Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Author of Vegan Lunch Box is now Quasi Vegan or something like that

She also came out of the closet and that ROCKS so hard. Really I love honesty and I love, love and truth!

http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/2010/11/mirror-image-acorn-squash-supreme.html

And I'm going to be myself and share the comments I made after reading her posting. Please take it in good humor!

God I love honesty and really, who isn't a vagitarian? Vaginas, having one myself, are awesome! They are the reason the world exists. God is cool and all, if one believes in God (which I do) but we all can see vaginas and prove their existence.

My husband likes that I like to share. Gosh, I really wish I could blog like I really think. I have such good comedy routines with nothing to do with food or animals. Last night I came up with one where the new Alien with the probe asks the poor test subject, "Show me your orifice." To which the the test subject replies, "Which one in particular?"

To be totally transparent: My husband actually supplied the line, "Show me your orifice." In a funny, like demon voice and I laughed so hard. It was so funny, then I came up with a scenario.

Anyway, I'm making a quinoa loaf (finally) and I'm starting a large web project. Good to be self employed, eh?

Feeling better after eating meat

Over the course of about 5 years I hear from all types of people about what they eat. This mostly occurs if I'm wearing a vegan pin or a shirt, then I hear it. I have stopped wearing vegan pins and shirts. I am thinking of taking my shirts that I designed down at VeganofLight.com. They are pretty cool though.

I don't feel better after eating meat or eggs or dairy. So I'm not going to do it.

In the course of the last 5-6 years, I've heard from ex-vegans and ex-vegetarians who absolutely had to eat meat once in a while, some fish or something. My own mother actually used the words "foggy" three years ago when she went vegan. After a month she brought back in eggs and some fish.

About 5 years ago in FL, I had recently gone vegan and I met an ex-vegan. She was vegan for 7 years. She told me she has fish and/or turkey once a week and she feels so much better. You know what I said, "Well that's better than eating meat all the time." (Honestly, thank God for the Vegan Outreach balanced literature.) I figured that she was probably not eating ground flax or something to get her EFAs. Really, I'm not a nutrition "expert" which is fine since I feel that "experts" already know everything.

In the last month, I met five people who were ex-vegetarians or ex-vegans. One at the World Veg Fest in October. The others were in the grocery store across the street and one is a friend in my spiritual faith. Except for one who noticed no difference at all after eating meat again, and the one who I didn't ask, the others said they felt much better. Some also feel slightly guilty, but all invariably do their best to source meat and eggs from much better sources than factory farms and caged hens.

I'm actually sorry they feel guilty, really I am. Some day I really think we will all adapt and feel perfectly zippy on all plants, but right now we are transitioning genetically. That's my belief and I'm sticking to it ;-)

I am happy with all the books and the ex-vegans coming out. It encourages people to think. Thinking for yourself is good. John Robbins is one of my most favorite people in the world, nevertheless you should still think for yourself.

I believe that in order to live on this hot, small planet there will be a mixture of small farms, hunting, plant eaters, and people who have their own chickens for eggs or their flesh. I am more than willing to give up my share of meat, if there is such a thing, to people who are genetically predisposed to needing it or even think they need to eat it. I think they too will adapt to a plant based diet over time, but I don't have a big stick to make them. Do you?

We are not clones of Donald Watson

I do believe in God, but not religion, and I also believe in the unity of all things, however we are not all genetic clones of each other. I may be perfectly fine on the vegan diet but others are not. Finding health information not supporting the vegan diet and supporting the vegan diet is easy enough. Finding it separated from some kind of "ism" is not possible. That "ism" is the need to be right. Whether you go over to the dark side of Weston Price (who may have some valuable information) or you stay with the beans, not beings, eaters (the vegans), what you will find is that everyone wants to be right. No one is all right and no one is all wrong.

It's common knowledge, or I hope it is, that some people are genetically predisposed to high levels of cholesterol. 

Genetics
Some people are genetically predisposed to having high levels of cholesterol. A variety of minor genetic defects can lead to excessive production of LDLs or a decreased capacity for their removal. This tendency towards high cholesterol levels is often passed on from parents to their children. If your parents have high cholesterol, you need to be tested to see if your cholesterol levels are also elevated.


Therefore, it seems only logical that the opposite is true and in that opposite there are varying levels and degrees of SLOS or some other genetic tendency in the opposite direction of low cholesterol and the need for dietary cholesterol. Remember Lorenzo's Oil was discovered by the parents, not by Doctors. 

http://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/cardiovascular/cholesterol/cholesterol4.htm

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/disorders/whataregd/slos/

Doctors are "experts" and so are well meaning nutritionists. As "experts" they already know everything, pretty much. When some one already knows everything, there's nothing else to know. That's too bad.

