 Louise Morgan wishes she'd known about "plant-based" diets when she raised her family in rural Georgia some 40 years ago. Maybe, she says, it would have saved her husband's life. "We didn't have things like that back then. Here in the South we feed our men their Southern food. He loved his fried chicken and ribs, and that's how I raised my family," says Morgan, an 80-year-old retired biologist from Big Canoe, Georgia. He died at 52 of a heart attack while watching TV, she says. "During a Braves game. Killed him instantly." "If I had to do it again, I'd do it differently. But we just didn't know about that stuff back then." Morgan's zeal for a different way of life prompted her to pile into a car with friends from her retirement community and drive 50 miles south to Atlanta for last month's screening of the independent documentary, "Forks Over Knives." But you won't hear the word "vegan" mentioned in the film, except by Mac Danzig, a mixed martial artist and Ultimate Fighting star who cut dairy from his diet in 1999 because of a sinus allergy (more on that) and went vegan five years later. In the film, he credits "going vegan" with speeding up his recovery time in between workouts. After the screening, Esselstyn, a cardiologist with the Cleveland Clinic for more than 40 years and a member of the Whole Foods Market medical advisory board, said the word's absence was intentional. "If you start to use the v-word, people get nervous. Somehow, there's a feeling from years ago that vegans are strange. There are so many negative connotations," said Esselstyn, a tall, willowy man with wavy silver hair who looks and sounds like a family physician. In what was a rare appearance during the film's nationwide screenings this winter - it's scheduled to open nationwide in select theaters in May - Esselstyn appeared eager to move on. "There's so much more to talk about apart from a word. It's about nutrition and improving your health," he said. A scan of the sold-out crowd in Atlanta's Midtown Arts Cinema seemed to testify to the movement's growing popularity among a certain middle-aged to elderly demographic. That's not to say the younger, hipper image usually associated with "the movement" was not in attendance; they were, along with people of all colors, shapes and sizes. Filmgoers began occupying seats an hour before showtime, chatting busily as they juggled plates of veggie cakes, basil rolls and cannellini-stuffed endive spears, courtesy of Whole Foods, the event's sponsor. Others queued in the aisle, clutching books by the doctors, who were standing behind a table at the front of the theater, taking questions, signing books and posing for pictures. When asked if they followed the whole foods, plant-based (and, in Esselstyn's case, oil-free) diet that was being advocated, common responses among members of the audience included "maybe," "almost" or "one day." Many cited deaths of loved ones from heart disease or stroke as factors that led them to look into the diet as a means of preventing or reversing the effects of degenerative diseases. "It makes sense to me that eating right makes you healthier," Tracy Dixon said as she waited in the buffet line. "I'm here because I'm trying to learn to eat better." The self-described "transitioning vegan" said she cooks meat one to two times a week for her family. But she wants to adopt a plant-based diet following a raw food and juice cleanse with her husband in 2011. "I loved the way I felt. I was bouncing off the walls I had so much energy, like a 5-year-old," she said. "We felt the difference in all aspects of our life – we felt better, we slept better. More than anything, for me, as a working mother, it's about having the energy." Other eager converts had purchased tickets months in advance for the opportunity to see the film, meet the doctors and make the diet work for them. During a post-screening Q&A session, "catching flak" for a vegan lifestyle emerged as a common theme among audience members. One woman, a personal trainer from Marietta, Georgia, said she had a hard time convincing clients and bodybuilders that natural supplements, when combined with a vegetarian or whole foods diet, could be just as effective as their pharmaceutical counterparts. "Lead by example" was the advice from Esselstyn's son, Rip. The former triathlete and firefighter was also at the screening promoting his own enterprise, the "Engine 2 Diet," which is slightly more liberal with its oils and sauces than his father's recommended regimen. Like his father, he has a Whole Foods connection: The supermarket promotes his "plant strong" diet as part of its “Health Starts Here” education campaign. (For the record, Whole Foods said through a spokeswoman that it did not underwrite the film, though many of its interviews and vegetable beauty shots come from a Whole Foods store.) Another man in his 40s said his lunches of spinach salads made him a regular source of ridicule in the office, and he wondered if eating a hamburger or a small amount of meat once a week wasn't so bad. Dr. Esselstyn replied that it depends on whether you're OK with having a "small" heart attack, or "just a little" stroke. Discussions touched upon the efficacy of supplements (generally no, said Campbell, but "the jury's still out") and whether the diet could help a man with two stents already in his heart (absolutely, said Esselstyn) before the crowd and the conversation spilled into the theater lobby. Esselstyn's wife, Ann, dished with a Whole Foods chef on the benefits of abstaining from tofu and other fake meat substitutes, nutritional yeast in mashed potatoes ("it tastes just like butter!"), her favorite breakfasts (dry cereal with oats and grapes) and coconut water (yay) vs. coconut milk (too high in fat and oil). She noted that her husband's findings from 20 years of clinical tests and follow-up had been gaining a solid following ever since they were published in the 2005 book, "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease." Then, in a 2010 interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, former President Bill Clinton cited the doctors' research when explaining his attempts to regain his health after he had two coronary stents implanted in his heart. "We've just been bombarded with requests," she said. "But we love spreading the word. I get e-mails and calls from all around the world from people who are happier and healthier than they've ever been." But for some, old habits die hard, it seems. Sold as she was on the benefits of a plant-based diet, Louise Morgan lamented it was too late for her to change her ways. "I love my ribeyes. I love my fried shrimp. I'm 80 years old, I'm gonna die soon. Might as well enjoy it." |
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This! This was purportedlyPresident Obama's promise before to the 2008 election. Is there any evidence of any progress as far as sustainable energy goes?
J'aime apprendre sur ce site de plus en plus, il y a beaucoup de themes vraiment interessant.
Check out the sneak peek of a new documentary that is coming out soon called 'Don't Eat Me'.
It is done by a young girl and it really opened my eyes.Powerful stuff!
Bonjour
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Vous pouvez regarder et faire votre mini chat sur : http://vosamis.net/Creer-un-chat-gratuit.php
Cordialement
Andre
I wished I was raised on a vegan diet but I wasn't. I became vegan over 17 years ago and very thankful I made the diet change. I feel great. The evidence is clear with all the research and facts being done.
http://www.veganrawfood.net/
J'ai trouve beaucoup d'informations utiles! Je vous invite a consulter mon site Vosamis.net
J'aime apprendre sur ce site de plus en plus, il y a beaucoup de themes vraiment interessant.
I really liked the article, and the very cool blog
Every vegan I have ever known is a retard. Every one. Period.
Anyone who is willing to eat an animal should be willing to kill one. We have been eating animals for a long time. Hunting then eating them. No problem at all with this. We have not, however been factory farming for that long. Does anyone here know about factory farming? It's where 97% of all animal products come from. It's not brain surgery, you have a computer just google it. I think meat became so unhealth for us when we forgot that we eat whatever the animals eat. I don't think back when we were eating canibals! Killing them on a conveyor belt? Have you ever looked into it? Skining animals alive? I loved the taste of meat but never really thought I could kill an animal. Watch earthlings if you want to be informed on why these "vegans" treat this as a "religion" here's another one for dairy lovers.
http://blog.peta2.com/2011/04/calves-bludgeoned-with-hammers.html?c=peta2_enews
Perfectly stated! =) It makes me angry when people say that we should eat cows because they are tasty. That sounds so idiotic. Chances are those people have no idea what they are eating. Factory farming is horrible and I can't believe that people are knowingly supporting this process. It is not good for us, the animals, or the environment. The only benefit we get out of supporting it, is cheap self gratification.
Why all the fuss about eating the 4 food groups? Yet nothing said about Oreo's, potato chips, diet sodas, diet anything, sugar laden processed foods with hydrolyzed ingredients, hormones and antibiotics in animals kept in inhospitable environments, perscription and non-perscription drugs, etc. aren't these the real culprits that are making the United States one of the worse fed nations in the world!
I am a happy vegan. It shows on my face and my energy level, so people ask often me what I eat, especially at the gym, at potlucks, or when I am doing something physical where my vigor shows. When asked, I am happy to share my "secrets".
In the above entries, there is sometimes anger from the "meat and dairy consuming" community aimed against vegans. Why is that? Do we sound "preachy" or "holier than thou". Or is it the meat eaters that do this? I am not concluding, just asking. What are your opinions? Why is there so much anger involved? What if we were discussing potatoes versus rice or beef versus pork? Or carrots versus beets? Do those topics evoke anger too? What causes the emotions to rise?
I do not try to convert, but I answer questions for people who want to know more information. Why are my answers sometimes a threat? The inquirer may immediately shut down the discussion, which is fine with me. If they do not want to discuss the benefits and tradeoffs, why did they ask? I am motivated as an eater of meats and dairy for 49 years and having seen the "light", I would like to share but have learned to tread lightly and to be prepared for rebuff.
I would appreciate understanding the cause of the anger against vegans?
My decision to become a vegetarian, many years ago, was based on my desire not to ingest the energy of the pain and fear an animal goes through when it is butchered for human consumption. I value life very highly, human or animal, and am at ease with my decision not to contribute to the profit of those who don't care. I don't judge anyone for their eating habits but I do sometimes wonder why they don't study the nutrition, or lack thereof, of the substances they put into their bodies and the effects of excessive protein, etc.
When I decided to go veg, my skin, energy and sleep patterns went from troubled to the best it's ever been, as did my immune system and overall health. The key is eating a balanced veg diet, not just animal free junk. Some people can tolerate meat, but for me, it just slowed me down and through my own personal experience and results of my yearly health tests, confirmed that I thrive on my adopted diet it it was the best decision I'd make for my life. Also, I'd rather die happy, naturally eating what I love so this was a bonus! I really dont give a flip or judge what other people want to eat or do to their bodies, we're individuals as are our priorities. Im glad I didn't follow the myths thrown out in blanket statements in regards a veg diet or I would have never known the overall improvement adopting it would be, as did my dad who had suffered from diabetes, low iron, high blood pressure, and clots that had lead to a stroke. He's now controlled his glucose levels and no longer needs an injection to keep his red blood cells up since his kidneys are healthier which has resulted in only two prescriptions (down from 8). He couldn't believe the transition after years of abnormal levels and actually thought he needed meat to be healthy, but then again he's older and has that old school farm boy mindset. lol. So, it worked for him also and he loves the options that are out now. Maybe it's not for everybody but it's certainly been for us and, it may sound selfish, but its been wonderful seeing my dad so much happier after years of worry. He's even started up his organic garden again to maintain whole foods on his own as best he can. Thanks for an article!
Kelly, your experience mirrors mine. I had went back and forth between being omnivores and vegetarian. Originally it was for the outrageous suffering of animals (and my personal feelings of what a 'humane' killing even means). My health was noticeable better on a veg diet, but I primarily ate non processed organic foods and less mock meats. I too was one of ignorance who thought I couldn't get enough iron, calcium, or protein in an animal free diet until I read the science of foods instead of believing a million dollar campaign. My dad was then stricken with diabetes and the ailments that go with it, including the big one. After over two decades of one problem after another and eventually requiring blood work every 1-3 months, I did shove my belief and veg diet in his face and begged him to atleast have an open mind to try it. I too, don't care what anyone does or eats, but this was my family whom i care about, so I encouraged him to give it 90 days and see if his experience was like mine despite his desease being way beyond what I was ever stricken with. I can't help but think because I haven't even suffered a cold in almost 15 years because of my food choices. His improvement was almost miraculous in the eyes of his doctors. He stayed on and continued to improve. His levels have stabilized and he's just so much brighter. My mom is Japanese and shes always been on a primarily plant based and the main meat she eats is fish so she's had no problems related to nutrition. Because we have long intestines unlike the short intestines of carnivores and omnivores to process meat, she was prone to twisted gut, so added mammal meat and lard that takes that much longer to digest would obstruct her bowel so she's cut most of it out of her diet even more. Our veg based diets has been the best for our family also, so for me it not only helped in that area but the animals also. Take care and it's glad to hear your dad's doing so much better!
I think its important to add for those individuals who love the taste of meat, chicken, dairy and eggs. The scientific community is not debating whether or not these foods taste good or not, because they taste great. So does refined sugars and alcohol, but the negative impact on human physiology is disastrous for all.
This isn't about personal preferences. Its about a large and growing body of good research demonstrating the power of a plant based diet to not only prevent disease, but in many cases reverse it.
The good news is though, your tastes are determined by your eating habits and they are subject to change at anytime.
Healthy eating involves no sacrifices, only different choices.
Brod
What type of Disease are you trying to prevent? Death comes in many forms,yet having someone TRY to force their beliefs on me will not cut it. My decision to eat meat or dairy is my own,NOT YOURS.
Richard: good on you, enjoy your dietary preferences.
I completely agree with you, its annoying when people try to push their personal beliefs on you!
I think the thrust behind the whole plant based movement is not about personal beliefs or dietary preferences.
This is about people seeking authentic information regarding diet and how to achieve health longevity.
If this is you, the movie Forks over Knives presents dietary facts not influenced by corporate agenda's.
If the science behind health longevity doesn't concern you, enjoy your food choices what ever they may be!
BK
The evidenc is clear and has been clear for some time that human beings are structurally and genetically designed to thrive on a high fibre plant based diet with little or no meat!
Readers really need to become good consumers of information and distinguish between marketing, advertising and good scientific information. Cultures who live on fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, seeds and legumes do not suffer from heart disease, renal failure, cancer or any other diseases of
affluences.
We have been brain washed for decades that meat, chicken, cheese, dairy and eggs are normal and most ideal for human health. Well that's what big buiness meat dairy have had us believe! This may be normal dietary practice in the West, but not natural for human consumption.
I large and growing body of well constructed studies supports the fact that's those who choose to center their diets around lopsided nutrition (refined foods & animal products) will significantly increase their risk of not just one degenerative disease, but many.
Those who do not recognize this evidence, usually have something to sell (!!), or are not formally trained in nutrition science.
Everyone should try a well structured plant based diet for themselves as the results will speak for themselves...
This diet is for everyone, regardless of ones age, gender, culture or type (for those who believe in the myth of typing).
Brod
Bottom line why settle with low grade food just cause it taste better. Taste is 5 seconds of pleasure. I prefer high nutrient foods over low and at first they may not taste great but after eating them for a few weeks you start to like them and next thing you know your eating a heck lot more of it. The more plant foods, the better. Feeling good is what is important and being able to thrive in life. I always hear people say live a little. Live a little no we want to live a lot... So go out eat the best you can eat and live to your fullest. No more excuses. No one is giving up anything but eat like crap your gonna give up the opportunity to be at 100 percent.
Rip, not Kip.
http://engine2diet.com/
AND – go to Dr. John McDougall's free website for the best education on healthy lifestyle medicine at
http://drmcdougall.com
Dr. McD has been getting patients with chronic diseases well via optimal diet and education since 1976, 35 years. My family of four participated in his TOTAL HEALTH SOLUTION 10-day clinic in 2003 and have been on a healthy "plant-based, whole-foods diet – no animal products and no processed oils, no supplements, vit. D from sun, B12 test show OK levels. 80% of your health benefits come from the best diet, 20% fro better exercise. So - you got to eat, do it via guidance from Dr. McD, Dr. Campbell, Dr. Esselstyn, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Neal Barnard (PCRM), Dr. Dean Ornish, RD Jeff Novick, http://vegsource.com, "The RAVE Diet book/DVD" and his Cure Cancer book/DVD – Mike Anderson! These best experts on health and medical advice are all singing from close to the same song book on what constitutes the optimal nutrition for humans.
Better responses to optimal nutrition for humans – go here:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/nutrition-advice-from-the-china-study/
And I have "Healthy Lifestyle" education materials that I have gathered over the last 9 years at
http://web.me.com/maule5662h/Bill_Kleinbauer/Start.html
and
http://public.me.com/maule5662h
GO, PER DR. ESSELSTYN'S SON, KIP, "P L A N T – S T R O N G !" (The Engine 2 Diet Book/program)
When I eat vegan I am always hungry and unsatisfied after the meal and I crave more food, especially sweets, which is not a good thing.
Yona: The one mistake many people make when transitioning to a plant based diet is they don't eat enough bulk. Salads are normally a side dish and consist of some lettuce leaves, tomato and if your lucky a slice of onion (this is not bulk).
Try to increase your portion sizes, also add more fibre rich plants into your daily affair such as, beans, root vegetables. legumes, seeds and starchy vegetables.
Your appetite is controlled by fibre content. Nutrient density and the caloric density of certain foods. The single most overriding factor in the feeling of fullness is the stomach being physically full. The human stomach can roughly hold around 1 litre of food and can efficiently digest 450-500 calories at one time and it will need to be filled several times daily. In Dr. Joel Fuhrman's book Eat to Live he illustrates a comparison of the human stomach full of different foods.
Keeping in mind the numbers above (calories required to fill the human stomach) you will see how easy it is for an individual to exceed their calorie needs when a diet is centered around refined foods and animal products (promoting weight gain). Unlike animal foods, plants are fibre rich, nutrient dense and low in calories, hence why it is easy to maintain ideal weight and health when consuming a well structured plant based diet.
- Oils 4,100 calories
- Potato Chips 3,000 calories
- Meat 3,000 calories
- Cheese 3,400 calories
- Fish 1,400 calories
- Beans 500 calories
- Fruit 300 calories
- Green vegetables 200
The best part about eating unrefined vegetation is that you can eat so much food, feel full and thanks to the fibre content you will not exceed your calorie needs, avoiding weight gain. Additionally plants optimal blood health!
Brod
At age 49, I had lost and regained 50 pounds, 75 pounds, even 100 pounds, always ending up larger than before the diet. I do not lack intelligence or willpower. I have dieted most of my life starting at age 18 and was near death at age 49 with cholesterol of 312, weight of 275 at 5'6", arm numbness, could barely walk a few blocks, severe ulcerative colitis that kept me near bathrooms.
Now I am 63 and in the last 14 years I have lost 109 pounds, weaned off of three strong prescription meds, lowered cholesterol to 170, essentially cured my ulcerative colitis, which is supposedly incurable. I did all these improvements without any drugs or surgery – just food and exercise. I have since completed the Honolulu marathon, hiked up most of Mt. Whitney, hike often in the Smokies, bike 35 miles, etc. I know another woman who has done similar improvements. That person is not a vegan and she is successful but she is still struggling not to regain.
If any of my other diets had worked, I would not have become a vegan. But they didn't so I had to research until I found the changes that worked. I was motivated by staring into the abyss of death.
