BasilBoy wrote:Once again, I am not telling or advocating anything. I am merely giving you information. You don't have to use it or accept it. You're not interested in trying to prevent degenerative disease. I just wish the rest of us didn't have to pick up the tab. In case you haven't noticed, America has the highest per capita health care costs. I wonder if diet has anything to do with it? Nah...
It certainly does have to do with diet *AND* exercise, together. Too many refined sugars, too many hours sitting around doing nothing active. Now, if one accepts low physical activity, with a thin or low muscle mass body frame, you can get by easily enough at 1500 Cal; which does fit a vegan diet perfectly; the volume of food is right, you can eat a wide variety of anything on the "approved" list, quite tasty, interesting, non-boring. OTOH, I burn 1500 Cal *OVER* baseline with a two hour bike ride; and my baseline, resting metabolism comes in at around 2700 Cal.
Now, people dedicated to the principle of a vegan diet *CAN* make those numbers, but when you're in the 3500+ range; you have to make a serious effort to cram calories in; usually nuts are the most convenient; with oil and oil seeds less palatable, but at least not the same ole peanut & cashew. The problem here is the monotony, as easy as adding a few scoops of peanut butter/pile of cashews to my diet was when I needed it; after a few weeks, I couldn't even look sideways at a nut without losing my appetite. This isn't a fictional problem; its very real, and even the sited Dr above makes note of it.
I just think its very disingenuous to assert an
if you care about preventing degenerative disease you will vegan-ize without acknowledging the difficulty in subjects who are not trying to lose weight, and are currently very active.
The answer most end up going with, as far as I can tell, is that you make an exception for eggs/milk (ovo/lacto); which of course neuters the calorie problem completely; but by doing so, you're really just consuming most of the same proteins and fats that were in the meat to begin with. (not identical of course). So if the health problem is caused by consuming those proteins and fats, then permitting the ovo/lacto defeats the suggested health benefit.
That said, I will give you this, if a typical office worker / clerk in America were to shift to a Vegan diet, they would almost all end up vastly healthier. (Though my hunch is also that a bit of red meat, and a bit of oily fish during each month would be wise...)