Just because it’s not written by an MD (Atkins was an MD and the guy was wacked) or a bunch of wacked MDs then it’s invalid. Lorenzo’s oil was discovered by the parents. That’s the only example I can think of offhand, but I’m sure there are many discoveries out there made by regular old people.

Diet and cholesterol are big money makers for both sides. Everyone wants to be right. We are all not clones of Donald Watson.

 

Monday, November 29, 2010

The Healthiest Vegan Diet is not a Diet At All

The healthiest vegan diet is not a diet. It's a live it. It's about life. It's not raw foods, it's not low fat, it's not restrictive (as long as you avoid meat, eggs and dairy). It's done purely from the basis of love for animals and not from ethics, rights, welfare, weight loss, or for any other reason. It won't save the world or the planet, it will simply reduce supply for the demand. Factory farming sucks royally. It's not to be better or purer or higher. It's done from the standpoint of seeing yourself in others, in those others called farm animals. For many of us, once you meet one, you won't want to meat one. Hah! When done from that perspective alone, I really feel that biology adapts rapidly to accomodate the heart of hearts. I really do.

Added later: That being said, even if your heart is all in to it but you can't do it all the way, do not worry or feel guilty, just do what you can. I've got your back and soon the QuasiVegan site will have a logo, so there you go! You can be a member of the club! Everyone needs another logo, right? ;-)

I know and feel that the vegan diet is not the healthiest of diets for everyone, as a diet, and I really believe that some people need meat and some people think they need it. Both manifest the same way: by eating meat. And some people really do feel SO MUCH BETTER and it's not a placebo effect. They are my fellow beings as much as farm animals are. I don't judge you at all. As a way of life, I know I am no better spiritually than a meat eater.

As far as food as food goes, this is what I eat these days:

Almonds, walnuts, lots of kale, fake bacon sprinkled on my salad (or I put a little hickory smoke), carrots, tomatos, nutritional yeast on a variety of things, beans of many varieties but usually lentils and chickpeas, faux meat usually the Artisan brand, tempeh, Gardein, Vega, non-gmo brown rice protein shakes, d3, b12, DHA in algae (why not), home made chickpea and wheat gluten cutlets, beans, hardly any rice, coconut ice cream, Our Daily Red sulfite free (I get major headaches from sulfites) vegan friendly organic wine, probiotics, plant enzymes a few times a week, and that new Diaya cheese which has zero nutritional content and I am guilty of eating too much of it in the last week, but I am not into it anymore. I also use low fat eggless mayo (I prefer nuts for my fat), and the occasional baked good that I make or purchase but those Alternative Baking Company cookies are 600 calories!, and almond milk for the smoothie. I also eat gluten free pasta here and there and don't eat too much of soy or gluten but I don't fear them. I eat 1 banana a day and I love yams once or twice a week with Earth Balance. I feel great on these foods. I ate eggs this past week so I would not be hypocrite when I wrote that "ex-vegan" article.

Oh yes, oatmeal mixed with quinoa with walnuts, cinnamon, stevia and a little brown sugar or maple syrup.

Just like I think that the fear of "meat is gonna kill you" and "cholesterol is evil" are either money making scams or fear tactics, non gmo soy and gluten are not bad either when taking in moderation. I don't care what the anti-soy and gluten people say. One day I would love to see people without an agenda, in myself the most.

Peace!

Another Ex-Vegan: Is the Vegan Diet the Best?

I am an ex-vegan. (I was when I wrote this.)

If you are 100% vegan, you may think: "I love animals so much; I cry about their scared, sad faces and their violent deaths. The rape of dairy cows and the removing and killing of calves for veal is so evil. Not to mention the horror of how egg laying hens are treated. Laying their own uterus! What did pigs do? Were they Hitler in their last life? It's violent and it's specisim. I want no part of it."

I get it. Is anything less than 100% here worth doing for the animals? Step outside of the passion and the ethics and the righteousness of it for a moment and think: What if some people just can’t hack it at 100%?

Can they still help end factory farming?

I say: Yes, they can!

It's very, very horrible, what we do to other beings and to the earth. I want all creatures to never, ever suffer.

But truth be known: I love people more than cows, chickens, pigs, lamb and fish and all the rest of the creatures out there. I love truth and honesty too.

Why do I love people more?

Humans have forks.

