3 ms·

I believe you need to have some sort of privilege to switch to a plant based diet. It's not cheap, especially in america where fast food is so accessible, cheap

by kart23 6y ago

I believe you need to have some sort of privilege to switch to a plant based diet. It's not cheap, especially in america where fast food is so accessible, cheap, and satisfying. Fresh produce is expensive and calories per dollar doesnt make any sense. Sure beans and grain sounds great, but in practice gets boring very quickly. I agree with you that switching to a plant based diet is better for the environment and would prevent 99% of these diseases, but most people simply dont have the resources to do so, and the cultural dependence on meat will be near impossible to change.

danans 6y ago
> Sure beans and grain sounds great, but in practice gets boring very quickly. That is basically what Indian food is, and I assure you it's far from boring. Almost too exciting sometimes, IMO.
redisman 6y ago
There's no way it's more expensive in a free (with externalities priced-in) market. Meat eats plants in a very lossy fashion. The main problem for your average Joe is that it's quite hard to get started cooking tasty meals this way. I've tried many times and I can kinda manage with these frozen "patties" and such but it's just hard to flip thousands of years of cooking tradition. You can tell when you have some Ethiopian or Indian veggie food that it's been honed to perfection over centuries. Where I'm from all the dishes include meat or animal fat/broth which is honestly even harder to replace than the protein. When you go from chicken broth or bacon fat to a vegetable broth or coconut butter, it's just a jump too far to make the dish still make any sense and that's the kind of moments where most people give up.
scarmig 6y ago
Most historical foodways across the world involve plant-centered diets providing most sustenance for the majority of the population. We've lost these foodways in the USA, but they're not resource intensive and are, if anything, better suited to mass production and distribution than meats. The issue is that people don't like how they taste compared to meat.

by kart23 6y ago

danans 6y ago

> Sure beans and grain sounds great, but in practice gets boring very quickly. That is basically what Indian food is, and I assure you it's far from boring. Almost too exciting sometimes, IMO.

redisman 6y ago

There's no way it's more expensive in a free (with externalities priced-in) market. Meat eats plants in a very lossy fashion. The main problem for your average Joe is that it's quite hard to get started cooking tasty meals this way. I've tried many times and I can kinda manage with these frozen "patties" and such but it's just hard to flip thousands of years of cooking tradition. You can tell when you have some Ethiopian or Indian veggie food that it's been honed to perfection over centuries. Where I'm from all the dishes include meat or animal fat/broth which is honestly even harder to replace than the protein. When you go from chicken broth or bacon fat to a vegetable broth or coconut butter, it's just a jump too far to make the dish still make any sense and that's the kind of moments where most people give up.

scarmig 6y ago

Most historical foodways across the world involve plant-centered diets providing most sustenance for the majority of the population. We've lost these foodways in the USA, but they're not resource intensive and are, if anything, better suited to mass production and distribution than meats. The issue is that people don't like how they taste compared to meat.