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Monday, May 4, 2009
Vegetarians Are Evil
The title for this post was taken from this humorous (but fact based) website: Vegetarians Are Evil.
While the website is a bit over the top, with articles like "Evil Vegetarians in History," the basic facts are pretty well documented.
I've gotten into plenty of arguments with vegans and vegetarians over the years about what is or is not a "healthy" diet.
I got into a protracted debate in the comment section with a few vegans at self-proclaimed libertarian (though she voted for Obama...go figure) Megan McCardle's blog, Asymmetrical Information.
In response to one of the vegan's, I wrote the following to once and for all settle the debate. My last post was a thread killer - seems to me all of the vegans and veg-heads couldn't respond at all. Here's what I wrote:
Everyone is entitled to make their own food choices.
Everyone is free to proselytize their lifestyle choices to try to convince others to follow them.
Please recognize that the human body has evolved or was created (whichever you believe) to be OMNIVOROUS.
Physiologically, our dental structure has incisors designed specifically for tearing flesh. We also have stomachs that produce hydrochloric acid.
These are physiological traits that are ONLY found in omnivorous and carnivorous species on the planet. Therefore, it requires no morality judgment or contention to say that consuming animal protein is quite natural and healthy, provided the source animals are natural and healthy.
Therefore, whether you believe in a religion based on the worship of an Omnipotent Deity or Deities as your source for moral principles, or if you are a Darwinist evolutionary atheist/agnostic/humanist, understand that you were designed to eat, digest and live off of animal protein. The physiological facts are indisputable.
Equating animals to humans or the predation of prey species as some kind of moral question is UNNATURAL.
Even if you cannot bear the idea of an animal dying to promote your own subsistence, there are still plenty of means of obtaining the vital animal protein's YOUR OMNIVOROUS BODY REQUIRES - humanely raised, free range organic chicken's allowed to eat their natural, omnivorous diet provide high quality eggs full of protein and essential fatty acids. Milk and milk fat produce derived from free range, pastured cows NOT PASTEURIZED, also provide a whole range of beneficial food products that your body will thrive on. And neither require cruelty or "exploitation." In fact, both sources require excellent husbandry of these animals to provide the highest quality foods that promote health and vitality.
On the question of environmentalism - the modern large scale industrial methods of producing meat and produce are harmful to the environment, inhumane to the animals, and provide substandard and even harmful "food."
Cows were not meant to be confined to feed lots, wallowing in their own offal and eating grains. They were designed/evolved to eat grass on pasture land - in which they exist in perfect symbiosis with their natural environment. They're eating the food they were designed/evolved to, and their offal fertilizes the land they just grazed, promoting new growth of the grass they just consumed. Also, naturally pastured cows provide milk and meat with high levels of Vitamin D, Conjugated Linoleic Acids and Omega-3 fatty acids...as well as Vitamin B12 - the one Vitamin your body absolutely needs, but cannot obtain through strict vegetarian diets.
Vegans and Vegetarians will often point to the produce of the Big Corporation Meat Production industries, their environmentally degrading feedlots and unhealthy reliance on preservatives and chemicals to extend shelf life and maximize profits as an indictment of all carnivorous dietary practices. This is akin to saying one should avoid eating all Spinach, simply because some unethical farmers spray neuro-toxic pesticides and use cholera-infected human feces as fertilizer on their Spinach crops.
There is a huge distinction in health and environmental benefits/detriments when discussing ANY food production techniques. But to say one's entire diet should be based on avoiding an entire class of food simply because SOME sources of that food are produced in an inferior and harmful manner is to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater.
Another physiological point of consideration is the bodies requirement of proteins and fats. Vegans and Vegetarians think plant based substitutes are adequate and/or superior to animal sources of proteins and fats. Soy is the most popular (note Megan's suggestion to add Tofu as a protein source.)
What they often do not know is that Soy for the most part is full of estrogenic isoflavones that upset the bodies hormonal balance and can lead to a whole host of health problems.