Yes! The fork wielding humans are the only ones to make a difference in the lives of other, non-human animals.

Here, as much as we should be compassionate towards non-human animals, we also must be compassionate toward humans. Do we love the lion less because she eats gazelles? The lion has no choice, you say? Yes, some humans have no choice either.

Read on.

This is not an erudite essay so I'm going to just go with the flow. Transitions might not be smooth. Fair warning.

I am an ex-vegan. I was a vegan for nearly 6 years and a vegetarian before that since 1986. (I had 87 in here incorrectly. I went to India in 87, but I stopped eating animals in 86.) At the time of this writing, I ate two eggs so now I'm not a vegan. Right!

Up to now, and currently, I have not experienced any major health issues being vegan or vegetarian, personally. When I went vegan 6 years ago, I didn’t lose weight. I gained. Instead of becoming a skinny bitch, I was fat and friendly. I’m still friendly, just not as chubby. I hardly ever see the doctor (knock on wood) and my teeth are fine.

I ate the eggs earlier today to prove a point and to be able to write from that special place of so-called authority that ex-vegans have.

Is the vegan diet the best diet for all humans and is it the most natural?

The vegan diet, or a plant only diet, is not the best or most natural diet for all humans. Although, at some point, it very well could be.

Some humans thrive on it and some don't. Some notice no difference. Some people’s health improves. Mine did. I used to have very lumpy and painful breasts; that is gone. I used have a fair amount of acne and also I’d get colds more frequently. That has improved. However, that is me.

Some people and their children get sick on it. Tooth decay, brain fog, IBS, fatigue, depression and other issues which my previous self (just a week or two ago) thought could be fixed with a supplement or two or three. That is not always true or best.

If I hadn't met a family just yesterday at the vegan Thanksgiving pot luck, 2010 in Santa Rosa, CA, with two children gestated, nursed and raised on a pure, vegan diet with supplements, I doubt I would be writing this now. I might have, but it was literally as if the Universe begged me to write this after meeting this family.

Both children were small but their parents were small too, short, so that didn’t set off any red flags. The oldest, at approximately 9 years old, had a lot of her permanent teeth capped due to tooth decay. Tooth decay! This is what is highly disturbing.

I was wrong. Wrong to believe and to previously assert that a vegan diet is good for everyone.

And so is Dr. McDougall, MD when he says:

In order to minimize your risk of any health problems, I recommend you and your family follow a diet based on starches, vegetables, and fruits. To avoid the extremely rare chance of becoming a national headline, add a reliable B12 supplement. By making this addition to a healthy diet you can’t go wrong, nor will you suffer from any justifiable criticism of your McDougall Diet delivered by well-meaning family and friends. Source here.

From what I understand, this plant based diet he advocates, and has staked his life’s work on and invested his very soul into was “discovered” when he put the sick Polynesians back on their traditional diet and saw their heart disease and diabetes go away. Their traditional diet of starches, vegetables, and fruits healed them.

To think that it’s a diet for all climes and times and all people is misguided.

Yes, I am well aware that he has helped so many people. I'm using him as a device to illustrate a point, so bear with me.

What if he had met some Inuits who were eating the Standard American Diet (franken food) and they had the same diseases (hypertension, heart disease, diabetes), and he found that by eating their traditional diet of marine animal flesh, some tubers, seaweed, and grasses, they reversed their heart disease and other problems? Inuits eating their traditional high cholesterol high saturated fat diet, have very little, if any, heart disease. http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2001/09/21/inuit_diet010921.html

Then, let’s postulate, he went down to Northern California and set up shop advocating eating seal seal meat, whale meat, and seaweed. Wouldn’t that be misguided?

Yes.

Here’s another one: Let’s say he met some Nanoran villagers, in the West African nation of Burkina Faso, who were eating the franken food crap diet and found that by putting them back on their traditional diet of millet grain, sorghum wheat, legumes and vegetables with a little meat protein and some termites, their health returned. Then he set up shop in NorCal and stated: Sorghum wheat and termites are the answer!

That would be misguided too.

Let’s get back to the tooth decay. First of all, how did I know what questions to ask the vegan mom? I've been reading about a few failed vegans lately and instead of being pissed (well, a little pissed) or holding on to my beliefs like some kind of religion, I mostly wanted to deeply understand. Deeply understand.

Love and understanding never condemn, but seek to help and encourage.
— Meher Baba

I’m only interested in the health issues the ex-vegans experienced. I'm not going to discuss any of the aspects of the psyche that gets wrapped up in the "ism" or religion of it. Essentially the disillusionment and the underlying philosophy when it doesn't meet individual expectations. In fact, I want to state: we don't need another religion.