So how do we help all the obese people in the US before they and their obese children destroy our health care system and our nation with their huge medical bills? I was one of these people. It is not easy to make dietary changes. Our entire culture is saturated with advertisements of cheap foods that temporarily satisfy but do not nourish our bodies. What if we each dumped oil and sand into our gas tanks and then tried to drive our cars. That is similar to the chips, ice cream and cokes I once fed my body every day. It worked for a while, until my body could not take the abuse any more and began giving me signals that it was dying.
Drastic problems call for drastic solutions. Changing our nation's diet by a little bit will give us small results. Changing by a lot will relieve us of the damages wreaked by the tsunami of obesity flooding our country and choking out our lives and our future as a competitive nation.
You sound like a fun guy.
No matter which path you take, Cutting the processed carbohydrates is the key. Thats why both vegan and paleo diets work. Processed carbs increase lipids/cholesterol/triglycerides..there is no argument there. Another tip, real butter/lard is better than your canola oil based margarines which are loaded with inflammation causing Omega 6's.
When you say "both vegan and Paleo diets work"
Please define work?
Brod
For those of you who claim outrageous health claims after making the "Switch", thats just it...You went from the Standard American diet to a probably a calorie limited, carefully thought out meal plan. I can do the same thing going from a Standard AMerican Diet to a mostly Paleo/Meat diet. Anecdotal, personal experiences are useless. Compare people going from SAD to an arm with vegan and an arm with Paleo and see what happens. Go visit Marks Daily Apple or Free the Animal.
The credits on this CNN piece states that it was posted by: Brett Roegiers - CNN, Emanuella Grinberg - CNN. I appreciated reading it. In fairness to the readers, Dr. Esselstyn is a retired breast and thyroid surgeon from the Cleveland Clinic and not a cardiologist.
Thank You,My breastesses feel better already!
As we export more of our US restaurant chains, other countries are increasingly getting our "western diseases" – heart disease, diabetes, cancer, high cholesterol, high blood pressure.
Throughout history, civilizations have been lost to disease whenever two cultures meet. Tongue in cheek, perhaps exporting our bad habits and foods will be our best hope to compete against the Asians! As we export more of our foods to them, they are getting sicker. When they do not feel well, they cannot work as hard or think as well. Each sick person requires people and money to care for them. Then we can sell them our prescription medicines and advanced surgeries to save them. They have an almost unending supply of workers, so the importance of one individual's health is not important, until their country gets weighed down with an enormous health care burden. Sound familiar! That will give our country a chance to compete.
Also, our nation will be unable to fix our health care costs, unless we fix the problem source that continues to create vast numbers of new expensive patients. The cause of most disease is poor quality foods that are available everywhere to us and our children, and to which they and we are becoming addicted for life. We are facing a huge increase in obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer in our younger generations. Medicines will not be able to save most of them and our health care system will not be able to afford to save them. We are looking at a lost generation due to WWIII – our internal war with food.
Pity about the american veggies absolute rubbish taste,go to cuba and taste their veggies,FANTASTIC.
China Report huh? There are plenty of chefs that grow all their own food in a sustainable manner. Even livestock. I think we should go that route.
And don't forget, happy pigs make tasty bacon!
Another great movie is
Food Inc.
It will have you looking at the food industry in a whole new light.
After reading the China Study, I've gone (mostly) vegan. I eat non-vegan about 2 meals a month. Mostly I'm hedging my bets in case I am missing any nutrients. Since going vegan I've lost a lot of weight and my energy level and health have improved greatly. I find raw numbers fairly convincing. In China, the more meat people ate, the more likely they were to get 'Western' diseases. I'm going to bet on the group that was healthier and try to emulate what they did/are doing.
I also think the treatment of animals by the food industry is atrocious and horrible and does not reflect well on our species. I am not against eating animals at all, but I am against treating them in a completely despicable manner.
Beyond that issue, animals eat up far more plants than they produce in food stuffs. They take up vast amounts of our usable land surface and pollute the world terribly in the factory-farming conditions that our industries deem most profitable. We all pay for it if our world is turned into a cesspool.
I didn't say if you're vegan you'll automatically be a middle aged athlete; a sedentary life, meat eater or otherwise, will do you in. Continual exercise is the key, with a decent diet. I'm sure there are a lot of unathleltic vegans. As well as many vegans who have disproved the prejudice that you need meat to be strong–as I feel I have done.
As I said, it wasn't for health reasons I stopped eating meat at 19. I wanted the perspective of life apart from the carnivoral.
While I appreciate both choices, to say that if you eat meat you will be chair bound at 40 – 50 years old is really not fair or accurate. My husband is turning 70 next week, plays tennis 3-5 days a week, and is in excellent health and can run circles around me and I'm 18 years his junior...and he eats meat (mostly red meat) 4-5 times a week if not more! Genetics and overall good health have a lot to do with your quality of life, not just your food choices.
I have been a vegan since 1984, vegetarian since 1970, when I was 19. Yes, just turned sixty, workout five days a week, can swim a mile and a half in the summer and with 50 pounds on my back do 20 sets of 10 pushups a set. Exercise plus diet wont make you immortal, but it's your choice to be 40 and 50 year old chair bound in front of the TV, or not going gently into that dark night.
But I didn't become vegetarian/vegan for health. Above all, it's a moral choice. I did not want to be part of the death cycle of nature. I did not want to live off of the dead–the, tortured, the slaughtered. It's the food chain, a lot of people say–as long as they're the ones not being eaten.
I have been a vegan for around 9 years and was a vegetarian for a dozen years before that. I mean no offense when I say this, but if people who consume a lot of meat and dairy could *smell* themselves, they would wonder what the heck they are doing to themselves. The rancid, rotten smell of their breath and bodily secretions is overpowering. When I was a vegetarian I never smelled it. Now its so obvious, and I thought I was going crazy until several other vegans confirmed the same thing. Asians who eat no dairy have said he same thing to me about the odor of westerners – and have asked me why I don't have it.
This is something vegans never talk about because there is no way to mention it in mixed company politely. But dairy/meat folks, this bad body odor is a sign of something that doesn't seem healthy..
wow, it amazes me how much people like to fight about the stupidest things!! Do what's right for you with regards to eating. My dad had a heart attack a year ago and I've been trying to get him to eat healthier. He would rather take drugs. :( Makes me sad and makes me think my dad won't be here too many more years. I had no clue about the VEGAN way of life. I won't call myself an aspiring Vegan again. :) I know when I drink green smoothies and wheat grass juice, stop eating all dairy, and eat more raw veggies and fruits I feel so much better! Where I live it is VERY hard to even find anything fresh or organic and we have no farmers markets. The closest Whole Foods is 230 miles away! So eating healthy is a huge challenge! What I have to biggest proble with is all the meds, additives, and chemicals that is being put into most meat supplies and most processed foods! Then we wonder why autism, ADHD and cancer are epidemic? I would much rather spend my $ on fresh healthy food than on Drs and meds that just cover up symptoms. Wishing you all a blessed journey whichever way of eating you choose!
Some of you are vegan. Some of you aren't. I am, but who cares? Stop fighting over something so trivial.
I have enormous respect for Esselstyn and Campbell. But there are studies that have compared the health and lifespans of vegans with that of HEALTH CONSCIOUS omnivores which found that vegans do not live longer.
The issue is health consciousness/awareness. There are vegans who eat atrociously unhealthy diets. (One vegan presented me with an apple pie she had baked with 100% hydrogenated vegetable shortening, as an example. She thought that was just fine because it did not contain any animal products. There are many other examples.) Eating just plant products with your eyes shut is not a good approach.
But the reality is that the AMOUNT (number of calories) eaten is just as important, perhaps even more so, than WHAT is eaten. Experiments in dozens of different species all the way from yeasts up through rats, mice and monkeys and humans show that eating many fewer calories has a truly huge impact on both health and lifespan – and a much greater impact than just eating more than necessary of a predominantly plant based diet.
So, eating a sensible diet containing some quantities of meat products – fish especially – with greatly reduced overall calorie intake is the best approach based on the studies I have read. And when I say 'the best approach' I mean with the potential to extend healthy lifespan by as much as 30% to 40%. Take a look at the effects of this in the rhesus monkeys in the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center experiments as just one example of truly dramatic results.
By the way, I am not SDA, but I try to learn from whoever has the "secret to long life".
My research and also my observation of the checkout lines at grocery stores tells me veggie eating immigrants, especially first generation from Asia, look healthier, happier, harder working than the people loading up on meat, milk, chips and soda. The checkout lines do not often contain a mixture of foods – either it is all produce/beans/grains or it is mostly red and yellow highly processed bags, cartons, boxes, cans, bottles.
The populations on earth who live the longest have been studied by Dan Buettner/National Geographic. These longest living communities live in places like Costa Rica, Japan, Italy, Greece. But there is one long lived population in the United States. Can you guess where – near Los Angeles, CA. LA has dense population, traffic jams, smog, stress, fast food restaurants, mixed ethnicities. How can a long living community be near LA?
Lifestyle. Not lack of stress, not genetics, not environmental toxins, not doctors, not hospitals, not education. The answer is lifestyle – food, exercise, family, culture. They enjoy the longest lives in the US because of how they live their lives – healthy food, healthy drinks, some exercise, contented lives.
The latest official current world population estimate is 6,852,472,823. Most of these people do not live in the US and most do not eat diets with lots of milk, cheese, or meat. And these longest lived people enjoy good health from the beginning to the end of their lives, rather than being incapacitated by obesity, cancer treatments, heart or stroke attacks, diabetes symptoms.
So who exactly are these long living Americans – The Seventh Day Adventist community of Loma Linda, CA. The SDA religion encourages vegetarian/vegan foods, drinking healthy water, being actively engaged in a community and provides support for learning healthy recipes. They live about seven years longer than the general US population.
I am one of five siblings, aged 60 to 75, who grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm. My family genetics predict death from colon cancer or heart attack. By age 45, I had ulcerative colitis (severe colon inflammation), numbness in my arms, heart ischemia, cholesterol of 312, shortness of breath. These symptoms have all gone away on a vegan diet and my EKG is now normal. My four siblings are meat eaters and all have heart problems, two have colon issues, but not me, the vegan. Three of my siblings have stents, one had a heart attack. Perhaps I am just lucky – but I strongly believe that my lifestyle changes have changed my destiny and delayed my year and cause of death. I would like to be an energetic, happy person that can play and keep up with future grandkids.
To "Babsmack" and your "Dangers of eating raw vegetables." Regarding a few of your examples- ie: rhubarb, green potatoes, yes you are right, but otherwise your comments are ill-advised. Yes plants have natural defense chemicals and if you eat the same plants in big quantities day after day you might experience some negative effects. For the best health mix it up. If you believe that it is harmful eating a variety of raw vegetables, pure and simple, you are wrong. The healthy nutrients in plants FAR outweigh any ill effects. Want the truth? Read the book Eat To Live, or Eat For Health. Joel Fuhrman, MD.
Wow, re all the goofy comments, what a bunch of goofy people there are out in the world! There is so much wrong info in many of the comments. So many of you are not educated as far as what is healthy and what is not. I don't by any means profess to know everything, but I have learned what is healthy and what is not. Read the book Eat To Live. Combine that with common sense. ie: What is the natural intention of a mother cow's milk? To feed its calf, not a person. A cow's milk is intended to have an 80 pound calf reach 800 pounds in one year. How much weight does a human baby gain in one year? Sadly, many of you who posted will die sooner than you need to because you lack common sense or are too stubborn to read a book. You won't read Eat To Live, because you're addicted to legal, unhealthy foods you've been raised with, and are either too stubborn (you're a truth hater) or aren't intelligent enough to realize what food and drink promotes health, and what promotes disease. Read Eat To Live. Best of luck-
I'd rather kick the bucket at 52 with a 16 oz rib-eye beneath my belt than end up like Ralph, Archie Bunker's friend who had a heart attack while he was jogging home from the health food store. Enjoy your tofu and bean sprouts (right).
Continued: Part II.
My doctor has been practicing for 35 years. My cholesterol used to be 185, and it dropped to 75 in less than a year of being vegan. He asked me what the hell I did differently, and I told him. He said the only time he has seen cholesterol under 100 is from marathon runners who take statin drugs to lower cholesterol and vegans, that is it.
Take a look at history, and find me somebody who has cholesterol under 125 who has had a heart attack or a stroke.
Go ahead, I'll wait. Keep looking, because you won't find them.
Open arteries = More Oxygen to the cells = More nutrients delivered = Mental and Physical Performance Increase.
Notice in my 3 comments, I have not even begun to praise the environmental impact of making "The Switch".
Just so you know, Cells need cholesterol to maintain their membranes. Going too low may cause early onset dementia. For those of you who claim outrageous health claims after making the "Switch", thats just it...You went from the Standard American diet to a probably a calorie limited, carefully thought out meal plan. I can do the same thing going from a Standard AMerican Diet to a mostly Paleo/Meat diet. Check out Marks Daily Apple, or Free the Animal.
Continued: Again, I have no problem if you are a meat eater. What I do laugh at is the meat eaters dismissal of "lack or protein" in a vegan diet.
Newsflash: There is more protein in one can of black beans or a bean burrito than a protein shake. And no artery clogging cholesterol. As for lifting weights, I go head to head with a guy that eats 200 grams of protein every day and I destroy him in the weight room.
I went Vegan two years ago, and honestly, I will never go back to meat and dairy...ever. I keep quiet about it, because since I went vegan, my cholesterol, triglycerides, and body fat have dropped astronomically. My bank account grows every day because my brain processes so much faster. I sleep 5 hours and that is it, and I have more energy than when I was 21. I don't want to tell people because it feels like I am on a performance enhancing drug, it's that good.
I don't have a problem if you eat meat, but I have a problem when people knock vegans, especially fatties. Know this:
Heart attack and strokes happen why? Because of blocked arteries. How are arteries blocked? Because of bad cholesterol. Where is the only source of bad cholesterol on this planet come from? Animal products. Thank you, that will be all.
If you don't eat cholesterol, heart attacks, strokes, degenerative diseases go away. I have not been to the doctor in two years. When your arteries open up, miracles happen.
Ask yourself this vegan haters: Why is it that in the early part of the century, heart attacks, strokes, and degenerative diseases were not heard of?
"Ask yourself this vegan haters: Why is it that in the early part of the century, heart attacks, strokes, and degenerative diseases were not heard of?"
They were probably not heard of because the medical field was not as advanced. Eating meat was not an idea invented within the last century, humans have been eating meat since we have been around on this rock. It's all about moderation. People of the past rarely ate meat to the extent that today's population does.
BTW, I am not a vegan hater. I just thought I'd point out how absurd your question was.
A bit over two years ago, I met my wife, who happens to be vegan. I stepped out of the car wearing a leather jacket, munching on a piece of beef jerky. I was an unabashed carnivore. Meat is freakin' tasty. When my wife became pregnant, we started discussing how we wanted to raise the baby. Obviously, we wanted our child to be as healthy as possible, so we both began heavy research. Today, my wife is still vegan, and our son and I live off a vegetarian diet. My little one is in spectacular health, and is, according to his pediatrician, unusually strong for his age. I've never felt better. I went from barely being able to run the two miles I had to do for the Army Physical Fitness Test, to being able to carry a forty pound load twelve miles in two and a half hours. Yesterday, I missed a bus to get to work, so I decided to run the 7.2 miles, in my Army uniform and boots, which I was able to do in just over an hour. I'm not going to say that a vegetarian diet did all this, but it was certainly the catalyst that started my transformation from an unhealthy, lazy computer geek to an energetic, strong, healthy...computer geek. Just something to think about.
Intelligent insight and comments . . . a breath of fresh air, thank you. My husband was a meat eating hunter when I met him 7 years ago. He was 40 pounds overweight and borderline diabetic. Today he's on a vegan path and looks better than he did the day I met him. Two months after I met him he dropped 32 pounds and had no more chronic back pain and depression. It's disheartening to see the angry resistance to this way of eating. If you knew us you'd never consider us 'fringe'. We eat this way because we want to live a long, active, vibrantly healthy life.
It is healthy and natural to eat meat. However, it is not natural to eat the amount of meat that is in the typical American diet. If you look back even 80-100 years ago the typical family would eat meat several (3-4) meals a week, not two to three times a day like the typical American does now – all but the very well off could not afford to eat meat much more often than that. And you wouldn't eat a meal where the meat was the main part of the meal. A family might have a roast beef with lots of potatoes and other veggies where the actual meat counted for maybe 20% of what was on the plate, now the main part of the meal would be a large cut of beef or steak with a small portion of veggies on the side (if even that). Lean meats eaten in smaller portions once a day 4-5 days a week is not going to contribute noticeably, if at all, to heart disease and strokes. However, fast food and greasy restaurant food 4-5 times a week, intermixed with lots of hotdogs, pizzas, and other meat/fat/sugar-heavy meals is a very unhealthy food combination.
On the same token, I would be concerned about eating a diet very heavy in soy. It has been shown that soy products aren't the healthiest things in great quantities either. For instance, there are chemicals in soy that mimic estrogen and can cause weight gain.
It all comes down to moderation. I think one of the main reason why vegans are healthier is they pay attention to what they eat. If we meat-eaters took one thing away from the vegan movement, it would be to pay attention to what we put in our mouths, eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and less processed and fatty/greasy foods. Eat fewer meals with meat and/or smaller servings of meat. For example, you can make soup, chili, casseroles with much smaller portions of meat than eating a hamburger or chicken breast whole. In chili or stew, you can take a pound of meat and mix it with lots of veggies and whole grain pasta and turn that pound of meat into 8 servings of soup. So in each meal you are only getting two ounces of meat, but still getting plenty of protein and that meat flavor that you are craving.
I wouldn't go vegitarian. i might go through a phase where i eat a higher portion of vegetables and not meats and sugary stuff. but ultimantly i will not cut it out of my diet entirely. theres just nothing like my old time favorites. Slow cooked steak with potatoes and corn. melt in your mouth...the texture and taste, slighly rare.
Chicken alfredo...marinaded grilled sunday dinner chicken...to die for...and i would.
Or bacon. if i was on my hospital bed, with a good chance of dying of a heart condition...i would request bacon. thick cut, applewood smoked bacon.
you can tell me what you want, but i will never give up my steaks and bacon entirely. or fresh, smoked elk, or venison...or bacon.
though i will admit that i eat my mom's spinach and cheese lasagna...and i may even admit that i like it...
