My Escape from Vegan Island
Every once in a while, I am alternately stunned and amused by what I see being promoted in the name of good health. I had one of those “stunningly amusing” episodes when I took an eight-day vacation with my family to an all-vegetarian health and adventure retreat in Costa Rica several months ago. We had joined a group of 125 headed by Dr. John McDougall, an accomplished and well-respected physician who uses a strict vegetarian/vegan lifestyle to address disease states in his patients and (ostensibly) to promote better health among the general population. I wasn’t too keen on attending, strict carnivore that I am, but I’m always up for an experiment of one and, moreover, I was convinced by my mostly-vegetarian wife and her vegan parents that our extended family would enjoy a nice tropical vacation together. And the food promised to be so yummy… so I made the leap with my wife, two kids, the in-laws and some cousins.
First off, I must say, I did have a very enjoyable time in Costa Rica with my family, rafting, diving, zip lining and hiking…but after what I witnessed during my stay, I can assure you that I have never been so certain that the Primal Blueprint way of eating – which I have embraced for over 30 years now – is the best way to achieve and maintain excellent health. Frankly, I was appalled at both the information being disseminated during this event and at what I saw being served at every meal in the name of “health food.”
I am an omnivore and always have been. Carrie, my wife, was a vegetarian for fifteen years until I convinced her about five years ago to starting adding fish to her diet to get more protein. She still considers herself, in the words of the Outback Steakhouse guy, a “semi-veg.” My wife’s parents have been strict vegans for nearly thirty years and are ardent followers of Dr. McDougall. McDougall’s own story involves having had a severe stroke at age 19 from which, at 59, he still limps. He became an MD and eventually realized that diet was an important part of the health equation. He’s a very likable and charming guy. I had a few superficial discussions with him, even attended a few of his nightly lectures. His heart is certainly in the right place, but I fear he is leading people down a wholly inappropriate dietary path. At the risk of oversimplifying, the basis of his program is that almost all starch is good, all fat is bad and meat of any kind is deadly. It is, in his words, a “starch-based” diet, high in grains and legumes.
The attendees were generally divided into two groups: those who were fairly new to the program – many of them had some serious weight to lose – and those who had been on the McDougall program for several years. Many of the latter group, I gathered, had come to McDougall originally with one or more chronic diseases and on multiple medications. Each evening, after the adventure activity of the day (all of which were pretty sedate), Dr. McDougall would deliver a lecture intended to inform the group of the evils of traditional medicine and big pharma – much of which I generally agree with – and to demonize beef, pork, chicken, fish, dairy of all kinds and most forms of soy. I got the general gist after the first evening. He’s not a fan of supplements either. But he does imply that when you eat vegetarian, you can have all you want…and therein lay the source of much amusement for me.
The lecture would adjourn and everyone would line up for the buffet line which would, at virtually every meal, include copious amounts of breads and rolls, rice, potatoes, pasta, beans, some anemic-looking steamed vegetables and a romaine-only lettuce salad. No dressings allowed. The only fat I could see was in the guacamole that served as a spread. The desert table had a variety of fruits and at least two choices of so-called “healthy” cakes. The drinks were generally overly sweetened fruit drinks.
Now I’m not one to judge. Okay, I am, but I usually keep my mouth shut – except herein. I watched at every meal as overweight, unhealthy people piled their plates with at least two pounds of bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, beans, desert cake, and a glass of fruit juice. Sometimes they went back for more. By my calculations these people were consuming 200 to 300 or more grams of (mostly simple) carbohydrates at each of three meals. There was no way these folks were going to lose fat on this trip. It was, in my view, a type 2 diabetes epidemic in-the-making.
In fending for myself, I focused mainly on the salads and the black beans mixed with a little rice. As you regular readers know, I don’t “do” breads, potatoes, pasta, desserts or fruit drinks. I think they are unhealthy. Go figure. I have to say, it sure got old after a day or two.
Of those who had already been on the McDougall program for years, I had the following general observation: they don’t look too healthy. People who subsist on grains and simple carbs at the expense of quality protein for any length of time tend to lose muscle mass, regardless of their exercise regimen. They are what we call “skinny fat“. Essentially, they have no lean tissue and yet they have surprisingly high body fat levels, despite their loose “skin and bones” appearance. Lean body mass is a major defining criterion of good health; and these folks were sorely lacking. Excess carbohydrate turns to fat pretty easily, but you can neither build nor preserve muscle with it. Herein lies the confusion for many folks: while glucose serves as short-term fuel for muscles, it does not build nor maintain them. One woman, a 62-year old triathlete who trains hours a day and competes almost every weekend authoritatively suggested that I was a fool to eat meat and that I should embrace the McDougall program as she had for 15 years. Problem was, she looked like hell. No muscle tone at all and, I suspect, a fairly high body fat for someone who fancied herself an athlete. It took all I had to keep from saying something that might have spoiled her trip!
As with any diet regimen, Dr. McDougall backs his theories up with studies. But that’s the biggest problem with the “science” of nutrition: anyone can find a study here or there that supports almost any premise. To wit: Fish is great because it’s a source of important Omega 3 fats, but fish is bad because it’s a source of toxic heavy metals, but fish is great because the heavy metals are not actually present at realistically dangerous levels, but fish is bad because the fish lobby was the one funding the study on relative safety, and on ad infinitum.
If there were a right answer, everyone would be doing it. I guess the best any of us can do is to align the “receptivity filters” in our brains with our current belief systems and create habits that reinforce those beliefs – and that, hopefully, result in healthy bodies and minds. Ultimately, I have chosen to believe that we were programmed to eat primarily small portions of meat and vegetables, with a little fruit thrown in occasionally. It works for me (53 years old, 5’10” 165 lbs and 8% body fat).
Problem is, if you have no understanding of biology or chemistry, you can easily fall for that old vegan argument that meat is bad (notwithstanding the fact that there has never, in the entire history of man, been a country, culture or race that subsisted entirely on vegetables without animal flesh of some kind). Many people do fall for it. They also fall for the old “protein leaches calcium” argument, completely ignoring the fact that bones require protein as well as weight bearing activity to promote bone density and prevent osteoporosis. Or that stress has a far greater impact on preventing absorption of calcium than excess protein in the diet. But here I am giving you my opinion again and it’s only based on studies that my filters have shown align with my own beliefs…
I was fascinated by what I saw to be the complete antithesis of a healthy diet being offered up as the healthiest way to eat. And by people willing to accept that they could eat all they want of this high-carb fare and regain their lost health in the process. Try as I might, I couldn’t avoid losing a few pounds of hard-fought muscle myself over the week. Luckily, I was able to regain homeostasis shortly after returning home. And ultimately, I was left with a confidence that following Primal Blueprint path is exactly what humans were designed to do.
What are your thoughts on vegetarianism, carbohydrates, and protein?
Be sure to stick around for today’s Tuesday 10.
(This piece was originally posted at my friend Art DeVany’s blog.)
Technorati Tags: Costa Rica, Dr. McDougall, vegan, vegetarian, carbohydrates, starch, protein, diabetes
Did you like this piece? Or do you think I’m a misguided carnivore? Give it a Digg and get the conversation started!
Sponsor note:
This post was brought to you by the Damage Control Master Formula, independently proven as the most comprehensive high-potency antioxidant multivitamin available anywhere. With the highest antioxidant per dollar value and a complete anti-aging, stress, and cognition profile, the Master Formula is truly the only multivitamin supplement you will ever need. Toss out the drawers full of dozens of different supplements with questionable potency and efficacy and experience the proven Damage Control difference!
