Eat whatever you want, if you do it in moderation it won’t harm you
While I fully know and appreciate that is the institutional position of the medical establishment, instilled into every medical student, and it will not change in any of our lifetimes (unless the 1st World medical care system collapses due to stuff like diabetes, and then only when the existing practitioners retire from the profession), and this position is a tacit acknowledgement of the near-impossibility of countering most peoples’ emotional attachment to food (“politics is the art of the possible”), and much that could be done cannot be done due to PC (complaints against doctors are rising), and you have the lobbying of the multi-BN food industry, there has been mounting evidence for many years to the contrary to this “you can eat anything, in moderation” advice.
Of course 100% vegan is problematic and I would never suggest anybody does it. It is an ideological position, nowadays usually synonymous with left wing politics and all the many variations thereof (the “protest” groups tend to stick together), and has no medical / health justification. I mean, what good will wearing plastic shoes do you?
I recommend watching the video here.
Of course you are right Peter that not all food is equal. Everything that is “industrial produced” (especially sweets, potato chips/crackers etc.) is of very low nutritional value and contains too much sugar and fat. Everything “carb based” such as pasta can be quite easily turned into sugar by the digestive system. Sweet drinks such as Cola or other lemonade are prone to cause diabetes when consumed regularly.
Red meat may increase risk of cancer, but consuming too much of it is also quite harmful to the environment.
In the German medical establishment, the so called Kreta Diät used to be recommended as best practice, called after the German name for the island of Crete. A diet rich in fish, olive oil and vegetables seems to work wonders. The Japanese have the world’s highest life expectancy with a similar diet (without olives though) despite their stressful society…
Reality is finally coming to veganism. Turns out they are very often malnourished, teeth problem, blood problems, “thin, but still fat” and even mental problems. Insomnia, brain fog, gut problems and what’s worse; infertility if taken to the extreme. You see a lot of vegans in their 20’s and early 30’s, mainly women. And when you’re young it works. For awhile. But I can count one one hand the vegans in their 50’s. They simply don’t exist long term, because it’s not sustainable long term. In fact, show me a vegan, any age, that’s be on a strictly vegan diet for 10+ years. Anyone?
Veganism is like cleansing or fasting – it’s not something you can stay on indefinitely. The reality is, for optimum health, you need to eat the way we’ve biologically done for for thousands of years and they way we’re physiologically constructed. All you have to look at is how vegans look – they age prematurely and have enormous problems in both gut, digestion and mental health – they look like shit, frankly.
We are no different than dogs or cats; we are primary carnivores – and herbivores in a pinch. I fully understand the ethical reasons for not eating meat, but there are sustainable and ethical ways of doing so, if you are willing to take responsibility.
Well, we are quite different from cats (who are obligate carnivores, we aren’t). However, I’ve never seen a vegan who looks healthy (on the other hand, vegetarians I know are often in very good shape).
It’s really cooking that made us what we are – a lot of the work in breaking down food is done by the cooking process. A pregnant woman for example won’t get sufficient nutrition from raw food alone (and paleo diets are yet another silly fad, IMHO).
One of my friends who’s a gold medalist paralympic (rowing, and now has moved onto road cycling) quit veganism (which started after olympics I believe) after 3 years and became pecatarian a year ago, and now is looking at eating meat again. We were just discussing it yesterday and apparently his body craves it too much. He also got everyone to tell him he looked much better after he moved to pescatarianism.
But that’s the kind of guy who sometimes does over 100k cycling per day for a week, in the alps, not quite the average pilot :)
I lost about 10kg in 2 month (93 → 83, I’m 1m79) when I stopped eating casseroles and meats in sauces at lunch. Exercise regime had been stable at ~10h/week (some cardio / some strengh) for a couple months. After a couple months I started eating biltong (dried very lean meat) since I needed a high protein intake, and only have gained muscle). My take is nutricionally meat itself didn’t seem to be that bad for me, I just needed leaner meat and especially less casseroles.
I don’t eat a ton of it though, as living in London is hard to buy good quality, and for tastedbud and ethical reasons I try to buy high quality meat. I’ve found old dairy cow meat to be succulent (and in my point of view, fairly ethical) – but I avoid eating it too much as the succulentness is heavily correlated with the amount of marbled fat!
Pure 100% vegan is not possible; e.g. you need B12 to avoid eventual death. I heard the other day that there are some groups which do it 100% and survive, but it is speculated they get B12 via other channels, possibly via food contamination with soil.
My point is that one can do really well on eating mostly plants.
Anything vegan (100% or whatsoever) is simply not healthy and whoever is preaching this, simply doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Vegetarians who intake large quantities of carbs – I’m not sure how healthy this is. It seems that plant based diet requires a lot of planning to balance nutrients. Avoiding processed meat (and processed food in general) is definitively healthy.
It seems that plant based diet requires a lot of planning to balance nutrients
You cannot get them by eating standard commercial “salad” stuff i.e. lettuce and lettuce 
And you aren’t going to get the pictures I posted above in a restaurant. You can get fake vegan burgers and all kinds of trendy stuff…
In general the body will extract the nutrients it needs from food which contains them, so an accurate balance is not required, and would in any case be impossible to establish for a particular person.
MedEwok wrote:
The Japanese have the world’s highest life expectancy with a similar diet (without olives though) despite their stressful society…
On a less serious note:
The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
The French eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
Conclusion: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is what kills you.
And another one:
There are plenty of old alcoholics around, but I have yet to see a single old vegan.
