4 ms·

Hundreds of millions of people in India and around the world are just fine without meat, it’s not like we have to eat it. Could even be better for us not to.

steve_adams_86 3y ago
There is an extremely high correlation between eating meat and poorer health outcomes. You can find studies where meat is better or being vegan or vegetarian looks worse, but on balance, it appears that limiting meat intake (little to none) points to better health outcomes. Nutrition is complicated. It could be that impulsive eaters or people who make poor eating decisions rarely exclude meat from their diet, and the issue isn’t the meat so much as the rest of their diet or the sheer volume of what they eat. In any case, there isn’t any compelling data to eat meat other than “it tastes good”. Unless you live on subsistence farming and a goat eating grass you can’t eat is an essential source of food for you.
- 3seashells 3y ago
  The northern native Americans mostly lived from meat. They seem to have not suffered any malnutrition? Another thing.. Non fungicide treated plant based food seems to cause a amount of cancer. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/substances/aflatoxins https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/s...
- KronisLV 3y ago
  > Nutrition is complicated. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Defense_of_Food https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Defense_of_Food Might be simplifying things too much in general, but for the layperson it's not horrible advice - just a bit of everything, without going into excess. Some grains, veggies, fruits and berries, probably some dairy products, eggs/fish/meat occasionally too, at least for the folks for whom a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle would be be difficult. Personally, I have both lactose free milk and plant based alternatives sometimes (there's a rice drink that I like, but oat/almond varieties are okay), some cheese (also the cottage variety) and meat sometimes, though mostly chicken instead of something like beef. In equal measure if not more, I also choose plant based alternatives too, like bean/pea/spinach burger patties, or just dishes without meat sometimes. A bit of fat, a bit of sugar, albeit limiting sugary drinks and processed foods somewhat. Bloodwork seems fine so far, also losing a little bit of weight gradually to improve BMI, maybe should slightly lower cholesterol because it's towards the upper end of a healthy reference interval. Although I will say that sometimes there's definitely a pronounced sense of hunger, even though I've had enough food, which is annoying.
OfSanguineFire 3y ago
Even if hundreds of millions of people in India do not eat meat, ghee and milk – both animal products – are a key part of the Indian diet. Moreover, quite a lot of those Indians eschewing meat will still eat eggs, such that restaurants have to use the term "pure vegetarian" to disambiguate.
- r00fus 3y ago
  Even a large amount of lacto-ovo-vegetarian vs. omnivore will reduce the amount of farm animals (and feed/land use) by a vast amount. offtopic: I disagree with the "subspecies" comment from GP - it was a bit inflammatory.
tremon 3y ago
Pretty sure that when we're discussing the othering of certain humans by classifying them as "subspecies", India is not a good topic to bring to the table.

steve_adams_86 3y ago

There is an extremely high correlation between eating meat and poorer health outcomes. You can find studies where meat is better or being vegan or vegetarian looks worse, but on balance, it appears that limiting meat intake (little to none) points to better health outcomes. Nutrition is complicated. It could be that impulsive eaters or people who make poor eating decisions rarely exclude meat from their diet, and the issue isn’t the meat so much as the rest of their diet or the sheer volume of what they eat. In any case, there isn’t any compelling data to eat meat other than “it tastes good”. Unless you live on subsistence farming and a goat eating grass you can’t eat is an essential source of food for you.

3seashells 3y ago
The northern native Americans mostly lived from meat. They seem to have not suffered any malnutrition? Another thing.. Non fungicide treated plant based food seems to cause a amount of cancer. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/substances/aflatoxins https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/s...
KronisLV 3y ago
> Nutrition is complicated. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Defense_of_Food https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Defense_of_Food Might be simplifying things too much in general, but for the layperson it's not horrible advice - just a bit of everything, without going into excess. Some grains, veggies, fruits and berries, probably some dairy products, eggs/fish/meat occasionally too, at least for the folks for whom a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle would be be difficult. Personally, I have both lactose free milk and plant based alternatives sometimes (there's a rice drink that I like, but oat/almond varieties are okay), some cheese (also the cottage variety) and meat sometimes, though mostly chicken instead of something like beef. In equal measure if not more, I also choose plant based alternatives too, like bean/pea/spinach burger patties, or just dishes without meat sometimes. A bit of fat, a bit of sugar, albeit limiting sugary drinks and processed foods somewhat. Bloodwork seems fine so far, also losing a little bit of weight gradually to improve BMI, maybe should slightly lower cholesterol because it's towards the upper end of a healthy reference interval. Although I will say that sometimes there's definitely a pronounced sense of hunger, even though I've had enough food, which is annoying.

OfSanguineFire 3y ago

Even if hundreds of millions of people in India do not eat meat, ghee and milk – both animal products – are a key part of the Indian diet. Moreover, quite a lot of those Indians eschewing meat will still eat eggs, such that restaurants have to use the term "pure vegetarian" to disambiguate.

r00fus 3y ago
Even a large amount of lacto-ovo-vegetarian vs. omnivore will reduce the amount of farm animals (and feed/land use) by a vast amount. offtopic: I disagree with the "subspecies" comment from GP - it was a bit inflammatory.

tremon 3y ago

Pretty sure that when we're discussing the othering of certain humans by classifying them as "subspecies", India is not a good topic to bring to the table.