I learned there is a good amount of tooth decay with children raised on some vegan diets. It happens with some adults, too, after they adopt a vegan diet. Particularly, a mostly raw diet. This is a vitamin D deficiency from what I could gather. Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium for teeth.

So take a pill, right? Wrong.

Perhaps that works for some, maybe a lot of people, but not everyone. We are adaptable, but we all have different physiology. And it might not be just D, it might be that cholesterol is needed and saturated fat — yes, I said saturated fat — is needed for some people to absorb nutrients in their food.

Did you know that there is a whole host of health problems when your cholesterol is too low. Suicide, depression. Look it up.

Yes, I know Donald Watson, the father of veganism, was a healthy, British man who lived along time. He’s Donald Watson, not me or you.

Some people need saturated fat and cholesterol to keep their intestines operating properly so that they can get the micro-nutrients and vitamins from the plants. I highly doubt they need a massive load of saturated fat and cholesterol, but they do need some. If their own intestines are not operating optimally, they can get these vitamins from animals. Beta carotene, for example, is what we use to form vitamin A. If you are a healthy bugger (or your guts are), eating some foods, like yams or carrots, will work for you. You will turn the beta carotene into the actual vitamin. If your intestines are not working so optimally OR your culture has relied on getting A from animal sources, then it’s highly probable that you will not thrive on a pure plant based diet. You can adapt, but 100% will not work for you. Yes, there is vitamin A palmitate, from palm oil, I was just providing an example of how conversion works.

Some people can’t utilize vitamin K from veggies. Liver is the answer for them.

How did I elicit this tooth decay information from the mom at the vegan gathering? She invited my daughter to the vegan play group. (My daughter is not vegan, she’s ovo lacto vegetarian.) So I asked her how long her children have been vegan, (since birth), she’s nursed while being vegan. How is their health, I asked. They have very few colds, no ear infections, generally healthy. They looked really small to me and waif like, but I know omnivorous kids who are like that too, so it didn’t mean too much to me. Ahh, yes, no ear infections and none of the typical stuff found with kids eating a diet based on junk. I could relate to that. Then I asked about their teeth. Well, her daughter, whom she nursed, had a lot of her teeth rot out. Her second child, her son is much better. They started taking more D3 (not D2) and B12, from what I could gather, during her second pregnancy. Her son still had a fair amount of tooth decay. It was much better after more supplements.

(Incidentally, supplements were not invented for the microscopic proportion of vegans on this earth, omnivorous eaters are also deficient in vitamins too, even though they eat meat, eggs, and dairy.)

I had some tooth decay when I was a kid and adult. I ate liver and onions, meatloaf, steak, chicken, and pork chops as a child. I had meat every night and eggs a lot and cheese, cheese, cheese, and I ate refined sugars and steakums and Oscar Myer baloney. I did not have a lot, just some, tooth decay. Having that much tooth decay to require capping many of her front teeth is a huge thing.

While taking the vitamins (actually D is a hormone) helped the second, nursed child, that is not the answer for all people.

I've seen healthy vegan kids, I don't know if they were nursed or gestated vegan. One was the daughter of a registered dietitian in Florida and she looked half or completely Asian. The other vegan kids were on a hippie commune in Summertown, TN in the late 70s. I lived there briefly. They played outside (D3), ate Nutritional Yeast with B12 in it, and looked strong. The adult males worked in construction all day and the kids were, by appearances and my 12 year old eyes, healthy. I don’t know much more about this commune now, but they have a great cookbook.

Other vegan friends with no reason to lie or to exaggerate have seen entire families healthy and thriving on a vegan diet. However, some are not at all thriving. Their stories are written off and sometimes deleted from the forums. Is this a religion, folks? No!

There are healthy vegans. Quite a lot of them. I am a member of the veganbodybuidling.com forum and I’ve met vegan body builders, so I know vegans can be very healthy and muscular. Above all, the healthiest vegans I know came from the approach of love for animals, seeing themselves in those other beings, and they are not holier-than-thou food police veganazis.

You might be thinking, this woman with the dentally challenged children was doing it all wrong. But the thing is, she and her husband were doing everything “right” on paper. On paper. On paper, communism looks pretty good too.

