Blackthornone
Super Freak
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I've been a vegan for 20 years. I've read over 60 books on the subject of vegetarianism, and natural health and healing. I ride my bike up hill no hands on my bike that is not too steep that I cannot not get traction on it if I'm riding out of the saddle. I am not weak. I am also very familiar with the ethical issues surrounding vegetarianism and veganism regarding the environment and the animals and so on, and I have debated thousands of people on the subject and I never lose, so long as it is a strictly logical argument.
Obviously, if people resort to the "meat! meat! meat!" statements or post pictures of meat dishes, then they have stopped using logic or thinking, and you cannot possibly get through to them.
To the original question, as others have said, B12 is the nutrient that most vegans commonly are deficient in, which is a nutrient that is made by bacteria in the soil, which accumulates on the plants, which the animals then eat, which is where ALL animals get their vitamin B12. In fact, there have been many hard core meat eaters, that upon being tested for B12, have had significant B12 deficiencies, so just because one is a meat eater is no guarantee of getting sufficient B12.
Vegans do in my experience need to be conscientious about getting enough protein, or more correctly, all of the essential amino acids. If one is really concerned about this, or one undergoes a lot of stress, then perhaps a protein powder supplement would be in order, which can be mixed in smoothies. Protein powders can come from soy, rice, peas, or most completely, from the hemp seed.
A vegan diet requires more thought than eating a meat or animal based diet, because eating a plant based diet is about consciously combining all of the elements that the body needs to be healthy a a human being according to human needs, without consuming anything that contradicts this. eating a meat based diet to survive, requires a lot less thought, because the animal products represent and are all of the nutrients that the animal took in and combined to make IT'S body, according to IT'S needs, which are of course formulated to create THAT particular animal's body according to the needs and physiology of THAT species, and to be concise, of that species alone. Because of this, and because of the fact that different mammals bodies are so largely similar, it is very very easy to acquire all of the basic building blocks to make a body strong and function well, but it ALSO involves taking in things into your body that you DO NOT need, because THOSE components are specific to THAT animal's particular needs, and not to the needs of your species.
Those other components are animal proteins which are formulated for that particular animal, and if you don't break them down completely into your body, those undigested proteins will irritate the bodies joints, causing arthritis, for example, because the body reacts to them as invades, and will react in an auto inflammatory response, thus causing joint irritation.
Animal products also contain too high an amount of the amino acid methionine, which is highly sulfur forming in the body, and thus is highly acid forming, and that acid will cause osteoporosis, by the body leaching calcium from the bones, in order to protect itself from this acid from burning up the body. All of this free flowing calcium released in the body also forms kidney stones, which are formed with uric acid found in meat and the calcium. The body has a limit of how much uric acid it can process in a day, which is basically limited to the amount of uric acid that it produces, because the human body is an animal, too, and all animals produce it. So, when additional uric acid is taken into the body, it causes problems like kidney stones.
Animal products also contain animal growth hormones, specific to the animal that they came from. For example, milk contains the hormone IGF-1, which in humans, can cause existing cancer cells to grow, and can cause extra large fingers and toes, for example.
Nowadays, animal products are loaded with pesticide and herbicide residues, because they accumulate those residues in their bodies from all of the plants which were sprayed with those chemicals that they ate, and thus concentrated in their bodies. By the way, pesticides are actually absorbed by the plants by being taken into the plants through the roots, thus filling every single cell of the plant with pesticides. You cannot wash off all of the pesticides from plants grown with them. They absorb them from the soil. In addition, the pesticides and herbicides kill the beneficial bacteria in the soil, which would otherwise make the plants stronger and healthier, and thus more able to absorb nutrients, and be more nutritious.
A Rutger's University study found a great difference between the mineral content of organic versus conventionally grown produce. For example, it found that by comparing equal amounts of dry weight, organic tomatoes had 1938 units of iron, while chemically grown tomatoes had ONE unit of iron. No wonder chemically grown tomatoes have no flavor! Minerals have flavor, and the unique combination of the minerals in various things have a major impact on their particular flavor.
On the ethics issue of eating animals, the fact is that animals are poor converters of plant protein to animal protein, because there is waste involved. A lot of waste. It takes 16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of beef. If also take 5,214 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat.Protein and resource efficiency wise, it makes more sense to eat the plants directly.
To people who say that plants have feelings, too that it is mean to eat the plants, apparetly, you are right about plants having feeling. In the book, The Secret Life Of Plants, by Christopher Bird, it outlines a study showing that plants responded (through readings measured with an electrical device) to being having their leaves burned, and the plants even picked up on the vibrations of the testers thoughts resonating through the air, and felt fear just at the INTENT to burn the leaf.
That said, because ALL animals eat plants, either directly or indirectly, when you eat animals, you cause the killing of animals AND plants, in fact you cause even MORE plants to die than if you ate the plants directly. So, eating plants causes less death, to both the animals AND the plants.
Some people might bring up the inadvertent killing of animals by them getting killed by grain harvesters cutting the fields. The fact of the matter is that 80% of the grain produced goes to feed LIVESTOCK. 80% of all water consumed also goes towards agriculture, and 80% of that goes to livestock agriculture. If you really want to save water, cutting back on meat consumption would be far more effective than anything else you can do. You could wash your car every day and STILL use a lot less water than if you ate beef. one quarter pond hamburger equals over 1,250 gallons of water. That's a LOT less than it takes to wash a car. I'd rather have a clean shiny car and have clean arteries to boot, instead of trying to skimp on watering my lawn and washing my car, and get cardiovascular disease by eating hamburgers.
It's a lot healthier for you and the planet.
So, WHY do people like animal products? Conditioning.
