I agree that nutrition science is not robust enough, but I have never been convinced by arguments against healthiness of a fully plant-based diet.
As you note, vegans live longer in observational studies.
Furthermore, trans fats and heavy metals are very likely to be bad for health. Consuming animal products exposes you to these. (A lot of) Saturated fat might also be bad for you and animal products have more of that. I agree that vegans might be missing out on some beneficial nutrients but there are also some harms avoided. I’m not sure which effect dominates.
Im unsure if consuming animal products in very little amounts would have harmful effects due to trans fats and heavy metals since they’ll be so little in the body. At the end of the day we need to accept a trade-off and being conservative could make sense given how little we know about nutrition science.
Vegetarians (not vegans), but then if you find a comparison group that also doesn’t drink/smoke but isn’t vegetarian, the non-vegetarians live longer.
I agree that nutrition science is not robust enough, but I have never been convinced by arguments against healthiness of a fully plant-based diet.
As you note, vegans live longer in observational studies.
Furthermore, trans fats and heavy metals are very likely to be bad for health. Consuming animal products exposes you to these. (A lot of) Saturated fat might also be bad for you and animal products have more of that. I agree that vegans might be missing out on some beneficial nutrients but there are also some harms avoided. I’m not sure which effect dominates.
Im unsure if consuming animal products in very little amounts would have harmful effects due to trans fats and heavy metals since they’ll be so little in the body. At the end of the day we need to accept a trade-off and being conservative could make sense given how little we know about nutrition science.
Vegetarians (not vegans), but then if you find a comparison group that also doesn’t drink/smoke but isn’t vegetarian, the non-vegetarians live longer.
Also this larger study shows that meat consumption predicts longer lifespan.