From my research, I saw with alarming frequency, that most reported health problems occurred with some variations of raw food vegan diets. However, a very low fat vegan diet (with cooked food) also is one that popped up with a good bit of frequency. One raw diet that I noticed was not healthy was long term adherence to the Hallelujah Diet. One raw diet, or almost raw diet, that is NOT nutritionally deficient and is good for Olympic athletes is the Thrive Diet by Brendan Brazier. There is a variety of vegan diets and some are exceedingly better than others. The ones with fat are best and most healthful from what I could gather. Brendan’s uses hemp protein and hemp fat.

Some folks think, that just because the Bible says, and therefore God says, that in Genesis 1:29 to eat plants and nuts and seeds that it’s good enough to be healthy now.

Wrong.

A little information about adaptation explains why. Humans are currently omnivores with lots of herbivorous biological traits. Since the beginning of us, we eat what's around, basically. There was no shipping, fast food, or eating blueberries out of season.

If we could catch it and/or gather it, it was eaten. Inuits eat marine animals, which/who contain lots of fat and cholesterol. Inuits also eat seaweed, berries and tubers and some grasses. This is what is around them. In their environment, the Inuits fatty diet keeps them healthy. It is extremely rare for the Inuit people, who eat a high cholesterol diet and a high saturated fat diet, to have heart disease! This flies in face of the demonized cholesterol stuff we hear about. Last I checked, the Inuits are human beings.

Now let's take an Asian living in a warm climate who eats a diet mostly of veggies, starch and a little protein from fish, perhaps. They are healthy and it is extremely rare to have heart disease.

The Asians would likely have a heart attack or a gall bladder attack if they even ate one Inuit meal.

Both Inuits and Asians are human beings and on paper a balanced, whole foods vegan diet, with b12 supplements, should do the trick.

But it won't.

Humans are not machines.

I would also bet that the Inuits need the dietary cholesterol. What? They need cholesterol? Yes, they need it. It's an essential nutrient for some people.

It’s all about adaptation.

For successful, fast adaptation to a vegan diet, my bet would be on the humans whose ancestry was largely plant based: the Asians. (Like me!) They would fare the best with little supplementation provided they stay in a warm climate. The Inuits would suffer a whole host of health problems with a switch to a diet for which they are not adapted genetically. They would have to do it very slowly. Very slow. But they would adapt, if they moved South.

We are mixtures of DNA from all over the place. We are all different. This little bit of common sense gets lost in the myriad of diet information out there.

That difference extends to how we absorb nutrients and which ones we absorb. By the way, the ability to absorb or convert certain nutrients can be improved drastically through the addition of lots of good flora, or probiotics, from a variety of strains.

What is not a traditional diet for any civilization is a diet based on eating genetically modified, hormone pumped chicken and turkey, cows eating corn and chicken shit and feathers, fish grown in concrete cesspools, and pigs (my favorite) and all the other animals filled with antibiotics and hormones to get them big, fast. Most of these animals don’t see the light of day, can’t play or express their natural behaviors, they are in total misery in their concrete, nasty shit filled, crowded, stressed out, diseased environment. This doesn’t even begin to describe how factory farming is atrocious, systemic evil for the animals and the people who eat the animals.

Also is what is not a traditional diet for any civilization is eating processed crap like processed cheese, deli meat sausage and hot dogs with nitrites, and GMO soy everywhere. And corn. My God, there’s GMO corn all over the place. This stuff is not traditional in any culture, it’s a science experiment gone horribly wrong. This is what I call Franken Food. Let’s not forget, lots of sugar and, far, far worse: sweet poison neurotoxic substances like aspartame. I could go on and on about aspartame’s nastiness.

I forgot to add, that it’s not traditional to consume franken-dairy morning, noon, and night. Some cultures don’t consume much, if any, dairy at all. However, it’s not the lack of dairy or the inclusion of dairy that causes health issues. Remember the termites. That is to say, the inclusion of termites keeps the people in the village in Africa healthy. The termites, by the way, have B12. The inclusion of high amounts of marine animal blubber keeps the Inuits healthy. It's highly probably that the inclusion of clean, natural dairy in a peoples accustomed to it, will derive health benefits from it. The removal of dairy helped me, but its inclusion might help another. There's no cookie cutter diet for everyone.

Whether someone is healthy or not on a vegan diet, I suppose, is a mixture of physiology and attitude, and good intestinal health.

Are your ancestors Inuit? Are they Asian? Before Factory Farmed meat and Franken Food, what did they eat to be healthy and work in the fields? Do you work in the fields? Do you exercise a lot? Are you in doors a lot? Get any sunlight?

People are, by and large, I’m sad to say, herd animals. Sheeple is the term I use. This country outsources jobs but many of us outsource thinking.

