Spurred in part, first by a report from the United Nations Environment Programme and then by some of the stated goals of the “Green New Deal”, I wanted to point out that a lot of problematic things are being said about diet. I’m going to present my reactions in bullet form:
- Some human beings are, for practical purposes, incapable of thriving on a purely vegetarian diet.
- No one really knows how high a percentage of people that might be.
- There is a genetic basis for this and it’s reasonable to think that people whose ancestors lived in Germany are different from people whose ancestors lived in China are different from people whose ancestors lived in Ghana.
- Most people of European descent who are capable of thriving on a purely vegetarian diet require a significant amount of discipline and in all likelihood supplementation to thrive on a purely vegetarian diet.
- On average Americans eat too much meat—more than 120kg/year by some reckonings. That’s excessive and not conducive to good health.
I consume less than 100g of protein from all sources daily. That includes meat, poultry, fish, seafood, eggs, dairy, and vegetable sources. How do I know? I weigh everything.
That’s probably about the same as the average person in China.
I am not killing the planet.
My ancestors on both sides in all likelihood survived on dairy (milk and cheese) and grain. My Swiss ancestors were milk brokers for as far back as we have records—800 years. There were a lot of Irish cowboys on my mom’s side. I would not be surprised at all if I were genetically incapable of surviving on a purely vegetarian diet.
My recommendation is moderation in all things or, as Plautus put it modus omnibus rebus optimus est habitu. It was a good policy 2,000 years ago and it still is.
From a parental perspective, I’ve always been very skeptical of my kids’ ability to eat a healthy vegetarian diet. That may be self-servicing because I would have to model the diet and I would fail, but I am sticking with this.
Wonder how this will play with the hog farmers in the Carolinas and Iowa, or in the beef raising areas. Suspect poorly and yet the response will be those aren’t the voters (and donors) they be looking for.
You don’t see the mistake in personalizing an aggregate problem?
I guess this will play just as well with cattle and hog Farmers as it did with attempts to address diabetes by cutting back on sugar.
Steve
“There is a genetic basis for this and it’s reasonable to think that people whose ancestors lived in Germany are different from people whose ancestors lived in China are different from people whose ancestors lived in Ghana.”
Good thing you don’t hold office. That’s heresy.
You don’t see a problem with overgeneralization? The number of cases required to refute an overgeneralization is one.
From a nutritional viewpoint, meat is the most nearly perfect food. It contains a complete set of nutrients in nearly the right proportions. Plants do provide calories in the form of sugars and carbohydrates and fiber, and many fruits also provide vitamin C. However, plants are severely deficient in necessary amino acids and fats. Despised fats are, in fact, necessary nutrients, especially for growing children. In Third World countries that have little meat, the population is stunted both physically and mentally. A good deal of that is probably genetic, but environment counts, too.
Attempting to raise children as vegetarians is child abuse.
Most people are unable to remain healthy without animal sources of taurine or supplementation.
The available evidence suggests that human beings evolved as omnivores so it wouldn’t be too surprising if an omnivorous diet were most likely to keep us in the best health. That doesn’t preclude pointing out that Americans eat too much meat.
And our teeth tell us all we need to know about our natural diet. Omnivorous.
I decided several years ago to eat only what I like to eat, and to regard anyone who tells me what I should eat as a potential threat. So far its working fine.