When Ryder was first diagnosed Jim,
Teddy and I were scared to eat just about ANYTHING.
Our baby had somehow been born with cancer, it was caused by something…
could it have been something we were exposed to?
Something we were eating?
Did that crazy 200 mile bicycle ride we did before finding out she was pregnant have something to do with it?
(think that might have actually been a little before he was conceived, but still, these were the thoughts going through our heads…)
We were already eating I’d say around 85-90% organic, that got bumped up to 100% overnight.
And then we watched
all the cancer documentaries that were around at the time, and most of them were verily
heavily focused on a 100% plant based diet, so that’s what we did.
Then some time passed, there seemed to be more credible folks saying “yes, eat a lot of plants, but you do need some meat for XYZ reasons,” some doctors I respect a whole lot today still say that in fact…
So we worked it back in to some extent.
(That said for the record, I know never say never, but I really don’t think I’ll ever understand how anyone can think the pure “carnivore” diet is a good idea…
and I’ve been saying the past several years that the “paleo” crowd seems to have forgotten the “gathering” part of hunting and gathering)
But to be honest, for quite a while now I’ve swung pretty far back the other way.
***ON THE LONGER SIDE EMAIL ALERT. If you want an awesome guide on how you can avoid deficiencies on a plant based diet, Veg Health’s Avoiding Unhealthy Deficiencies: Vegan Nutrition Guide is a winner***
Every
comprehensive population study I can seem to find
says more plants and less meat equals less cancer (although I don’t know that there’s ever been one that can prove definitively that ZERO meat is optimal).
It would take three lifetimes to go through all the anti-cancer mechanisms of actions of plants studies on PubMed…
still haven’t seen one on the anti-cancer power of a rib-eye.
And
while the “yea but you still need XYZ” arguments can be convincing, so are the counter arguments.
I always roll my eyes when someone “watched a documentary” and is now thinks they know everything they need to know about whatever that thing is…
But that
The Game Changers one that came out a while back
was really good, I’d recommend watching it if you haven’t.
And what was really interesting was the Joe Rogan interview where the
producer of the film debated Chris Kresser (well known doc / big advocate of the need for meat / makes jabs at vegans a lot) on deficiencies…
and even Joe himself, also big meat advocate, stated that the
producer quite clearly won on every nutrient they covered.
I also used to roll my eyes at the morality aspect, but then I heard someone put it like:
“
If some sort of advanced species showed up here, so advanced that the comparison between them and us was about the difference between us and animals…
Would you want them to eat you and your family? How would you feel about it if they had the option not to, but just decided they liked it better?”
I also wonder about why in the garden of Eden, it was “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”…
And then
AFTER the fall (ie. In my opinion, man deciding he’s going to decide what’s right and wrong)…
Only then does eating animals get brought into the equation.
So I don’t know… these are the kinds of things I think about. This email is getting long enough.
Sure you’re wondering though so just to not drive you crazy, right now I still eat eggs somewhat regularly, some cheese here and there, haven’t eaten anything that used to have a pulse in a little while...
Not saying I never will again or that I won’t change views one way or the other in the future, that’s where I’m at right now though.
ALL THAT SAID, as mentioned above, what got me thinking about this was Veg Health’s
Avoiding Unhealthy Deficiencies Vegan Nutrition Guide they’re putting out in conjunction with their upcoming nutrition mastery program.
If you’re interested in some of those
counterarguments to “yea but you still need XYZ” I mentioned, this has a whole lot of them, what foods to eat to get XYZ, etc.
And that said
if you just want to add more plants into your life, and avoid deficiencies (most people who eat meat are still woefully deficient in various things) and are looking for a good place to start…
This is a good place to start.
Ryan