Instead of using common sense, looking at what our individual, particular ancestors ate and more importantly what we optimally feel good and thrive eating in our current environment and mode of life, we go running after this diet and that diet as the "perfect diet".

Or we are so appalled at how this world treats animals, we want zero part of that holocaust*.

Or we want to be a skinny beeatch.

What I’ve attempted to address, so far, is that humans are adaptable and the optimum diet for each individual is likely to be a traditional one that their particular ancestors ate taking into consideration current occupation, exercise, and outdoor time as well as locale. Of course this traditional diet didn’t include include factory farmed animal meat or high fructose corn syrup, for example.

Even if your ancestors ate meat, eggs, and dairy, you can still be healthy on a vegan diet. Adaptation is the key to why. While we won’t adapt to factory farmed meat and franken food, we can adapt to eating a mostly plant based diet and be perfectly healthy, by doing it very, very slowly.

Here’s an analogy: Cow’s milk is not something that Asians consume very much. In fact many people are intolerant to it. It’s something we have adapted to eating and we can also un-adapt to it.

If you want to see the end of factory farming, you have to vote with your dollars. You can support your local farmers and get meat, eggs, and dairy from them, hunt, raise your own animals, keep some chickens for eggs, or you can start eating a plant based diet.

If you are not doing well on your current vegan diet, stop and start over again more slowly. Do this over the course of a few years, perhaps longer or shorter depending on how you feel. Another option is just use the minimum animal products that you need to have good health.

My mother, who is Caucasian, is doing fine with a little fish, a little dairy, and some 7 bucks a dozen eggs here and there. She did this over time, not immediately. She is appalled by factory farming.

If your ancestors ate a lot of meat, they likely worked hard all day long outside in the fields. Do you?

Just because you are not in the pure vegan club, doesn’t mean you’re not any less important to the animals. You can make a HUGE difference. Perhaps even more of a difference than a pure, holier-than-thou vegan. Yes, you do make more of a difference than them. They can keep their religion, let’s help animals!

If your goal is to become vegan or quasi-vegan and you feel tons better eating meat, eat it from pasture raised animals fed their natural diets and sunshine and fresh air. And cut back a little per month over the course of a few years. Then you can experience that your own body can adapt to fewer and fewer and eventually no animal products without harmful side effects. And take probiotics too. I think they are under recognized for their amazing health benefits. You need to also make sure that essential nutrients are being eaten and absorbed. So even if you can’t become 100% and only 70% (for example), don’t worry.

That is: even if you have to keep eating a little meat or eggs your entire life, you don’t have to be perfect to seriously stick it to factory farming.

And stick to factory farming we must!

I have adapted to not eating dairy. I stopped producing lactase, I am now lactose intolerant after 6 years as a vegan. I had some cream in some Chai by accident and I got the classic symptoms. My body lost this adaptation because it wasn't necessary. I can get it back too. Your body will adapt to what you want to do: which I hope is eating fewer and fewer animals and their products.

Just because in the West the traditional diet includes pastured animals, butter, cream, and eggs this doesn't mean it will always be that way.

We adapt.

I hope and pray that some day everyone won't eat animals and use them as slaves anymore. Gene Roddenberry of Star Trek hoped so too. And, before him, H.G. Wells wrote:

"In all the round world of utopia there is no meat. There used to be. But now we cannot stand the thought of slaughterhouses. And in a population that is all educated and at about the same level of physical refinement, it is practically impossible to find anyone who will hew a dead ox or pig. We never settled the hygienic aspect of meat-eating at all. This other aspect decided us. I can still remember as a boy the rejoicings over the closing of the last slaughterhouse." — H.G. Wells

Since we are highly adaptable animals, we humans with the forks, we can adapt to veganism or a modified version of it. We won’t ever adapt to franken food and factory farmed meat. It’s prevalence is one reason why there’s so much more dietary related disease. Stress is another factor contributing to the explosion of a number of diseases. That is another topic.

My point is that we can adapt to eating a plant based diet or a mostly plant based diet. It is not wise or healthy to ignore our individual differences and simply drop meat and all animal products without consideration for our individual genetic constitutions. We can adapt to eating mostly plants. Faster for some, slower for others.

I want healthy vegans and partial vegans and meat eaters who don’t eat meat from factory farms!

In closing I want to say:

THINK FOR YOURSELF!

I might be a great person and all, but you must think for yourself. Research all the stuff I’ve written.

*The word "holocaust" is defined as "destruction or slaughter on a mass scale." In modern times, the word is applied most often to the plight of European Jews at the hands of Hitler, but the word was not invented for this event.

