Vegan-ism as Religion

[DGS49]

Had dinner with an old acquaintance the other day, and learned that she has been - gotta get this straight - a vegetarian for 30 years, and a vegan for 20.

In a light-hearted conversation on the subject, I pointed out a few obvious things and questioned her dietary philosophy.

Vegans and vegetarians are no healthier than anyone else (except in their own minds), and in my experience most of them seem rather weak and flimsy. Where's the health benefit?

I have never heard anyone interviewing an extremely old person about "how do you stay healthy" and heard one say, "I'm a vegetarian" (or any variation of same).

People often say they don't like "killing animals for food," but invariably such people are "pro-choice" on the subject of abortion. Killing babies is OK, but killing animals that have been bred for no other purpose than to serve as food is "immoral." None seem to see the colossal absurdity of these two philosophical positions.

Being a vegan makes one a walking pain-in-the-ass to everyone else. You can't go to just any restaurant or just any coffee shop for some sustenance. You have to go to one that caters to their bizarre preference.

Most vegans are atheists (in my experience), and I think they have made their dietary philosophy into a "religion," although they would recoil at the thought. A religion entails a belief in things that cannot be proven (and can often be dis-proven), and structuring one's life around those beliefs. There is no provable health benefit to avoiding animal-based foods, and in fact the vast majority of the healthiest people in the world rely heavily on animal-based foods for most of their protein. If there were health benefits to vegetarianism, professional sports trainers would be pushing it, especially to young, aspiring talents. But it doesn't happen - except maybe in California.

I have heard the biological argument that the human digestive system is not well suited to digesting meat; maybe so. But I have also heard from an anthropologist that most of the cultural development of our human ancestors was "on hold" until they started eating meat. Until meat became a regular part of the human diet, their whole existence was consumed with finding food and eating, but when meat was introduced they could get a whole day's nutrition in one meal, and had gobs of time left over to paint pictures on the walls of their caves (and so on).

Vegan-ism is basically a religion.

 

[Iceweasel]

Good post. It's been my observations as well. I have even tried the diet myself, had one egg for animal protein in two months. I juiced veggies regularly and watched the protein balance very well. Got so weak I could barely get out of bed. My occupation requires physical strength and stamina so it was a short lived experiment.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Nonsense. Every point you made is nonsense. I've been vegan/vegetarian for more than 30 years and I'm very healthy. I'm stronger now than I was in my 20s - next birthday will be number 70. My entire family is diabetic, obese, has heart disease and cancer. And I really do mean my entire family. I'm the only healthy member of the family and the oldest surviving sibling.

If you don't believe its a healthier way to live, read The China Study - for starters. There are many many scientific treatises on the subject.

Make no mistake - you can eat nothing but chips and Pepsi and call yourself vegan. The same is true of meat eaters - that you can be very unhealthy on a meat-centered diet.

There's nothing bizarre about it and the only places I don't go to eat are places with the word "grill" in their name and even those types of restaurants now offer vegetarian/vegan choices. I eat at other people's homes and no one is ever inconvenienced by my choices.

Eat whatever you want but get your facts straight.

There is long thread about this in the Flame Zone that you might be interested in reading.

 

[BULLDOG]

Had dinner with an old acquaintance the other day, and learned that she has been - gotta get this straight - a vegetarian for 30 years, and a vegan for 20.

In a light-hearted conversation on the subject, I pointed out a few obvious things and questioned her dietary philosophy.

Vegans and vegetarians are no healthier than anyone else (except in their own minds), and in my experience most of them seem rather weak and flimsy. Where's the health benefit?

I have never heard anyone interviewing an extremely old person about "how do you stay healthy" and heard one say, "I'm a vegetarian" (or any variation of same).

People often say they don't like "killing animals for food," but invariably such people are "pro-choice" on the subject of abortion. Killing babies is OK, but killing animals that have been bred for no other purpose than to serve as food is "immoral." None seem to see the colossal absurdity of these two philosophical positions.

Being a vegan makes one a walking pain-in-the-ass to everyone else. You can't go to just any restaurant or just any coffee shop for some sustenance. You have to go to one that caters to their bizarre preference.

