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'What if' is pointless. What if vegetarianism makes you stronger than eating meat? What if it increases your IQ by 20 points or makes you live 200 years? What i
by mmooss 9mo ago
'What if' is pointless. What if vegetarianism makes you stronger than eating meat? What if it increases your IQ by 20 points or makes you live 200 years? What if you can code faster drinking rare pygmy tree sap or the blood of certain albino poison toads?
> you can't prove that it's actually healthier, because the current state of dietary science is pretty poor.
Almost every decision in life must be made without proof, but with evidence and judgment. We know a lot about nutrition, and a lot of evidence points toward health benefits in eating more vegetables and less meat. We can also see lots of vegetarians in our communities and they don't seem sickly or shorter, etc. - we also see elite athletes in public who are vegetarians.
> a diet consisting of vegetables
Vegetarianim is much more than vegetables; it's everything but meat - legumes (generally beans), vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts - plus eggs and cheese. Vegans cut out the latter two items.
> What if being vegetarian makes you smaller and weaker physically (perhaps the case in some vegetarian countries now).
Where?
> evolutionary problems that could come from some humans going vegetarian while others don't.
What problems? How does diet affect evolution? We'll lose our hunting muscles over the next 500,000 years? Remember humans haven't changed much biologically in 200,000+ years.
- robcohen 9mo agoIndia — 20-30% vegetarian — 167 cm avg male height Taiwan — 12-13% vegetarian — 174 cm avg male height Mexico — 10-19% vegetarian — 170 cm avg male height Italy — ~10% vegetarian — 174 cm avg male height Brazil — 8-14% vegetarian — 176 cm avg male height UK — ~7% vegetarian — 178 cm avg male height Australia — 5-6% vegetarian — 179 cm avg male height Switzerland — 5-9% vegetarian — 179 cm avg male height Austria — 5-9% vegetarian — 179 cm avg male height Germany — 4-8% vegetarian — 180 cm avg male height I mean, if you think height doesn't matter for men, I think you may want to think about it.
- mmooss 9mo agoWe don't need uncited, selective data. It would be relatively easy to directly measure the relationship between vegetarianism and height. Also, height is determined early in life. Many people become vegetarian in adulthood. Becoming vegetarian at 30 won't affect your height, I'm pretty sure.
- robcohen 9mo agoSo you think the data is wrong?