Are you afraid of the word MEAT?
If you found out that eating meat was actually Healthy for your body would you stop being a vegan?
Humans are Omnivores, it wasnt until hominids started eatting MEAT that we developed our bigger brains. Personally Im tired of fringe geeks and weirdos trying to push this alternative lifestyle. I'll give up my steak when you pry it from my cold dead hands. And while you all weaken from eatting plants, I'll continue to thrive and flourish because I know the secret to living a long life: MODERATION!!!
If you're suggesting that we can have your steak when we pull if from your cold dead fingers... The article is making the suggestion that might just be a little sooner than you think. :)
I've been a strict vegetarian for the past twelve years and dabbled with being a vegan. I too found that 'everything in moderation' is what works for me... So I have a vegan diet two to three days a week and am 'only' a vegetarian the rest of the time. Rather than seeing meat as your only source of protein (even peanuts have more protein pound for pound than meat does) experiment. Try going vegetarian once a week, then twice a week. I think you'll spiritually feel better from not putting so much death into your system (something did have to die, keep in mind... Just to give you that 'meat flavor' that you are craving...) and your diet will improve as well. No matter how 'lean' your meat is, you have to remember: it still has a ton more saturated fat and cholesterol than not eating it at all.
Liberals...You were Spoken to..By NAME...2,700 Years ago in the Bible...Isaiah Prophesied that ..When Christ returns.You will be healed...You are Truly Blessed......................................................................................
Isa 32:1.......Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. .............................
Isa 32:5 ......The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said [to be] bountiful..........................
Isa 32:6.......For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. .......
Isa 32:7.......The instruments also of the churl [are] evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.........................................................................................................
Isa 32:8.......But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand..........................................
Jesus Ted. If we've been called 'Liberals' for 2,700 years so far... Do you REALLY think hearing it a couple more times is going to change our minds? Especially in a blog that 99.999% of the population will NEVER read?
"Crap! That was the 48,247,718,396,582th time we've been called that name. Let everyone know we can't be liberals anymore, they finally FINALLY hit the right number!"
Jesus Christ was a liberal.
Damn straight He was!
Oh yeah. I am definitely afraid of the word. I know how food vegetables are, but I'm obsessed with protein. I setup my diet based on how much protein I'll get. Everything comes down to it. It's sad. Veggies are great, but they just can't deliver the mass protein that a piece of grilled chicken or a container of cottage cheese can. That's my only concern.
Don't get me wrong, though, because vegan meals are DELICIOUS! My brother is practically a vegan, and his food is off tha chain!
Last Christmas a family member dealing with a life threatening illness told me flat out, "I'd rather die than go vegan even though I know I'd be healthier if I did." We want what we want even if we know it’s going to kill us.
It's choice not ignorance that has people choose against a plant based diet. What we eat is a very emotional subject. When you tell people that there is an alternative to surgery and pills, people resist because it's easier for them to take a pill and have their insurance pay the bill for surgery. We want the easy way out. We don't want to take care of our bodies and our health, we expect doctors to 'fix' us.
Even as a young person I thought that drinking milk from a cow and eating its flesh were odd and somehow 'off'. But we were raised eating meat and dairy along with every kid I knew in the 1950's and 60's. As I grew up and made my own decisions I slowly adopted a vegetarian diet. After a bought with melanoma I went vegan over five years ago and have never looked back. I don't proselytize my dietary choices. If someone asks for information or is curious about the vegan diet, I am more than happy to share my experiences.
A few Thanksgiving meals ago I fed my in-laws a five course vegan dinner and they raved about the food. They did not know the meal was vegan until I served dessert. I was not in any way trying to deceive them. They were fully aware that I ate no animals products. They were astounded at the flavor and variety of the food I served and at how satiated they felt without feeling 'heavy' and uncomfortable. None of my family has gone vegan (except my husband) but they have made radical shifts in their food choices.
It’s just not that complicated. For better health, keep it simple, close to nature, plant based and lots of play time!
http://imperfectvegan.blogspot.com/
Last Christmas a family member dealing with a life threatening illness told me flat out, "I'd rather die than go vegan even though I know I'd be healthier if I did." We want what we want even if we know it’s going to kill us.
It's choice not ignorance that has people choose against a plant based diet. What we eat is a very emotional subject. When you tell people that there is an alternative to surgery and pills, people resist because it's easier for them to take a pill and have their insurance pay the bill for surgery. We want the easy way out. We don't want to take care of our bodies and our health, we expect doctors to 'fix' us.
Even as a young person I thought that drinking milk from a cow and eating its flesh were odd and somehow 'off'. But we were raised eating meat and dairy along with every kid I knew in the 1950's and 60's. As I grew up and made my own decisions I slowly adopted a vegetarian diet. After a bought with melanoma I went vegan over five years ago and have never looked back. I don't proselytize my dietary choices. If someone asks for information or is curious about the vegan diet, I am more than happy to share my experiences.
A few Thanksgiving meals ago I fed my in-laws a five course vegan dinner and they raved about the food. They did not know the meal was vegan until I served dessert. I was not in any way trying to deceive them. They were fully aware that I ate no animals products. They were astounded at the flavor and variety of the food I served and at how satiated they felt without feeling 'heavy' and uncomfortable. None of my family has gone vegan (except my husband) but they have made radical shifts in their food choices.
It’s just not that complicated. For better health, keep it simple, close to nature, plant based and lots of play time!
http://imperfectvegan.blogspot.com/
so sorry about the double post : 0
We are omnivores. I think it's unhealthy to follow drastic diets like this one. A little red meat once or twice a week is not going to give you heart disease. The problem is people consume too much of it. Consuming too much of anything is not going to be healthy. It's good to eat more vegetables and fruits, but it's not necessary to go vegan to live a healthy life.
This story shows exactly why CNN is crap. The very same woman you have start out your story by using her husband's death, and that diet may be a cause.. won't even go vegan herself. But that is buried in the last 2 paragraphs of your story. Well done CNN way to show exactly how you tell a story. Great reporting.. why wasn't the fact that she lived to 80 apparently eating a horrible diet given more prominence.. hmm... agenda maybe...
yes just another reason (amongst many) while cnn really IS total crap
At the end of the day, if you eat responsibly, in limited portions, is it really all that important to eschew all meat? I personally feel terrible on an all veg diet–I tried it for months and never got the "bouncing off walls" energy. So, I worked some lean chicken, fish and dairy back in. And frankly a good chicken broth or pasta with seafood is absolutely delicious. If I live a shorter happier life isn't that better than living a long less interesting life? And if you think eating a pile of steamed zucchini is the same as eating beef bourguignon with mashed potatoes–well, we'll just have to disagree.
I voted "other" because I once was vegan and I saw the worst health decline of my life during that period even though I was careful to manage what I ate. It did some permanent damage. Never again.
The reality for most vegans is that it is a glorified eating disorder. Never anywhere have I met people who were more food-obsessed.
Rabia I'll bet the only permanent damage you are carrying around was done by a form of self abuse that has nothing to do with a vegan diet and more likely to being potty trained at the age of 15 by your mommy or weird uncle Frank. People who are too weak to master a simple diet plan tend to make generalizations about those that can, at least generally speaking that is.
Agree. Reduce dairy and red meat by 95%.
sprouts...mmmm
Here's what I know for a fact. I was a 55yr old diabetic (a1c 13..5) with high blood pressure (180/105) and very overweight (245lbs). I was on two shots and 6 different pills a day. On my doctors recommendation I read a book called the 30day diabetes miracle. I figured I could do anything for 30 days so I tried the vegan lifestyle. Within 5 months I was off all my meds my blood sugar was normal (a1c 6) my blood pressure was normal (125/66) and I had loss 35 lbs. I feel great and don't miss a thing.
I've had a really good time trying the vegan thing the past 3 years. It's an adventure meeting new people and trying new dishes made with just plant-based foods. Before I tried this, I used to eat a lot of dairy. I also had a lot of phlegm in my throat any time I did any kind of physical activity. I noticed that's gone, and I can breathe easier during exercise. I never equated that with the dairy before. But it's interesting.
If we're not supposed to eat animals, why are they made out of meat?
Very rarely does a vegan dish taste good. I'm just being honest about what I think...does this make me a bad person for thinking that?
I'm not a vegan, but I had a friend who was so I tried some of the food she made and it was really good.
blah, blah, blah. it's the right thing to do. amen.
I am a full timer vegetarian. Being a vegetarian doesn't mean that you won't get sick. There are cases of cancer, diabetic, high blood pressure, stroke etc...happening amongst the vegetarian. Beside what we consume, doing exercise and adopt a healthy life style will contribute a healthier body. So, being vegetarian is just to lower the risk, it doesn't guarantee.
For some people, a vegan diet may be a great solution for healthful eating. For others, it seems also to be a political statement and/or a matter of fashion. Diet is really a personal decision for everyone to make on his or her own. Your body is different from mine, and I don't expect everything that works for you to work for me, and vice versa. I tried a vegetarian (not vegan) diet a few years ago, and it was a failure. It made me feel tired and lethargic, and I was seriously underweight. After resuming a balanced diet with red meat, chicken, lean pork and fish, plus plenty of vegetables, fruit and whole grains, I feel great. It's hard to imagine how skinny I was as a vegetarian, weighing 25 pounds less than I do now. Of course, it's a matter of balance–I also exercise regularly and get plenty of sleep. So that's what works for me. And I certainly do not feel what others seem to experience as "guilt" for eating meat, eggs, cheese, milk–or any other food products that come from fish, birds or other animals with eyes. Humans have been part of the omnivorous food chain for many millions of years, and contemporary food politics or fashion cannot and will not change evolutionary biology. Our bodies go back to feed the earth and its creatures when we die.
As a paul mccartney fan I have heard about the benefits of going veggie/vegan for years and I have tried to eat more plant based foods. Its just very hard to stick to and its alot of work. When I have done it, its easier in the fall/winter but once summer rolls around and the bbq gets fired up I cant wait for that steak covered with mushrooms and onions. Then theres the issue of visiting people and eating, do they make special food for just me ? do I have to bring my own food ?.......it gets a little crazy. Its seems to be like part of a complete lifestyle change, not just picking out "good and better" food
Amy is right. She has done her homework. This idea of only a plant and grain diet is like a tradition that will be hard to admit that maybe it was wrong info. If every one tested their blood sugar one and two hours after meals to see if their blood sugar spikes over 140 ) which according to endocrinologists can cause organ damage. I just want to know how many vegans actually buy a glucometer and check what they eat. It reminds me of a religious belief. If you dare say grains creates an acidic condition and causes inflamation, you may be ostracized. Any vegans out there who check their blood sugar after meals?
Have gone all vegan–it was terrific. Am not vegan now, but not opposed. Ultimately I am more convinced for a "mostly vegan" (and I mean mostly RAW vegan diet) with some exceptions for minimal and choice animal products and some cooked vegan foods.) Oh, and bring back REAL "raw" almonds, food industry!
If you do eat meat, try for organic free range... and even better yet, grass fed when if comes to beef. It's better for you and you can at least feel a little better about consuming animals who led a happier life. Feedlot beef is inferior with regards to nutrients and taste... and is cruel. If you love meat and don't want to give it up, try to cut down a little and choose your meat products carefully.
Yes, I'd go vegan and am currently. Tired of hearing about the "benefits" of eating fish for omega 3s. Where do the fish get omega 3? From the plant food they eat!
Seriously doubting he had a heart attack that "killed him instantly"...but no use arguing symantics. Either way, choosing to feed your family all plants or or all meat is bad either way you go. Understanding and practicing a good balance is how you promote and live a whole and healthy life.
Being Vegan doesn't make you healthier. A good diet is better than a vegan diet. Actually if anything being a vegan is also unhealthy. Eating meat is what your body needs, and not having it is unhealthy. Being a vegetarian isn't as bad as being a vegan because you can get some of the nutrients that your body needs.
Agreed. One RBTI consultant claims you can be a vegetarian for 3 years before doing damage to the body. Go by the RBTI numbers for your own chemistry to determine what is healthy.
You can get every nutrient your body needs from a plant based diet/vegetarian diet. It's not good for you if you don't do your research. No different from a diet that includes meat. It's about making smart choices. Nothing more.
Can you prove anything you have stated. I have been a carnivore, omnivore and Vegan. Granted I have been vegan 25 years so my views are based on experience and not theory, I am not sure what your experience has been, but there is a definite physical evolution of your body when you stop consuming animal products. For most people, including myself, it was a feeling of cleansing of toxins, obtained from animal products, being eliminated. If you ignore the animal rights issues (which are equally important) and focus simply on health alone you still will find a plant based diet can provide all nutrients the human body needs to grow and to sustain good health. I have two completely vegan children who have never, (as in completely zero, nada, none, including animal based vaccines) had any animal products and have been not only healthy but have excelled as athletes and high achieving students. Perhaps this was genetics, luck of the draw or some combination of the two but they also suffered far fewer childhood illnesses than their peers. That is the strongest case I can make for the vegan diet.
Veganism isn't "healthier" than a balanced diet that includes some meat and it never will be.
It is healthier than eating a diet consisting of Fried Twinkies and beef jerky though.
I wanted to add that I've been studying nutrition for 41 years being an overweight child and being vegetarian has been the only thing that keeps it under control.Obesity and diabetes runs on my father's side with my father dying of diabetes related kidney disease.When he had veg Indian and Thai food his doctor would remark that his numbers were good and meat and wheat bad.The blood type book clarified things-we're o+ and wheat and dairy do us in.The high protein we require comes from beans,rice,and nuts and the sugar and weight issues are better from them.Wheat is the veg food not good for us causing weight issues.My a+ mother does well with wheat as the book says.The book says o+needs meat but I've found that's not always true.There are many o+ in Asia and many are vegan and live long lives.
I've gone vegan for the sake of trying it. The foods are good and tasty, when properly prepared. But, at heart, I'm an omnivore. Hence, I eat meat AND plants.
When queried by some on my notion of a good diet, I pull out my belt knife and open it. Then, I tell the listener to eat as much meat as they can catch with that knife.
As for me? Well, my cholesterol ranges between OMG and HOLY sh*t! All high in bad and triglycerides.
I smoke a pack of Lucky Strikes a day. I drink about 12 cups of coffee per day. I drink.
My blood pressure is controlled with a medication. My cholesterol remains uncontrolled, as the most draconian diet was unable to alter it at all AND I cannot take statins, due to a side effect from EVERY ONE that I've taken.
After I had had a heat stroke, while in the middle east, I had returned home for some eye surgery. I noticed my EKG strip didn't look very good at the pre admission testing. I asked for a copy and took it to my family doctor.
The next day, I was at the cardiologist's office.
He insisted that I had a heart attack and I insisted that I didn't.
$50000 in tests later, I was proven right. It was damage from the heat stroke. BUT, one other thing was found: Clear arteries, maximum of 10% blockage in one artery. At age 49.
One thing I DID cut back on was beef, as it is nearly tasteless to me, these days, a side effect of eating all that lamb, while overseas. That is about the only real difference in my diet.
And the funny thing is, when my daughters were getting our family medical history from me, with the amount of cancer and cardiovascular disease striking rather early in my family, they complained that someone P'd in our gene pool...
Is there a lesson in there somewhere? Hanged if I know, I only know that I'm a lot healthier than most of my family at my age.
BUT, the article now has me wanting a nice spinach salad, haven't had one for months. And perhaps, a veggie burger, that soy is addictive! ;)
And some lamb for dinner...
I've been veg for 24 years no eggs but sometimes hormone free cheese. The first thing I noticed was that weight that would not budge from aerobics went away after aerobics. I lost 15 pounds easily from going veg. The rest melts with a vegan diet. I actually did it for my love of animals and don't use leather or fur either. Lately, I've been reading about hormones in meat and dairy and the breast cancer link and am glad I did this. My grandmother was veg for 90 years and lived to 98 for the love of animals. My mother is not veg and got breast cancer.
"juggled plates of veggie cakes, basil rolls and cannellini-stuffed endive spears"
I'll stick to my chicken, bacon and steak, thanks.
I love plant foods =) Would I completely give up meat? No. I eat red meat maybe 4 times a year, because my family drops like fleas from heart attacks. Fish is amazing, and so is any bird you stick in front of me. I just think its weird people have to eat meat every meal, its not sustainable, and its…kinda heavy. I don't have issues with leather, but I wish the industry was run on the idea of what’s eaten is also used (rarely the case), and the tanning process is pretty toxic (another issue) I'd rather die than wear fox or mink fur, awesome wild animals have no business in a cage for a year, swimming in their own urine only to be skinned alive. Creepy, we domesticated some pretty tasty, and now very dumb, animals for our use- I don't think we need too much more, let’s not be greedy eh? Sustainable hunting is also important, moderation seems pretty ethical.
For dinner tonight I'm having a ribeye steak with melted garlic butter on top.
Enjoy your spinach.
Lightly steamed spinach is actually quite delicious as an accompaniment to a grilled medium rare rib eye dabbed with garlic butter. An al dente saute of zucchini, onions, mushrooms and red and yellow peppers would round that out nicely as well. Yum!
The biggest problem with this article, and virtually EVERY SINGLE situation where this topic is brought up is that the vegans act like proselytizing fanatics who want everyone to drink the koolaid and the other side acts like every vegan is condemning their choices. One thing I notice is that the vegan side likes to cherry pick the scientific research, use a lot of personal testimony (which is argumentatively useless) and is generally simply annoying. What you eat doesn't matter as long as you are getting all the nutrients your body needs and not an excess. Meat is a GREAT way to get much of that nutrients. A vegan diet is so nutrient poor for many important nutrients that you need supplements, and have to plan your means so you don't miss something. That being said, you rarely have to worry about getting too much of anything in a vegan diet. Less likely to eat excess calories, cholesterol, and synthetic hormones that are common in mass produced meat. I'm just really sick and tired of these articles that are selling health instead of presenting real scientific facts.
Agreed. Being Vegan is actually unhealthy. A balanced diet is more healthy than a vegan diet because being vegan gives you nowhere as many nutrients as you need. Not having meat is unhealthy. Also notice most vegans are only girls?