Even so, to compare the slaughter of non-human animals to the slaughter of humans is not to degrade the deaths of humans but to dignify the deaths of non humans.

This is a was said by Dan Piraro in his blog comments. Dan is the absolutely brilliant cartoonist behind Bizarro. He’s a vegan who has not suffered from brain fog or any diminished neuron activity, the man is a genius.

Take your freaking B12

I hope that most vegans, quasi-vegans, and vegetarians know that you must get a reliable source of B12. There’s B12 analogs in some algae and other plant sources, but it’s not the real deal. You are harming more animals (farm animals) by getting sick from a B12 deficiency. A sick vegan harms animals by not representing the vegan diet in good health. Better to not be a vegan. Really. It's that annoying to me! It's a bacteria, you can probably get it from your own poop, but seriously it's much better to get a supplement. Put it under the tongue and let it dissolve.

This is an excerpt/quote from VeganHealth.org):

Halstead et al. (8) reported that some Iranian villagers with very little animal product intake (dairy once a week, meat once a month) had normal B12 levels. None had megaloblastic anemia. Their average B12 level was 411 pg/ml which was quite high considering their diet. The authors speculated this could be because their diets, which were very low in protein, allowed for B12-producing bacteria to ascend into the ileum where the B12 could be absorbed. They also speculated that because they lived among their farm animals and their living areas were littered with feces, they picked up enough B12 through contamination.

Halstead et al.'s 1960 report was in contrast to Wokes et al.'s 1955 report (9) in which numerous British vegans were found to have neurological symptoms of B12 deficiency.

Conclusion

It is possible that some vegans can ward of overt vitamin B12 deficiency, and even mild B12 deficiency, through B12 production by bacteria in the small intestine. However, this is an usual condition, especially in Western countries, and should not be relied upon, including by raw foodists.

Links:
http://www.ajcn.org/content/8/3/374.abstract & http://veganhealth.org/b12/hcy#alzhttp://www.veganhealth.org/b12/int#iran

Some of the links used for my hypothesis

Genetics of eating and its relation to obesity.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11931714

Traditional Inuit Diet Protects Inuits Against CVD, but including SHITTY FOOD does not: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2001/09/21/inuit_diet010921.html

Low Cholesterol Health Risks:
http://www.ctds.info/low_cholesterol.html

Low Cholesterol Increases Cancer and Death Risk
http://www.wellnessresources.com/health/articles/low_cholesterol_increases_cancer_and_death_risk/

http://www.jigsawhealth.com/resources/cholesterol-symptoms

I will add more as I have time.

More stuff about adaptation, genetics, and diet

Excerpt: Furthermore, the diet-related genes also appear to have evolved faster than other genes — protein and promoter sequences of these genes changed faster than expected, possibly because of adaptation to new diets.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080130092139.htm

Excerpt: Similarly, scientists hypothesize that the reason people from central and northwestern Europe and some parts of Africa are able to digest lactose, while many adults in most of the rest of the world are lactose-intolerant, is that these areas have a long history of dairy farming. According to the report Diet and Health: Implications for Reducing Chronic Disease Risk by the Committee on Diet and Health, a research arm of the National Research Council (National Academy Press, 1989), the gene for lactase persistence [ability to digest lactose] conveyed a survival advantage to people in dairy farming cultures in which milk products were a primary source of nutrients. Over the generations, this gene proliferated in the population because people who were able to absorb milk as children and young adults were either more fertile or less likely to die early.

Clearly, our genes have a major role in determining the nature of our responses to the foods we eat and, in turn, our health. So the question raised by D'Adamo's book and other recent books that have promoted highly individualized diets is this How can each of us figure out the diet that will be best for our unique genetic selves? The answer lies in a true understanding of our genetic heritage, both ancient and modern.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0820/is_n242/ai_19945125/

Low cholesterol: depression and anxiety!

There was Tasha who felt SO MUCH BETTER after eating meat and instead of thinking "oh placebo effect" I thought what if her genetics were adapted to dietary cholesterol and what if she needs it. No plant food has cholesterol. Cholesterol is the building block of vitamin D. Think people!

http://www.jigsawhealth.com/resources/cholesterol-symptoms

and

http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/92/9/2365

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/11/low-cholesterol-risks.html

(The AHA doesn't come right out and say that low cholesterol has serious health risks. I think the whole "cholesterol is a bad, bad evil" is a money making scam in MANY respects.) However, you NEED to research stuff your self and come to your own conclusions about everything. Knee jerk reactions don't help people or non-human animals.

