestyle in the States). He was vegetarian for a while before that, although he still indulged in the occasional fish dish.

It's a whole lot more complicated to eat vegan and be healthy than simply "remove cow, insert carrot."

Question: Did the vegan guy bring up his diet as a part of the conversational flow, or did he just abruptly talk about how great eating vegan was? The former is insufferable, the latter is not. And it's where a lot of the hostility comes from in these convos. Itd be like me bringing up my political cynicism in a conversation about flying kites. No matter how good my argument may be, no one asked for it and it won't be welcomed.

Of course you choose to ignore everything I said and reduce it to a soundbite that makes no sense.

Said "carrot" was a simple way of explaining the overwhelming complex problem with the vegan diet. It is common to say "Carrots have Vitamin A" and fair enough they do. However you can't just eat the carrot and get vitamin A out of it, you can only get the vitamin A out of if you eat something with fat as well, which means you have to eat a carrot + "food with fat" to get "vitamin A". This is because plants, have natural defenses against predators to make them unappealing to eat because like everything else on this planet, it wants to live and reproduce, arguably the only driving force behind life in general.

On a vegan diet you have to do this with literally everything. That plant that has that vitamin you need? Better make sure you eat something eat something that lets you extract that nutrient you need, or worse, don't eat something that blocks your ability to extract that nutrient.

So yes, it is more complicated than "remove cow, insert carrot." but that just means the diet is nigh impossible to get right because every meal becomes some psychotic math problem. And then on top of that you have to supplement.

what this means is if you eat a random salad, you will feel full, but you may not get anything from it or at least very little from it nutrient wise. The old phrase rice and beans to make a complete protein. Meanwhile I Can eat a ribeye and get most of what I need. Eat a liver and get nearly everything and I don't have to do some crazy math to make sure I haven't starved myself.

And this is all just for a shot in the dark at making the diet work, which fun fact, no one ever seems to do that. With 84% of vegans quitting year 1.

But no instead you went to anecdotal evidence, your dad, claiming he's healthy on a vegan diet, simplified what I said ignoring it and providing no counter point to it at all, and then went on to talk about whatever else, but you did stop and make sure the world knew I had no idea what I am talking about. But it's you who is wrong. As I said, want to see vegan health problems?

Go look at vegan forums, many are suffering from severe health problems. Bloating and gas is a big one. hair loss isn't too uncommon. Many men are low in sperm count and women going without periods(and no it's not because they are on the pill). Vitamin D is another big deficiency you see. low iron and bone density problems often arise. If you want to see what long term vegans look like, a youtube channel vegan deterioration is pretty damn good. There are plenty of other vitamins vegans tend to lack

and of course the famous B12 issue.