Bye bye burgers, hello yam, hello pomegranate, goodbye ham.
I feel it is always best to start a triggering video with a poem?
Who is with me?
Good.
Great.
Hello and welcome back to Life's Biggest Questions, the channel that looks to answer
a variety of queries, be it biology, physics, history, fantasy, politics and beyond.
I am your host Rebecca Felgate, and today I am asking Are Vegans Crazy?
Now, before we swoop into the pros and cons of the diet and the ethos that comes with
it, let's start by saying obviously no one entire group of people can be deemed crazy.
There are extremists in all walks of life and usually the extremities are the ones that
generate the headlines.
So, veganism.
A vegan diet means cutting out meat, diary and animal biproducts.
Vegans eat plant based food items.
These days, there is actually a wide variety of vegan food products, like ice creams, meat
replacements and such that mean vegans don't simply eat vegetables.
Other myths surrounding veganism is that followers of the diet are undernourished, skinny, hippies….of
course, there are also the knife wielding militant vegans.
So, do any of these assumptions hold any merit?
Firstly, let's have a look at the diet from a health perspective and see if it is so crazy.
The big argument is that vegans are hindering their health by consuming insufficient protein.
Actually, navy beans, tofu and tempeh contain more protein per cup than most meats.
We need around 45-60 grams of protein a day, which is easily achievable on a vegan diet.
Being an omnivore, a person who eats meat and plants, like most meat eaters, is beneficial
for having a breadth of sources to draw protein from, but there still are sources for vegans.
The same thing goes for Calcium – vegans can get it, their options are just more limited.
On the plus side, vegan diets tend to contain a lot less fat and vegans are far less likely
to be obese.
Meat eaters tend to have less ideal body mass indexes, although, of course, there are extremities
at both ends of the spectrum.
Vegans are far less likely to suffer from heart disease and less likely to experience
rheumatoid arthritis.
Of course, that being said, yes, vegans do need to take B12 supplements, and supplements
for fatty acids.
They are perfectly available to us in the modern day so really don't pose a problem.
Again, people argue that vegans are weak, but people like Germany's strongest man,
the world champion of French Kickboxing and both Serena and Venus Williams, two of the
worlds most loved tennis champions, are vegan.
While we can accept diets like the paleo diet, the atkins diet, a juice cleanse, a lot of
people struggle to accept a diet that has a number of provable health benefits.
Why?
Is it because people feel threatened?
Perhaps.
Then we come to ethics.
A lot of people paint vegans as ethically cooky.
Is it crazy to want to minimize cruelty and suffering to animals?
No, of course not.
Is it crazy to threaten to murder meat eaters as some kind of justice?
Of course it is.
Once again, most vegans are happy avoiding injury to animals, but tiny tiny minorities
make headlines.
Youtuber, Vegan Gainz, for example made headlines when he threatened violence towards people
who mistreat animals.
On the flip side, a group of sausage wielding meat eating extremist caused a brawl when
they threw skewers of meat at diners in a vegan café.
Lastly, a lot of vegans cite their reasons for abstaining from meat as environmental.
The meat and diary industry is one of the biggest contributors to co2 emissions on the
planet, the leading reason for deforestation and a drain of our clean water stocks.
7 Kilos of grain goes in to generating one kilo of beef, which means that animals consume
more than they produce.
What is crazy – the continued dependence on meat and dairy even though it is environmentally
damaging and wasteful, or a person who wants to help scale it back?
Dieticians tend to point towards the Okinawa diet when discussing the best eating habits
for your health.
This is the diet of the people on a small Island off Japan that sees the most people
living past 100 than anywhere else in the world.
Here, locals mainly eat rice, bamboo, tofu and vegetables.
Fish is eaten three times a week and other meats, such as small cubes of pork belly,
on special occasions.
What we can learn from these people is that a plant based diet interspersed with a small
amount of meat for some but not all meals seems to be the healthiest for long term survival.
So, are vegans crazy?
As a collective group, of course not.
Most vegans just want the best for their bodies, animals, and the planet.
Is it the right choice for everyone?
Maybe not, but perhaps we can learn from vegan diets and find a way to cut back on our meat
consumption while still enjoying delicious food.
I not vegan but I eat plant based most days, with the occasional fish or meat once or twice
a month.
I've lost 15lbs and I feel great.
But as they say, you do you.
I always find it is best to stop worrying whether or not other people are crazy, and
just focus on my own decisions, and whether or not I am comfortable with their repercussions.
So, that is one question answered for you there… what do you think?
Let me know in the comments section below…of course don't forget to subscribe to our
channel for more answers and hit that thumbs up button if you like our content.
I am your host Rebecca Felgate, I'll catch you in the next video, but until then…stay
curious, stay alert and never ever stop questioning.
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