Posted By: Mark Sisson
(
Go figure. When I first became a vegetarian, I put on a LOT of weight. I’ve since given it up after a CBC showed high cholesterol and anemia, but I still have a bad high GI carb habit.
I was a vegetarian for years and I was overweight, developed diabetes and high blood pressure. I switched to a high fat carbohydrate restricted diet and lost the weight and the diabetes and the high blood pressure.
Hey. . .just surfing along. . .interesting blog entry.
I don’t necessarily follow the McDougall program, but can say that since I gave up animal products a couple years ago, I feel far healthier and energetic. I went down from 200 lbs eating anything I want, but now maintain a healthy wait of 135 at 5’10″. I no longer have asthma, no longer am tired, and never get sick anymore. I used to get sick at least twice a year. My personal feeling is that it’s the best choice I ever made for myself.
Hey, you asked.
Anyone cutting out junk is going to get some good results. I tried the blood type diet several years ago. I’m Type O, and contrary to popular myth, that version of the diet is not carnivorous and not even particularly low-carb. But it does require you to get off of wheat. Just switching from wheat to quinoa, rice, and amaranth let me lose a noticeable amount of weight.
What’s your grain intake like? Your soy intake? Did you ever try grass-fed/grass-finished animal products or did you just quit the CAFO stuff? Insufficient data here.
Eliminating a major component of one’s nutritional intake would result in weight loss. You may have seen similar results if you decided to give up grains instead of animal products and I suspect your overall feeling of vitality has less to do with the elimination of animal products and more to do with a significant weightless and, likely, a more active role in managing your health and fitness. Since April I have adopted a lifestyle change that includes A LOT of physical activity coupled with consuming fewer carbs, zero “bad” carbs, more lean protein, whole foods, fruit, veggies and supplements. The result, down 40 pounds, no asthma, allergies, high blood pressure or acid reflux. I have ditched five prescription meds I was one for years, reduced by body fat significantly and gained lots of lean muscle…something that I could not have done without including lean protein in my diet.
Same here. I went veg about 10 years and am in the best shape of my life. I hit the gym regularly and have more enegy than my meat-eating friends. And same on getting sick, it almost never happens to me. This is to say thatveg is the only way, but that veg is one option that shouldn’t be discounted.
Great blog! I have never seen a healthy energy field (through my “3rd eye”). Ditto for yoga. Meat is grounding as it is required for the DNA to properly replicate itself. “Like needs like,” and we humans are more like animals than plants. Vegetarians tend to be spacey, or “ungrounded,” if you will…
I once asked Dr. McDougall how people were going to get adequate fatty acids to maintain healthy brains on a low saturated fat diet. Fatty acids are derived from cholesterol which comes from saturated fat. Is it consequential that there has been a rise in Alzheimer’s Disease since Americans began their obsession with consuming low fats? Of course “low fat” and “low carb” are merely marketing ploys because if you consume more calories than you burn, it will be stored as fat! The doctor glowered at me, “Well, that’s your opinion,” without answering the question.
I could go on, but suffice it, I think he could be more grounded in reality… of what people will eat, which isn’t the “third world diet” he advocates. But he is well intentioned.
I laugh when veg*ns try to guilt-trip me out of meat-eating with a “you are what you eat.” Yes, and I’m an animal. Not a wheat stalk or a soy plant. Thanks for playing, please drive through.
Can’t agree about the calorie comment though. If you burned every single calorie you ever ate, you’d die. It is not a matter of “either burn the calorie or store it as fat.” Where do you think your body parts come from? They must be maintained throughout life; you don’t die with the exact same set of cells you were born with. Food is not just fuel, but also spare parts. Think of it as replacing the air filter and belts in your engine by filling up your car’s gas tank. You can’t do that, but human beings are organisms, not mechanisms. Your stomach is not a bomb calorimeter, and food is not merely fuel.
I’ve heard it best put that we gain fat because we store more calories than we expend in fuel but that is the “how” of weight gain, and does not explain the “why.” The “why” appears to involve hormonal imbalance among other factors. So no, low-carb is not a marketing ploy. If you’ve got chronically high insulin, it’s pretty much the only way you can eat and expect to regain your health.
Unless you think the Inuit on their traditional diets are master marketers, or something…
you produce your own cholesterol according to your needs. the same way animals produce their own for their need. You just happen to eat what the animal has produced even though you don’t need the extra. Have you ever heard of a cholesteral deficiency? Neither have I….
I am an absolutely healthy vegan. My doc says I have the heart of a 20 year old (I am 39.7543 – lol) It does not look like the Dr. McD’s diet is very wise (and I am suspect of critiques by “strict carnivores”) but that does not discount all vegetarian or vegan diets. I am suspect of Sensibility is key. My “beef” with meat is simple: there is no way to produce it in a humane way, i.e., there is no way to nicely kill another. Simple as that. I won’t ask for others to be killed for my benefit. It is against all my morals and beliefs.
Fool- fast food or McD’s is not the diet a primal would eat. All meat is not equal. You have to eat CLEAN grass fed meats. Killing for food happens is a way of life. Do you pick up fruit that fell off the tree from the ground or do you ‘HARVEST’ whil it is still alive? It is about being Human- we are what we are. Disney gave animal faces and voices and for a huge Profit.
I agree that it depends on the way the diet is presented. Not all low carb diets are correct and not all vegan diets are correct. I had to go vegetarian then vegan a few years ago due to the fact that my pancreas shuts down when I ingest meat. Even fish and grass fed meats did not work for me as my body could not handle it. I believe that everyone’s body is unique to them and you have to find a balance that fits your own lifestyle and body, some times this means experimenting with a few options or mixing options. I don’t believe there is one correct way of dieting, but being vegan has helped a lot in my life and seems to be the way for me.
When Timothy says, “It does not look like the Dr. McD’s diet is very wise” he is clearly talking about the Dr. McDougall diet. You, pjnoir, seem to be taking offense and thinking he is talking about McDonalds.
Clearly, eating a bunch of doughnuts is not a good vegetarian diet, any more than eating a bunch of Big Macs is not a good primal/paleo diet. Mark’s original point fails because he’s using a bunch of idiots eating croissants and sweet rolls who “look unhealthy” as proof that eating vegetarian/vegan is bad for you. I could just as easily point to people eating heavily processed, chemical-laced fast food meat who “look unhealthy” and claim that paleo is bad for you — but I wouldn’t, because I recognize that they are not eating paleo correctly. The healthy vegans that I know have their own gardens and eat mostly whole foods.
ALL vegetarians and vegans and Mark! I would recommend a book called The Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith.
Then you shouldn’t eat plants either. After all, they are also killed for your benefit. I’m sure you’ll argue that it’s better to kill plants, since they allegedly have less sentience than animals, but killing is killing.
the better perspective is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s, which is to simply give proper respect to whatever died to sustain you. Nothing is sustained in this world without something having to die.
People do this. It is not so far fetched. It is called being a “fruititarian.”
That’s a really silly argumentum ad absurdum, similar to the “if gay marriage is okay than people will also start marrying their dogs” nonsense. Animals have an intelligence and capacity for feeling pain and emotion that plants do not. No amount of rationalizing will change that.
Vegetarians don’t eat meat NOT because
they love animals – they just truly hate plants
Then after reading the book, google vegetarian/vegan bodybuilding.
