fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2161 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2161 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

My best friend is severely iron deficient from a vegen diet. She's couldn't afford iron suppliments or vitamins for many years because they're very expensive and out of her budget. She's also deficient in several other meat-related vitamins but the iron deficiency is the worst one.

I know one person's experience is not a reflection of the whole, but, in my humble opinion, until the day we can manufacture all our essential nutrients in such a state that they are readily absorbed by our bodies and without costing an arm and a leg to buy, we're better off being omnivores.

Your friend should probably eat meat, then. We aren't in a position right now to provide completely for everyone's nutritional needs outside of meat.

But the statement "we're better off being omnivores" implies that everyone should be an omnivore. I disagree; plenty of people have diets without meat and are perfectly healthy.

Are we required to maintain an omnivorous diet in order to survive, when we have access to all our knowledge about nutrition, farming and transportation bringing us a wide variety of foods, and dietary supplements? That's a resounding NO. Plenty of vegetarians and vegans exist who are healthy and don't drop dead from lack of meat/animal products.

This statement of yours implied we should all be vegetarians and vegans because we don't need meat products to survive, which I objected to. Also, there are many parts of the world where people historically live or lived on pure carnivorous diets because farming and plantlife isn't possible. The arctic is an example. If anything, I'd say it's vegetables that are not an essential part of our diet.

"Until the day we can manufacture all our essential nutrients in such a state that they are readily absorbed by our bodies and without costing an arm and a leg to buy, we're better off being omnivores than pure vegetarians." Does this make it clearer what I meant? Meat products with the right nutrients are easier to absorb than supplements and pills. Education and knowledge are moot point unless the right foods are available. If you can afford being a healthy vegetarian, all the power to you. Don't judge the rest of us who can't afford to live up to your vegetarian ideals.

This statement of yours implied we should all be vegetarians and vegans because we don't need meat products to survive, which I objected to.

Your stance seemed at first to imply that we all needed to eat meat, which is what I was objecting to. You're still kind of implying that when you say "we're better off being omnivores". And I wasn't judging anyone. And I wasn't judging anyone - I'm not sure where that came across. I'm just discussing the science behind all this.

Being vegan means you really have to keep track of what you eat and the different vitamins and whatnots you intake, be it from food or supplements. Being vegan can be totally healthy if you know what you're doing. It sounds like your friend didn't.

I agree that it can be very expensive to be a healthy vegan, if you don't own a farm or a way to grow a lot of the food yourself. But the problem is that a lot of vegan, vegetarian, and organic food costs so much because so few people buy it and so few people make it, because it costs so much to produce. It's like solar panels. The more demand the cheaper things get, so it's kind of unhelpful to say 'I'll just be omnivore until things get cheaper' because they never will if nobody ever eats vegan or vegetarian fare.

Excuses me, my friend knows exactly what she's doing. She lives in a neighborhood with a population of South Asians and South East Asians large enough to support a wide variety of imported "ethnic" vegetables and fruits in their local supermarkets. In fact, most vegetables and fruits are the cheapest in her part of the city. It's not her fault that in spite of all that, she still needs supplements and foods she can't afford.

And how is food production in any way, shape or form comparable to the production of solar panels? One, solar panels never spoil. Solar panels can be mass produced in factories without being magically destroyed a week or two later from rotting. Two, better technology and more efficient solar panels are the driving force behind the price drop. Increased demand does make it cheaper, but not by much in comparison to the technological advances.

Another thing - organic food costs more partly because chemical fertilizers are more efficient, partly because certain bacteria are not a concern when using chemical fertilizers. I buy local whenever I can to support our farms but I don't buy organic because it is not better than the non-organic foods.

And, I eat meat because it is easier to get iron from meat than vegetables or pills. It's better for my body, not because it's cheaper than the "alternatives."

Wow. Wow. I should not reply on such topics when I'm on cold meds. There were a lot of half formed not really explained as I thought I was explaining thoughts in my reply up there. I'm just going to bow out here and go lie down on the couch.

Oh dear, I wondered why your reply made me raise eyebrows. Get better soon!

Organic food takes up too much farmland to produce. There isn't enough farmland on earth to feed everyone right now. A significant portion of people switching to organic will make it cheaper, yes, but it will kill people and widen the disparity in access to healthy and unhealthy foods for poor people.

[ SECRET POST #2161 ]

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