So, if there are any questions, go ahead and ask. I've spent 4 years of intense research on the subject, and tried my best to keep informed since then.
Obviously, if people resort to the "meat! meat! meat!" statements or post pictures of meat dishes, then they have stopped using logic or thinking, and you cannot possibly get through to them.
To the original question, as others have said, B12 is the nutrient that most vegans commonly are deficient in, which is a nutrient that is made by bacteria in the soil, which accumulates on the plants, which the animals then eat, which is where ALL animals get their vitamin B12. In fact, there have been many hard core meat eaters, that upon being tested for B12, have had significant B12 deficiencies, so just because one is a meat eater is no guarantee of getting sufficient B12.
Vegans do in my experience need to be conscientious about getting enough protein, or more correctly, all of the essential amino acids. If one is really concerned about this, or one undergoes a lot of stress, then perhaps a protein powder supplement would be in order, which can be mixed in smoothies. Protein powders can come from soy, rice, peas, or most completely, from the hemp seed.
A vegan diet requires more thought than eating a meat or animal based diet, because eating a plant based diet is about consciously combining all of the elements that the body needs to be healthy a a human being according to human needs, without consuming anything that contradicts this. eating a meat based diet to survive, requires a lot less thought, because the animal products represent and are all of the nutrients that the animal took in and combined to make IT'S body, according to IT'S needs, which are of course formulated to create THAT particular animal's body according to the needs and physiology of THAT species, and to be concise, of that species alone. Because of this, and because of the fact that different mammals bodies are so largely similar, it is very very easy to acquire all of the basic building blocks to make a body strong and function well, but it ALSO involves taking in things into your body that you DO NOT need, because THOSE components are specific to THAT animal's particular needs, and not to the needs of your species.
Those other components are animal proteins which are formulated for that particular animal, and if you don't break them down completely into your body, those undigested proteins will irritate the bodies joints, causing arthritis, for example, because the body reacts to them as invades, and will react in an auto inflammatory response, thus causing joint irritation.
Animal products also contain too high an amount of the amino acid methionine, which is highly sulfur forming in the body, and thus is highly acid forming, and that acid will cause osteoporosis, by the body leaching calcium from the bones, in order to protect itself from this acid from burning up the body. All of this free flowing calcium released in the body also forms kidney stones, which are formed with uric acid found in meat and the calcium. The body has a limit of how much uric acid it can process in a day, which is basically limited to the amount of uric acid that it produces, because the human body is an animal, too, and all animals produce it. So, when additional uric acid is taken into the body, it causes problems like kidney stones.
Animal products also contain animal growth hormones, specific to the animal that they came from. For example, milk contains the hormone IGF-1, which in humans, can cause existing cancer cells to grow, and can cause extra large fingers and toes, for example.
Nowadays, animal products are loaded with pesticide and herbicide residues, because they accumulate those residues in their bodies from all of the plants which were sprayed with those chemicals that they ate, and thus concentrated in their bodies. By the way, pesticides are actually absorbed by the plants by being taken into the plants through the roots, thus filling every single cell of the plant with pesticides. You cannot wash off all of the pesticides from plants grown with them. They absorb them from the soil. In addition, the pesticides and herbicides kill the beneficial bacteria in the soil, which would otherwise make the plants stronger and healthier, and thus more able to absorb nutrients, and be more nutritious.
A Rutger's University study found a great difference between the mineral content of organic versus conventionally grown produce. For example, it found that by comparing equal amounts of dry weight, organic tomatoes had 1938 units of iron, while chemically grown tomatoes had ONE unit of iron. No wonder chemically grown tomatoes have no flavor! Minerals have flavor, and the unique combination of the minerals in various things have a major impact on their particular flavor.
On the ethics issue of eating animals, the fact is that animals are poor converters of plant protein to animal protein, because there is waste involved. A lot of waste. It takes 16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of beef. If also take 5,214 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat.Protein and resource efficiency wise, it makes more sense to eat the plants directly.
To people who say that plants have feelings, too that it is mean to eat the plants, apparetly, you are right about plants having feeling. In the book, The Secret Life Of Plants, by Christopher Bird, it outlines a study showing that plants responded (through readings measured with an electrical device) to being having their leaves burned, and the plants even picked up on the vibrations of the testers thoughts resonating through the air, and felt fear just at the INTENT to burn the leaf.
That said, because ALL animals eat plants, either directly or indirectly, when you eat animals, you cause the killing of animals AND plants, in fact you cause even MORE plants to die than if you ate the plants directly. So, eating plants causes less death, to both the animals AND the plants.
Some people might bring up the inadvertent killing of animals by them getting killed by grain harvesters cutting the fields. The fact of the matter is that 80% of the grain produced goes to feed LIVESTOCK. 80% of all water consumed also goes towards agriculture, and 80% of that goes to livestock agriculture. If you really want to save water, cutting back on meat consumption would be far more effective than anything else you can do. You could wash your car every day and STILL use a lot less water than if you ate beef. one quarter pond hamburger equals over 1,250 gallons of water. That's a LOT less than it takes to wash a car. I'd rather have a clean shiny car and have clean arteries to boot, instead of trying to skimp on watering my lawn and washing my car, and get cardiovascular disease by eating hamburgers.
It's a lot healthier for you and the planet.
So, WHY do people like animal products? Conditioning.
So, if there are any questions, go ahead and ask. I've spent 4 years of intense research on the subject, and tried my best to keep informed since then.
I would have no guilt about killing an animal like a wolf or a bear in self defense, for example, but I would not go out deliberately hunting them. I am opposed to killing the innocent, but I'm not a pacifist at all. I'm not a Jainist, for example.