Is it the lifestyle that’s faulty or rather poor education and implementation among those who’ve tried and failed?
My experience is the latter.
But what of plants? Aren’t they living too?
So plants are inanimate objects, then? And you don’t mind all the “vermin” that were slaughtered in the fields because they were getting at your food crops?
Face it, your diet will involve the death of animals whether or not you wind up eating them. If I were to go out and shoot a deer, I’d be responsible for exactly one animal death. If I eat tofu instead, I’m responsible for the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of insects and rodents and other denizens of Kingdom Animalia. I think I know which option is more humane, especially if I were a good shot. Personally I’d rather get a bullet through the heart than ingest pesticide or get run over by a combine. Don’t know about you.
Another point to add is that all animals die. Hunting for meat, not trophies, must be the most humane death because it allows an animal to live perfectly natural life, but, small-scale farms (one of which I have lived on all of my life) also yield humanely killed animals. I figure that if chickens–my animal of choice–have to die, I might as well be the one to kill them, because I’ll give them a proper life and a humane death.
What do you think animals are fed? Pesticide-ridden grains (and other grinded animals)which accumulates in their fat as all toxic substances do. Now it takes way more pounds of vegetal protein to produce only one pound of meat protein so if you do the math, you end up with more pesticides (plus growth hormones, antibiotics, and what else we don’t know about) if you eat meat. Just saying…
The animals I eat are for the most part NOT fed grains (they eat natural, native, sustainable grass and other forage), and the ones that do eat grains (chicken and pork) are fed organic grain. For the most part, the animals I eat convert low-protein, fibrous, nutrient poor vegetation into healthy, high-quality, nutrient rich protein and fat and they do it without needing growth hormones, antibiotics etc. and furthermore they do it without needing to destroy the top soil and the natural animal and plant communities for industrial soy or grain monocropping. Unlike your tofu.
I can’t resist, although I have commented on being vegatarian previously. I am 71 and have been a vegetarian for 15 years. I did it originally because of marrying a vegan lady, but then I (sumultaneously) got colon cancer and eventually learned that colon causing polyps were no longer forming inside. Previous to veget. diet my colon could have as many as 8 polyps a year; after becoming vegetarian, I have never had another polyp (in ~15 years). Also, I had an oncologist tell me at an annual exam that meat is the main cause of colon cancer. Lastly, I learned that the human colon is some 16+ ft. long, yet a carnivorous cat (all cats?) like a lion might have only a 6 – 8 ft colon. Our problem is the meat, slow to digest, stays inside too long. A cat dumps it much faster and doesn’t suffer as many consequences (that we know of).
But I did enjoy your column, and I plan to check out and watch the problems with too many grains and sugars. My weight? 155 – 160 at 5’10″ and always has been since high school. Health? Great! with no problems and especially no medication, no pain pills and no soft drinks! Ah – life is easy.
The human brain is too large to be fed on a plant diet with the amount of colon we have been blessed with–the colon is the part of the intestine in mammals that deals with plant matter and ours is not long at all. The small intestine is what deals with meat (well, that and the stomach for the original breakdown). By the time the meat gets through the stomach and small intestine it is not really meat anymore.
Enzymes are an issue too. We make all the enzymes we need in order to deal with meat and fat, but we only have some of the enzymes that deal with plant matter. We don’t make a lot of amylase, the enzyme that breaks down starch–and we make no cellulase at all, so we can do nothing with cellulose.
Grossness/TMI alert: I have found that if I eat a lot of plant matter I can often identify what’s in the toilet, especially if I have eaten seeds. I have never had that issue with meat.
Additionally, if I eat enough fat I don’t need fiber to keep me regular. The fat does the job.
*Additionally*, studies have shown that the more fiber you eat relative to fat in your diet, the less calcium you are able to absorb because your food runs through your GI tract too quickly. That’s just one mineral. Wonder how many more we are being shorted.
You specify that your wife was vegan but don’t say that you are. You are saving yourself from the worse effects of a low-animal diet by continuing to consume, I’m guessing, dairy and eggs. If you were to cut those out of your diet too, you wouldn’t be here telling us how wonderful you feel. It’s interesting that I read an article not long ago about Alicia Silverstone saying she occasionally cheats with cheese. I’ve heard from other sources that this isn’t terribly uncommon among vegans, probably why they don’t destroy their health sooner.
Nice dig at cats. If you really suspect there are adverse health consequences for a cat eating meat, feel free to put yours on a vegan diet, but get ready to put them down. There is no taurine in plant foods, and without it, a cat will go blind and suffer heart failure.
Personally I find that if I go without the animal foods and the saturated fat, I suffer vitamin shortages and my brain function suffers.
I’m not a different species than you, by the way.
Your colon is as long as a football field… where do you get your infos?
Fat makes you regular??? Jeez…
Football fields are only 5 feet long?
Hi there, as a Registered Dietician, I believe that vegetables and fruits should make up a huge part of the diet. People can be healthy on vegetarian diets. Very low fat diets are not healthy but they may be presrcibed for certain medical conditions. FIBER is healthy. Fat does not replace fiber.
People can be healthy as vegetarians or meat-eaters. Why eat like primals? primals didn’t live as long as we, many died at 30 or 35 before they even had a chance to develop heart diseases and cancer.
Either way you want to avoid junk food, fast food, processed foods, and soft drinks, as well as fluoride.
that being said being VEGAN people usually cut out all fat. Fat is not bad. Fat keeps you warm. fat protects and cushions, you cant live without it.
I understand that you are interested in the topic, but you’d do well to better inform yourself
I’m curious to know what ‘vitamin shortages’ you get when you cut out saturated fat and animal foods, and if you have any solid evidence to back it up?
Actually, it’s a myth that people used to die at 35. That was about the average life expectancy, but that includes a huge amount of infant mortality. In fact, a hunter gatherer who lived past 15 could expect to live to at least 70, assuming they didn’t fall to accident, predation, or human-on-human violence.
I think you need to work on your reading comprehension skills, Dana. It’s pretty clear his point was that obligate carnivores, such as cats, are better able to digest meat quickly than omnivores, such as humans, who have a much longer digestive system. This is in no way a “dig at cats” nor, does it seem, he was suggesting that cats should be placed on a vegan diet!
…….
Hi-
I became vegetarian 2/12 years ago, and became strict vegan 1/1/2 years ago. For me, it has it’s benefits and drawbacks. Before going veg, I ate only meat, dairy, pasta, and bread. Drank a gallon of milk every 2 days, picked the fruits and vegetables out of everything. I was a dancer, and had a muscular build. I was constantly constipated and did not get regular periods. Also, I had a short fuse. Since cutting out flesh, and then all animal by-products, I’ve lost 12 pounds of muscle mass and fat. While I enjoy having a more feminine body (slimmer arms and thighs), much of my strength is gone, along with the elasticity of my skin. I am only 33 and the skin on my arms and knees is equal to that of a 50 year old who has spent years in the sun. I did not have these problems as a vegetarian, only since I’ve become vegan. I do realize that I am not getting enough fats in my diet, as I mainly live on raw fruits and veggies. I have just added virgin coconut oil, eggs from a local farmer (I’ve met the chicken), and am trying to eat more calories in a day. I suspect my cholesterol is dangerously low as I have stopped getting my periods, again, have pains in my arms and legs, find new spider veins daily, and am constantly tired. The only conclusion I can draw at this point is that animal fats are necessary, but not flesh. Consumption of these fats should be daily, but accompanied with lots of fiber, to help it through the intestines. Any thoughts?
