this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2023
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It’s been common knowledge for decades that maintaining a nutritionally balanced vegan or vegetarian diet is not as simple as just eliminating meat as doing so causes a severe lack of several key nutrients and vitamins. The main offenders are vitamin B12, Omega 3, vitamin D, Zinc, and Choline. Some of these can be accounted for by increasing variety in the diet but others require supplements for a multitude of reasons, either recommended daily consumption cannot be met due to self imposed dietary restrictions, a lack of nutritionally rich sources, or simply how much food you can eat.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8746448/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7073751/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261561420306567
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/9/2129
Nutritional deficiencies caused by incorrectly managed vegan diets are why doctors in Italy and Belgium are pushing for it to become illegal to feed children vegan diets, because the number of malnourished and dead children of vegan parents are rising in those nations.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37034619
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/05/16/parents-raise-children-vegans-should-prosecuted-say-belgian/
Choline is a nutrient that was identified in the 1800’s but wasn’t known as essential to human development until the late 90’s, it’s found primarily in animal protein and severely impacts brain development in young children and has ongoing effects on mental capability and brain function during adulthood and deficiencies have been linked to multiple memory related diseases. According to nutritional data from the US National Institute of Health on Choline density in foods a vegan would have to consume two and a half cups of soybeans every day to meet minimum RDI for an adult as opposed to 300g of animal protein. The next nearest vegan source of choline is chickpeas which have 50% lower Choline density than soybeans (5 cups a day to meet RDI!)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4422379/
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Choline-HealthProfessional/
Source? Are those numbers including livestock consumption of non-meat products? Pet consumption of meat products? You bitch about not sourcing information when none were requested then drop that bullshit with no source?
Whole soy beans make up less than 6% of an American production cow's diet, they can't handle more, the rest is made up from industrial food waste such as soybean meal from soymilk production, beet pulp from sugar production, cotton seeds from clothes production, brewers grains from alcohol production, citrus pulp from fruit production, corn gluten from corn syrup production, candy and bakery waste. Numbers from non waste food consumption in cows is as low as 2-3%.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_feeding
https://nre.tas.gov.au/Documents/cattlefeed.pdf
https://www.agriculture.gov.au/sites/default/files/sitecollectiondocuments/natural-resources/soils/national-factsheet-farm-practices-grazing.pdf
https://www.redmeatgreenfacts.com.au/environment/land-use/land-use-faqs/just-3-of-australias-land-mass-is-suitable-for-cropping/
https://wwf.org.au/what-we-do/food/beef/
https://www.csiro.au/en/work-with-us/industries/agriculture/sustainable-food-and-agriculture-systems/understanding-and-navigating-global-change-in-our-food-systems/grazing-systems-in-sustainable-food-futures
https://www.climateworkscentre.org/land-use-futures/australias-land-use/
http://era.daf.qld.gov.au/id/eprint/4249/
https://landcareaustralia.org.au/landcarefarming/innovationsinag/regenerativerangelands/
https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/dry-seasons-and-drought/grazing-native-vegetation-and-revegetation-farms-%E2%80%93-western-australia
https://www.ari.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/36084/ARI-Technical-Report-252-Understanding-the-relationship-between-grazing-and-wetland-condition.pdf
Which has higher caloric density and thus is more environmentally sustainable than transporting the same nutritional value in produce. It's like you want to burn more fossil fuels in the shipping industry than necessary.
Crop management, pesticides, and harvesting kill far more animals of varying species for the same equivalent nutritional value of a single head of cattle. Animals are also often raised on land that can't be used for crops turning useless land into sustainable food resources, here in Australia over 70% of all our cattle are grass fed on non-arable land that can’t be used for farming crops and that soil health requires both crop rotation and animal biodiversity otherwise you’re not going to be able to grow vegetables there for long. The only reason a healthy nutritionally balanced vegan or vegetarian diet is even remotely possible is due to globalised trade and access to internationally produced and shipped vegetables. To maintain a nutritionally complete vegan diet for an individual year round actually requires far more use of fossil fuels and directly released carbon emissions due to limited seasonality and local accessibility than a cow produces for the same nutrient density and complexity locally.
Here’s a “fun” fact, first world demand for fruit and grain variety has out priced primary sources of food for local populations in third world countries including things like lentils, quinoa, and avocados.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/insight/ordering-the-vegetarian-meal-there-s-more-animal-blood-on-your-hands
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/veganism-environment-veganuary-friendly-food-diet-damage-hodmedods-protein-crops-jack-monroe-a8177541.html
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/16/vegans-stomach-unpalatable-truth-quinoa
https://thetab.com/uk/2020/02/12/tofu-vegan-food-staple-bad-for-the-earth-143688?fbclid=IwAR1aBfNlh_OPSrF8odvUf6O5X14zE_VbCdXrn-a87AGip2zhXsohzMnNcHk
If self-awareness was a disease, you'd be the healthiest person alive.
TIL i'm dead
Hopefully only between the ears.