Plant based / vegan diet

I don't care about the person who lives 5 houses down the road from me, but I still acknowledge their rights. You don't have to care about someone in order for them to have rights.

What is the guy who lives 5 houses down from me doing to better my existence? Or some person in prison who is serving a life sentence? Not much, but it doesn't mean they don't have rights.

Meat production is one of the most wasteful and unhealthy industries. It takes a considerable amount of natural resources to raise a cow, and the process produces a large amount of waste only to provide a small amount of benefit. Furthermore, you can get all of those benefits without killing an animal that doesn't want to or need to die.

Life is hard, that's right. It would be even harder if you were an animal who is forced into slavery at birth and forcibly impregnated until you collapse from exhaustion then hauled of to be executed simply because your dead body tastes good to someone. You are being selfish if you think that because you like the flavor of meat, then you get to cause unnecessary suffering to the lives of animals and to the planet.

Plant based diets are no less healthy than omnivorous diets. There is thorough research to back this up. Meat is 100% optional.
https://www.eatrightpro.org/-/media...ce-papers/position-papers/vegetarian-diet.pdf
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16441942/

 

So you think animals are better than humans, but you still want to kill them anyway because fuck it why not? This makes it sound like you are raising a white flag and retreating from the discussion because you have run out of arguments. I guess I can't force you to care about these issues lol

 

The morals of the situation will not appeal to everyone and is mostly just a tangent to get stuck on anyway. Plus, most people care about animals. They really do. But caring about every single animal ever when humans quite possibly need meat in their diet just isn't feasible for every person.

But anyway I feel the argument should be more about health than morals. I know vegans need to supplement b12, and many vegans quit being vegan because of disastrous health outcomes. I honestly think a plant centric diet with meat as garnishments on the side is probably the best approach. Still trying to leave out as much processed food as you can.

 

We've gone through all of these arguments and you're still going back to them. You can't just say "well the morals don't really matter in this case" - but they do. That's the whole issue. You don't have to personally care about every single animal, but you can agree that they should be protected from torture and slavery and murder.

The argument is not about health but it just so happens that a proper vegan diet is nutritionally complete. B12 deficiency does not just affect vegans but also meat eaters as B12 absorption from meat decreases with age. Also there is data that suggests that cooking may damage the structure of B12 molecules found in meat, but not those found in supplemented foods ie. ceral, milk.

Here is more info on B12 from veganhealth.org:
Can a Natural Diet Require Supplements?


by Jack Norris, RD

If we admit that vegans need fortified foods or supplements to obtain vitamin B12, are we also admitting that a vegan diet is unnatural?

In Western society today, it’s easy for vegans to ensure an adequate B12 intake. Vegans who supplement with B12 can have superior B12 status to non-vegetarians who don’t supplement.

In fact, due to a decrease in the ability to absorb B12 from animal foods as people age, the Food and Nutrition Board says that all people over age 50 should meet their RDA mainly by consuming foods fortified with B12 or a B12-containing supplement.
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Deficiencies which are easily prevented with an proper adherence to RDI values and by using supplements as needed are not an indicator that a particular diet is unhealthy. It is very easy to meet Recommended Daily Intake values on a vegan diet. And that means it is very easy to avoid meat and animal products entirely.

 

Well started it about 2 years ago with my girlfriend & feel it has done me alright, feel I’m recovering fast from exercises. Don’t feel like I miss eating animal products, though it was hard at the start.