I am 63. Grew up on a dairy farm, husband on a beef farm, so ate standard diet – 1/3 meat, 1/3 potatoes, 1/3 cooked veggies, plus much cheese and milk. Overweight since 10. At 28, diagnosed with severe ulcerative colitis and got on 3 strong prescriptions. At age 49, 275 pounds – morbid obese, cholesterol of 312, sick, near death. Went to vegan lifestyle center for 18 days – difficult to change but saved my life. Weaned off all meds, lost 108 pounds (no pills, no surgery), did a marathon, hiked a mountain. Feel healthier at 63 than at 13 or at 43. I believe many sick and obese Americans are eating too much because their bodies asking for more nutrition. With more plant based and less processed foods, I feel better. I can do 15 pushups, hold a 4 minute plank, hike in the Smokies, half marathon next month. I never was able to do these things before I had become vegan, which also recovered my health. Now that I feel better, I want to do more physical things. I once tried to "convert" people. Now I set an example for and help those who are interested in improving.
I'm not a vegan and grew up eating the same crap that the American marketing and food conglomerates could make the most profit while being aided by lobbyists man-handling the weiner government folks....
Started juicing organic kale, spinach, carrots, celery, parsley, apple, orange, lemon,strawberries (fruit is for some flavor – the drink is still heavy on the kale) and feel the absolute best after drinking the green juice.....
.....
I believe the first step is cracking back at the food lobbyists that are hiding crap food behind ambiguous labels.....
Enable Americans to easily identify healthy and organic foods.......Give Americans the right to choose and loosen the laws that strangle healthy food identification
So much anger and hostility. I respect both sides of this issue, but I do follow a vegan diet. I spent the first 23 years of my life eating massive amounts of fast food and soda and just being self-destructive. I now believe that marketing and our health care system push us toward that type of behavior. Our medical system only makes money if we get sick so we are given lots of pills and surgeries, but as you can see on the Biggest Loser we can still look and feel terrible after going to doctors for 30 years or more.
I changed my diet, because my uncle died of a heart attack at 37...yeah...i wrote 37. Now you can bash me and call me every name in the book and tell me how miserable I am for eating a plant-based diet...but I want to live PAST 37 and my uncle didn't die from a heart attack from eating too many salads. My mother passed away from cancer at 44. A boss of mine passed away from a heart attack at 42. My accounting teacher passed away from a heart attack at 38. Another teacher at my college passed away from a heart attack at 56. My co-worker just passed away suddenly from a heart attack at 51.
It was time for me to WAKE UP! Fortunately I love vegetables. I love smoothies. I love salads. I love making my own veggie burgers and food. I look to people like Jack Lalanne who lived to be 96 on a plant-based diet. He lived 52 years longer than my mom and 59 years longer than my uncle. That is impressive! You can call us names...you can spit on us...you can say we are on our high horse and want to be better than everyone else....but my mom is dead...my uncle is dead....my grandma died of cancer at 62...these people paid a price for being misinformed and lied to by our food industry. They paid a price even if they were so incredibly happy because the food tasted that good. On the Biggest Loser I see people crying all thetime about how unhappy they are and they ate the best tasting food our society has to offer.
your DNA tells the real story.. if you got it.. you're going to live better.. no matter what you eat.. book sellers always want to sell you something...
I am vegan but its interesting I see the woman from Whole Foods. Of course I have not been to every Whole Foods Market but some of the ones in Southern Califrnia in the Los Angeles area ought to be ashamed. The food the serve in their hot food bars and some prepared salad dishes are SO LOADED DOWN with oil and swimming in cheese and some of the food looks like it has been sitting around to long. At their prices the food should be worthy at all times. I almost fell over when i saw one of their workers picking choclate frosting off of the cake with her bare hands and eating it. YUCK!
I am much more peaceful and calm after giving up all meat, dairy and processed food. To me this argument looks like a lot of people addicted to animal products arguing with people addicted to acting superior for loving animals more than humans.
Everyone should choose their own diet, but do so from an informed place. See Forks Over Knives and read the China Study. My research and experiments have shown that for me, I feel best without food that is manufactured, refined, slaughtered and processed. No food that is treated like crap to be sold rather than eaten. And no stress about food, just make the best choices possible. Good luck to everyone in finding a way to feel your best.
Well said.
Another meat vs. veggie poll, huh? The thing is that you can be a vegan and still have unhealthy eating habits. There's junk food for everyone in this world. On that same token, you can be a meat eater and be extremely healthy. Meat, in and of itself, is not unhealthy. What is unhealthy is mainly our portion sizes and the things that we do to the meat, like frying it. Also, what is healthier for one person is not necessarily healthier for another.
So would I switch to a vegan diet? No, I don't think so. It's only healthier for you in the same way that a depravation diet will get you thin – it changes your normal eating habits and forces you to stick to certain foods. If what you ate before that was all junk, then yes, of course it'll be better if you don't just switch to vegan junk food. However, if you already eat a balanced diet, in correct portions, a vegan diet is not going to be any healthier.
I really don't like Esselstyn's response to someone asking if they can eat a small amount of meat.
" . . . it depends on whether you're OK with having a "small" heart attack, or "just a little" stroke."
Way to be over dramatic...
I agree. I think that America would be healthier as a whole if we changed our attitude toward meat eating–instead of making meat the main focus of a meal, treat it as something that adds to it. I tried going vegetarian once (not because I oppose eating meat, but because it was very expensive) and found that after four or five days without it, I felt slow and unhealthy, even if I made sure I was getting protein from other sources. What worked for me was just having meat maybe a couple times a week in small amounts while cooking more flavorful vegetable meals.
IT'S ALREADY PROVEN that humans thrive better on a plan-based diet!
The American Dietetic Associationis the world' s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals has released an updated position paper on vegetarian & vegan diets that concludes such diets, if well-planned, are healthful and nutritious for adults, infants, children and adolescents and can help prevent and treat chronic diseases including heart disease, cancer, obesity and diabetes.
Meat only tastes good because of the vegan condiments.
Just another Eco Scam want some real insight read The Vegetarian Myth.
Lets all go back to a diet that inhibits mental growth and Self thought. Good little Drones!
Ask your self why there were NO Primitive peoples who were Vegetarian?
@Tazer: You're right, I did make some gramatical mistakes. Good thing my name states right there I don't want to be right, I want to be informed. I did made a remark about WittyOne not being witty and I have to stand by my personal opinion because I really didn't find they were. I, of course, may have overlooked something, I am after all only human. However, in those I did read, I failed to see any intelligent play on words or intelectual humour. Sure some of their comments were cute at best, but in general they reminded me of that annoying guy in class that just never shuts up and always has to have the last word. Making up statistics, telling people they're stupid, ... just to get a rise in others... BORING!... Take it to youtube. Better yet, let's just agree to disagree.
@AleeD: at least you are witty... good job with sense-of-humorectomy. Aside from that, you're doing a great job as WittyOne's brainless sidekick that agrees with everything numbnuts says, that is, if you aren't in fact the same person.
Not trying to cause a fuss,... just tired of the people that bash on vegetarians and/or vegans over and over again, insinuating that they all believe they are better than you because they don't eat meat. Helloooo ... you are doing the exact same thing. If you want to start an educated banter of why eating meat is still the way to go then great, but come to the table with some valid, scientific research suporting your case. The whining and name calling "you think you're better than me" whannn whann.. it's so pathetic and you're the individuals that do nothing to help your case, but rather make narrow minded meat eaters look so cavemanish in their thinking.
Look around you people.. the world is obese. This is not an article about animal rights, or whether vegans have a purer soul than meat eaters...no, this is about human health. If eating meat was the answer to solving this epidemic then I'll go out on a limb and assume a large number of people would start eating meat again. Yes, to many meat tastes good, smells good and we've been enjoying it and consuming it to our hearts desire for a very long time. That said, just like many other things we've done without thought, such as smoking, burning fuel, using pesticides, etc etc... we have the ability to open our eyes and say "gee we've been doing this forever, but I'm noticing that the side effects of my actions are not beneficial to me anymore ... maybe its time to re-evaluate?"
Don't kill the mesenger.
Fair enough, fair enough.
I agree that it's a bit asinine for "meat eaters" to bash on vegetarians. As a long time member of this blog, however, I have seen (perhaps excluding this article) that the majority of angry, fist waving rants at the "other side" are instigated by the militant vegan/vegetarians reading meat-centric articles. A bit ridiculous, no? So when regular posters like Wit , Alee, and I see an article like this, we anticipate a large degree of name calling and sensless petty insults, so we try to lighten up the fun and get a few preemtive jabs in. Probably not the most mature action in this situation, but se la vie.
As far as the question of whether or not lack of dietary meat will solve the American obesity/health crisis, well, I think that a larger and more prevalent concern in this society is the overabundance of processed, packaged, fatty, salty, greasy disgusting foods. If we as a culture took a step back toward whole, unprocessed foods i.e. whole veggies and fruits, unprocessed meats, and other natural ingredients, and got away from the mass produced slop, we would be slimmer, healthier, and more environmentally friendly.
@Tazer: I agree with everything you just said, and, it was well said I might add.
A well structured argument is sexy :)
Well I suppose I didn't get my Bachelor's for nothing then! :)
Great article! More & more friends are doing this & for different reasons. I am what you might call a part-time vegan/vegetarian... I'm allergic to milk (all forms) & soy. But, my friends say I more like 75% vegetarian as I only eat meat once a day (at dinner). I have figured out that my body can't handle just being vegetarian (mainly because I can't eat soy/tofu). People are always shocked when I answer that salads are my favorite food & that I tend to not eat sugar,fried, salty, or fast foods. I am so proud of my friends that are vegan!
I'm a paleo dieter and wouldn't change to anything else. To me, it just makes too much sense. I focus on eating lean meats, green veggies, nut, and fruit. I also do no added sodium, no grains, no legumes, no starchy tubers, and no dairy.
The research in NOT there to say meat causes cancer (or heat disease).
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/73040.php
http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com/2009/06/does-meat-cause-cancer/
As far as heart attacks it's about the type of fats you eat and eating oxidized cholesterol (thing scrambled eggs and pasteurized milk, though I still wouldn't touch raw milk).
Have you read "The China Study"?
I have not. When I first heard about it I really wanted to, but then I read the article linked below and don't want to spend the money or time now. As someone who does SQC and Six Sigma, I trust statistics and know they are commonly abused (or plainly misunderstood). It seems that what happened in the China Study.
http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
Is that the lead-based study? Noooooo thanks pal!
Lots of people don't thrive on a vegan diet. Read Lierre Keith's 'the vegetarian myth'.
The thing is, you can have a largely plant based diet and supplement with small amounts of meat. It's not like you need that many ounces per week. The major nutrients that are found only in meat or yeast are B12 and omega 3 fatty acids, and for some people, supplements don't cut it. I think the worst health problems can arise when people eat only grains and potatoes and soda instead of vegetables, protein. You can actually end up with blood sugar problems if you deplete your liver of B12, or depression if your body runs out of essential fats.
I don't know who told you that omega 3s are only found in animal foods, but that is 100% incorrect.
its really not about meat vs vegtables ; its about acid vs alkaline; bad things cant live in an alkaline system they thrive in an acidic system; meats and dairy are acid forming foods and fruits and vegs are alkaline forming; its called ph balance; we are made up of water so think of yourself as a pond and if the ph isnt balances all kinds of bad things live in there;and one of the best things you can do is drink hot water and lemon juice first thing in the morning and the rest of the day drink lemon water its is highly alkalining, and have a beautiful large salad everyday;
You are right, it is about balance. Our bodies have a tiny ph range that we can function well in. Going too acidic will cause damage, but going too alkaline will cause just as much, if different, damage. And just as bad things thrive in an acidic system, don't forget that there are organisms who thrive in alkaline systems. Our body varies in ph day to day and in different parts of our bodies to help fight off these organisms as necessary. Encouraging too much alkaline is not healthy.
Ofcourse a vegan diet if healthier, but just like you can go to McDonald's every so often, a healthy diet can still contain meat (especially chicken and fish) and even a slice of cake every now and then.
The problem here is that people automatically assume that if they eat meat, they are going to die a slow, horrible death. Meat is not bad. If all you eat is meat and fat and get no exercise, then yeah, you're screwed. But if you automatically assume "I can't eat meat! It's so unhealthy!" then you are a fool.
My husband and I have been vegetarians for 30 years, eating only plant based food. We also swore off sugar and salt. We have not been sick in all that time. That's the truth. Just ask our friends. Of course, some of our friends aren't around anymore. They died of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. I tried to get those who were getting sick to try our diet for 3 months. Their response, "I gotta have my meat." The power of the meat industry!
Every vegan I have ever known is a retard.
I've switched to a 100% plant based diet. I don't begrudge anyone that chooses to eat meat. I think that everyone needs to know the truth before making their decision. There is clear evidence that animal products will cause acidity and inflammation in the body and that will lead to chronic diseases such as Cancer, Heart Disease and Diabetes.
Eating anything that doesn't have feelings (nervous system) is not just healthy but ethical. If I can kill a cow (or be party to it) why is it wrong to kill a human. If God created animals for human consumption, he would have made them like plants without feelings. Don't give up meat for your health reasons. Give it up because it is your duty as someone who can think and have compassion to others.
How do you know plants don't have feelings? Did you mindmeld with them to learn this? Have you seen "Avatar?" James Cameron made that movie based on a real place in the center of the Earth.
TREES DO HAVE FEELINGS!!!!! STOP EATING THEM!!!
Even if plants do have feelings, you are killing more plants by eating meat than vegans are killings for themselves. Do some research.
It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of meat, and even fish on fish farms must be fed up to 5 pounds of wild-caught fish to produce 1 pound of farmed fish flesh.
I would assume that you are referring to an animal's ability to feel pain when you say "feelings". Plants have pain sensations too when they are cut. They have no mouths or any higher thought process to tell us so, but if you look at their behavior when damaged or when predators (bugs) come, it stands to reason that they have some sensations when you pull them out of the ground to make your salad.
If God did not create animals for human consumption, did he only make them to feed the lions, tigers, and bears, oh my?
Is chocolate a plant-based food? How about coffee? I can't give up EVERYTHING!
My doctor tells me to quit smoking (did that), lose weight (working on it), and on and on the list of "don'ts" continues, and she says if I manage all that, I'll live longer. My response, "You call that living?"
Minus the milk & other additives, chocolate & coffee beans are the same, from the same cocoa plant. You don't have to give up coffee, you can drink it black (or w/almond or soy milk)
having your loved ones watching you die is no way to live either.
Get used to it the Eco tards wont be happy till your whole diet is Soylent Green
I only do the vegan diet 3 times a year (for a month) as a Christian fast(Daniel Fast). It helps detoxify my body from any chemicals in processed food & heightens my senses. Plus when I'm off the diet I'm still conscience of the foods I buy & how I prepare them. I like meat & I like vegetables. One builds strength and muscles for the work I have to do & one increases my life span to help me keep working. I refuse to choose one over the other (alone, each can kill in its own way).
your 2 examples are both cases for eating vegan, where is your example of why eat meat? vegan diets are being adopted by many great athletes as a way to recover faster and build muscle quicker. everything is there in a vegan whole foods diet to build muscle.
I only started a year ago. You tell me (I'm being serious)-what vegetable help build muscle?
Of course, eating vegetarian is healthier for you.
But people eat what they can afford, and these days, what's cheapest is junk food.
You guys should check our the Vegan Academy, a few years there and you will be telekenetic and fully using your brain. Wattch out for meat tho 3 Strikes and your out. The Vegan police will get you and dissenagrate your powers.
out* not our
Sorry, Kyaru, but with several errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation in your short comment, one has to wonder just how much of your brain you are actually using.
VEGAN or NOT people need to READ NOSHMEAT.COM
Just because you say it often and LOUDLY doesn't make me want to read it. Troll.
It's a good site actually, you should give it a chance.
I have been to the site, and read about commercial meat producing practices. Because of that I have been researching on the net for places here where we live to buy organic, free range chicken, lamb, and beef. It is more expensive, but we think it will be do-able. One of the first things we plan on doing when we move in a couple of months is to buy a small freezer, and invest in a meat package. I am willing to explore vegetarianism, my husband absolutely will not try it. To each his own, but if he's going to eat meat, I want to know where it comes from by visiting the farm ourselves. Cheers!
I've never eaten a Vegan.
They're really tasty with the right sauce and wine.
serious question to the vegans – i went vegan for a year a few years ago. I like to lift weights, and one of the first things I noticed after maybe a month was that i was losing strength. As I continued, it became obvious I was losing muscle mass. how do you get enough protein (and by enough, I mean enough to build muscle and improve strength) without a concentrated protein source such as meat? I did the beans, I did the tofu and other soy products, but they just didn't cut it. Also, my cholesterol hangs around 120 and my triglycerides are pretty low as well, and I'm 48yo. Would love to be convinced that there was a way around losing body mass, so please...convince me.
Funny because i just came back from the gym and my trainer said i've never pumped higher weights in my life. What kind of vegan diet were you on? Did you eat enough vegetables? I get all the protein from beans, soy, leafy greens and other vegetables. The protein that is available in a steak is something like 50% less bioavailable than in broccoli or other veggies. Kale, collard greens, mustard greens are the best vegetables to eat for everything. If you've never had them, I would consider looking them up to see how you can get them into your diet. I would seriously reconsider what is considered "lean protein from animals" because all that is doing is clogging your arteries and creating an acidic environment in your body.
Well my main reason for eating vegan is to be a steward of creation and reduce animal suffering, but the health benefits are a nice little perk.
In terms of health, for me, it's not so much about trying to live forever as it is about trying not to die from something I could have prevented. Yeah, I can die in a freak accident 3 seconds from now, but the number one way (as far as I know) to avoid clogged arteries is through diet. I think being a Vegan is actually easier than trying to eat only one burger a month or only one serving of salmon per week. I'd rather just cut it "cold turkey." Otherwise I would have make sure I don't eat more than 3 oz of meat at a meal. Stop at the size of a deck of cards, are you kidding? Trimming the fat...Sanitizing the cutting board and counter every five seconds from chopping raw meat. I'll just have a bowl of rice and beans with veggies and an orange for vitamin C (to bump up my absorption of iron). Throw some avocado on top for the good fat too. Eating couscous and chickpeas or rice noodles with tofu coconut milk curry is much less extreme than a triple bypass.
...once again if that gives you a sense of comfort psychologically, I don't blame you. We all need something to comfort us in the fact that we are all dying, decaying pieces of flesh, no more significant than a snail, lion, or cockroach when it is all said and done. Whatever gets you up in the morning, more power to you. Best wishes.