Had you considered that perhaps it wasn’t the subtraction of meat, but the addition of vegetables to your diet that benefited you? Constipation is generally caused by a lack of fiber, which comes from… you guessed it! Veggies!
If she’s typical of the average American, she ate all that junk but was afraid to eat too much fat because it was “unhealthy.”
I can avoid constipation without eating lots of fiber simply by getting enough fat in my diet (butter, cream, coconut oil, etc.). Eating fiber, particularly cereal fiber, has less than salutary effects on my health. The cereal fiber can actually make me back up, as it were. The vegetable fiber makes things move through entirely too fast. If I can identify what’s in the toilet, it’s had too short a transition time. I don’t eat food only to have it do me little to no good nutritionally because I dumped it too soon.
“I’ve met the chicken”… whether I agree with you or not, that line is CLASSIC!
ALL–Please see the CHINA STUDY if you have not,
(milk and meat cause cancer);
dancer lady:–please eat nuts and seeds,
and all yes white flour is = sugar and is a waste,
try eating RAW FOODS veg as much as possible.
ray
CHINA STUDY:
http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/China-Study.html
“casein, and very likely all animal proteins, may be the most relevant cancer-causing substances that we consume.”
Then:
“Whey protein appears to have a protective effect against colon cancer that casein does not have.” So which is it? Campbell argues that since Cassein is bad, all animal proteins are bad… but whey is good? last I checked, Whey comes from milk aka animal.
And my favorite quote from the above link which looks at the data Campbell “used” to make his assumptions:
“Sugar, soluble carbohydrates, and fiber all have correlations with cancer mortality about seven times the magnitude of that with animal protein, and total fat and fat as a percentage of calories were both negatively correlated with cancer mortality.”
Campbell is an advisory board member for the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine, which has ties to PETA… interesting that he wrote a book claiming that eating animals will kill you.
http://rawfoodsos.com/category/china-study/
Read it yourself. Not the popular book that misrepresented the data in the survey.
Hope you don’t eat wheat. Meat was not linked with disease, but wheat sure was.
Amen!! Meat and Milk DO cause cancer, and the best nutrients; all you will ever need, can be found in nature from nuts, beans, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Becoming vegan stopped my constant calorie counting, watching carbs, etc. My energy zipped up, no longer depressed, skin glows, never ever feel deprived. You couldn’t make me it anything from an animal. Sadly Kharma from eating animals is heart disease, cancers and unhealthy weight gain. I highly recommend you read the kind diet…will WAKE you up!
And you’re citing Alicia Silverstone as a nutritional expert? Please at least choose a reputable veg nutrition source to cite when making these claims. (I can think of a few that, though certainly not what I consider to be ideal, are loads better than that book.)
I’m formerly vegan, and did everything “right”… but my cholesterol went down when I put some grass-fed, local meat back into my diet. My blood sugar and blood pressure also went down. All this before I cut out sugar and grains. Now that I’m off grains, sugar, and most legumes I’ve lost body fat and my “numbers” have gotten even better. (Of course, much of that may be due to the fact that I am severely intolerant to gluten and moderately intolerant to soy.)
Is that why vegetarian east indians have one of the highest rates of heart disease in the world?
Hi Ray-
Thanks for the note. I don’t eat any refined products and do live mainly on raw fruits and veggies. I do realize the risks of consuming meats and dairy, aside from the fact that I would never expect something to die so that I could have a particular taste in my mouth. There are conflicting views and studies about whether flesh consumption is a health risk, but I would be more than willing to read the article in question. Can you send me a link? I won’t eat animals again, but I do need to get a lot more calories and fats. I am severely malnourished and my cholesterol is too low. Any ideas about how I could raise it?
Thanks,
Toni Ann
“I would never expect something to die so that I could have a particular taste in my mouth.”
So plants aren’t alive? Then why do you eat them? They wouldn’t have anything your body could use if they weren’t biological organisms.
I’ve actually had veg*ns tell me that bugs dying in a crop field aren’t a big deal because their nervous systems are less developed than those of mammals.
Not that mammals don’t die in plant agriculture too.
That sort of ‘reductio ad absurdam’ argument is indicative of an absence of sensible argument.
As a reasonably-strict vegetarian, it annoys me no end to see vapid straw-man argumentation – using some starch-hounds as an example of dumb veganism simply shows that a goodly swathe of Americans are cultish idiots… it doesn’t show anything else whatsoever.
Plants are most certainly ‘alive’ in that they have demonstrable biological processes.
However to the extent that we are able to determine, they don’t appear to be SENTIENT. They don’t demonstrate any tendency to minister to their young; they show no social attributes that we can discern; they seem not to interact.
They don’t seek to escape harm (‘fight or flight’ is not ‘instinct’… it is prima facie evidence of awareness of mortality and a desire to escape injury or death).
If you’re only concerned about the projection of things into R4 (space-time – the bits of the universe that we experience directly) then that’s sufficient evidence that there is less ‘harm’ done in ‘killing’ a carrot than in killing a bunny. (Then again, you could easily make the argument that the carrot’s projection into R4 is less important to the carrot, than the bunny’s is to the bunny). Note that the idea of dimensions other than the R3-plus-time that we experience directly, is uncontroversial and has nothing to do with ‘New Age’ tripe or whatever.
I’ll try to phrase this simply: I’m vegetarian – EVEN IF it imposed some slight adverse health consequences (which I’m confident it doesn’t) – because I do not want to be responsible for the deliberate killing of something that thinks.
The key there is deliberate: it would be possible to make tofu in such a way as to reduce TO ZERO the probability of killing a verifiably-sentient being; the same cannot be said for a pork-chop.
The argument “well, we evolved eating meat” is as ludicrous as the phrase “we evolved with institutionalised chattel slavery”. We evolved – naturally – FROM thsoe states… and we evolved or are evolving – socially and technologically – AWAY FROM the requirement to do so.
All things – from nutrition to social relations – are subject to cost-benefit analyses.
Slavery eventually became too costly (although as usual Americans were about 100 years behind the civilised world) – for two reasons: first, people stopped believing that underclasses (both white and African) were ‘less than human’; second, economics as a paradigm began to make clear that voluntary exchange was superior – in terms of productivity – to forced labour. (It was only later that ‘capital deepening’ gave even more impetus to what we now call the Industrial Revolution.)
The sole justification – in benefit-cost terms – of continuing to eat meat is that vegetarian and vegan options cannot adequately replace the MOUTH FEEL of meat; there is no longer any nutritional tradeoff worth remarking upon (so long as the vegetarian has an IQ above 80, and an internet connection).
I am fully aware of the ‘mouth feel’ issue – my ‘fake beef rendang’ does not substitute perfectly for the real thing (and from time to time I do miss the real thing… just as I miss duck confit and bacon and eggs on toast; not because I’m failing to acquire nutrients, but because I liked the taste and feel).
So then the question becomes: are there people who would continue to eat meat, even if there existed a way to PERFECTLY replicate both the nutritional profile and the mouth-feel of all types of meat?
The answer, sadly, is yes. They are people with the mentality of a 5’5″, 120lb Frenchman who think that there is some vicarious masculinity that can be had by eating flesh.
I think I am in love with you.
