(I’m not disagreeing with your overall point about the emphasis on the vegan diet)
You can of course supplement, but at the cost of extra time and money—and that’s assuming that you remember to supplement. For some people who are simply bad at keeping habits—me, at least—supplementing for an important nutrient just isn’t a reliable option; I can set my mind to do it but I predictably fail to keep up with it.
One way to make this easier could be to keep your supplements next to your toothbrush, and take them around the first time you brush your teeth in a day.
I actually have most of my supplements (capsules/pills) on my desk in front of or next to my laptop. I also keep my toothbrush and toothpaste next to my desk in my room.
I would usually put creatine powder in my breakfast, but I’ve been eating breakfast at work more often lately, so I haven’t been consistent. Switching to capsules/pills would probably be a good idea.
I think you could keep your supplements under $2 a day. Some of these supplements you might want to take anyway, veg or not, too. So I don’t think you’d necessarily be spending more on a vegan diet than an omnivorous one, if you’re very concerned with cost, since plant proteins and fats are often cheaper than animal products. If you’re not that concerned with cost in the first place, then you don’t need to be that concerned with the cost of supplements.
There’s a lot that we don’t understand, including chemicals that may play a valuable health role but haven’t been properly identified as such. Therefore, in the absence of clear guidance it’s wise to defer to eating (a) a wide variety of foods, which is enhanced by including animal products, and (b) foods that we evolved to eat, which has usually included at least a small amount of meat.
You could also be bivalvegan/ostrovegan, and you don’t need to eat bivalves every day; just use them to fill in any missing unknowns in your diet, so the daily cost can be reduced even if they aren’t cheap near you. Bivalves also tend to have relatively low mercury concentrations among sea animals, and some are good sources of iron or omega-3.
Here’s a potentially useful meta-analysis of studies on food groups and all-cause mortality, but the weaknesses you’ve already pointed out still apply, of course. See Table 1, especially, and, of course, the discussions of the limitations and strength of the evidence. They also looked at processed meats separately, but I don’t think they looked at unprocessed meats separately.
Another issue with applying this meta-analysis to compare vegan and nonvegan diets, though, is that the average diet with 0 servings of beef probably has chicken in it, and possibly more than the average diet with some beef in it. Or maybe they adjusted for these kinds of effects; I haven’t looked at the methodology that closely.
unhealthy foods such as store-bought bread (with so many preservatives, flavorings etc)
Do you think it’s better to not eat any store-bought whole grain bread at all? I think there’s a lot of research to support their benefits. See also the meta-analysis I already mentioned; even a few servings of refined grains per day were associated with reduced mortality. (Of course, you need to ask what people were eating less of when they ate more refined grains.)
(I’m not disagreeing with your overall point about the emphasis on the vegan diet)
One way to make this easier could be to keep your supplements next to your toothbrush, and take them around the first time you brush your teeth in a day.
I actually have most of my supplements (capsules/pills) on my desk in front of or next to my laptop. I also keep my toothbrush and toothpaste next to my desk in my room.
I would usually put creatine powder in my breakfast, but I’ve been eating breakfast at work more often lately, so I haven’t been consistent. Switching to capsules/pills would probably be a good idea.
I think you could keep your supplements under $2 a day. Some of these supplements you might want to take anyway, veg or not, too. So I don’t think you’d necessarily be spending more on a vegan diet than an omnivorous one, if you’re very concerned with cost, since plant proteins and fats are often cheaper than animal products. If you’re not that concerned with cost in the first place, then you don’t need to be that concerned with the cost of supplements.
You could also be bivalvegan/ostrovegan, and you don’t need to eat bivalves every day; just use them to fill in any missing unknowns in your diet, so the daily cost can be reduced even if they aren’t cheap near you. Bivalves also tend to have relatively low mercury concentrations among sea animals, and some are good sources of iron or omega-3.
Here’s a potentially useful meta-analysis of studies on food groups and all-cause mortality, but the weaknesses you’ve already pointed out still apply, of course. See Table 1, especially, and, of course, the discussions of the limitations and strength of the evidence. They also looked at processed meats separately, but I don’t think they looked at unprocessed meats separately.
Another issue with applying this meta-analysis to compare vegan and nonvegan diets, though, is that the average diet with 0 servings of beef probably has chicken in it, and possibly more than the average diet with some beef in it. Or maybe they adjusted for these kinds of effects; I haven’t looked at the methodology that closely.
Do you think it’s better to not eat any store-bought whole grain bread at all? I think there’s a lot of research to support their benefits. See also the meta-analysis I already mentioned; even a few servings of refined grains per day were associated with reduced mortality. (Of course, you need to ask what people were eating less of when they ate more refined grains.)
How bad are preservatives and flavourings?