I am proud to be a vegetarian because as a human-being, I cannot see the suffering of animals. Its my humble request to all meat-lovers to visit slaughterhouse just once and then make your choice. I bet if you have a human heart, you will never eat meat in your life time.
I think, the meat-based diet is not suited to the modern life-style where we use brain more than our appendages. I agree that human body needs fat for normal functioning, but now our lifestyle has created fat-producing factory within our bodies. In ancient India, people used to consume lots of meat and later evolved into vegetarians largely because of the health benefits. But the pity is, Indians have started reverting back to meat diet JUST BECAUSE AMERICANS EAT MEAT. Many coconuts feel as if they have become American by starting to eat meat. Indians are the most efficient but brainless copy-cats on earth. Now they will have to learn again from Americans to start eating vegetarian diet. But this is not the point I wanted to make.
Do you have a problem with living in a nation that perpetuates endless wars for profit and you live under that nation's umbrella going about your day all the while your nation and the nation you support by living and breathing there are killing other human beings over in their own sovereign nations?
The state of nutrition and the foods we consume in the US are just abominable. Convenience takes priority over nutrition and health. Your body can forgive a bad diet with exercise or it can forgive a lack of exercise with a good diet–not both.
Time is money baby!
I'm 37 years old and basically all males in my family on both sides have either died from or had heart attacks by the time they were 50. My eye opener was when a cardiologist handed me a handful of Simcor and said take these or you'll die. That fueled me to do some research and that's when I found out about Dr. Esselstyn. I went vegan overnight and within 3 months had dropped my total cholesterol from 220 to 148 and my triglycerides from nearly 300 to 46! Also, lost close to 30 pounds. I also started running and average 40 miles a week barefoot. The funny thing about this is I went back in for a stress test/blood check and the doctor came in all smiles. And saying "I see those statins are working wonders on you!". Then to see his jaw drop when I told him I never took a single pill and flushed them down the toilet. I asked him why he never even mentioned a plant based diet and his response was..... 99% of the people would never even consider doing what you arr doing. Come see me when your 45!
Your exercise has as much to do, if not more to do, with your improved lipid profile than does your diet. I too had high cholesterol and blood pressure, and then I started exercising 3-5 times a week.
Guess what? My numbers rival yours, and I still eat lean meats.
I hadn't even started a regular exercise routine at that time. I'm set up for an appointment next week that will be 6 months. Can't wait to see where I'm at now.
I recently did the 21 day vegan kick~start cleanse and never felt better! I had already pretty much cut meat out of my diet before I started, so that part wasn't too hard. I was really worried about cutting out cheese though, but was suprised at how easy that was as well! I felt so great that I've decided I'm going to do that 21 day kick~start vegan cleanse 4 times a year....except around holidays! :)
Everyone dies...give me a steak!
After reading The China Study, I have converted to a plant based diet. I cannot wait to see this movie so more people can see the light and not think Veganism is an eccentric life style. We,as a country, are so miseducated! Thank you to Drs. Esselyn and Campbell for this priceless knowledge!
you should perhaps read some analysis of the China Study, as many of the citations and conclusions were woefully unscientific. The fact that it is called a 'study' at all is almost laughable. I still think veganism with supplementation is viable, but this so-called study is a joke.
So many "studies" done, and life continues on like they never existed. We put so much "faith" in studies, unless you can follow a large group of people from birth until they all die, and document everything they have ever ate, drank, consumed, where they lived, environmental factors, trauma in their lives, psychological factors, socio-economic factors, injuries, everything that makes up an entire life from birth to death, you will still not get to the heart of the answer of why things happen one way as opposed to another way in a human lifespan.
I knew a man who lived to 98. When he was 90 I asked him what was his secret to a long life. He responded:
"I had two older brothers," he replied. One drank, smoked, eat all the wrong foods, was a womanizer, and lived to 91. My other brother ate simple meals. Did not drink, smoke, or fool around, and lived to 90. How the hell should I know what the secret to a long life is?"
I'm with the first Brother. He's my kinda Party Animal.
True. My brother died of a freak accident at his job back in 2007. Working by himself for a half hour, fell off a ladder, hit the back of his head and wasn't found until 20+ minutes later. He was already dead before anyone found him. He was 30 and just got a clear bill of health with a physical and blood work 3 days prior. This is life. The more you try to control it the more it bites back in my humble opinion, peace.
I followed a vegetarian diet from 1999-2003 when I was 19years old. No meat, pork, poultry, or seafood, and I avoided products tested on animals (procter & gamble etc.) and leather as much as possible. Watched all the videos, read the books, did the research, but I was a musician and on the move a lot, traveling etc. It became increasingly difficult to follow the diet without getting literally bored of the foods, and eating things that weren't very healthy most of the time, albeit they were still vegetarian. I stopped and never looked back. I don't really eat much meat or pork at all, perhaps once every 4-5 weeks, and this is if someone else is preparing it for me.
As far as an ethical approach, that does not have any role in my decisions to stay away or to eat animal products. People have no problems supporting troops of their home country killing other human beings for what ever the reasons are, and all of us go along with our lives as if nothing is happening, laughing, breathing, going to the movies, raising families etc. and it has not thought on a majority of people's lives unless it specifically affects you. People start talking about veganism or vegetarianism and ethics and I start to laugh literally, it is a joke. You wouldn't have any problem killing millions of termites if they were infesting your home's foundation, or killing hundreds of millions of bacteria if they were attacking your body.
As far as health, I didn't notice any difference at all being a hard line vegetarian for 4 years compared to not being one...period. You think you are going to live longer and healthier by following a specific diet, go for it. We all need some sense of psychological buffer to comfort our knowledge of our own mortality, and the mortality of everyone you have ever known or love. We all need to fill up 24 hours somehow, whether it be following a diet, or dropping bombs on a poor nation 10000 miles away.
All you Vegans can kiss my Rawhide AZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lololololol@Taser i love a good sandbox fight!
I have Lupus and my doctor recommended I go Dairy Free to help ease join pain, and while it worked I lasted about 9 days. it is so difficult. My friend was a vegan and eventually switched to vegetarian simply because of the difficulty in giving up dairy products. I also could not go vegetarian, I can't help it I love a good strip steak, or a delicious burger. The one thing I am trying to move towards is only buying Free Range/organic meat.
Funny, there were some recent reports that clearly showed that, while a vegetarian diet can be very healthy, a vegan diet increases health risks and is not healthy. As for nutritional supplements – they are barely regulated (if at all in the US), Good Manufacturing Practices are not required and therefor not followed in the manufacture of the products so each lot provides different results when analyzed.
Indeed. I wonder why no one has mentioned the B12 paradox. It is impossible to acquire bio-available b12 in sufficient amounts through a purely vegan diet without supplementation. As supplements were not available before the last century, how can a vegan diet be "natural"? It takes very little animal protien to supply b12, and i do think we should cut our meat and animal product consumption drastically (it is far less efficient to produce than plant-based foods), but it still takes animal products nonetheless. The absence of meat does not determine health, but the presence of vegetables (as determined in recent studies as well). While veganism is a valid and healthy way of life (with supplementation, of course) to laud it as the only way when nature herself dictates otherwise is intellectually dishonest.
So I take it that this means that B-12 supplements are available only from animal derived sources? Whats the difference of eating a little bit of lean red meat to get B-12, and taking the supplements? If the ethics aren't the point, I think it makes little difference. But I could be mistaken.
I'm 42-years old. Unless someone is going to guarantee a markedly-increased lifespan (a decade, minimum) with a markedly-improved quality of life over what I have now, I'll stick with the omnivore diet I eat now.
I often kid with the people at my gym, "What happens if the amount of longevity we gain by working out is exactly equal to the amount of time we spend working out?"
Eat'em and Wear'em. That's why we are the highest on the food chain. Sorry little piggy, little cow you are too tasty for me to give up. And if it kills me sooner, so be it.
Oh the dear doctor lost me at "Dr. Esselstyn replied that it depends on whether you're OK with having a "small" heart attack, or "just a little" stroke." It's responses such as this that are why "vegan" continues to have negative connotation. Any diet which overcompensates in one area or another - be it all plant based or all protein based - misses the mark. Everyone would be best off with moderation. Sign me up for the "small" heart attack.
Plant based and protein based are not mutually exclusive. Lentils and beans are a rich source of protein.
I am a lacto-vegetarian and I like it that way.
I'm going to die anyway. I'd rather die happy. Besides, if somebody doesn't eat the meat, then imagine what we are to do with the glut of farm animals left! Leave them to die of old age polluting the air and water with their "by products."
There wouldn't be so many farm animals if we didn't mass breed them to fulfill our desire for so much meat.
I am completely unconvinced that ALL animal products are always bad. Some people thrive, others don't. I do believe in making sure that the quality of any animal products you take in is top-notch, grass-fed, organic, full of nutrients and lean, and then prepared SIMPLY. Shrimp = good, fried shrimp = not so good. Eggs = good, fried eggs, okay if they're cooked in a small amount of healthy oil. All meats in moderation.
I will not adopt a plant-based diet that relies on soy, which most vegan diets I've found do. I'm all about simple preparations and close-to-the-earth sources.
I'm more about the individual body's reactions to good, healthy foods. There is not a one-size-fits-all diet out there. But it is true that the American diet is generally horrible, so as long as people thrive on a healthier diet, more power to them.
Eating meat doesn't make you unhealthy. Just like being vegan doens't mean you are healthy. Seriously folks, we were made to eat meat. My great grandmother lived to be 96, lived on her own till about 6months before her death and she ate meat on a daily basis. Never even had a heart attack or stroke....she did get cancer 6 months before she died, but she was old...We all are gonna die at some point in life. I am also of the belief when its your time, its your time...so if its from a heart attack from foods I eat or a freak lightening strike or something, when I go, its my time and thats that. I am also a Christian the Jesus said that nothing His Father made is unclean...so I will keep on eating my meat. However, making healthy choices when it comes to meat is something we can do. What I think is the major problem these days is thall the hormones and stuff that are injected in meat...I plan on eating more of my own meat (hunt more, local butcher shops–know where your meat comes from, I get eggs from family so they are just regular chickens) there are plenty of things we can do to make ourselves healthier w/o cutting meat.
Your grandma's diet is anecodotal. there are plenty of people who ate JUST LIKE her, but died at 50. Some people, like your grandmother are lucky in that they can handle it (and hopefully you've inherited those genes!). Given that the average lifespan for men is about 72, and 79 for women – that should tell you that she's an extreme genetic outlier. Most folks die much sooner. You also don't know if she lived to 96 BECAUSE of, or IN SPITE of the meat (or both, for that matter).
Lighten up, Francis.
My grandmother will be 99 this year, is still in good health (although she does have osteoporosis) and she ate meat every day as well. What she didn't do is smoke or drink much (a glass of wine here and there). Bacon and/or sausage with breakfast and meat with dinner every day. I think you find just as many like her as those who may have died at a younger age. It is really about lifestyle – moderation, exercise and clean living.
I agree that living a long life is based on LOTS of factors. But my point still stands – you don't know if your 99 yo grandma is still alive because of her meat consumption, or in spite of it. There are lots of folks who eat just like her – meat every day - and die much earlier (most, in fact given the average life span).
I'm not vegan because I eat eggs and dairy, but feel so much better since I've cut meat from my diet. I think eating it sometimes is okay, but as a society we feel like every meal needs to have animal protein in it and it's a very harmful lifestyle we've embedded ourselves into.
The key to a healthy life is a balance of diet and exercise as well as knowing what your body needs. For example, I am an adult with low cholesterol, low blood pressure, and by pretty much every definition the picture of good health except I could probably stand to gain about 15 lbs. I also have had for most of my life what some would consider a meat centered diet. I attended a vegetarian/vegan friendly college and briefly tried a vegetarian diet, but found I could not function because I became tired and irritable. As it is I can eat pretty consistently throughout the day, but eating only vegetarian dishes made me ravenous. My friends finally gave up on me when I would still be looking around for more after I consumed everything they prepared and they were expecting lots of leftovers. I am perfectly happy and healthy with my life and diet, but if my wife, for example, tried to eat the way I do she would probably gain 100 lbs and be dead in a few years. In terms of vegans, unfortunately I have much distrust for them due mainly from the fact that the ones I have known have been dogmatic, self-righteous, angry, and militant. I was on more than one occasion verbally abused by a mob of angry vegans in my college dormitory for daring to put a piece of meat in my mouth. They even went so far as to try to get my roommate and I kicked out of the building because we didn't follow their lifestyle. Hardly the way to spread the gospel, but there are always a few bad apples. While I am sure there are many wonderful pleasant vegans in the world and chalk up my experience to minority extremists, it is difficult to get over that kind of ugly hatred. People need to realize that we are all different and that means understanding what you and I need to be healthy might not be the same. If you are healthy eating red meat, so be it. If your health needs lead to a 100% vegan lifestyle, do so with my blessing. Until you walk in my shoes, however, please to not judge.
Should have said "my roommate and me". Look it up.
I would go vegan....but PETA wants people to go vegan. Since I hate PETA more than I like vegetables, I'll stick to my burgers.
I agree with you. Vegatarianism would be more popular if PETA wasn't around.
Also, the American diet does not represent the natural way humans eat. 2/3rds of Americans are overweight or obese. We have so much more money to spend on food then the rest of the world. The majority of people on the planet eat a plant based diet and use meat sparingly, it cost too much money. So they have become very creative with cooking methods and spices. Something we should learn to do, food in other countries usually taste so much better than ours.
Lila, the reason our food is making us so sick is because of what we are doing to the food. Feedlot animals are sick indeed and are making us sick - but we are growing our plant based foods on depleted soils and then processeing the rest of the nutrients out of many of them. The American public is nourished primariyl by corn, wheat, soy, and a handful of other foods that have been processed to the point that they deplete our bodies.
A diet of vegetables and fruits grown in enriched soils and pastured meat, milk, and eggs is much healthier than a vegan diet of processed foods and depleted, mass produced fruits and vegetables.
Ethical vegetarianism makes sense to me, vegan preference makes sense to me. I consider the health aspects of the argument misguided.
I will stop eating meat once the lions, the bears, the tigers, crocodiles, alligators and the sharks stop eating their meat and fish. There is a reason why we eat meat. Our body is genetically programed to do so and so taking it away from our system will leave big holes in our diets. Humans beings aren't suppose to get their required proteins and nutrients in pills and supplements. They are suppose to get it from nature. And besides if you are afraid to meat because of the hormones and antibiotics they feed animals, think about all the pesticides and chemicals farmers use to grow your fruits and vegetables? And think about how many call backs have we had throughout the years for ecoli and salmonella in broccoli and spinach and so on.
You are exactly whats wrong with America and the reason for the lack of reasonable debate in this country.
You have zero facts to support any of your claims. All the animals you mentioned are CARNIVORES. We are omnivores, so no cutting out meat will not hurt us. You can get protein from beans and nuts. I still use dairy products so I'm not worried about a lack of protein (nor do I claim to be completely vegan).
Haha and the recalls you speak of for spinach and broccoli? Some of them were caused by the waste flushed downstream from places where meat was raised.
Why don't you open your eyes and stop being so stubborn.
Change will happen whether you like it or not...hopefully you'll be on the right side though.
Their are farms where the cows and pigs are killed without cruelty and without using the bovine recombinant hormone to "boost their sales " I think you should research more in what you talk about as bacterias that affect animals and vegetables alike are actually in this planet to stay. Is the way we handle our food that is making us sick not the fact that we consume animal products or not. The cows and other animals we consume are not the ones that created the bacteria. We have bacteria in our intestines and without most of them we wouldnt be able to function properly. I believe you should go back and take Biology 101 so you can instruct yourself. is ridiculous to blame an animal for this nonsense
Ever been to the Lonesome Dove? I had 8 different types of animal in a single evening: kangaroo nachos with guacamole, rabbit and rattlesnake sausage, wild boar ribs, elk sliders with foie gras, a wedge salad with pig snout, and a garlic stuffed tenderloin for dinner, medium rare.
I like vegan food, but I just can't stand the culture surrounding it.
I have been moving in the vegan direction for the past several weeks. I've never much liked meat so that is no loss but I'm finding I have to "wean myself" off of dairy – I especially love cheese. This is absolutely a managable thing to do and even though I have not yet made a complete "conversion" I do feel the difference. I have more energy and, I think, I sleep better. I've cut my dairy intake down to 2-3 times a week.
here here robbie...same thing has happened to me
If you do some research on dairy you'll see that the reason people find it so hard to give up dairy, especially cheese is because it contains naturally occuring morphine in casein. The below url goes to a blog that has a great exerpt about it. I tried dairy free myself and I would give up ice cream and milk in a second before giving up cheese. (i lasted just over a week- now i consider myself "dairy light" although I am thinking about doing it again for a week per month sort of thing)
http://www.healthdiaries.com/blogs/vegetarianblues/archives/2004/09/casein_and_cheese_more_addictive_than_chocolate.html
The reason that you are having such a hard time kicking cheese is that it is physically addictive. All mammals milk contains casomorphins. they work similarly to morphine in the body. Human breast-milk contains some, if you have ever seen a baby feeding they get that contented droopy eye look on their face. That is the effect of these casomorphins. Cows milk has it in spades, because the calf is so much bigger than a human child. You may know children who guzzle milk. This is because it makes them feel good. The effects from milk lessen as our bodies grow. However when milk is concentrated 1000 fold into cheese it still pacts a punch for adults. Cheese is without a doubt the hardest thing to kick, it is literally physically addicting. That said it is worth the effort since the majority of adults are lactose intolerance. Weaning yourself of milk is a very healthy thing to do.
I believe what you say about cheese being addictive. I could care less about drinking milk, I do like the thicker, creamier, new style of fat free greek yogurt, but I LOVE cheese. And thats any kind of cheese, I usually have about seven to ten kinds of cheese in the house at any given time. I would not touch a plain hamburger, blech, but I do eat a cheeseburger once in a great while. I love vegetables, veggie burgers, soups, some breads, and I could probably go vegan quite easily if it weren't for giving up cheese. I've tried the soy cheeses, and they are interesting, but they don't taste like dairy cheese. I love cheese so much that I can tell you that my favorite is just about any sheeps milk cheese from Spain. But unfortunately I love all varieties, despite the country of origin. I know cheese is hell on the arteries, and I worry my obituary will read "Death by cheese" if I don't bite the bullet and learn to live without it.
I'm happy to see the vegan movement spreading.
About 6 months I had a serious conversation with a family friend at Thanksgiving who was a vegetarian. Ever since I've cut beef and poultry completely out of my diet...I do still eat fish though.
