Dr. Esselstyn?

(Brian) #63

That’s a good question and I don’t have a good answer. The Mormons don’t have the in-your-face vegan thing going, and that does stir up a lot of controversy. I just don’t go along with it… and to be fair, there are quite a large percentage of the 7th Day Adventists that don’t either. If someone chooses to be vegan and they thrive living like that, God bless 'em. Sincerely. I did not thrive eating that way and I refuse to be guilted into thinking that I’m a bad person because I started eating animal products, including some meat. Also to be fair, most in the faith have no real issue with eating animal products or even clean meats. But the few who do can be quite vocal and less than kind about it.

I’m like you, I am interested in being healthy. But I’m not inclined to leave the faith because of all of that. I think I’ll stick around, for numerous reasons, some a little more important to me than any particular diet. Maybe I’ll be able to influence a few people for good and encourage someone who may need to step out of lock-step and know they’ll be OK.

Sorry if I’ve gone a bit beyond where the normal forum chat goes. I mean no offense to anyone, only saying a little of what background comes along with me as I try to navigate life.

:slight_smile:

(Brian) #64

No worries, Rob. :slight_smile:

Hey, we may not agree on everything, but I do really appreciate your thoughtful posts. I’ve enjoyed the interactions with many of the forum members here. We share a lot of common ground. I suspect were we neighbors, we’d be friends in person.

:slight_smile:

(Crow T. Robot) #65

Not sure, but the reason might be because among Mormons a vegetarian diet is not an article of faith, and therefore not something that needs to be evangelized. SDA’s have worked hard for over a century to establish a vegetarian diet as the gold standard of human diets – generally secretly and under the guise of science research. They essentially invented the role of Dietitian and wrote the original textbooks. I was a bit shocked to learn that modern vegetarianism basically had a church behind it pushing. Nothing new, I guess, since all vegetarianism throughout history has basically had religion behind it. If there is one that isn’t, I’d be interested to hear about it.

(Rob) #66

Indeed, I very much agree.

I’m friends with lots of people’s who I disagree with fundamentally in some areas… and unless they’re fooling me, they’re friends with me so it must work both ways. :grin:

There is a sociological theory, I think called the ‘Aunt Susan’ phenomenon that explains growing religious and social integration based on people, over time, all finding an ‘Aunt Susan’ in the family who is from some other religion (or by extension, some other social/cultural difference) which humanizes and puts a face on something you either thought or have been told is alien and wrong. I guess, until you meet your “Aunt Susan” it’s easy to dismiss an alien group.

Hello Auntie :rofl:

#67

No apologiies needed. I am on the East Coast and do not think I have ever met a SDA. I find it interesting. I had seen the various movies such as Forks Over Knives pre keto. I had no idea that as @Chris_W mentioned that there was a vegetarian agenda related to SDAs! I had simply thought they lived a long time for whatever reasons!

That probably scares me the most if it is true, that there is a church behind the vegetarian movement. I had honestly always thought it was a hippie thing, either because you like animals or because plants intuitively seem to be healthier for you. Again, this is from someone who was a teenager when the low fat movement began so to me lowfat seems normal. It took me months on keto not to limit my butter. I feel like at least one illusion gets shattered a month since I started this way

While I have always worried about pesticides andway try to buy organic when possible, I have been thinking more about how my meat is sourced. I credit keto with that because now that I eat more meat, I do want it treated well before it ends up on my plate

When I went back to work in the Fall, after losing a whole bunch of weight, whenever anyone asked I said keto/paleo/atkins, the only one who really understood was a woman who had been vegan all summer. When I said paleo (in my part of the world everyone has tried and failed atkins so they roll their eyes if I mention it) I got the respect nod! I felt that she was seeking in the same way I was even if we ended up in different places

(Rob) #68

That is the insidious thing about them… they LOOK LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE!!! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::rofl:

#69

I mean, there’s no regulating government body that licenses the use of the word, so it’s really whatever you want to call it… I use the word vegan to mean no meat or dairy. But when I was vegan I was poor af and bought shoes from Goodwill whatever I could find to fit my giant feet and I always thought that morally buying local honey even though I couldn’t afford it was the right thing to do because it supports local bees which are beneficial. So I mean, yeah there’s “feminists” who are anti-man but that doesn’t have to define feminism. Same stroke

(Todd Allen) #70

We need a sequel to the movie “They Live”

(Rob) #71

special keto “truth” sunglasses :sunglasses: