Science doesn't have the multivariate statistical capability to settle the argument yet. Like I said The literature's converging and if dietitians had anything of value to add why are chronic health conditions escalating. I'm betting on the macro ratios of the pre colonial Polynesian diet, Works pretty well for me. And I can do 40 pressups without any training other than the odd walk and grass fed roast lamb is absolutely delicious and it's biochemistry evolved in synch with mine.But by all means eat the pea goo, it reduces the demand for lamb. Everyone gets freedom of choice to eat what they choose in developed countries, It's a valuable freedom.
I agree that we still have a lot to learn about nutrition. What’s not controversial is that you can be perfectly healthy on a strictly plant based diet. Dismissing vegans as flat earthers or vegan diets as pea goo just makes you sound defensive.
Also, the diet you choose has consequences for the environment and the animals you eat so it’s not simply a matter of individual choices. Red meat in particular has a huge carbon footprint.
It is controversial though. Vegans have higher rates of depression and anxiety than the general cheeseburger eating population which has terrible rates of depression and anxiety. They also have higher rates of auto-immune disorders. The major benefit of their diet comes from toxicity reduction from eating optimised daily calories.
A plant sits in one spot thinking how to poison anything that eats too much of it. An animal moves about consuming as little poison as possible.
Once you're assured of enough calories (which used to limit population growth) the primary solution is to eat some calories from animals that evolved systems for processing plant toxins to minimise your toxic load.
I used pea goo in the comment because I went to the beyond meat website and looked at the ingredients in the impossible burger. The impossible burger consists of about 15 chemical compounds, combined by people highly financially motivated to optimise flavour, texture and colour and the primary component is pea protein. If you can think of a more concise name I'm all ears but it's definitely not a iphone or macbook air.
Vegan's choose pea goo over lamb. That's their choice and some vegan's will have the genetic biochemistry to live healthily on a plant based diet. The general population doesn't share that biochemistry. Veganism is the most environmentally sound option if one's health optimises from the diet. Unfortunately this is not the case for the majority of the population. The average vegan should be admired for their sacrifice, not their logic.
Citation for your claims about depression and immune disorders being more common in vegans? I've seen tons of studies showing exactly the opposite and also anecdotally in every vegan I know.
Plant based diets are highly anti inflammatory which helps a lot with depression. And the mammalian proteins in meat & dairy seem to be powerful triggers for the immune system to start attacking itself.
Can you please share a few of the best studies you've seen on veganism reducing depression and autoimmune disorders, I'm genuinely interested and hope I'm missing something.