This site, Soy Online Service offers a very comprehensive but easy to understand explanation to back up what I just claimed about Soy. There are plenty of other sites dedicated to the health dangers of Soy foods. Google it yourself.
Finally, many vegans and vegetarians are under the mistaken assumption that avoiding animal derived foods is the healthiest diet possible. But even the modern feed lot, preservative laden denatured animal products are healthier for you than the primary culprits of the modern, industrial societies degenerative diseases that are found in abundance in the typical Western societies diets - simple carbohydrates (refined grain products & sugar), trans-fats, chemical preservatives and taste enhancers and the proliferation of vegetable oils that oxidize easily and upset the optimal ratio of Omega 6 and Omega 3 fatty acids.
Here's another article on the Omega 6 and 3 ratio (pdf) and how modern manufactured foods have it completely out of whack: Why Omega-3s Were Removed from the Western Diet and What We Can Do to Replace Them.
Veganism and Vegetarianism is based on emotional appeals (how you FEEL about the animals treatment) rather than an objective look at the scientific facts.
It relies on propaganda and scare tactics to try and convert people into adopting their own dietary practices...because anyone that truly and objectively researches the facts of the matter will come to realize that veganism is not a natural or health-optimizing diet.
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12 comments:
I used to be a veggie (not vegan--there's a difference) when I lived in California. It was easier there, lots of stores/restaurants around to help support you. I had to stop when I moved east back home to Wyo for various reasons, one of which was that I got sick and tired of getting weird looks when I asked for a veggie burger to replace a beef patty.
Another reason is that I wised up to soy, just as you have. There's a huge issue with birth defects and fertility in males out there, and the literature I've read has convinced me that the widespread nature of soy and soy products in the modern diet has altered the in utero and childhood development of boys for the worse.
Another reason is that political vegetarianism is closely allied with the political left. While they have some good ideas about sustainable agriculture and the like, their ideology is totalitarian and they have no qualms with using the club of government to force their opinions and utopian business practices on others.
"What they often do not know is that Soy for the most part is full of estrogenic isoflavones that upset the bodies hormonal balance and can lead to a whole host of health problems."Also known as phyto-estrogens, those isoflavones act in concert with other environmentally available estrogenic compounds (Bis-phenol A, etc.) to serve as quite powerful endocrine disruptor.
Not as prevalent as soy, red clover is also a source of phyto-estrogens. Men and pregant woman definitely need to avoid teas and other herbal mixtures which contain red clover.
Excellent post. You've summed up the entire thing in one well written, succinct post. Hope you don't mind me using this in the future.
I have been an avowed veggie. But the argument of our body being omnivorous or herbivorous is an very interesting topic?
I heard an argument which sticks to the line of veggies. According to that, human beings are veggies as we feel repulsed at the smell of raw meat and taste of blood.
Erik - no problem...just link back to me if you do!
Bhanu -
That's purely a psychological conditioned response. You've convinced yourself that meat and blood are disgusting.
You could get yourself over that self-induced state if you wanted to. Physiologically, we are designed to eat meat, like any other omnivorous species in nature. We have incisors in our dentistry and hydrochloric acid in our stomachs.
If we were meant to be herbivores, we would not have those aspects of our physiological structure.
"Also, naturally pastured cows provide milk and meat with high levels of Vitamin D, Conjugated Linoleic Acids and Omega-3 fatty acids...as well as Vitamin B12 - the one Vitamin your body absolutely needs, but cannot obtain through strict vegetarian diets."
That's exactly what I've tried to tell a few vegans I've discussed this with in person and online---trying to ingest a sufficient amount of them through supplementation and various nuts and beans is difficult even for a typical vegetarian. I do take vitamin D/K/calcium and along with flax oil in addition to non-additive red meat (when possible) and lean chicken---being very physically active calls for it, and I've noticed a change following that.
Being on the athletic edge requires good nutrition, but even the more sedentary need essential amino acids, trace minerals and vitamins and specific fatty acids that are often deficient in picky vegan diets.