Please another excuse to bash choice to live a Vegan lifestyle… you are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts, now it is bugs you are killing… Visit a livestock processing plant and then tell me how you feel about eating a steak, porkchop or a chicken only then will I understand your desire to poison your body.
to the tired vegetarian-
sounds like you’re seriously lacking in the b vitamin department, aside from others. i’ve been veg for over 10 years, so i have been through a lot of the same symptoms… cramping in the limbs sounds like you need some potassium. some may tell you that being tired is obviously a lack of protein, but it could be a lack of b vitamins as well.. it is something that is really hard to get from non meat sources. you should really research it. it can really put a deficit in building and retaining healthy muscles. fats really do keep the skin plump and glowing. try some avocados, and there’s nothing wrong with a little olive oil.. or olives! i’ve been reading in a dietetics text that some veggies have vitamins that are easier absorbed when NOT in the raw form, by the way. an example may be carrots.. you may want to look things like this up before you just start eating what people tell you to! there are some amazing resources out on the web. google search! i hope you feel better soon. with proper fuel, as a fellow vegetarian, i believe you should be able to lead a healthy and active lifestyle.
oh, and i’m not a dietitian, but all i really do is study dietetics. i have had a lot of issues in the past that you describe, and if you’d like my email address, i’d be happy to help you!
-liz
From Personal experience I have tried several times in my younger days to go vegetarian believing the stories about meat causing osteoporosis, cancer, colon problems etc. All 3 times I wound up losing muscle mass, feeling lethargic, and generally miserable. I was the “Skinny Fat” Person. A year ago I gave up all processed prepackaged foods. I now regularly eat organic, free range, hormone free beef, chicken, and bison and wild fish and I have never been happier or healthier. I know that most people who turn vegetarian do in fact loose weight and feel better or conquer their chronic health problems. But it probably has more to do with the fact that they are cutting out the heavily processed foods,instead opting for natural whole foods and dramatically increasing their intake of veggies and fruits and whole unprocessed grains and legumes. I know quite a few people who are or have turned vegetarian and for all of them it has been an entire dietary overhaul not just cutting meat out of their lives. Anybody is going to feel bad if they are eating nutritionally deficient starchy sugary foods. I resepect that some people give up meat for ethical reasons and I personally will only by meat from local farms where I can actually talk to the people who raised it and can assure me that it is treated kindly. But I think most vegetarians who do so for “Health” reasons would be surprised what would happen if they incorporated sensible portions of healthy meat into their diets. It’s not the great evil it the proponents of vegetarianism have made it oot to be.
“who raised it and can assure me that it is treated kindly”
Raised “it”, and, “treated kindly”, that is until ‘”it” was slaughtered to feed me…..’
Geez!!!
Hiya Kelly.
To me it indicates that you didn’t properly ‘research’ your forays into vegetarianism.
I’m 6’1″, 230lb, and easily as strong as I was when I ate meat (which I did non-stop for about 42 years). In the past I was carrying too much fat (not due to meat; I ate WAY too much white bread. Thankfully I never drank fizzy drinks).
After 2 years of reasonably-dedicated vegetarianism (I lapsed, btu I do so less frequently now) I can still bench my bodyweight with ease (my bench warmup weight is 130 and I squeeze out 8 reps at 230lb for 5th and final set), my beep test is 10 (even when I’m being lazy), my RHR is 60 or slightly under. I’m even more flexible than I was (although when I was 18 I could do a full split… that’s a goal for year-end 2011).
When I finally decided to go veggie (due to pressure from The Lovely, who has graced my life lo these past 19 years)… I decided that we would do it in the most well-researched way possible. All large change should proceed after due diligence – whether it’s taking on a mortgage, going back to school or changing your diet drastically.
That’s the same paradigm that we deploy in all things – which is why even before going veggie we both understood that
* sugar and refined carbs were the primary culprit in most lives (insulin control is important);
* saturated fat was not bad for you;
and so on… stuff nobody has an excuse for not knowing (there is a terrific presentation on YouTube called “Sugar: the bitter Truth” by an endocronologist called Lustig that goes into detail about the lipid hypothesis, why it’s a fallacy; how isocaloric is not isometabolic and so on… there’s also a superb series by the guy who produced ‘Fat Head’).
We tailored our diet to absolutely maximise nutrition – going as far as using channa dal instead of regular chickpeas (garbanzo beans); channa dal has a GI of about 8-12, is high protein, high fibre and we eat plenty of it; between that and tofu (in recipes of such variety and spice that your toes would curl; my lianbian duofu si) we are proteined out the wazoo (and our protein has a PDCAAS of 1.00-1.06, BV of 91-96… BOTH of those measures are superior to lean beef or chicken).
We eat VAST amounts of green vegetables, salads and probably way too many potatoes (The Lovely is a fan of the tater in all its forms; for me it’s simply a tasty, crispy vector for transporting salt and fat into my body).
We make sure that the non-haem iron in our veggies is made bio-available thanks to eating them with things that have VitC in them.
The ONLY thing that we supplement: iodine. (The Lovely used to supplement Iron, but fixing the non-haem problem fixed that).
There is no reason that a person of average intelligence can’t adequately prepare themselves for vegetarianism (or even veganism); it requires some small amount of research (maybe half an hour a week), but once that’s done it’s all about finding any of the VAST amount of sensational, varied, spicy, yummy vegetarian recipes that are out there.
@GT – I really appreciated reading your thoughtful replies.
I have been a vegetarian for 9 years and I admit to doing exactly what you say – jumping in without doing proper research.
My general health did improve straight away after becoming a vegetarian, but over time I began to notice that my body was transforming in the wrong direction – towards skinny-fat.
Completely my fault, however, and not the diet. I lead a totally sedentary lifestyle while chomping down excessive carbs, thinking that becoming a vegetarian was like some magic cape that shielded me from poor lifestyle and dietary choices.
For me, I’m a vegetarian b/c I find meat disgusting, so returning to meat was just not an option. That predicament finally forced me to do what I should have done in the beginning – educate myself. I began to read through vegetarian bodybuilding sites and really learned about proper nutritional balance.
Now, I keep my carbs in check and got over my fear of healthy fats. My diet consists of ~50% fats, 25% protein, 25% carbs. I’m doing much better now.
I lift heavy several times a week using the HIT method, and one thing of which I am now convinced – you can grow muscle and make healthy gains on a vegetarian diet. Again, healthy fats are your friend here.
I still have some work to do, but definitely going in the right direction. I just wanted to basically confirm what you are saying – a vegetarian lifestyle is totally viable IF you do your due diligence and educate yourself about your new lifestyle FIRST.
Thanks for raising the issue. So true.
Hi! Quick question – do you skip the legumes/beans as a protein source with a 50% fat 25% protein 25% cabs ratio? Any suggestions on other veg friendly protein sources, apart from hemp?
I understand that vegetables have protein in them, but I do want to up it up and I am having difficulty doing so considering I am sensitive to soy and I am trying to go as primal as I can. I currently leech off of my husband’s whey protein powder for post workout smoothies (fine a vegan mortal sin haha), and it really drastically helped me get out of being skinny fat. My husband is suggesting adding egg whites, too but I guess it would take a lot from me emotionally to switch my diet.
Would appreciate your thoughts on this.
Thanks!
Finally, intelligence in the midst of “but you kills plants and bugs” – so ridiculous! I agree with you 100%, changing your diet does require due diligence. Do your research (thanks for some of your tips listed). There is enough negativity in the world than for meat eaters and vegetarians to take a defensive stand. It’s all about conscious eating. If you’re conscious and are happy with your health choices and your body tells you you’re one healthy babe – good for you. I go to these sights for insight and information. And luckily, sometimes I find it. But some of the posts are highly amusing, if nothing else!
