this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2024
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Chronic Illness
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A community/support group for chronically ill people. While anyone is welcome, our number one priority is keeping this a safe space for chronically ill people.
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Scanned through your link. It doesn't mention most of them. It also almost immediately lumps vegetarian and low meat in with vegan. Lastly, it spends as much time talking about environmental concerns as health ones.
About all it says on the matter is that a healthy diet helps more than an unhealthy one. Vegans also tend to have a healthier diet. It's perfectly possible to have a healthy diet, including meat, and gain the same benefits.
You’re in denial as your second paragraph is straight up misinformation as you cannot be just as healthy when you’re continuing to eat meat as processed meat is a class 1 carcinogen and red meat is a class 2a carcinogen.
There is a significant amount of research done on the benefits of the whole foods plant-based diet.
Animal flesh will increase the amount of your cholesterol intake increasing your risk for heart disease as they’re also high in saturated fats.
Certain types of fish contain high amounts of mercury due industrial pollution with predator fish species having the highest amounts.
Not to mention all the possible food contaminantion.
I’m not going to remove what you said but please be more considerate in the future. This conmunity has high scientific standards for medical advice (see rule 3) and an opinion piece in a dodgy medical journal written by a single doctor doesn’t cut it.
Show us a major review or a government guidleline. Otherwise, replace “is” by “I think”.
What you sent has as much quality as a bachelor students opinion piece. And fails to consider correlation may not be causation.
For example vegan people are richer on average (being vegan is expensive). Turns out rich people are thinner on average. So is being rich or being vegan what declines in chances of obsesity?
I agree with your criticism towards the source. "Being vegan is expensive" is quite a generalized statement in need of citation from someone holding up "high scientific standards", though. I am convinced it is false in its generality. (Convenience and substitute products are expensive, but in no way necessary.)
You’re completely right that I didn’t apply the same standards to that statement. This is because Rule 3 is intended in favour to medical advice (and preventing quackery). So even if I was completely pulling the “being vegan is expensive” out of my ass, it would technically not be rulebreaking as that isn’t medical advice, unlike the persons comment above who insinuates being vegan will help autism and cancer.
But here’s my rationale (which is not peer reviewed lol) for why being vegan is expensive (TLDR personal experience, read the rest if you want details).
I mean unless you’ve got a lot of of time on your hand, which would mean you’re privileged, it’s going to be hard to not risk deficiencies as it is a tough balance to achieve. (I spent two yeats vegan).
And unless you’re willing to splurge a lot on expensive nut milks, B12 is really hard to get enough of.
Then there’s calcium, iron, Omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin D, none of which are necessary to supplement if you’re doing the diet right but you’re going to need to either live somewhere with a very large product selection (like a city) to have varied sources of, or be meticulous in your dieting and tracking, which can mean spending a long long time checking food labels and planning meals.
Most people will end up having to buy a couple of these supplements which are extremely expensive.
Of course, being vegan isn't magic and doesn't just cure cancer or whatever, but In my experience, being vegan is quite cheap.
If there isn't a sale, vegan multivitamins are like $15 for 100, and you generally need to get the omega3 separately, which is also like $15 for 100. I am using CAD, so it's likely cheaper in the USA.
That's about 60 cents a day, which is not expensive. Especially when it means I've not buying meat or random snacks during my journeys hither and yon.
None of those points actually back up your statement that it's misinformation. No matter the diet, imbalances or excesses will be bad for your health.
As for health benefits, do they compare to an "average" diet, or an otherwise healthy one. E.g. a "Mediterranean diet"? It's also worth noting that a vegan diet, without planning, will lead to deficiencies. Ultimately, our bodies evolved to run on a mostly plant based diet, with a small amount of meat supplementing it. It's what allowed us to oversize our brains so much. If you choose to alter what you eat, that's fine. I also agree that most people eat way too much meat. That doesn't mean going to the other extreme is better.
As for carcinogens, we are constantly dealing with various types. Burnt bread is technically carcinogenic. Our bodies have evolved to deal with them. Too much, and you'll obviously overload the repair systems and cause issues. The same can be said for a poor/deficient diet however.