Yet another vegan “documentary” taking up space on Netflix these days: “You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment”. And it hasn’t even been more than a handful of years ago, there was the last wave of veganism driving through the country with the movie Game Changers on Netflix, swiping across the country with more peer pressure than your average influencer’s lip filler. Same arguments, same counter arguments. It gets boring for those of us who live long enough to see the circling trends in health care - same claims, same debunking and on and on it goes. Each generation has to learn from scratch all over again. Yes I sound like I’m a million years. But really, I don’t have patience for this utter nutritional nonsense trendy stuff proposed by self-claimed experts often with no relevant educational background when it comes to nutrition science.
I never really commented much on it, because we are missing the boat completely when it comes to changing our health by focusing so much on meat vs. plants, and the debate has so many emotional ties attached to it, that it rarely seems constructive to dive in. On top of that, I already wrote my piece on misconceptions about plant vs. meat theory doing my nutrition thesis on The China Study decades ago, so I just haven’t been up for going over this same nonsense again: reviewing all the studies piece by piece and explaining why it is not that simple to conclude that all meat is bad or that it is driving cancer or other extreme claims.
The only reason someone should go 100% vegan - and I still stick by that - is for ethical reasons.
Animal abuse in the farm industry is a big issue, but I am not going into that here. I also believe that there is a way to support ethical farming, rather than all out vegan.
The majority of us are, however, not getting sick from whether there is some meat in our diet or not.
We are getting sick, fat and depressed from:
Eating a diet full of synthetic chemicals, preservatives and lacking in nutrients and fiber. It has nothing to do with whether there is some meat in our diet our not. It is about the quality of our diet.
That said, if the quality of our meat is poor, of course it is contributing to disease: full of antibiotics, pesticides, mycotoxins (from moldy fodder) and stress chemicals. Nothing healthy at all about that.
Bottomline is, however, I see just as many health issues with vegans coming, as I do with omnivores.
I do want to point out that there are situations, where a vegan diet has its benefits.
A predominantly plantbased diet done right is by far the best choice for athletes.
This is because they get more than enough protein easily from the amounts of calories they consume. Another thing is that when you are training at an elite level, you do not want excess ketones or acid built-up in your muscles - the best fuel to avoid this scenario is carbs.
Carbs are by far the most cost-efficient fuel for the mitochondria, For energy production via Krebs cycle and muscles to perform. consuming carbohydrates helps your cells harness chemical energy, helping to drive your metabolism!
Another key issue for athletic optimal performance is that you do NOT want to consume heavy meat based diets, because all your blood flow will be going to your gut for digestion for the next many hours.
Anyone who is to engage in extensive daily exercise at athlete level should by large focus on foods that require the lowest gastric emptying, to minimize the time bloodflow is directed to your digestion and rather have it go to your muscles to improve performance ability.
Plant foods tend to require 2-3 hours of gastric emptying whereas meat and fish 3-5 hours.
Furthermor, meat and fish can take as long as 2 days to fully digest. The proteins and fats they contain are complex molecules that take longer for your body to pull apart. Plants, which are high in fiber, can move through your system in less than a day.
However a plant-based diet is not ideal for people suffering from a variety of gut disorders who cannot tolerate fibers. Research also shows that the bioavailability of essential amino acids are higher in meat than for plants, which mainly matters when it comes to kids, elderly and undernourished. Remember though, that quite a lot of us today are fat but undernourished. I do see a lot of people who do not get enough protein (1.5g/ pr kg bodyweight) - however this level can be reached both on a plant based diet or on one that includes meat, if you just plan your meals smart. A lot of us don’t, and that is the issue - eating a slice of toast with jam and a banana for breakfast? 4 grams of protein from the bread. Pretty much a disaster. But adding 1 big scoop of hemp protein powder to your smoothie? 30 grams of protein right there and you’re all set for the day.
however, Meat also contains various concentrated nutrients which plants just don’t - including zinc and sulphur which is needed during recovery from stress and surgery.
One may very well argue, “couldn’t you just supplement with above nutrients rather than eat meat”? Perhaps. However, there are usually so many co-factors occurring in the whole foods that supplementing with what we at the time may think are the determining factors, more often than not, do NOT provide the same health results, as eating the foods where they naturally occur. And this is also why I tend to incorporate ancient teachings from Ayurvedic Medicine - many things that we don’t understand quite yet through Western science, have been time-tested through these ancient teachings. In Ayurveda, which is predominantly plantbased, we are advised to include animal meat during times of mental weakness and recovery from physical injury. Red meat strongly rebuilds deficient blood and increases stamina by having amino acid precursors that we know from Western science boost dopamine. In Ayurveda this is explained by it impacting what they call “the fire energy” in the body also known as “Pitta”. Too much fire is not a good thing, as we tend to overperform and “burn out”, but too little and we wither away from weakness, depression and lethargy.
So athletes who are burnt out and looking to recover from injuries may benefit from reincorporating more red meat into their diet temporarily and switch over to some fish and chicken a couple times a week, when reintroducing more training and thus wanting to switch over to foods with a quicker gastric emptying once again.
I always recommend steering away from calling yourself this or that, based on what you are eating.
Rather adapt your diet based on your body’s needs which may change over time.
Food is meant to support you and your body - not the other way around: you trying desperately to label yourself to get an identity. I promise - you are so much more than what you eat.
Health generally doesn’t care about the details - it’s the big picture. And isn’t that nice - that means you can actually have a steak when you want it, and a slice of cake with real whipped cream and that is not going to ruin your health. Actually, it may improve your health by adding some life quality and enjoyment back into your life.