Second vote on the ‘China Study’.
At the very least look it up on Amazon. There’s never been a larger scale study done on the effects of animal protein on the development of cancer and heart disease – well written and worth a few days of your time!
The popular book available on Amazon misconstrues the actual data in the actual study. Campbell’s own data disprove his conclusions.
Click on my name for a link, go read the numbers for yourself.
I was curious about that argument that protein leeches calcium out of the bones. The gist of the argument is that eating too much protein causes you to slide into a metabolically acidic state, and you need calcium to buffer the acid, so it gets taken out of your bones.
The trouble is that we don’t really understand, as yet, the relationship between blood calcium levels and how much is still left in the bones. We can see the loss after it’s happened, but this is an area we need to research more.
Besides, in my reading up on the subject I found out something very interesting: Calcium is not the only buffering agent the body uses. It also uses a certain amino acid which–get a load of this–occurs primarily in animal foods!
So it would seem Nature had this particular food nice and packaged up for us already, and we really didn’t have anything to worry about.
There’s also the point that if you use the bones of the animal, which our ancestors did, you can make broth out of them or simply gnaw on them and get a nice little natural calcium supplement that way. Once again balancing out any “buffering” your body might need to do. Go figure.
One thing I’m just not seeing in the several comments I just read is the impact that mass-producing meat has on our environment. The methane gas, the toxic runoff and waste, the chemicals used on the ‘aberrant’ animals to keep them alive and fat, the amount of water (2500 gals total per lb!), the land needed to grow the grain (which is an unnatural feed for animals)and the inhumane way these animals are raised and killed!
Being vegetarian, vegan or a raw foodist is a personal choice based on many different reasons. The stories told by people who had poor health with these lifestyles either needed a certain amount of animal protein based on their constitutions, or weren’t knowledgeable about how to get enough plant protein and fats in their diets.
I believe everyone has individual dietary needs and you just have to listen to your body. If you aren’t able to fully understand what it requires for a proper vegetarian or vegan diet, than eat meat but know where it comes from (the closer to you the better), how it was killed (visit the farm) and in small quantities (a side dish, not main dish)which means paying big bucks for quality organic, humanely-raised meat.
It is each person’s obligation to become aware of how your food reaches your table, which may compel you to make major changes. My husband and I chose to become (fish/egg) eating vegetarians because affording the highest quality organic humanely raised meat was too exorbitant. Now that we’re mostly vegetarian, we wouldn’t eat meat even if we could afford it, we just don’t desire it anymore.
But we have meat eating constitutions, so I make sure we have lot’s of beans and lentils and nuts, etc. And humanely raised organic eggs and organic butter and Alaskan wild salmon (visit http://www.seafoodwatch.org for healthy and environmentally safe fish choices).
Each of us have a responsibility to be diligent about becoming Aware and gaining Knowledge in everything we do so we can make better choices for ourselves and our planet.
Fish and eggs are not in the vegetarian diet.
Well, I am a vegetarian but let’s be clear that the paleos are not advocating the type of animal production that you’re talking about. I respect that authentic paleos are leading the push toward free range and organic animal farming methods, which is a major step in the right direction for both animals and the planet. Personally, I would not eat animals under any circumstances, but other people are not going to stop eating them, so I’d certainly prefer that they were at least eating free range/organically/locally grown animals.
There are a couple of things that need to be cleared up. Dr McDougall is promoting a whole foods plant based diet, which happens to be Vegan. I have been vegan for several years, and my choice to do so was for compassionate reasons. I looked at the cruelty involved in the production of animal products and decided it was wrong for me to partake in that. I do the best that I can to avoid using all animal products. It is important on any diet to eat a variety of foods. Just because you are vegan doesn’t mean you are healthier. If you are just eating fruit & veg, you probably arent’ getting enough calories, so you need to make sure you add nuts, grains, seeds, beans, lentils etc to the mix. If you’re eating fast food, junk or processed foods, you are also not getting proper nutrition. That goes for everyone.
You have to understand that Dr McDougall’s followers are often people who have followed the SAD (Standard American Diet)diet for decades, are overweight and plagued by many health issues and are looking for a cure. His diet recommendations do work, you can hear that from people who have followed his recommendations.
To make claims that vegans are unhealthy, have bad skin and are losing muscle mass is just silly generalizations. That’s like saying all meat eaters are unhealthy. There are many healthy, vibrant vegans out there, I count myself as one of them.
I have never seen a healthy vibrant looking vegan- not to say you are not one – I just have not seen one- all I have encountered are stringy haired, pasty faced and underweight. I am a semi- veg – no animal flesh – but I do eat fish, shrimp, salmon and occasionally (very occasionally) chicken… I do not consider myself perfectly healthy – but at 76 still running around the arena chasing my horse = playing with him, riding him and enjoying life with only one rx (thyroid)
You obviously have never seen my daughter then. Very vibrant!
Well said Mary. I could not agree more. The statistics of heart disease, cancer, diabetes is staggering in the US and can mainly be attributed to the Standard American Diet (SAD) filled with processed foods stripped down to have little or no nutritional value. It is exceptional to note that this statistic is not found in other geographical areas. However, they adopt similar health problems when emigrating into the US. What happened here? It cannot be explained by genetics. The article erroneously claims that there have not been cultures with strict plant based diets. Obviously, the author is not familiar with the “Blue Zone” concept.
A diet has to be varied and rich in nutrients. There are unhealthy vegans/vegetarians/omnivores/carnivores. I cannot imagine any doctor prescribing a diet rich in simple carbs, unhealthy fats, sodium and cholesterol.
I am a very healthy vegan, with amazing skin, hair, more energy than my counterparts, choosing good nutritious food, plant based, minimally processed, with no simple carbs, sugars or sodium. You will find lower rates of disease from vegans than you would with those that follow the Standard American Diet.
Avoiding meat because you “cannot ethically take the life of another to feed yourself” is an irrational and untenable argument. Vegans consume plant life, which is just as wonderful, highly evolved, and elegant as animal life. What is the difference between plants and animals with respect to evolutionary and biological signifance? None. There’s no rational argument to make regarding why one non-human life form should die for our sake and another should not.
No one wishes to see animals suffer—the shepherd has a responsibility to his flock—but how do we know that plants do not suffer when we kill them? Is the suffering of plants more ethically defensible than the suffering of animals? If so, I’d like to hear the argument. But save your time because we all know that the difference is one of a human bias towards other creatures like us. The emotional bias is a widespread feeling, but we can’t build systems of ethics and morality on feelings. We need logic and reason for that.
And finally, anyone who argues that farming soy and grains is more sustainable than, for example, huge herds of free-ranging cattle and bison, has completely forgotten—or never knew—that the prairies of the American midwest were once home to some of the richest plant diversity in the temperate latitudes. But it’s gone now, ripped away to feed our insatiable appetite for cheap and unhealthy carbohydrates. And the residues of that farming is drifting down the Mississippi, killing life at the delta. Think about that the next time you bite into a faux-meat soy burger.
So my advice to vegans and vegs: dump the sanctimony and eat some meat. We’ll all be better off for it.
Even if one took this argument seriously, even if one cared primarily for “plant suffering” then aside from starving to death, the best thing would be a vegan diet. Otherwise, the plants would just be fed to an animal before you ate them, and that would require a lot more plants than simply eating the plants in the first place.