However the one HUGE thing that is missing from the vegan argument presented in this piece is the ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT meat has on our planet. The raising/breeding/transportation of animals requires enormous amounts of energy. Beef is more responsilbe for man's impact on climate change than all the cars/planes in the world. This is due to the fact that cows produce methane (a much more potent greenhouse gas) as opposed to the carbon dioxide our vehicles produce.
As Bill Maher put it: "its better to eat a salad and drive a Hummer, than to eat a hamburger and drive a Prius"
The 6 billion people on the planet create methane too. Maybe we should just start eating them.
well its not like over population isnt an issue. I'm all for people not having 5+ kids like the octo mom over here
Vegans can use insect products like silk, beeswax, and honey. The whole point of excluding meat, dairy, eggs, etc. is (1) for health but more importantly (2) to eliminate unnecessary animal suffering. Bees and silk worms don't suffer. Ergo, you can use them. Sea food poses a more interesting problem. Shrimp and clams don't have any more feelings than bees and worms, but there is a significant by-catch problem. If there's no by-catch, I think even a vegan could enjoy shrimp guilt-free. Of course you can define "veganism" as never using "any" animal product, but that's an inferior definition for the reasons stated. (I'm a vegan, by the way.)
What about not using cars? They're horrible machines – I mean c'mon, they run on HORSE POWER!! har har
Sorry, but I think the "Paleo" way of eating has it much more spot on how we should be eating for optimal health.
I was vegan for 17 years – ate very naturally and very "healthy"- and it just about killed me. I'm Paleo now. The difference in my health is dramatic for it. I am no longer diabetic, for one.
I believe the key is that most people don't understand fats and cholesterol, and eat those completely out of balance with what is healthful for the body. I wouldn't recommend getting information like that from the media, though. They still believe the myth that red meat is bad for you.
I have to agree with you, xvegan. I was a vegetarian for many years, but it didn't do my body any favours. In the end I was tired, sick, and sluggish. Fast forward many years, I discoverer that I am sensitive to all grains and most legumes. When I eat them, I am in arthritic pain for days. When I eschew them, I am strong and healthier than I've been in my life. No wonder a vegetarian diet made me so sick! On a grain-free diet I feel much, much better.
I would love to see a vegan diet compared on an equal footing with other completely unprocessed diets. I suspect that the major advantage may be that eating lots more fruits, nuts, and vegetables and eliminating toxic, processed oils rather than the elimination of meat, per se, is the source of the improved health.
(Vegan junk food is still junk food, and the vegans I know who subsist on processed pseudo foods are just as sick as their Maccas-eating neighbors. The whole foods vegans are just as healthy as I am. Clearly, the vegan diet works for them better than it does for me.)
I agree, paleo/primal wins
I am sure plant based diets have come a long way in taste and preparation since the old days, but I must admit I would miss a good bone in ribe-eye every once in awhile. I do make a concious effort to eat healthy. I believe a good balanced sensible diet combined with an active lifestyle is still the key to a healthy life. Genetics still play a major role.
I went to India and a lot of that food is so good and vegetarian. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. I think using their ideas and Americanizing it or creating our own thing would be interesting since we have so many cultures in this country to inspire us.
Ok, I confirmed it... no silk either.
An animal product is any material derived from animals, including meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, dairy products, honey, fur, leather, wool, and silk. Other commonly used animal products are bone char, bone china, casein, beeswax, carmine, gelatin, isinglass, lanolin, lard, rennet, shellac, tallow, whey, and yellow grease.
[I posted this independently, but wanted to get it in as a reply too.] Vegans can use insect products like silk, beeswax, and honey. The whole point of excluding meat, dairy, eggs, etc. is (1) for health but more importantly (2) to eliminate unnecessary animal suffering. Bees and silk worms don't suffer. Ergo, you can use them. Sea food poses a more interesting problem. Shrimp and clams don't have any more feelings than bees and worms, but there is a significant by-catch problem. If there's no by-catch, I think even a vegan could enjoy shrimp guilt-free. Of course you can define "veganism" as never using "any" animal product, but that's an inferior definition for the reasons stated. (I'm a vegan, by the way.)
And to think, I order the Subway Club sandwich, because it requires three separate animals to die for my one sandwich, turkey, ham and roast beef.
Man, is it nummy!!! Think I'll go have one right now, gotta make up for the animals you folks don't appreciate!
And think about the chickens who were destroyed to get their eggs and the wheat annihilated to make the breads. It's all horrible!! We should all just make swords from our plowshares and commit hara-kiri.
So outside of the food issue, no leather, wool or cashmere. What about silk? I'm sure those worms are suffering as well... I guess we just run around shoeless and naked while we starve?
It's trivially easy to clothe yourself without leather, wool, silk or cashmere. Leather is probably the hardest – I haven't found a source of vegan shoes (outside of athletic shoes) that I though were as comfortable or functional, hence my still buying leather shoes (but I buy them rarely, and wear them until they fall apart to avoid using MUCH leather). Socks and knitted clothing come in cotton or synthetics, and silk and cashmere are expensive luxury items it's easy to simply not buy.
Running around skinny and naked sounds fun!
I could certainly go vegetarian considering I hardly ever eat meat, just as a personal preference. Vegan, however, is a no-go for me. I won't give up my cheese.
I think people can be healthy with a whole food or a mixed food diet. Throw some exercise in the mix and holy crap!
A question for the vegans out there....do you eat animal crackers?
LOL!!!!
Animal Crackers? are those white animals? if so no, Vegans do not eat white animals.
I am so sick and tired of holier than thou vegans dismissing others who have health issues (like I do) that require meat based proteins for proper renal functioning. Many people have medical issues requiring the consumption of animal products and that includes the Dalai Lama himself. I do not care if you are a vegan, but don't you dare harrangue me or others for wanting to stay alive and be healthy on our own body;s terms NOT YOURS.
@Vegans are Facists, said, "I am so sick and tired of holier than thou vegans dismissing others who have health issues (like I do) that require meat based proteins for proper renal functioning. Many people have medical issues requiring the consumption of animal products and that includes the Dalai Lama himself. I do not care if you are a vegan, but don't you dare harrangue me or others for wanting to stay alive and be healthy on our own body;s terms NOT YOURS"
First of all Vegans are not Facists, Facism is the merger of corporate and state interests, according to the man who invented the word. Since vegans are not corporations or governments your statement is illogical. As to your belief that Renal failure requires a meat diet you might be interested in this article from the American Association of Kidney Patients. http://www.aakp.org/aakp-library/Vegetarian-Kidney-Disease/ . I do not know whose advice you are following but if it is your doctor I suggest you swap that one for one which has a clue.
I see lots of false stereotypes about vegans here. That's so disheartening. Most vegans are perfectly healthy people, not sickly or pale or rail thin, and more and more athletes are embracing a plant based diet.
The facts simply are that too much meat and dairy can have negative impacts on your health. Everything is fine in moderation.
I've been vegetarian for over a decade and vegan for a few years, and I promise I eat a varied diet full of all sorts of fulfilling foods. I never feel deprived, and my food tastes good. I can even have cupcakes :)
And lastly, veganism ISN'T hard or extreme. It's easy once you develop new habits. I have no problem avoiding leather or wool, or finding products that were not tested on animals.
People can choose whatever kind of lifestyle they want, but it just drives me crazy when people who know nothing about veganism spread all this false information about how I live my life.
You're nice. I like sensible people....even if they are vegan :)
One day I went to my favorite tea shop with a friend, and I ordered one of their regular cupcakes, but they were out. The waitress offered me their Vegan Chocolate Cupcake, and when I scrunched up my face at that, she promised I wouldn't know the difference....
That was one of the tastiest cupcakes I ever had. My friend and I couldn't believe that it was vegan. Of course, we couldn't understand how to make a vegan cupcake either, we just knew it was tasty.
I am an omnivore. Every weekday, I eat lunch at a health-food cafe. I've tried many of their sweet treats. They have told me that their vegan baked goods are simply made without butter or eggs. I don't know exactly what they use as a sub-item, but you cannot tell the diff ..... and each are as yummy as their non-vegan counter-part.
It's the sub-item we were trying to figure out. I guess they use vegetable oil??
Next time I'm there I'll ask what they swap out and I'll let you know.
Thanks :)
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Vegan_Substitutions
We have canines because our bodies need meat. If we didn't need some meat, our teeth would have evolved much differently. You don't have sharp and pointy canines when you are chewing on grass all day. That said, I have a relatively vegetarian diet. However, I love fish, shrimp, and cheese far too much to ever be a vegan. Though apparently, if you are vegan, you get awesome vegan powers... just watch out for tricksy boys offering coffee....
The whole evolution thing is far more complicated than that. We didn't evolve with canines because we needed meat specifically. We evolved with them (and our canines are pretty pathetic compared to pure carnivores like cats) because we needed the calories. Calorie-dense meat made it easier to survive past childhood, especially during winters. If we'd had enough vegetables to easily survive the winter, we'd have been fine, but as we didn't, we took advantage of meat when we could get it – we evolved as opportunistic omnivores. Yes, we have wimpy canines, and shorter digestive tracts than pure herbivores. We don't easily eat grass, which when eaten raw, needs more than one stomach to digest. Yet our teeth FAR more strongly resemble those of herbivores. Our teeth look a lot like horse's teeth, and very little like a cat's teeth, suggesting that through history we've spent more time grinding our veggies, rather than ripping up meat. We are obviously not predatores in the sense of cats and wolves – we aren't sprinters like most predators – we don't run fast enough to easily catch prey (though there is some evidence for humans engaging in persistence hunting – running until the prey drops from exhaustion or overheating). If you look at the diets of other primates, they eat what most anthropologists think humans did – lots of fruit, nuts, veggies (not grass though), and the occasional meaty meal, when they were lucky enough to find one (scavengers?). When you look at societies where the primary food is meat and refined carbs (bread), for example, sailors during colonial times, the Elizabethans, etc, vitamin deficiencies, ill-health, shortened-lifespan and bad teeth abound. It is rare to find the same thing in a vegan.
For what it's worth, I'm a vegetarian/flexitarian – I eat an ovo-lacto diet, eat fish very occasionally, and avoid most (but not all) leather.
Panda1895: Please check out the American Dietetic Association’s official position on vegetarian diets, which states that:
“Appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life-cycle including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence and for athletes.”
According to the their website, "the American Dietetic Association is the world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals.”
http://www.eatright.org/Media/content.aspx?id=1233
if you have canines like lions or even dogs, more power to ya!
There are herbivores who have canines too. We don't have two stomachs or chew cud like some herbivores, but we definitely produce enzymes necessary for digesting plants and have the proper teeth for grinding plants (amongst other adaptations). Also, as far as I know, every vitamin and mineral that humans need can be found in non-animal sources (plants, algae, bacteria). Yes, Vegans need to supplement, but the quality of our food is so inconsistent that everyone needs to supplement. We all just need to supplement for different things. Vegans usually don't have any problem meeting their fiber needs, for example.
So I agree that evolution is really complicated. Who knows what the "true" or "original" diet of humans is? We can digest meat, but whether we're herbivores or omnivores doesn't really matter. What does matter is we are built to eat way more plants than meat.
"So I agree that evolution is really complicated. Who knows what the "true" or "original" diet of humans is? We can digest meat, but whether we're herbivores or omnivores doesn't really matter. What does matter is we are built to eat way more plants than meat."
It is not really that complicated, Here is what we know. Early man lived around and most likely in huge inland lakes in Africa. One of his main food sources was Algae and seaweed out of those lakes. This Accounts for or large brain as no mammal has developed a large brain without ready access to high quality omega 3 fatty acids. Our actual classification is not Omnivore or Herbivore, it is Frugivore. That means a mammal which eats fruits and vegetables. This is the reason we have color vision. We know that the leaves of a particular tree in Africa were a main food source for early humans. However only the young leaves which are a different color were eatable. The older leaves contained to much Arsenic to be eaten. Other foods change their color when the are ripe as well. Your dog does not have color vision because it is a hindrance when you are trying to spot prey movement. We know that Man did not eat meat beyond the odd grass hopper until man learned to control fire. After that it most likely that man only hunted out of necessity as tribes moved into colder climates. Due to the difficulty in killing animals with sharpened sticks and stones. Man did not begin to herd animals until approximately 10,000 years ago and then again out of necessity. 10,000 years is a blip in time, compared to the multi million year history of man. World wide as of 2008, the latest data we have, 58% of the worlds humans are Vegan. Also,Consistently world wide the populations with the highest meat consumption have the lowest life expectancy and conversely the populations with the lowest meat consumption live the longest.
I wasn't saying that we have canines because we are specifically carnivores and serious predators like cats or wolves, and I am fully aware that we have molars and digestive systems that can grind plant-based food. Neither did I mean by saying canines that we have sharp and pointy teeth like carnivorous predators. I said we have canines because we need SOME meat in our diet. Humans are omnivores, plain and simple. We have survived this long because we are adaptable with our food sources.
I have a few friends who have rather sharp canines (mine are as well) and I have friends who have blunt canines. I think this shows how adaptable humans are. I would imagine, those with sharper canines probably came from bloodlines that had more access to meat in their regions (as you would need the canines for tearing), while those with blunt canines probably came from bloodlines with more access to plants (as you wouldn't really need to tear, you would be grinding).
The point is all humans have molars AND canines. If it was healthier for our bodies to not eat meat at all, we would have developed 3 stomachs and had only flat grinding teeth. In the reverse, if we were only carnivores, we would probably have developed more like a cat or a wolf. Thus, we can conclude, that by having properties of both... that we are designed to eat both.
Most of what is unhealthy about either plants or animals in our diet comes from the processing anyway not the product itself.
Well said.
No way. I don't eat a lot of red meat, but lean poultry, fish, egg whites and CHEESE will always be a part of my diet. I eat sensibly and work out 6 days/ week and my Dr. thinks I'm pretty healthy. My shoes are mostly leather, as are my car seats. This is just a bit too extreme for the norm. By the way, my grandma is 86, eats whatever she wants and is healthy as a horse.
There is a reason why many people get nervous when you use the word vegan. Vegans, by self definition, follow an ethical code that is outside the mainstream of America. A true vegan (as opposed to one following a vegan diet) embraces a lifestyle that avoids the use of all animal based products, not just in food but in every aspect of their life - they won't use leather for belts or shoes for example. I might embrace a vegan diet for health reasons (been trying to cut back on my meat consumption for some time), but I personally don't agree with all their ethical conclusions.
In fact, I think it would probably be a good thing to develop a term for those who embrace the vegan diet, but not necessarily the vegan life style. Maybe pure vegetarians?
Screw that, we can’t all live forever. I've seen those pale pasty croc wearing vegans. Bring out a thick bloody steak.
These vegans, Jim? http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/?page=bios
Some vegans will go to great lengths to convince you to adopt their ways! She just made the website! It's fake! Beware of their propaganda!
The website is real. Take a look.
A vegan diet isn't healthy, common sense should tell people that. If you cannot get all your required nutrients from the food you eat, it isn't a diet humans are meant to live on, and certainly not thrive on. There are no efficient plant sources of B-12.
Abbyful,
"Common sense" is often wrong, as you are now. Vegans tend to be healthier, on average, than non-vegans. You're right that plants are not an efficient source of B12. Plants don't make B12. But NEITHER do animals. B12 is made by a type of bacteria and those bacteria can be grown without animal products. I don't know about you, but I'd rather take a B12 supplement or eat B12 fortified foods than needlessly harm and kill animals. And chances are, many of the foods you eat are fortified in some way (milk is fortified with vitamin D in the U.S., salt is often fortified with iodide, grains are often heavily fortified, even the animals you eat are probably given fortified food - including food fortified with B12).
Meg,
You are stupid. Vegans tend to live much shorter lives than omnivores. And according to a statistic that I just made up, you have a 79% chance of getting run over by a car if you run in traffic. That statistic is as relevant and made up as most of your facts. I hope "your kind" (not vegans, but idiots) get breed out of existence. Soon.
Sincerely,
Wit.
Well, it is true that a vegan diet is better than the standard American Diet, thus if you divide the population up into vegans and non-vegans, then your position is probably correct. On the flip side, the evidence I have seen suggests that for most people (not those who are trying to reverse heart disease) the healthiest diets are those that contain small amounts of animal based proteins like a reasonable vegetarian diet or a flexitarian diet.
I would also point out that your ideology is showing :). Your primary interest seems to be in saving the lives of animals rather than the healthiest diet. I don't think there is anything wrong with that per say, but it does undermine your credibility somewhat.
From what scientific research you come to the conclusion that Vegans are healthier than non-vegans ? Im not against people making choices of what they want to eat but i dont state something to people without proof that it is probable. What you say might be possible to you but might not be "scientifically" correct. I havent seen somebody having a heart attack after finishing a burger with cheese. I consider myself to be healthy and i am not a "vegan" Most people that are not healthy are predisposed to be that way based on genetics and lifestyle. That has "actual" scientific proof.
Meg, you said that we shouldn't "needlessly harm and kill animals". I don't view consuming animals as food in that category. I view it a needfully killing animals. I have raised an animal from caring for it while in utero by caring for the mother, raising the animal, and butchering it myself for food. If you were to spend some time on a family farm, as opposed to an industiaized meat factory that most large farms are, you would see that it is possible to live a life with an omnivorous diet without causing environmental damage or "abusing" animals.
I will say that I am not nearly as concerned about the "abuse" of animals as most vegas are. They are, after all, just animals; they aren't people. Once you raise enough of them and see how they behave, it becoves very obvious. The hundreds of geese, ducks, chickens, sheep, cows and rabbits raised on the family farm have never achieved the transcendant spirit that lives in every human.
Also, I've never met a 90 year old that lived a vegan diet for more than half their lives. All the 90 year olds I've known have been hard workers and ate an appropriate omnivorous diet for their activity level. If you burn 4000 calories per day by working outside, a bacon and eggs breakfast doesn't harm your health nearly as much as if you sit in an office in the city all day.
@ abbyful (March 3, 2011 at 11:10 am)
"A vegan diet isn't healthy, common sense should tell people that. If you cannot get all your required nutrients from the food you eat, it isn't a diet humans are meant to live on, and certainly not thrive on. There are no efficient plant sources of B-12."
