> there's a reason vegans have to bend over backwards to meet their nutritional needs. Having consumed a plant-based diet for the last nearly 30 years, I'm sur

> there's a reason vegans have to bend over backwards to meet their nutritional needs. Having consumed a plant-based diet for the last nearly 30 years, I'm surprised to hear this. Despite not bending over backwards to prepare my meals, my blood lipids and glucose are normal, my measured cardiovascular performance is excellent for age and I have stable to slightly increasing muscle mass. I have no chronic disease and am cognitively unimpaired. While I don't watch omnivores seek out or prepare their food - at least not that closely - I don't think I spend much more effort in the process. > it's not how we evolved We also evolved under very different conditions than those that prevail today. While adhering to the dietary practices that existed in early human development should we also deliberately simulate the conditions that selected for survival? Conditions of extreme scarcity, unpredictable food supply and prevalent hunger would have been typical. It's a mistake, I think, to regard the results of natural selection as absolute best and only possible outcome; they point solely to relative fitness for survival _under the conditions in which those adaptations arose._ Change the prevalent conditions; and it's anyone's guess as to the effect of those adaptations.