Oh, how sad that you know nothing about science. Okay, how can I put this in baby words so you’ll understand? You see, animals, like you, me, my cat, cows, pigs, monkeys, etc. have these things called nervous systems. That means that they have brains and nerves, and those nerves are connected to the brain in complex ways. That means that animals can feel this thing called pain! Just like we feel pain! Isn’t that interesting? Unfortunately, although plants are incredibly complex, they do not possess nervous systems. At all. Not even a little bit.
When you observe a plant doing something that seems like it might be the result of sentience, that’s something we call a chemical reaction. You see, the presence of all sorts of things, like water and nitrogen and carbon dioxide and light, can cause chemical reactions in the seeds and leaves and reproductive organs (ie. flowers and fruit) of plants. These chemical reactions might look like they are being caused by a nervous system reacting to elements, but sadly that is patently false.
Hope that cleared things up for you! Oh yeah, and I was raised by an incredibly well-respected neuroscientist, so you can probably rely on this basic knowledge of biology. I mean, I know that you actually won’t, which is sad and hilarious, but I just thought I’d put it out there.
Anabel,
Let’s say that you were an astronaut that landed on an unfamiliar planet. You found life forms there that were also quite unfamiliar, unlike anything you’ve ever seen. How would you know whether or not these life forms had the same rights to life and property that you yourself have? It’s an important question. You have to know how to treat these creatures. Perhaps even your life depends on your judgment.
Would you use biological criteria alone to make this decision, as your tirade above suggests that we should, or would you use something else to go by? Remember that you don’t know anything about the biology of these life forms. Moreover, you do not have an army of father-neuroscientists, well-respected or otherwise, to help you make a determination regarding the rights of these creatures. How will you act towards these creatures and why?
GASP! Oh no! Your ridiculous hypothetical question has torn down my entire scientific argument! Excuse me while I go cry in a corner.
Listen dude. I don’t give a flying fuck about magical hypothetical life forms, nor do I care about the sort of magical spiritual pain that idiots purport plants to suffer. That’s bull. Animals and plants are controlled by chemical reactions, and by a few flukes of evolution animals ended up with nervous systems. Plants didn’t. End of f@#$ing story.
Oh, and also? Don’t give me some argument about respecting the “rights to life and property” of imaginary life forms. None of the people supporting a carnivorous lifestyle give a fuck about the “rights to life and property” of our fellow animals, animals whom we know, scientifically, to feel pain and pleasure and sadness and joy just like ourselves. So yeah, maybe I can’t understand some untouchable, imaginary, non-chemical level of spiritual pain experienced by plants, and therefore am causing suffering. But I’m limiting the suffering that I KNOW I can prevent: the concrete suffering, the real suffering, the totally not bullshit, experience, lived suffering of animals who are caged and tortured and murdered for no reason every single fucking day.
Also, I object to hypothetical situations. They make me want to punch someone in the face.
First off, cursing and threats do not make an argument any more relevant and so should stop now. I understand this may be an emotional topic for you, but no one will take you seriously with that attitude.
I find it interesting that no one has mentioned the number of animals slaughtered in the name of a vegetarian diet. Whenever grain is farmed hundreds of animals (mice, gophers, rabbits, etc.) are killed by the combines. Hawks and coyotes typically follow the combines to reap the benefits of all the deaths. When this is mentioned, vegetarians will argue that they did not intend to kill the animals so it is not as bad. Somehow I doubt the rabbit who sliced open and bleeding to death would really be concerned about your intentions.
And the argument that animals require a few lbs of grain to make a pound of flesh (the common 10 lbs to 1 lb that vegetarians claim is a myth btw) becomes moot if you eat free range and grass fed animals, which it turns out are much healthier to consume anyway. In addition, since the primal diet shuns grain based food it could be argued that people who eat a primal diet may actually be killing less animals than the common vegetarian.
The cruelty free arguments make sense against the SAD, but aren’t as relevant against the primal diet. In any event, the claim that a vegetarian diet is cruelty free is a fantasy.
As a side note, I can see where Mike is coming from. Plants are just as evolved and complex as we are. Just because they haven’t evolved a warning system for pain does not mean they have any less a right to life than we do. Again, the point is that life depends on death no matter how you look at it. Some people do not like this fact, but it’s unavoidable.
Also, I forgot to mention, I was a vegatarian for 13 years up until a few months ago. And I was a vegetarian for ethical reasons. I knew the vegetarian diet was unhealthy and jumped through all kinds of hoops to ensure I got somewhat adequate nutrition. In fact I would often tell people that I didn’t care if I didn’t live as long if it meant that animals would not die so I could live.
What happened? I moved from California to Michigan. The town I now live in is a farming community. When I told people about why I was vegetarian, the farmers would laugh at me and explain how many animals were killed every time they ploughed their fields. It was hard for me to accept that I could not live a cruelty free lifestyle. But it was also apparent that if I was not able to live cruelty free then I should not also allow my own health to suffer.
On the subject of biology, irrespective of whether plants feel pain or not, have we forgotten the simple fact that we are humans, mammals. Rejecting meat and animal produce is akin to rejecting your own humanity, just ridiculous!
While we can mostly agree that the SAD is not the way to go, the vegetarian/vegan route is just another extreme that some may look into but not take seriously over the long term.
Until the human body evolves to the point that it is in fact no longer mammal, it will always require animal saturated fats for optimal health.
Off to hunt and gather down the supermarket!
Anabel, you rock. So nice to hear someone mock the silly arguments of a meat eater. I’ve heard them all over the past 14 years but have got fed up trying to fight meaty myths with common sense, morals and values. And as for being a bit scrappy in the delivery of your argument, who can blame you. How come meat eaters think they can talk utter crap without some come back? You keep going. Just wish I was as articulate as you x
So, Rosie, do you also share Anabel’s desire “to punch someone in the face” for words written by a total stranger? If so, I would request that you share with us a little about your “common sense, morals, and values,” such as they are.
Please reply before my steak goes cold.
Love, mikehell
You are incorrect. The midwest prairies are gone because of increasing numbers of cattle to feed the masses, and the subsequent increase in plant agriculture–hay, alfalfa, etc.–to fee them.
Cattle aren’t fed wheat so for whom do you imagine that prairie-destroying grains are grown? Read Lierre Keith’s “The vegetarian myth” to correct your misunderstanding.
I hate the thought of killing animals to feed me, but I do eat meat, chicken and fish – because I like the taste. To compare a plant to an animal is ridiculous. Plants don’t have faces with big eyes that look at you wondering what your intentions are. If I had to kill my own meal, I would fast become a vegetarian. Never have understood why eggs and cheese are “bad”. No animal dies producing them. Just sayin’
You forgotten that most of that soy, corn and wheat are fed to animals and not humans.
I gained weight as a vegetarian as well. I’ve never much cared for beef or pork. Pork kind of makes me feel ill. I’ve added back in poultry but one thing I learned when I was a vegetarian was that I need to pay more attention to what I’m putting into me. I ate those breads and pastas. I was tired lots. Now, transitioning to a cleaner eating and maybe someday attempting to eat a mammal again, maybe. It’s still a struggle to eat clean but three week step at a time and I’ll get there. Best thing now, I’m never so tired and I dont get so drained with my workouts even though I stopped the whey supplement. Even before with the supplement as a vegetarian, I would get wiped out so quickly.
I just fail to see what’s so unique or new about your caveman diet thing. It seems nothing more than a cross between Atkin’s, and the same, tired ‘whole foods instead of processed’ approach.