Actually, What you are describing is not common sense it is ignorance. If you had a clue you would know that B12 is readily available in nature. it is a waste product of bacteria which lives in the ground. If we still lived in tribes close to the ground we would not need to suppliment B12. Fact is though unless you are eating huge quantities of meat a day almost a pound. you are not getting your RDA of B12 from your meat either.
Oh the irony of you calilng me ignorant.... A pound of beef? Not even close.
RDA of B-12
3.5 oz serving of beef chuck = 100%
3.5 oz serving of clams = 1648%
3.5 oz serving of Salmon = 302%
There is not a single traditional vegan culture; they would die out if they tried.
Some cultures are primarily vegetarian, but they value foods like eggs and/or dairy.
I've been trying to train for the Boston Marathon for years. Each time my body wouldn't let me after only a month or two of training.
All I know is that this year I am already good to go and the only difference = a vegan diet.
I think it's ridiculous to suggest that eating meat (or other unhealthy food) every now and then will definitely result in heart attacks or strokes. That is absurd. As long as your diet is pretty clean, a burger or steak once a month is not going to kill you. Plus, there's plenty of stuff you can eat as a vegan that could kill you pretty quickly. Vegetable tempura anyone?
This article comes across as propaganda.
@ Susan (March 3, 2011 at 10:36 am)
"I think it's ridiculous to suggest that eating meat (or other unhealthy food) every now and then will definitely result in heart attacks or strokes"
There is a debate about that, some nutritionists say up to 8 ounces a week is not extremely unhealthy. However the vast majority of meat eaters eat twice that much in a day. So if you want to limit yourself to a small portion a couple of times a week thats a good start. However remember the health dangers you are incuring just bringing the stuff into your house. It is no longer just E Coli that you need to worry about. Recent research shows that up to 10% of meat is infected with MRSA http://www.rodaleinc.com/newsroom/special-report-mrsa-infiltrating-our-meat. You have been warned. Meat is no longer just unhealthy to eat, it is potentially deadly to have in your house.
In the book The China Study, the statistics and conclusions presented support what was written in this article. That book recommends keeping animal based protein to under 10% of your diet. Basically anything under 10% and the health gain is negligible. However, exceed 10% and the increased health risks skyrocket exponentially.
I've been vegan for almost 8 years now. I was a vegetarian for 2 and swore I couldn't see myself quitting dairy and eggs. However, an increased sensitivity to lactose made me change my mind. It took me about a year to get comfortable cooking will without dairy, but every non-vegan I've fed can't believe my meals are vegan. They taste great and I have a blast "veganizing" meat-eating recipes.
The china study is full of lead...be careful when reading it.
I do fine without meat or fish, but I don't know if I could give up my eggs and cheese – all the substitutes I've ever found for those items are disgusting and basically made of chemicals. I strongly believe that a plant based diet is healthy, but I also believe in consuming food that is as close to its natural state as possible. An egg is much closer to "real food" than scrambled tofu mix in a carton.
Alyson,
ALL food is made of "chemicals". But if you're worried about synthetic chemicals, there are many substitutes made with all nature ingredients - or, you can just skip them. There is no requirement for vegans to eat tofu or Daiya vegan cheese or Gardein or anything like that. And, in fact, the specific diet advocated above is for a whole foods based diet.
"Meg",
If that is really your name. I find your banter offensive and fart in your general direction.
Have a nice day.
Nobody likes a grammar or word usage Nazi. You sound self-absorbed and unforgiving. I would not play in your sandbox. C'mon TWO. Let's take our pails and shovels and play somewhere else.
you guys need to quit being such trolls
I was a strict vegetarian, but I've become a pescetarian over the past couple years. I choose my diet based on what I can eat and still feel ethically and physically well. I think it's important to let people know that small changes make a difference if adapting a diet for health. Partially healthy is better than all -or-nothing unhealthy.
I couldn't agree more. If heavy meat-eating americans dropped meat from just one or two meals a week they'd see small health & energy differences. Every choice counts. Every meat-free meal gelps a little bit, both for ourselves and the environment.
My road to vegetarianism was a long one. I was flexitation (eating meat once or twice a week) for about 5 years before I decided to make the committment to cut it out all together. And now I'm considering limiting my eggs and dairy. My only saving grace is I am forutnate enough to know where they come from and know the animals who provide them are treated ethically.
A fantastic movie that everyone should watch. Learn more about veganism at livvegan.blogspot.com.
No thanks, cows are WAAAY too tasty! And chicken.....and pigs...oooh, and shellfish...man, gotta go eat, made myself hungry!
Btw- Funny that Whole Foods Market is featured in this picture. And they claim they don't advertise...
I've been vegan for six years. My change from an animal-based diet to a plant-based diet resulted from learning that we can be perfectly healthy without eating animal products–and that doing so reduces the harm we cause to animals, including those raised in the "best" of conditions.
I've never enjoyed eating more than I do now. And I've never felt better. I am one of the countless people who will tell you that going vegan was one of the best decisions they ever made.
In addition to the film 'Forks Over Knives', I can recommend the Vegan Outreach website (http://www.WhyVegan.com) for anyone wanting to learn more about the basics of a healthy and compassionate plant-based diet.
is that one of those crazy peta sponsored websites? peta is the devil and they don't even care about animals
I couldn't agree more, Maeryn! However, they are really good at exploiting women. It is disgusting.
Vegan Outreach is not affiliated with PETA. Just take a look at the site. One of the co-founders is a Registered Dietitian.
Meg, people can certainly adopt a vegan diet and call themselves vegan. While I DO fit into your definition of "vegan" l disagree with you. Let's not get puritanical and turn people off.
S,
People *can* call themselves anything they want. People who eat fish and chicken sometimes call themselves "vegetarian". That doesn't make it right, though.
The FOUNDERS of veganism, The Vegan Society, define veganism as follows:
"Veganism is a way of living that seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing and any other purpose."
- http://www.vegansociety.com/about/who-we-are.aspx
Sticking by their definition is not puritanical. And viewing veganism as just a diet is to ignore the one CENTRAL tenet of veganism, that animal exploitation is wrong.
M,
you are another example of an extremist nut job and should be placed on the domestic terrorist list.
Veganism predates that organization.
Correct. I am not vegan. I just don't eat animals, fish or dairy. Nor do I (intentionally) consume vegetable oil. It's a processed food product.
Meg, you are Waaaaaaaay off base here. Stop making us look bad. What do you mean the FOUNDERS. No modern day person founded veganism you twit. Do you honestly believe that veganism and plant based diets didn’t exist until 1944? Veganism’s roots trace back further than you can obviously understand. Also, some guy with an opinion that decides to put a meaning to it is just that, Some guy with an opinion. Geez, you are like a vegan version of a pseudo, extremist Christian, but worse.
Thank you! I totally agree. I hate to think that some vegans will get pissed as it becomes mainstream because people aren't "doing it right". Aren't we doing this for the animals/our health, and not our egos?
@ Cathy and Vegan Guy
The word "vegan" was coined by Donald Watson when he founded the vegan society in 1944. Google it. I'm not making this up just to piss you off. The fact that people who call themselves "vegan" don't even know who the founder of veganism is is really sad.
Thank you, Vegan guy. I am someone who does not miss meat, ever, when it is eliminated from my diet. I totally miss dairy when I try to eliminate it though. So I attempt veganism, but its a challenge. When researching "veganism" by trying to do it correctly – ie, get enough of the right nutrients so I won't be doing harm in a different way, its easy to get overwhelmed. So much of what is out there focuses on the ethics of veganism. While I can respect that, I have a hard time with the people who make veganism about "doing it right" according to other peoples issues. For example the co-worker who insists that in order to be a "true" vegan, I have to buy a juicer and grow my own wheat grass, make homemade tofu, because store bought tofu is "bad," things like that. I have no desire to make tofu from scratch, lol. I have learned not to talk to her about veganism, because i can't "win" when talking to her. It shouldn't be about that, in my opinion. I think I'm going to have to become a "covert" vegan if its going to work for me!
@ Vegan Guy. As a vegan my self I would never want to be represented by someone who is as aggressive as you. You seem to be just plain mean. That also makes vegans look bad. And you yourself feel bad. Support peace please. You will be happy not angry when you go in that direction.
@Meg
I don't want you back.
Plant-based diets can be amazing in many ways, however the biggest reason we shouldn't call them "vegan" is because diet alone doesn't make a vegan. Veganism is a philosophy against ALL forms of animal exploitation. Diet is just one part. Please don't confuse people by talking about veganism or "going vegan" as if it was just a diet. Vegans also avoid buying leather, wool, silk, personal care products with animal products, leather couches - all sorts of non-diet things - and they don't buy animals or patronize zoos. The correct term for someone who eats a vegan diet but is not a vegan is "strict vegetarian".
What a crock (and that's not a shoe)!!! That's like telling people that they can't claim to practice yoga unless they convert to Hinduism.
No, what I'm arguing against is like calling people Hindus because they just practice yoga. There's more to veganism than diet.
Meg is right. Using correct language matters.
I like Kathy Freston's term: veganist (someone that is interested in and studies veganism). I also love Alicia Silverstone's take on leather products on her blog The Kind Life. I eat a vegan diet, and am slowly converting my household products to a more vegan lifestyle, but I don't think that what one calls themselves really matters. Anyone who refers to themselves as vegetarian, strict vegetarian, vegan, veganist, ovo-lacto vegetarian, whatever, is trying to lead a healthier life and reduce the damage done to our world-and that should be applauded.
what do you mean with "that damage done to the world'? are you talking about animal cruelty ?
The idea that someone isn't a vegan despite eschewing all animal products in their diet because they haven't adopted your idea of an ethical lifestyle and philsophy is a load of crap. That's like saying someone isn't a Christian, unless they are Catholic, or aren't Jewish, if they are conservative instead of orthodox. I think a better way of describing it would be "vegan" (for those who are in it for health) and "strict vegan" or "ethical vegan" for those who are adopting the lifestyle and philsophy.
There is no reason to redefine vegan to mean someone just eating a vegan diet. Veganism is already well defined by the founders of veganism as a philosophy against animal exploitation. If people eating a plant based diet want a special label and don't like "strict vegetarian", they are welcome to come up with their own label. Vegan, however, is already taken and I don't see the point in confusing people.
That's why people don't want to go vegan. It seems so elitist and unattainable. The only way we're going to get the ball rolling on this movement is letting people do things at their own pace. Forget about semantics and embrace the change.
Veganism is hardly elitist or unattainable, as many vegans from all classes and walks of life show. There is no income or class requirement, only a commitment to trying "as far as possible and practicable" to avoid animal exploitation. Insisting that people not mislabel themselves or others is also not elitist - no more than saying that people who eat steak still aren't vegetarians. People can choose to go at their own pace without misrepresenting themselves.
meg, i totally agree with you that veganism is a philosophy and not merely eating a vegan diet. I find it amazing that people[ some of whom claim to be vegans] haven't been able to understand the purpose of supporting veganism[ to stop promoting animal killing]. The added benefits are that one gets a healthier lifestyle. For those meat lovers who have argued on other posts that animals are killed without suffering [humane killing] and hence one can be guilty free and have steak.....if u are truly non-violent from within, you will understand that killing of any animal is never humane.
How can one have a pet dog whom one may love dearly and view another animal, be it a cow, pig or chicken as food. they are all part of one big family....LIFE.
I voted "Probably not" because I like dead, red cow & chicken wings too much to give 'em up. Not every day, mind you, but I couldn't call myself a vegan if I ate meat occasionally.
"It's all black & white; no gray matter." ;)
I agree, I probably wouldn't do it either because I like to have a nice, medium rare steak every once in a while – not willing to give that up, but I probably have four steaks a year and I like pork any way it comes! I don't care for chicken (many reasons) or turkey. I however, will not give up seafood or dairy. Love veggies and fruit. But my single biggest issue is, no matter how I try to develop a liking for whole grains, and I've tried a multitude of recipes recommended by friends who live for grains, they just aren't my thing. Bleh. I'd never go vegan.
And you are doing the right thing on not consuming that in large quantities. Whole wheat has one of the highest glycemic index in the scale which means in raises your blood sugar which is definitely not good for you. You should eat a balance diet with meat, vegetables , fruits and grains and not actually depend on one for your diet. This "stop eating animal products thing because they are bad for your health" has to stop. We should be talking about exercise and sports to our kids and stop bashing food that we have been eating for thousands of years.
Since you love meat so much, you should check out that noshmeat.com site that was someone posted above. Good info for you. I follow it's advice too.
I am close now, but I have a serious love for dairy, so I would consider it, but not sure I could follow through...
I am right there with you. I already live without mean and I could live without eggs but I'm not sure about dairy. I'm a much nicer person when Ben&Jerry are in my life and the few vegan "ice creams" I have tried just don't have the same comfort level.
I am so feelin' you on the dairy thing-loooove dairy-BUT! About two and a half weeks into veganism, my yearning, my craving, my DESIRE for it kinda just...went away. I feel bouncier, brighter, lighter. Also, I found out why dairy is so damn comforting: it turns out that when our bodies digest dairy products, something called casomorphins are produced. It's a natural drug-like, you guessed it, morphine. Calming, like morphine. Tricky, tricky dairy!
I had the same problem too – I loved ice cream (cookie dough in particular!). But I switched to sorbet and fruit ice-lollies instead, and now I crave sorbet instead of ice-cream!
Try coconut milk based ice creams- Coconut Bliss at Whole Foods is amazing and super rich and creamy. They come in all sorts of flavors and you won't be missing good ol' Ben & Jerry at all. :)
You can do this! The hardest part is already over!!!
Best of luck!
You can do it. I loooooooooved ice cream and cheese and thought I could never give it up, but it was easier than expected. There's a newer "cheese" product you can find at Whole Foods and Trader Joes called Daiya. It melts like regular cheese and is yummy. My boyfriend even likes it on pizza and he's not veg. Then try out some ice creams. Tofutti Cuties are "ice cream" sandwiches that are so good you won't be able to tell the difference. So Delicious is good, too. And almond milk based frozen desserts are yummy. Just try them out! Also, another poster was right. Cheese has addictive properties and after a couple of weeks your body will stop craving it. I've been vegan about a year and a half now and feel so much better! What could giving it a 30 day try hurt?
You'll likely change your mind after that chest pain starts... assuming you get a warning. 25% do not.
Probably not simply because I would be too damn lazy to do it. Creature of habit here.
Jerv....Sometimes we need to suck it up and deal in order to make a difference. It is better for our health, the animals, and the environment. Stop being lazy and selfish!
The Atlanta Braves and The Atlanta Falcons have caused many a heart attack over the years. I voted NO-Way. Might as well die Happy. :)
Ever think that people who eat a whole food plant-based diet enjoy what they eat? If there's a vegan restaurant near where you live is suggest you go because the one near me is so good that all the patrons comment how tasty their meal is. To equate eating vegetables and grains as disgusting shows how unhealthy this countries diet is.
Eating animal products causes all sorts of health issues from arthritis to cancer. Doesn't sound too appealing to me.
First off, why would you want a green apartment?
Second- You only replied to the first comment so your would be near the top.
And C – I'm sure vegans enjoy their meals. And I have eaten at my local vegan restaurant. It's really good. So is the steakhouse down the street. Both good. Food is good. All kinds of food. All kinds of preparation. If eating meat doesn't sound good to you, then don't eat it. More for me. And get off your high horse so I can eat it. But that's a whole other post...
@Witty One... why aren't you witty :/ I don't think anyone is disputing that people love the taste of meat. No one is suggesting that you adopt a diet richer in plants because meat tastes bad. We're talking health here, backed up by irrefutable scientifc evidence that these people who eat more healthy food are healthier than those who don't. It's really not rocket science, or is it? I hate to make assumptions about what a person does or doesn't understand. There's always that one person that just wants to make a fuss or be right than think for one second that what they have been doing their whole life might not be the best way. That maybe just maybe, research has made progress like a wheel on a wagon and things change, sometimes for the worse, but sometimes for the better.
I don't understand what you just said.
But if that was a crack at me...fair enough.
If it was a crack at the person I replied to....go get 'em!
Just throwing this out there, but I have adopted healthier eating habits in the last few years. Whole grains, fruits veggies, etc. I even cut back on red meat (gasp!).
Alls i'm sayin' is this: You can be an omnivore and be healthy as well.
For one who is bagging on someone for not being witty enough, you sure did post a rambling, incoherent, grammatically incorrect statement.
"There's always that one person that just wants to make a fuss" And, hm, seems that person is you. It was a big mistake to have that sense-of-humorectomy. See if you can get that reversed.
The Witty One WAS being witty and I hope to hear more from them. KUTGW TWO!!!
What's wrong with good/delicious meat? Those died were mostly caused by exessive consuming of bad meat.
I think that stating that eating animal products are "bad for your health" its incorrect. You should research about it and make sure you get the right information. We humans are based on Fat. Our brain is made mostly of fat and our body needs it to replenish itself and fix damage tissue. In prehistoric era, our ancestors didnt consume fats out of plants it was from animals. We are not saying you should eat a 16oz steak everyday, you should look for food with low or medium glycemic index to stay healthy as carbohydrates convert to fat and sugar and cause obesity too and other health issues. I will recommend you to read a book from Gary Taube so you can actually see real scientific proof
lolol i love a good sandbox brawl!
AMY-in prehistoric times few people ever lived beyond their 20s. While they hunted meat, and would gorge on it when available, a good kill was likely few and far in-between when all you have to hunt with is a thrusting spear.
Nice try, but try again.
I'm 37 years old and basically all males in my family on both sides have either died from or had heart attacks by the time they were 50. My eye opener was when a cardiologist handed me a handful of Simcor and said take these or you'll die. That fueled me to do some research and that's when I found out about Dr. Esselstyn. I went vegan overnight and within 3 months had dropped my total cholesterol from 220 to 148 and my triglycerides from nearly 300 to 46! Also, lost close to 30 pounds. I also started running and average 40 miles a week barefoot. The funny thing about this is I went back in for a stress test/blood check and the doctor came in all smiles. And saying "I see those statins are working wonders on you!". Then to see his jaw drop when I told him I never took a single pill and flushed them down the toilet. I asked him why he never even mentioned a plant based diet and his response was..... 99% of the people would never even consider doing what you arr doing. Come see me when your 45!
wjm – just guessing here, but probably it wasn't the meat they were eating that took them out in their 20's – more likely the meat they were hunting.
Vegetables aren’t food. Vegetables are what food eats.