Most vegans are atheists (in my experience), and I think they have made their dietary philosophy into a "religion," although they would recoil at the thought. A religion entails a belief in things that cannot be proven (and can often be dis-proven), and structuring one's life around those beliefs. There is no provable health benefit to avoiding animal-based foods, and in fact the vast majority of the healthiest people in the world rely heavily on animal-based foods for most of their protein. If there were health benefits to vegetarianism, professional sports trainers would be pushing it, especially to young, aspiring talents. But it doesn't happen - except maybe in California.

I have heard the biological argument that the human digestive system is not well suited to digesting meat; maybe so. But I have also heard from an anthropologist that most of the cultural development of our human ancestors was "on hold" until they started eating meat. Until meat became a regular part of the human diet, their whole existence was consumed with finding food and eating, but when meat was introduced they could get a whole day's nutrition in one meal, and had gobs of time left over to paint pictures on the walls of their caves (and so on).

Vegan-ism is basically a religion.

If your old acquaintance has been a vegetarian for 30 years, and it hasn't effected you enough for you to even know about it until now, it sounds like you need to STFU and mind your own damn business. Is anybody trying to forcing you to become a vegetarian? When did you first become a nosy, gossipy old lady who needs to take more care of your own business instead of poking your nose into someone else's?

 

[Pogo]

Had dinner with an old acquaintance the other day, and learned that she has been - gotta get this straight - a vegetarian for 30 years, and a vegan for 20.

In a light-hearted conversation on the subject, I pointed out a few obvious things and questioned her dietary philosophy.

Vegans and vegetarians are no healthier than anyone else (except in their own minds), and in my experience most of them seem rather weak and flimsy. Where's the health benefit?

I have never heard anyone interviewing an extremely old person about "how do you stay healthy" and heard one say, "I'm a vegetarian" (or any variation of same).

People often say they don't like "killing animals for food," but invariably such people are "pro-choice" on the subject of abortion. Killing babies is OK, but killing animals that have been bred for no other purpose than to serve as food is "immoral." None seem to see the colossal absurdity of these two philosophical positions.

Being a vegan makes one a walking pain-in-the-ass to everyone else. You can't go to just any restaurant or just any coffee shop for some sustenance. You have to go to one that caters to their bizarre preference.

Most vegans are atheists (in my experience), and I think they have made their dietary philosophy into a "religion," although they would recoil at the thought. A religion entails a belief in things that cannot be proven (and can often be dis-proven), and structuring one's life around those beliefs. There is no provable health benefit to avoiding animal-based foods, and in fact the vast majority of the healthiest people in the world rely heavily on animal-based foods for most of their protein. If there were health benefits to vegetarianism, professional sports trainers would be pushing it, especially to young, aspiring talents. But it doesn't happen - except maybe in California.

I have heard the biological argument that the human digestive system is not well suited to digesting meat; maybe so. But I have also heard from an anthropologist that most of the cultural development of our human ancestors was "on hold" until they started eating meat. Until meat became a regular part of the human diet, their whole existence was consumed with finding food and eating, but when meat was introduced they could get a whole day's nutrition in one meal, and had gobs of time left over to paint pictures on the walls of their caves (and so on).

Vegan-ism is basically a religion.

Was there a point coming?

I'm not clear what defines "vegan (and you didn't specify) but I swore off anything that has a mother (i.e. beef and pork in this culture) back in the '70s. I did that because (a) it's associated with higher risks of cancer; (b) I have some idea of the process from the live animal to the butcher including, but not limited to, hormones pesticides and antibiotics; (c) it puts more fat into the diet (especially beef), which might be welcome if I lived in the arctic but I don't; (d) because compared to agriculture it's a grossly inefficient use of the land; and (e) because as you did mention, it's not what our bodies are biologically best suited for given choices, which we certainly have. Whether it's moral to butcher animals is way down the list if it shows up at all.

But none of that makes not-eating-anything-that-has-a-mother (there's a word for it, I forget what it is) a "religion". It doesn't address spiritual mysteries or present a deity. It's just a simple choice of how one eats and how one doesn't --- like screening out sugars. That ain't a religion either.