Does anyone have a good link a discussion of reasons that a strictly vegan/vegetarian diet might outperform light consumption of animal products (e.g., one serving/day) from a health perspective?
I can envision the reasons why a strictly vegan/vegetarian diet might outperform a mostly vegan/vegetarian diet plus some red meat or processed meat—given that those are suspected or known carcinogens. Why it would outperform the standard American diet is obvious, but that isn’t the relevant comparison here. I don’t recall seeing a good affirmative case for zero as opposed to modest meat consumption in general.
I find somewhat convincing the argument that there’s at least some risk of downside from complete omission of a major food group that has been a significant part of the diet.[1] But that’s not enough to compare the potential risks of a vegan or vegetarian diet to the potential risks of a diet with some animal products.
As one of the cited articles notes, “a human animal consuming a body of another animal gets practically all constituent compounds of its own body.” So to the extent that there exists something positive in food that we don’t yet know that we benefit from, meat is likely to have at least some of whatever it is.
Does anyone have a good link a discussion of reasons that a strictly vegan/vegetarian diet might outperform light consumption of animal products (e.g., one serving/day) from a health perspective?
I can envision the reasons why a strictly vegan/vegetarian diet might outperform a mostly vegan/vegetarian diet plus some red meat or processed meat—given that those are suspected or known carcinogens. Why it would outperform the standard American diet is obvious, but that isn’t the relevant comparison here. I don’t recall seeing a good affirmative case for zero as opposed to modest meat consumption in general.
I find somewhat convincing the argument that there’s at least some risk of downside from complete omission of a major food group that has been a significant part of the diet.[1] But that’s not enough to compare the potential risks of a vegan or vegetarian diet to the potential risks of a diet with some animal products.
As one of the cited articles notes, “a human animal consuming a body of another animal gets practically all constituent compounds of its own body.” So to the extent that there exists something positive in food that we don’t yet know that we benefit from, meat is likely to have at least some of whatever it is.