Greenapt wrote:
–
Ever think that people who eat a whole food plant-based diet enjoy what they eat? If there's a vegan restaurant near where you live is suggest you go because the one near me is so good that all the patrons comment how tasty their meal is. To equate eating vegetables and grains as disgusting shows how unhealthy this countries diet is.
Eating animal products causes all sorts of health issues from arthritis to cancer. Doesn't sound too appealing to me.
–
We went to one in Portland Maine called the Green Elephant, and everybody in my family enjoyed their dish. The food was really quite good, and we asked if they were going to make a recipe book.
I don't eat at restaurants that often, but while on vacation I did.
I left off meat when the lamb riblets I bought had the wool still on them . . .
@Tazer: You're right, I did make some gramatical mistakes. Good thing my name states right there I don't want to be right, I want to be informed. I did made a remark about WittyOne not being witty and I have to stand by my personal opinion because I really didn't find they were. I, of course, may have overlooked something, I am after all only human. However, in those I did read, I failed to see any intelligent play on words or intelectual humour. Sure some of their comments were cute at best, but in general they reminded me of that annoying guy in class that just never shuts up and always has to have the last word. Making up statistics, telling people they're stupid, ... just to get a rise in others... BORING!... Take it to youtube. Better yet, let's just agree to disagree.
@AleeD: at least you are witty... good job with sense-of-humorectomy. Aside from that, you're doing a great job as WittyOne's brainless sidekick that agrees with everything numbnuts says, that is, if you aren't in fact the same person.
Not trying to cause a fuss,... just tired of the people that bash on vegetarians and/or vegans over and over again, insinuating that they all believe they are better than you because they don't eat meat. Helloooo ... you are doing the exact same thing. If you want to start an educated banter of why eating meat is still the way to go then great, but come to the table with some valid, scientific research suporting your case. The whining and name calling "you think you're better than me" whannn whann.. it's so pathetic and you're the individuals that do nothing to help your case, but rather make narrow minded meat eaters look so cavemanish in their thinking.
Look around you people.. the world is obese. This is not an article about animal rights, or whether vegans have a purer soul than meat eaters...no, this is about human health. If eating meat was the answer to solving this epidemic then I'll go out on a limb and assume a large number of people would start eating meat again. Yes, to many meat tastes good, smells good and we've been enjoying it and consuming it to our hearts desire for a very long time. That said, just like many other things we've done without thought, such as smoking, burning fuel, using pesticides, etc etc... we have the ability to open our eyes and say "gee we've been doing this forever, but I'm noticing that the side effects of my actions are not beneficial to me anymore ... maybe its time to re-evaluate?"
Don't kill the mesenger.
Dangers of eating raw vegetables.
Let us look at the dangers of food coming not from the man-made pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides, but from the true danger, that is the fresh and natural poisons manufactured by the plant to stay alive and be able to multiply.
There are four categories of chemical armaments that salad deploys against human predators: nutrition blockers, toxins, mutagens (which alter genetic material), and carcinogens.
Nutrition blockers are chemicals that bind with some desirable vitamins or minerals and prevent your body from absorbing it.
Oxalic acid in raw spinach forms an insoluble complex with calcium and iron and renders uncooked spinach a non-nutritious green. The same is happening in raw beet green, Swiss chard and rhubarb. (But eating raw rhubarb could produce death due to toxic anthraquinone glycosides.)
Antithiamine substances bind with the vitamin B thyamine and stops its absorption. They are in raw red cabbage, Brussels sprouts and beets. Similarly in in mustard seeds, some berries, cottonseed oil and some ferns (fiddlehead).
Raw egg contains avidin, which binds up the vitamin B (biotin) and acts the same way.
Uncooked grain protein (wheat germ) which contains magnesium, zinc and copper, is bound by phytates. Raw soybeans contain neutralizing agent to vitamin B12 and vitamin D.
Raw kidney beans, alfalfa and some of the peas block the vitamin E and could cause in some incidences a liver disease.
Protease (enzyme that breaks down proteins) inhibitors in raw turnips, rutabagas, chickpeas, bamboo sprouts, cashews, peanuts, and most beans counteract the enzymes in our body that digest protein. The same way amylase inhibitors in raw red kidney beans and navy beans make their carbohydrate unusable.
These salad ingredients act as anti-nutrient only in their raw state. It is important to know the right method, temperature and cooking time for each vegetable.
Toxins are chemical compounds in food that are toxic when consumed in small or large quantities.
Cyanogens are found in Lima and other broad beans. They are also in unripe millet, young bamboo shots, cassava, manioc and tapioca. They must be carefully peeled, washed under running water and boiled without a lid.
Goitrogens are chemicals that cause extreme enlargement of the thyroid glands among people with little iodine, by preventing intake of iodine from the food. Goitrogenes are found in raw cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, turnips, rutabagas, cauliflower, mustard seeds and horse radish. These are broken down by cooking.
Chickpeas could cause lathyrism (neurological lesions of the spinal cord.) The sale of chickpeas is illegal in many states in India. If you soak chickpeas overnight and cook them in excess of boiling water, they will not give you lathyrism.
Favism is a disease named after fava bean. Mild cases could result in fatigue and nausea, acute cases in jaundice.
Cooking will not protect you if you make potato salad with green immature potatoes, which could contain LETHAL mount of solanine in their sprouts and skin.
Undercooked kidney beans (al-dente) contain hemagglutinins, which make your blood cells stick together and account for poor growth among children.
Soyabean sprouts and yams are high in estrogenic factors that can inflict havoc with woman’s hormones.
Aflatoxin is among the most potent carcinogen known and is present in the mold contaminated grain and nuts. Almost as hazardous are the hydrazines in some raw molded mushrooms or basil which contains lots of estragole. Safrole is a compound related to estragole and it is the reason natural root beer is now banned by the FDA.
That much about salad components. And what about raw fruits? Unlike the antisocial vegetable, ripe fruit is friendly and loves to be eaten and have it seeds widely dispersed.
(Sources: Bruce Ames, chairman of the biochemistry department at Berkeley. Jeffrey Steingarten food writer at Harvard College. Awards from James Beard foundation.)
So much for misinformed rants. I have respect for any way one chooses to live their live, whatever that may be. What I don't have respect for is someone telling others how to live their life and putting them down for their life choices. Which seems to happen quite a bit on the Vegan threads. I actually encourage folks to adopt a healthier lifestyle and that is actually the main reason I, personally, started reading this blog.
In regards to your comment on my intellectual humor, I can only say that basing your opinion on a single post or even a single thread certainly says a bit about you as a person. You probably tend to be the sort of person who likes to cast judgment on an issue without hearing both sides of the argument. That is only an assumption though, and I am sure you are a nice person in real life.
My responses in caveman form are representative of my distaste for the same format coming from the vegans that shout from the rooftops that eating meat is a cardinal sin and that it will surely lead to various health issues.
And your "Helloooo...you are doing the exact same thing" comment is sort of hypocritical, no?
In response to your last paragraph, I totally agree. Societies total disregard for the greater good as well as their disregard for their individual good is causing all sorts of issues. In my opinion, people need to stop accepting things as the norm and question what the potential impacts of their choices will be. Not only on themselves, but on society as a whole.
I hope you have a nice day.
I don't think anyone will really argue that a vegan based diet is better for you. Of course it is. But also, there is NOTHING wrong with a little meat in your diet as well. You have to just know how to prepare it and watch your portion size. That is where a lot of people go wrong is the portion size.
Oh my goodness. Meat haters love to talk up plants as saving the planet. People on this blog constantly speak about "irrefutable" evidence of this or that. There has never been irrefutable evidence that says meat kills people, never. People say that because they see another jackhole write it on a board like this. Could people stand to eat way more veggies? Sure. Could they cut down their meat intake a bit in many cases? Sure. Would doing both be better for the environment? Sure. Could it bring down long term health care costs in this nation? Sure. Just stop saying that plants will suddenly cure the world's ills because they will not. When humans slowed down enough to be able to plant and harvest food staples, it changed the world. It did not however, make them superior to meat eaters. THIS IS COMING FROM SOMEONE WHO CONSUMES LITTLE MEAT AND WHO OBTAINS 95% OF HIS PROTEIN FROM PLANTS.
Watch Demolition Man. Vegan diets will kill you faster than a diet that is balanced with lean meat. Why? Vegans don't get enough protein, fats, iron, copper, phosphorous, or potassium. In short, the vegan diet leaves one malnourished. When one is malnourished, popper brain function ceases. It's a viscous cycle that has to be broken. Remember, the leading cause of death is living.
Babsmack: Eggs are not plants Genius. Yes, fruit is the ideal human food.
If you eat MEAT at least MAKE SURE IT'S NOT SHMEAT! NoShmeat.com is written for you.
good site.
I'm eating beef jerky as I type this.
I have seen Collin Campbell speak twice and read his book (THE CHINA STUDY) 3 times. I eat very very little beef, pork, and chicken now. I have almost completely stop eating dairy. I started a year ago and love the change in the way i feel. I do have fish 2 or three times aweek.
I HAVE TOLD ALL MY FRIENDS AND FAMAILY TO READ "THE CHINA STUDY" – IT COSTS ABOUT $16 AND IS SO MUCH CHEAPER THAN WHAT STATIN DRUGS COST PER MONTH NOT TO MENTION – HEART SURGY OR DIABETES
You should do some reading about the China study.
http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com/2009/06/does-meat-cause-cancer/
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/73040.php
Check out the books by Loren Cordain.
You should also read Colin Campbell's reply to the "fact or fallacy" blog.
Who should you tend to trust more for scientific information- prominent research scientists in the NIH or non-scientists who write blogs?
You are also malnourished on a vegan diet. The brain does funny things when it is deprived of the necessary fats and protein to operate at its full potential. What you are feeling is akin to the warmth that people feel right before they freeze to death. The only difference is that yours will be prolonged for decades.
what vegans neglect to mention in their healthier diet is the need to eat fortified foods or take supplements to make up for the lack of B-12, Vitamin D, iron in a plant-based diet. Also, even though plants can provide many of the other necessary vitamins and fats, most people cannot possibly eat the wide variety required to keep up their levels. So how healthy is a diet that still requires supplements? And biologically we are designed to be omnivores. So if you want to be vegan fine, but don't pretend it's the answer to everything. It's your own private religion.
Hi Sock, really everyone should have their levels tested every year. And fyi, over 40% of the meat eating population is sufficiently low in vitamin B12 to cause serious health issue, so eating meat alone will not help you, its what you eat and how you eat it. A simple supplement of 1/2 to 1 milligram a day should balance most people out if they are found to be deficient or simply better dietary planning (vegan or not).
Vitamin D is not something your body gets from food, it is something your body makes in response to exposure to sunlight. If you live in a more northern climate and are unable to get direct exposure of at least 20 minutes but no more than 30 minutes a day (without sunscreen) then you should supplement, but again get tested first to see where you stand at different times each year and see how much you should be taking because while what your body produces you cannot "over dose" on what you take as a supplement you can.
Iron deficiency really depends on your diet as well as what study you are looking at. But again, you should be tested before you make any changes. Increased consumption of iron in your diet or supplement form can be gauged from there. But again, as with your other 2 citations you can obtain these nutrients from a vegetarian or vegan diet as well as a "traditional" diet, you just have to plan your meals to ensure you are getting all of what your body needs, as you should with any way you choose to eat.
I don't necessarily understand the argument that humans are "biologically designed to eat meat." Our two closest relatives in the animal kingdom, orangutans and chimpanzees, consume little or no meat at all. Orangutans do not consume any meat, only plants, fruits and nuts. Chimpanzees do consume meat on occasion, mostly consisting of insects, but this meat consumption accounts for less than 5% of their diet overall. I am not saying that people should or shouldn't eat meat, I think that it is absolutely a personal preference. I do , however, wish our culture would stop thinking that you can't have a meal without meat. The meal in this country (and in many others) revolves around meat as the central item and that is completely unnecessary. There are many more options out their than meat, potatoes and a side of veggies. But I think it is very easy for people to just stick to they know or what they are in the habit of eating. They are afraid to try something new. I think it would be great if people would try and do one day a week meat free. It is great for your health and you can lower your carbon footprint as well. If everyone could give up meat one day a week, statistics show that we could reduce carbon emissions by as much as 20% in regards to the cattle industry. Here is a great site for recipes if you are interested and don't know where to start: http://www.food.com/recipes/vegetarian.
"Might as well die happy"? Fine, if you die happy! What if during the last ten years of your life you are confined to a wheel chair, head tilted to one side, drooling on your chest, unable to use speech understandable to anyone, having to have someone change your diapers and wipe your butt all the while having a mind that is still crystal clear? "Die happy?" I had a friend that experienced exactly what I've described above and I can assure you that he was not "happy"! He was a miserable human being that long for a death that took ten long long years to arrive. Are you whistling in the graveyard?
RichardHead: You need to read some more. You may be one of the 50% who's first sign of heart disease is sudden death. For your sake, lets hope so! However, odds are you will die after numerous years of debilitating diseases caused by eating meat. If you are not lucky you may get cancer (prostrate, colon, liver, breast pick one), Gall stones (now that is a fun one I can tell you from experience), kidney stones, gout, arthritis, diabetes, Alzheimer's, dementia, impotence... Well I guess you get the point. All while your family watches you wither away and eat up all your assets on medical treatments, all of which are ineffective and painful. But then you obviously know your own mind, Richard.
Which reminds me, my brother also named Richard who was also my best friend in the world dropped dead at 48 with no warning. Had he been eating the vegan diet that I switched to 2 years ago he and I would still be enjoying the best of times. But don't let that sappy stuff get in your way!
By the way I raised my own beef for the past 18 years, grass fed, no hormones, no antibiotics on my own ranch. I don't eat any of it anymore, and I can tell you I feel 15 years younger, and if you don't think that makes you happy, then you are too young and your brain is not fully developed.
You sir are an idiot. Go peddle your useless diatribes elsewhere. You act like the shining light at the end of the disease filled road is veganism. Get a grip you pompous, self absorbed, righteous prick. If being a vegan means that I have to spout useless dribble from my mouth, then show me the meat! I do not deny that veganism my decrease the risk for certain diseases but I do want to point out that the word "decrease" is used, not "eliminate". What worked for you might not work for everyone. Don't begrudge Rich his meat.
I hope you live a long time. I also hope that you get stampeded by your cows and you get a vitamin deficiency and break your hip out in a field somewhere and crows peck out your eyes, leaving you blind and crippled, resorting to sitting in a wheelchair outside the town bingo hall, getting spit on by kids for the rest of your "long" life.
How's that for a tall glass of STFU?
Problem is, dear, you're not going to die happy. You're going to die with erectile dysfunction, a wife who's afraid of you because you are harboring the anger & fear that's contained in the animal's fat you're eating (emotions are stored in human and animal fat: please read Dr. Will Tuttle's "The World Peace Diet"). You're going to be in terrible pain with your gout and increasing pain and disability with your colds, flu, pneumonia, osteoporosis, weight gain, diabetes, ear infections, bad smell & breath, tiredness, & contrariness! You really are what you eat! If you want to clean out all of the scary stuff like the addictive morphine from dairy, sausage, etc. write to me at drflora3rd@netzero.net & I'll send you a free 21 day detox (Divine Matrix – based on the updated Dr. Ann Wigmore/Hippocrates Energy Soup) & you can get old like me and others who are vegans, and enjoy almond cheese, pine nut salad dressing, homemade sauerkraut, chocolate that melts in your hand (and in your heart so it won't hurt you), and nutritional yeast on your popcorn that tastes llike butter. Get some dulse leaf to protect yourself from the radiation from Japan & enjoy it on your avocado or sandwiches. It doesn't have to be boring to be good for you. Beans make nitric ocid which is so important. Read Dr. Esselstyn's book so you won't be just an ignorant reactionary.
There are so many people who are writing in who are just not informed and have not read anything about what the dairy casomorphine does to the epithelial lining of the arteries (and the gut too). Casomorphine is the protein in dairy and is concentrated in cheese. It's addictive. The casein is like glue, in fact Elmer's glue is made from it. It binds things, like your poo and makes you constiipated. It grows things, like salmonella, shigella, edenovirus (the cold virus). Other things that milk contain is pus. All commercial milk has pus from the infected teats of the cows. Look at http://www.notmilk.com or read Robert Cohen's "Milk, the Deadly Poison" or "Milk from A-Z". It is so addictive, like alcohol and cigarettes, that people have a very hard time, even if their life is at stake, stopping the intake. Surgeons routinely cut and pull ropes of casein out of people's ear canals, arteries, veins and capillaries, and internal organs and under the skin in the interstitial areas (open areas where there are no organs). Statistically, people who eat dairy and eggs are going to have much shorter lives, and be in miserable low-quality-of-life situations. I am a vegan, but a living food vegan and to me, after I went through the 3 week period to lose the cravings that are inherent when one eats addictive foods, my taste buds came back to life and I am now enjoying organic pencil mulberries at the farmer's market in Homestead that are practically orgasmic, they are so good! Without salt, without hot peppers (which give you colon cancer), without oils like olive oil – even virgin virgin – which dissolve your arteries and causes atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries (glaucoma, ED, high blood pressure, ) Read and educate yourselves. It's all out there. Be so disease free and flexible like I am that you can do advanced yoga at 75! no pills in my medicine cabinet, no pains now because I eat living food that has electricity/chi in it. Disease grows in cooked foods and cannot grow in living foods. http://www.rawdoctors.com.
Hi,
My mom is pre diabetic and has been walking a very dangerous line for years. She ate lots of fruits and vegetables and not that much meat, dairy, or processed foods. Plus, she exercises 4 times a week. Even with all this she was still on the brink of becoming a full fledged diabetic. Doctors never let her know about the benefits of a plant based diet. She read The China Study, stopped eating meat and dairy and is no longer pre diabetic in, get this... TWO MONTHS!!! I hope that anyone reading who is diabetic or pre changes the way they eat to help prolong their life and greatly increase their quality of life. My dad has done the same to get off his cholesterol medication and my brother has eliminated his long standing stomach issues by taking meat and dairy out of his diet and he now has way more energy to bike race and play paintball. It's really been a shocking turnaround in my family. They had health issues while they were practicing a supposed "very healthy lifestyle" and decided to be proactive. It took a very long time for them to believe me because of the fact that no one else in their lives including doctors were suggesting a plant based diet. That is what I have to add to this conversation, real life results. This post is for people with health problems only, please give your family and friends a longer living you.
Sincerely,
Eric
What about the animals? Don't you think that you are being a bit selfish?