4 ms·

Why do you advise against veganism? Going plant-based was easily one of the more effective ways of becoming healthy for me. It lowered my cholesterol levels and

Why do you advise against veganism? Going plant-based was easily one of the more effective ways of becoming healthy for me. It lowered my cholesterol levels and I think that it was instrumental in lowering my overall cardiovascular risk. I agree with everything else you are saying but I don’t understand why a vegan diet would not be considered a healthy lifestyle change on the same level as keto. From people I have met who do keto they usually increase their meat consumption and usually that includes things like bacon and deli meats which the largest casual link to increased cancer risk https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/10/26/451211964/bad-day-for-bacon-processed-red-meats-cause-cancer-says-who https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/10/26/451211964/ba...

vigilante9 7y ago
> Why do you advise against veganism? There's too much propaganda surrounding it, a lot of which is misinformation. People do the diet, end up feeling terrible, then feel bad for "doing it wrong". It's not a sustainable diet on its own, you have to do supplements and then it's not even clear that all these supplements actually work. Vegan diets aren't all alike of course and nutritional deficiency can be symptomless for the longest time. > Going plant-based was easily one of the more effective ways of becoming healthy for me. What does "healthy" mean? Some number? Do you actually feel good? Do you have good sleep, good digestion? Do have energy all day or do you "crash and burn" with blood sugar spikes? How's your skin? How's your weight? How's your insulin? > It lowered my cholesterol levels and I think that it was instrumental in lowering my overall cardiovascular risk. Perhaps, but the link between cholesterol levels and CV risk isn't as strong as you might think. On the other hand, insulin resistance is strongly linked to many diseases, and grains/sugar are big factors here - many vegans have too much of that. Plants on the other hand aren't very nutritious and many people have trouble digesting them. > From people I have met who do keto they usually increase their meat consumption and usually that includes things like bacon and deli meats which the largest casual link to increased cancer I would advise against eating any processed meat. Keto isn't about meat, it's about switching carbs for fat so you stay in ketosis. Most meat is rather lean, it's easy to get way too much protein in the diet by focusing on the meat. I'm not doing it anymore because it's quite restrictive, but I did feel good on it, definitely makes the fasting easier too.
zackmorris 7y ago
I am against veganism too, but mainly because nutritionally it doesn't match how humans evolved. So for that reason, the only fad diet I really agree with is paleo. That said, everyone is different. I gave up pork 20 years ago for ethical reasons, but ended up with a somewhat rare (at least in the US) meat deficiency because I work out extremely hard but try to eat mostly beans and rice. But I have friends with the same lifestyle as me, but with high cholesterol, who would probably benefit greatly from the mostly plant-based diet I was on. Unfortunately, there are macro nutrients and vitamins that are effectively missing from the plant world: https://inourishgently.com/vegan-depression-tryptophan/ https://inourishgently.com/vegan-depression-tryptophan/ I would honestly love it if we had impossible burgers or almond milk with anywhere near the nutritional content of meat and dairy. But we just aren't there yet. Ethically, I feel a good compromise is to only buy free range eggs and dairy, and try to avoid buying meat in the store. If someone is serving meat (and someone always is), just eat it, because throwing it away is less ethical IMHO.

vigilante9 7y ago

> Why do you advise against veganism? There's too much propaganda surrounding it, a lot of which is misinformation. People do the diet, end up feeling terrible, then feel bad for "doing it wrong". It's not a sustainable diet on its own, you have to do supplements and then it's not even clear that all these supplements actually work. Vegan diets aren't all alike of course and nutritional deficiency can be symptomless for the longest time. > Going plant-based was easily one of the more effective ways of becoming healthy for me. What does "healthy" mean? Some number? Do you actually feel good? Do you have good sleep, good digestion? Do have energy all day or do you "crash and burn" with blood sugar spikes? How's your skin? How's your weight? How's your insulin? > It lowered my cholesterol levels and I think that it was instrumental in lowering my overall cardiovascular risk. Perhaps, but the link between cholesterol levels and CV risk isn't as strong as you might think. On the other hand, insulin resistance is strongly linked to many diseases, and grains/sugar are big factors here - many vegans have too much of that. Plants on the other hand aren't very nutritious and many people have trouble digesting them. > From people I have met who do keto they usually increase their meat consumption and usually that includes things like bacon and deli meats which the largest casual link to increased cancer I would advise against eating any processed meat. Keto isn't about meat, it's about switching carbs for fat so you stay in ketosis. Most meat is rather lean, it's easy to get way too much protein in the diet by focusing on the meat. I'm not doing it anymore because it's quite restrictive, but I did feel good on it, definitely makes the fasting easier too.

zackmorris 7y ago

I am against veganism too, but mainly because nutritionally it doesn't match how humans evolved. So for that reason, the only fad diet I really agree with is paleo. That said, everyone is different. I gave up pork 20 years ago for ethical reasons, but ended up with a somewhat rare (at least in the US) meat deficiency because I work out extremely hard but try to eat mostly beans and rice. But I have friends with the same lifestyle as me, but with high cholesterol, who would probably benefit greatly from the mostly plant-based diet I was on. Unfortunately, there are macro nutrients and vitamins that are effectively missing from the plant world: https://inourishgently.com/vegan-depression-tryptophan/ https://inourishgently.com/vegan-depression-tryptophan/ I would honestly love it if we had impossible burgers or almond milk with anywhere near the nutritional content of meat and dairy. But we just aren't there yet. Ethically, I feel a good compromise is to only buy free range eggs and dairy, and try to avoid buying meat in the store. If someone is serving meat (and someone always is), just eat it, because throwing it away is less ethical IMHO.