Re: Other considerations. Vegetarians vs. Meat eaters

Sorry Doc, I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you.

Regarding availability, you can eat almost whatever you want when you are 15-25 years old, it doesn't mean it's good for you or that you can do it forever.

For example, I ate my regular supper and I then ate 50-100% of a pizza every night when I was in university. I wasn't fat, I was in great shape, I had lots of energy, and I had top marks! Surely then this diet must be the diet of champions then since I was looking and feeling the best of my entire life. Unfortunately, that assumption is wrong, I couldn't continue it forever and started the beginning of the end for me. I could never do that diet today, it would literally kill me, even if it's "all that was available".

When you're talking about health, you have to take everything in context. Back then, you were young, you had tonnes of exercise, and were out in the sun all day. Of course you were healthy, like I said, when you're young you're basically indestructible, you can make any comparisons based on that. However, I also want to say that the food you were eating, while it was basic, probably wasn't loaded down with all the shit we have in our food today, the preservatives, the additives, the food coloring, the MSG (!), the hormones/steroids in the meat, and the food industry being cheap in what they feed their livestock. It was a different time. My mother still remembers when she could skim the fat off the top of milk after a day or two, you can't do that today. It was a different time.

Regarding availability, in North America anyway, almost every food is "available" to us. Mostly, we choose what we want to eat. What is available is our choice of what we want to make available to us. For example, it took me months (and a lot of effort) to find raw milk where I live, it wasn't available and probably only 500 people in my entire province drink it, but if you're determined enough you will find it.

If all we needed was to feel we are eating the best food "available" to us and ate what was necessary to maintain our lifestyles, using that definition, a lot of people wouldn't be sick. But that's not the case.


The malnourished and POWs do die quite often (or pay the price later in life), just because one lives doesn't mean it's a recommended state to be in. The old often die, the young often live. /Shrug.

Regarding necessity. It's true that the body will use what you give it, however it takes a toll on your body to do this (when your body uses enzyme mutations) over time. And over time, you'll also run through nutritional reserves (as many vegans find), whether it takes 2 months or a decade, eventually you will run out and become suddenly "unhealthy", even though you've had the same diet for years.

Although I agree that veganism isn't a good diet (at least it isn't for me), I firmly believe that diet is the single most important component in either increasing or destroying health. I'm not sure what they do with our food these days, but raw animal products are what have helped me escape death: raw milk, raw butter, raw eggs, a little raw oil, raw fruit, raw veggies (depends), and yes raw meat. I do sometimes eat cooked food, but I'm careful what I eat and don't make it a habit. I never eat anything out of a microwave. Anyway, enough rambling. I can only speak from experience and the food I eat absolutely determines my health, regardless of availability or necessity.