Here you go:

Symptoms of low cholesterol include:

Depression and anxiety – There is compelling evidence that shows that low cholesterol levels can be used as a marker to identify depression and anxiety.2 Additionally, after childbirth a woman’s cholesterol drops dramatically. It is now suggested that low cholesterol may be a causative factor in triggering postpartum depression.

Mental impairment – Symptoms may include suicidal ideation, increased aggression and propensity to violence, and impaired brain function.

Stroke – Although it is well known that high cholesterol can cause a stroke, it is equally true that excessively low cholesterol can also trigger a stroke.

Vitamin D deficiency – Vitamin D is actually formed by exposing cholesterol found in the skin to sunlight. Cholesterol is the basic building block of vitamin D in the human body. Therefore, low levels of cholesterol can lead to vitamin D deficiency. And once you’re deficient in vitamin D, the body’s ability to absorb calcium becomes impaired, something which leads to brittle bones, fractures, and osteoporosis.

Cancer – Vitamins A, E, and K are fat-soluble vitamins transported by cholesterol. These powerful antioxidants fight free radicals in the body, and offer protection against cancer. When cholesterol is low, these vitamins also become deficient in the body, entertaining the possibility of an increased risk of cancer.

Heart disease – Studies are now showing that women with excessively low levels of cholesterol have a greater risk of mortality from heart disease than women with high cholesterol levels. This suggests that cholesterol should always be in balance for optimal health: never too low and never too high.

Health effects of high total cholesterol include:

Atherosclerosis, heart disease and stroke – Cholesterol build up can lead to hardening and narrowing of the arteries, which restricts blood flow to vital organs such as the heart and brain.

Insulin resistance – When you repeatedly eat a diet high in refined carbohydrates, the cells become overwhelmed by excess glucose, and they stop responding to insulin. Insulin accumulates in the blood. High insulin levels then trigger the production of cholesterol and triglycerides. As cells become more resistant to insulin, cholesterol and triglycerides continue to go up, increasing your risk for diabetes, heart disease, and blood vessel disease.

Note: Cholesterol levels that are either too high or too low can also occur without the presence of any visible symptoms. Untreated cholesterol imbalance can negatively impact physical and mental health, and potentially reduce your lifespan.

How Cholesterol Works

Excerpt:

http://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/cardiovascular/cholesterol/cholesterol4.htm

Genetics
Some people are genetically predisposed to having high levels of cholesterol. A variety of minor genetic defects can lead to excessive production of LDLs or a decreased capacity for their removal. This tendency towards high cholesterol levels is often passed on from parents to their children. If your parents have high cholesterol, you need to be tested to see if your cholesterol levels are also elevated.

And if some are predisposed to having high levels, then some are predisposed to having low levels. And they may very well need dietary cholesterol. Since Cholesterol is a big money making business, it’s hard to find information to support my theory precisely. I'll post the other information I found about this as I have time.

Homeostasis and my Hypothesis on genetic predisposition for some people needing animal products and how they can adapt

I think because of my vast amount of research on weight loss, or rather, fat loss, and hanging around the vegan body building forum as well as building muscle, losing fat, and then having periods of staying the same (homeostasis), the theory of adaptation seems like common sense to me. There's so many tricks like varying your calories by 100 per day, having a carb fest on the weekend, and other ways to keep your body from adapting to the calories your taking. It also adapts quickly to the type of exercise, that's why muscle confusion and changing your routine is one way to keep the burning going. So is interval training and not just the same speed of biking and running. Lifting weights is the most important to getting a faster metabolism for life. Just doing aerobic will cause you to mess up your metabolism in the long term. You lose muscle doing only aerobics, especially if you are not eating enough calories to support it. So just blowing off my hypothesis is not a good idea, it really makes sense. Well, at least it does to me.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Separate the Vegan from the Ism

The worst thing we could do for animals is make a religion out of the vegan diet. Especially if the aim of the vegan diet is to end or reduce animal suffering. I've studied many religions, not from the perspective of a seeker, but out of curiosity. Religion sucks! Seriously. It's the cause of so much suffering! Therefore a nice separation of church and state would be just lovely!

Animals couldn't give one shit if I ate eggs a few days ago, but I were to be a veganazi that would turn off many more people from reducing or eliminating animal products and that would suck for animals and their vaginas! So please, STFU and start helping animals, be kind to omnivores and understand that whether it's genetics or just taste, they need to feel welcome to help end factory farming.

The need to be right

When the need to be right is placed behind being compassionate to all beings (especially towards the humans with the forks), then the animals will benefit.