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Baltar · 02-22-2007, 02:14 AM

Some of the "myths" the article addresses are fairly extreme veg*an claims and are indeed inflated in favor of veg*anism. And some of the things he says are true (vitamin B12 has to be taken as a supplement for veg*ans). However, just as many things he says are not true. What he's saying about vitamin A and vitamin D for instance. He also says that we're not wasting plants to raise livestock which could instead be used to feed people. Most plants we grow are in fact used to feed livestock.

One thing worth noting however is that while humans have certainly evolved to be able to process meat, the same isn't true for dairy. Most of the world's adult population is in fact lactose intolerant. There was a gene mutation that happened around 4,000 years ago in one part of the world that allowed a limited population of adult humans to consume dairy (see lactose intolerance in Wikipedia). Many people think that lactose intolerance is a defect, when in fact it's the correct functionality of the human body.

One more thing is that he says that meat consumption doesn't cause osteoporosis and kidney disease. This is true if you don't eat a lot of meat, but the amount that most people in the US eat is more than enough to cause kidney stones and osteoporosis. Dairy is also very bad for you in that sense. In fact, studies have shown that populations that consume the most dairy also have the most cases of osteoporosis. I posted a thread about this a while ago: warning about consuming too much animal protein. And this is not even mentioning hormones and antibiotics in animal products today, which he briefly acknowledges. Another thing worth noting is that fish contains a lot of pollutants, especially farm raised fish.

Overall, I disagree with him that we must eat animal products to be healthy. The example that he presents is of people who didn't do anything to create a balanced veg*an diet, thinking that just being veg*an is enough to be healthy. It takes more than that. If there's anything worth taking away from that article, it's this fact. For the record I've been vegan for 3.5 years, and I've rarely gotten sick in that time.

02-22-2007, 02:14 AM	#2 (permalink)
Baltar Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 325	Some of the "myths" the article addresses are fairly extreme vegan claims and are indeed inflated in favor of veganism. And some of the things he says are true (vitamin B12 has to be taken as a supplement for vegans). However, just as many things he says are not true. What he's saying about vitamin A and vitamin D for instance. He also says that we're not wasting plants to raise livestock which could instead be used to feed people. Most plants we grow are in fact used to feed livestock. One thing worth noting however is that while humans have certainly evolved to be able to process meat, the same isn't true for dairy. Most of the world's adult population is in fact lactose intolerant. There was a gene mutation that happened around 4,000 years ago in one part of the world that allowed a limited population of adult humans to consume dairy (see lactose intolerance in Wikipedia). Many people think that lactose intolerance is a defect, when in fact it's the correct functionality of the human body. One more thing is that he says that meat consumption doesn't cause osteoporosis and kidney disease. This is true if you don't eat a lot of meat, but the amount that most people in the US eat is more than enough to cause kidney stones and osteoporosis. Dairy is also very bad for you in that sense. In fact, studies have shown that populations that consume the most dairy also have the most cases of osteoporosis. I posted a thread about this a while ago: warning about consuming too much animal protein. And this is not even mentioning hormones and antibiotics in animal products today, which he briefly acknowledges. Another thing worth noting is that fish contains a lot of pollutants, especially farm raised fish. Overall, I disagree with him that we must* eat animal products to be healthy. The example that he presents is of people who didn't do anything to create a balanced vegan diet, thinking that just being vegan is enough to be healthy. It takes more than that. If there's anything worth taking away from that article, it's this fact. For the record I've been vegan for 3.5 years, and I've rarely gotten sick in that time. Last edited by Baltar; 02-22-2007 at 02:28 AM.