We are omnivores because we have neither the teeth a herbivore uses to consume vegetation nor the teeth true carnivores use to eat meat exclusive. Our teeth, jaw structure and digestive tract are designed for a mixed diet just like those of bears, pigs, even canines. Most of our close relatives in the wild are omnivores as well, even though some such as the baboon do have huge and powerful canine teeth. We do not have the jaw structure nor the powerful musculature that a gorilla needs to be able to eat a purely vegetarian diet, and we don't have the large gut necessary for the slow digestion that a true herbivore must have to get nourishment from what it eats. We don't have to eat a great amount of meat to stay healthy, but we have to have some animal protein otherwise we risk serious malnutrition because rarely do vegetables and grains in and of themselves contain all the necessary amino and fatty acids we must have for good muscle, nerve and brain function, to say nothing of the cardiovascular, immune and endocrine system. A chronically bad diet can trigger all sorts of mental and physical problems that can be devastating. If someone cannot eat red meat, or poultry milk, eggs and seafood are sources for that animal protein all of us need for good physical and mental health.
The only thing a vegan could be deficient in is vitamin B12, but luckily for us a deficiency in B12 can take many years to manifest and is easily fixed. Or vegans could just smear their feces onto their food and have no deficiencies, haha.
This talk of not enough of whatever vitamin/mineral is stupid, many people vegan or not are deficient in many things simply because they don't eat properly. Many vegans will eat lots of potato chips or whatever and think they're awesome because there's no meat, while others eat nothing but pies and sausage rolls, both definitely aren't healthy.
If we need meat it is only occasionally. In fact a high protein diet is detrimental to our health and seems to be the leading cause of osteoporosis. There is no need for soy, and who wants to grow man boobs anyway? We can get all the protein we need from other plant sources very easily.
Cow's milk I'd stay away from, too many links to too many problems, for me personally it makes my arse bleed and gives me eczema and breathing problems, heh.
Personally I do hate vegans and vegetarians that do it because of animal cruelty or whatever. I make meat a very small part of my diet, I do think it's needed, but it's not a "steak every night" kind of deal.
We may be omnivores, but we can live longer without meat than we can without plants.
"...as we feel repulsed at the smell of raw meat and taste of blood."
There's nothing I love more then gulping down raw hamburger. The good kind, not the cheapo kind. I also love "raw" bacon, smoked kinda-raw salmon (though I hate the slimy feel...) nice pink steak... but I've not tried anything else for fear of food poisoning. And nothing gets me salivating more then a hunk of raw meat just waiting to be roasted!
ADOLPH HITLER,GANGAS KHAN,CHARLES MANSON,POL POT, and some of histories most infamous vegans that you will never hear about even from READERS DIGEST and certianly not that leftists rag TIME
You have left out an entire sector of vegetarians and vegans: those who consider themselves "welfarists" (in favor of better conditions for animals) as opposed to "abolishionists" (those who see meat consumption as immoral). When you say that vegetarians give up meat entirely because "some" sources are inhumane, it's just not accurate. Most people do not have easy access to humanely raised and slaughtered animals. Unless you know the exact farm your meat is coming from, there is no way to know how the animals are treated. There are essentially no standards in the US for labeling meat of eggs as organic. Free range can mean they saw sunlight for 5 minutes in a day, chickens will still have their beaks sliced with no anesthetic, etc. I've even seen footage of kosher farms breaking essentially every kosher standard.
The dairy industry is directly linked, I won't go into detail because information is easily accessible for those who seek. I will say, however, that just because our bodies are built as omnivores does not mean they are built to consume the milk of another animal. No other mammal does it, and no other mammal drinks their own species milk past nursing. The benefits of milk can all be found in plants as well.
Finally, I would like to address the idea that vegetarian or veganism is unhealthy, when the rates of cancer and diabetes decrease significantly, and vegetarians live longer on average.
Why libertarians should support animal rights:
http://www.strike-the-root.com/4/graham/graham1.html
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