I’m sure it’s healthy and will be great for most people, but it’s just..not new or earth-shattering.
We already know vegetables, lean protein and unprocessed foods are best, and that healthy fats are essential (they’re like, even called ‘essential fatty acids)
That’s really just a lot of common sense dressed up as some radical return to nature.
The Primal Blueprint is not just about eating. It’s a lifestyle. Yes, it sounds just like common sense, but then there are a lot of common sense based diets. Since PB gives detailed rules about what and how much to eat, we needed a name for this specific set of “common sense based” rules, and that name is PB. Cheers ^_^
McDougall is up to his old tricks again, this time with a new book called “The Starch Solution.” It is simply amazing what this guy tries to get pass off as healthy living. It’s as if recent scholarship on the problem of metabolic health regarding insulin sensitivity, glucose metabolism, and the like have not even crossed his desk. Moreover, he apparently believes that human history began about 11 thousand years ago. Not an uncommon belief but definitely a problematic one when considering the role of history in shaping human physiology. This man must be stopped.
Read his most recent newsletter here (if you can stand it).
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2009nl/feb/starch.htm
I would die on this diet in about three weeks.
It’s all about bio-individuality and honoring what works for our bodies. Our biological needs change as we age, and our diets need to be tweaked as much as our workouts do. I agree w/ some of the previous posts that anyone on the S.A.D who makes a switch- whether to raw vegan, ovo-lacto veg, pescatarain, paleo or primal will enjoy tremendous heatlh benefits. Eliminating processed, chemicalized, artifical junk “food” (cue the Fuming Fuji!) and eating more fresh fruits, veggies, whole grains (sparingly) and lean protein will improve anyone’s constitution. We need to listen to our inner wisdon. Mine is pushing me towards more lean protein (with a little help from my personal trainer & naturopath) and away from fewer whole grains & dairy. Once I read my goals I may be able to add some “sensible vices” back- or I may not want to. Staying flexible is the name of the game.
I have heard many vegans claim that they are healthier than meat eaters, but the problem is they are comparing themselves to those on SAD. If they would compare themselves to those who eat small amounts of meat along with fresh vegetables, fruits, grains and no processed foods, they would not be able to make that claim. The problem as I see it is not the consumption of meat, but the overconsumption of it. The overconsumption of anything would probably have an adverse affect on health.
Although I was at one point swayed by the notion that farming animals is harmful, after reading _The Omnivore’s Dilemma_ I now see that a healthy farming system (that incorporates not just animals but also wild grasses, trees, insects, etc.) can be a benefit to an ecosystem; also, after reading Dr. Temple Grandin, I now think slaughtering can be done humanely (doesn’t mean it IS, just that it CAN be). (It even occurs to me that if we cease raising animals for food, those species will plummet down to almost nothing in number….)
Hopefully anyone experiencing health issues will take the time and effort to try new, less-processed dietary choice… just doing that will probably help!
Hehe … I am new to this site and just love what I am finding !!! …I had to comment on the McDougall post simpli b/c I lived in that “hell” for five years – and that was almost 10 years ago and I am still suffering the after-shock !
Basically, when I found McDougall, I thought I found the cure to my SAD (Std American Diet) induced lifetime of fluffiness – I DID lose weight and combined with running, looked OK in clothes for a 32 yr old female LOL ..But then came the problems that I directly attribute to 5 years on a lowfat vegan diet ..
1) infertility – cured that eventually with drugs the first time at 35 and a surprise baby at 3 after 2 years on Atkins (hmm)
2) hypothyroid – I have been on thyrod meds for almost 10 years and still have issues there
3) skinny-fat … My picture must be in the dictionary there next to the definition LOL ! … the destruction of lean body mass and metabolic breakdown has been difficult to overcome
4) I have also found that I have some adrenal issues and gluten intolerance … who knows what else ??!!
I lift 4 times and do HIIT twice a week but am still working on the food thing -I have read a bunch of Michael Pollan, Nina Planck etc – good for general food info but not so much on the fitness – Looks like I can finally get it all together here !!
Thanks for all the great info here and I am going to get the book
liz
oh, did I mention that Dr McDougall’s writings persuaded me to consume large quantities of soy ??!! – in all forms – milk esp – I would definitely say that played a large part in all my issues – sigh !!
second baby was at 39 – not 3 – hehe !
and of course you probably know that soy destroys the thyroid? This is espececially dangerous in infants on soy formulas but it applies to adults as well.
yes, I had to learn that the hard way LOL !! What a bill of goods about the soy – grrr
Mark, DeVany and yourself have been a big inspiration to me. As a Type 2 diabetic I started with Atkins in Dec at 266, journeyed through Low carbs IF and now Primal. Clean is the ONLY way to eat- it makes you think (sort of a hunt and gather) about what you put in your mouth. Keeps fast food at bay even when really hungry which IF has stopped dead in its tracks.
Anyway, this starch, veggie meal plan sounds alot like the Lifestyle Center of America folks. I tried that diet for the 30 days and gained 20 lbs, my numbers were off the charts. Bad information to a public that likes to over eat is like pulling a trigger of a gun aimed at their head. Shame on them and their bank accounts.
I followed the McDougall diet, lost over 70 lbs and got off my type 2 diabetic medication. I did full comply with the diet. Before blaming someone else for your eating habits, take the time to look at yours.
meant to add- tipped the scales at 224 this morning. And actually have a body I can remove a shirt and not look like a pig. I give Pavel and kettlebells a huge plus here too.
Keep up the great work.
That was the stupidest vegan diet I’ve heard beyond raw vegans. It’s suppose to be a ratio of 1:1:2 carb:protein:vegetables. That idiot saying carbs were unlimited. He should be sued for malpractice and bludgeoned for being the most misleading vegan leader I’ve heard of so far. Bad enough doing it to yourself wrong but dragging others down with him is just unacceptable. He’s a joke even in the educated vegan community. I’m sorry you had to deal with such a bad example.
“That was the stupidest vegan diet I’ve heard beyond raw vegans.”
Eating a well-balanced raw vegan diet is one of the best things you can do for your body IMHO.
Better get all the facts. All vegetables cannot be eaten RAW. Vegetables are a life form that has in place biological systems that keep predators from preventing it to reproduce. Cellular walls, seeds, etc are not digestible as a defense mechanism. Most Grains are as foreign a substances as anything there is on this planet to put in your body. At least cooking allows the body to absorb then plant as food. Now some raw veggies are okay some of the time but never all the time. Get both sides of the story and see for yourself. I love vegetables- raw tomatoes, bell peppers but broc and other stem veggies need to be heated and I never eat grains of any kind.
I don’t think a raw vegan diet is worse cooked vegan diet. I knew a raw vegan. She ate mostly nuts, fruits and vegetables. I don’t think raw vegans eat grains or legumes, if they do, the grains are fermented beyond all recognition. Raw grains and legumes are bad for you, after all. As I understand it, raw vegans are closer to us than any other of those “fringe” diets, they basically eat what we do only it is raw, or dehydrated at a low temperature, and not meat.
When I was a veg for a few years it was the most unhealthy I ever felt. I became anemic, after about two years I began to daydream about meat. This helped me realize maybe my body was trying to tell me something? I feel much better now that I have a balanced diet and have quit demonizing meat.
When I was a non-smoker for a few years it was the most unhealthy I ever felt. I became irritable, after about two years I began to daydream about cigarettes. This helped me realize maybe my body was trying to tell me something? I feel much better now that I have a pack of cigarettes and have quit demonizing them.