Vegetarians vs. omnivores

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(Brent Evans) #1

While this podcast did a better job of offering both sides of the veg vs. meat debate for health and sustainability than most popular science shows, it’s still indicative of the public perception of vegetables and grains as healthy and meat as unhealthy.

To Eat or Not to Eat Meat - Gastropod

Putting aside the moral reasons for veganism, which I don’t agree with but can respect (although shunning certain vegetables because you might accidentally eat a bug is downright silly), the fact that a predominantly meat-based diet can not only be healthy but good for the environment seems to be lost in the public consciousness. It angers me to hear so many respected people and institutions citing flawed studies on the unhealthiness of meat (many, like the Seventh Day Adventist study only correlative at best) and/or how much more efficient crops are to livestock.

Meat is so nutrient dense, and when raised sustainably and humanely (no one is arguing for industrial meat processing and CAFO feed lots), it has the potential to better healthier for humans and for the environment. The point that raising livestock in this manner on smaller farms would not be enough to fill demand is well taken, and no doubt would be more expensive, but maybe we should take a quality over quality approach and vote with our dollars for meat that’s not the result of an industrial disassembly line.

What do you think? I would love to be more informed about this, so any opinions or citations would be welcome.

#2

I’d suggest reading “The Vegetarian Myth” by Lierre Keith.

(Brent Evans) #3

Thank you! I’ll check that out.

(Stickin' with mammoth) #4

Facts and logic aside, when I noticed all my fellow vegans’ skin eventually turning a bizarre greyish hue, I stopped. True story.

(Genevieve Biggs) #5

I second Bill’s recommendation.

Also as a former vegan and now ZC/carnivore, I am incredibly healthier as a carnivore. :sunglasses::meat_on_bone:

(Jeff) #6

That’s backwards, in terms of nutrient density.

(Candace) #7

I’m a former vegan, and the moral aspect is extremely hard for me - but I think that is a personal thing, not something to put on other people. Even as a vegan, I did not condemn anyone for their diet. I’ve never been one to say ‘eating meat is bad’ I have just always hated the way the animals are raised/treated, commercially. I go out of my way to try and get local, grass fed, animals that actually have a life. Again, it is totally a personal thing.

I have many vegan friends who do very well on a vegan diet, my blood sugars went back up, as did my weight and cholesterol, so I’m doing what is best for me.

#8

This is a pretty good series of articles: http://whole9life.com/category/conscientious-omnivore/

(Crow T. Robot) #9

This might actually be taking the most “moral” route, from the standpoint of preventing the most harm to animals. Sadly, a monocrop soybean or grain farm is an ecological disaster and an animal slaughterhouse. It’s just the animals killed are smaller (though more numerous) than cows and pigs, and more often fall into the category of pests (mice, rabbits, crows) rather than pets. A small, sustainable, traditional farm seems much more humane to me, and it’s much better for the planet, as well.

(Candace) #10

Thank you

(Candace) #11

Agreed - I am very much against monocrops

(Brent Evans) #12

Well said. I believe that moral vegetarians or vegans could get the nutrition they need by eating only meat that is sustainably raised and processed and still strike a blow for the humane treatment of animals, although maybe that is naive. If ALL meat is anathema, then even the happy and healthy livestock is off limits. The smaller farmers who genuinely care for the welfare of their livestock and take pains to raise them naturally outside of industrial CAFOs should be supported with our dollars.

(Brent Evans) #13

Yes, I noticed that one of the exports in the podcast extolled the virtues of soybeans as a healthier alternative to eating meat. I shouted at the podcast, "Really? Really?

(Nicole) #14

On another forum I started a debate about whether one benefits from eating plant matter or not. More omnivore vs. carnivore… That forum wasn’t ready to even consider that. LOL

(Jeff) #15

Filter these ideas through the ancestral paradigm under which we developed as humans. If you really want health for your body, I think that the moralist considerations are irrelevant (and probably will make you sick).

In the word of one top researcher “I look at food as molecules”. So does your mitochondria, and it likes the familiar ones that it was trained to use for a million years.

(Keto in Katy) #16

Well said. I feel the same way.

#17

Here’s evidence of where my ancestral mitochondria came from (ancient cave paintings in Europe)