4 ms·

Hundreds of millions of Asians are vegetarian or vegan. It's not like these diets were invented yesterday.

by Thiez 4y ago

alex_lav 3y ago
If this is your assertion, I'd love to see some data around both the total amount of vegans/vegetarians and studies assessing their overall health.
- lern_too_spel 3y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism_by_country shows that 19% of Asians are vegetarian, meaning hundreds of millions. Multiple studies show vegetarians live longer, but they are correlational.
  - alex_lav 3y ago
    Right. I'm not asking about studies about people that may or may not have chose veganism/vegetarianism at a certain point, but about large groups that exist that way for significant periods of time. People that seek out a certain diet are going to show better quality of life than people that don't, regardless if it's veganism or not.
    - throwaway09223 3y ago
      Approximately 40% of India is vegetarian for religious reasons and have been for an extremely long time - several thousand years. I noticed that while everyone here is discussing vegetarianism, you are discussing veganism -- which is different.
      - alex_lav 3y ago
        Yep, I've been intentional in including veganism, and I've noticed others are bringing up vegetarianism.
        Thiez 3y ago
        I think the difference is largely uninteresting in this debate. Personally I enjoy eating meat and don't see myself giving it up entirely. I think there is a reasonable middle ground between 'we continue eating like we do now' and 'everybody will be forced at gunpoint into a vegan diet'. We could save enormous amounts of pollution and animal suffering by simply eating less meat. The existence of significant populations who have been living successfully as vegetarians or vegans for thousands of years simply demonstrates that we should not be overly concerned about side effects of reducing (not halting entirely!) our meat intake. Suppose we (as in "the average first-world citizen") were to collectively half our meat consumption. Either by reducing portion size, or by eating it less often. The benefits would be amazing, and apart from people who make their living selling meat I don't see any real downsides. Back when I was growing up I was used to eating meat virtually every day for dinner. These days I skip a few days each week, because I learned how to cook different stuff (and these days I have to pay for it myself, instead of my parents...).

Hundreds of millions of Asians are vegetarian or vegan. It's not like these diets were invented yesterday.

by Thiez 4y ago

Hundreds of millions of Asians are vegetarian or vegan. It's not like these diets were invented yesterday.

If this is your assertion, I'd love to see some data around both the total amount of vegans/vegetarians and studies assessing their overall health.

lern_too_spel 3y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism_by_country shows that 19% of Asians are vegetarian, meaning hundreds of millions. Multiple studies show vegetarians live longer, but they are correlational.
- alex_lav 3y ago
  Right. I'm not asking about studies about people that may or may not have chose veganism/vegetarianism at a certain point, but about large groups that exist that way for significant periods of time. People that seek out a certain diet are going to show better quality of life than people that don't, regardless if it's veganism or not.
  - throwaway09223 3y ago
    Approximately 40% of India is vegetarian for religious reasons and have been for an extremely long time - several thousand years. I noticed that while everyone here is discussing vegetarianism, you are discussing veganism -- which is different.
    - alex_lav 3y ago
      Yep, I've been intentional in including veganism, and I've noticed others are bringing up vegetarianism.
      - Thiez 3y ago
        I think the difference is largely uninteresting in this debate. Personally I enjoy eating meat and don't see myself giving it up entirely. I think there is a reasonable middle ground between 'we continue eating like we do now' and 'everybody will be forced at gunpoint into a vegan diet'. We could save enormous amounts of pollution and animal suffering by simply eating less meat. The existence of significant populations who have been living successfully as vegetarians or vegans for thousands of years simply demonstrates that we should not be overly concerned about side effects of reducing (not halting entirely!) our meat intake. Suppose we (as in "the average first-world citizen") were to collectively half our meat consumption. Either by reducing portion size, or by eating it less often. The benefits would be amazing, and apart from people who make their living selling meat I don't see any real downsides. Back when I was growing up I was used to eating meat virtually every day for dinner. These days I skip a few days each week, because I learned how to cook different stuff (and these days I have to pay for it myself, instead of my parents...).