First off, I’m not interested in a meatless diet. Sure, ethically I could make the case for not eating animals, but ultimately, they’d probably eat me if they could, and even if I didn’t eat them out of some sense of empathetic reciprocity, it wouldn’t prevent the rest of the planet’s humans from eating them, so my one-man stand wouldn’t have any impact except on my health and mental well being. The ethical argument isn’t limited to the treatment of the animals that make up our food supply either, but to the planet as a whole. Some studies suggest that if the world went vegan, global farmland could be reduced dramatically and greenhouse gases could be cut in similarly dramatic fashion.
Environmental considerations aside, the impact on my health would arguably be a negative one and here’s why: It would be exceedingly difficult to get all the macro-nutrients I need each day on a vegan diet. A vegetarian diet, aka lacto-ovo vegan diet, would work, because then you can eat eggs, cheeses, yogurts and similar deliciousness while still avoiding eating the actual sides of a cow. Pesco-vegetarian shouldn’t even be called vegetarian as it includes fish, shellfish, eggs and dairy. Semi-vegetarian is just silly, as it is an omnivorous diet including meat, but with limits on how often meat is consumed. I want to talk about true veganism and show how challenging it is to follow, to optimize your heath with, and how damned weird it is.
FYI: An amazing study that allowed infants to self-select their diet from a table full of options. There were truly remarkable results, with infants even managing their own nutritional deficiencies by periodically increasing certain food choices until their deficiencies resolved. Bottom line: infants self-selected an omnivorous diet, with fruit eaten in large quantities. Milk products were the top source of calories, followed by:
- Bone marrow
- Cereals
- Fruits
- Meats
- Eggs
- Organ meats
- Vegetables
- Seafood and fish
Using My Fitness Pal, I started a fresh day’s entry and did a Google search for vegan proteins, vegan bodybuilding and high protein vegetables. The main reason I started this way is because protein is the most difficult of the three macro-nutrients to get while eschewing all the protein-rich fleshy stuff vegans avoid. I kept adding in more vegan foodstuffs until I reached my calorie goal for the day, which for me right now is about 2650 calories on a training day. The end result:
- Protein: 116 Grams
- Carbohydates: 433 Grams
- Fat: 71 Grams
My goal for protein intake is 1.8 Grams per KG of body weight every day, or .82 grams per lb so around 145 grams per day. This is on the low side compared to most people trying to muscle up, but even then, I fell short going vegan. Additionally, I’m not too keen on having 50% of my calories coming from carbohydrates, so I’d have to do more tweaking of the food choices to bring that down, but veganism makes that very difficult as all the food choices, literally every one, have carbohydrates.
Additionally, this is before we even discuss the bio-availability of protein from plants, i.e. how well our bodies can digest and absorb the amino acids from these fibrous foods and add them to the amino acid pool. For curious minds, vegetable proteins are less good than milk based proteins.
Summary: With my day’s calories consumed, I fell short on total protein, I have no idea if I got optimal levels of all the essential amino acids, I have no idea if my body was able to actually utilize all the amino acids in my foods.
Let’s take a look at the day’s foods and consider just how difficult it would be to eat like this every day and what kind of a toll it might wreak upon one’s digestive system.
- Note: I did not include tofu or soybeans and soy products because of the deleterious hormonal effects of soy. If I added some, it would be easier to hit the protein target, but I’m not willing to sacrifice testosterone production.
- More
- Even more
- Yet still more
Breakfast:
- Lentils (1 cup)
- Pumpkin Seeds (1 TB)
- Peanut Butter (2 TB)
- Quinoa (1 cup)
- Peas (240 grams)
Lunch:
- Sweet Potato (116 grams)
- Spinach (1 cup)
- Almonds (25 grams)
- Broccoli (1 cup)
- Strawberries (1 cup)
- Plain oatmeal (1 oz)
- Kidney beans (1 cup)
- Artichoke (1 large)
- Chick peas (1/2 cup)
Dinner:
- Whole wheat bread (3 oz)
- Brussel’s Sprouts (1 oz)
- Macadamia nuts (13.5 pieces)
- Kiwi (1)
- Avocado (60 grams)
- Corn (3/4 cup)
- Asparagus (1 cup)
- Russet Potato (5.3 oz)
- Mushrooms (6 oz) * weigh 6 ounces of mushrooms to see the boatload you’d be eating.
Snacks:
- Squash (1.5 cups)
- Lima Beans (1 cup)
- Snow Peas (1 oz)
Homo sapiens are omnivores. We can eat and get energy and nutrients from just about anything. We’re not scavengers; we’re hunter gatherers and the hunting part of that duo refers to other animals. No one would describe picking berries as hunting them. Removing an entire source of nutrients from the human diet is inefficient, unduly challenging and offers no advantages to the individual choosing to do so.
If you choose to for your own reasons, far be it from me to opine on your choices. However, other than the aforementioned ethical reasons, there is no compelling health-based argument one can make to choose killing plants as your sustenance, vs. killing everything.
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