Any Vegetarians/Vegans here?

[James2014]

Now let's look at what professionals say.

• Why Your Cat Needs Animal-Based Protein
  
  The protein in animal tissue has what is known as a complete amino acid profile. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. Proteins derived from plants don't contain all the amino acids critical for the health of an obligate carnivore.
  
  You have the physiological ability to turn plant proteins into the missing pieces needed for a complete amino acid profile. Your cat's body isn't equipped to do this.
  
  One of the amino acids missing in plants is taurine. Taurine is found in animal muscle meat, especially the heart and liver. Taurine deficiency causes serious health problems in kitties, including blindness and heart disease. Feeding a cat a taurine-deficient vegetarian diet, then supplementing with a taurine pill is similar, in my book, to eating iceberg lettuce as your sole food source and taking a synthetic multivitamin. It doesn't balance out.
  
  

There you go.

• If you REALLY want to feed your cat a vegan diet:
  
  Some people want to make their pets vegan because of religious reasons or personal beliefs. My advice to you would be to consider not having a pet. It is unnatural to take a carnivore and ask them to eat a vegan diet.
  
  I’ve focused on cats here. It is possible to have a dog be a vegetarian. (There is actually a prescription vegetarian food.) This is because dogs need 2-3 times less protein than cats do. I still don’t recommend making your dog a vegetarian or vegan, but if someone is adamant then I’ll recommend a prescription vegetarian dog food. But there is no safe way to feed a cat a vegan diet.
  
  

People can have a perfectly balanced vegetarian diet - but this is not true of vegan diets. Vegan diets are dangerous, they lack essential nutrients that we need - not just proteins, but other things as well. Dairy is one of the easiest ways so supplement a vegetarian diet to get these required nutrients - what you are advocating, and I have already proven, is a diet that if followed without buying any processed foods is deficient in a number of areas, particularly B12 - and a B12 deficiency can permanently harm babies just like smoking and drinking while pregnant.

Also, it is unsafe to give a Baby vegan formula. It can result in DEATH!! If breast milk is unavailable - Babies have to be given formula made from cow's milk. You must acknowledge this point.

Nope, you are just wrong. Yes cats require taurine, taurine is present in algae, but you are right the amount of taurine in plants is negligible.

Firstly vegan cat foods are supplemented with synthetic taurine. The only reason why vegan pet foods may not be safe is because they have not been fully scientifically tested. But there is nothing in meat that could not be added to vegan pet food from vegan sources, its just a matter of understanding the physiology and chemistry.

You however are not a cat, and humans have the enzymes required to synthesise taurine from cysteine. So the argument still stands, all essential amino acids for human health can be found in plants.

You say its unnatural to feed a cat food vegan food, but surely then it is "unnatural to feed canivors food which has been farmed, or be kept in a house or be given medicines when they are ill. Don't appeal to nature, its just nonsense.

This obsession with processed food is ridiculous. Processed food is unnatural and good, just like medicine or agriculture or central heating.

Vegan breast milk is not deficient in any nutrients if the mother has a well planned diet, and there are always supplements that can be take. Soya milk infant formula milk, has also been shown to be as safe as cows milk, although breast milk is still best.

I have presented all the evidence, but all you have is assertions. Provide some evidence, or concede the point.

Tell me why the NHS or the American Dietetic association would lie about the evidence? Do you have some contrary evidence? If so present it!

The ADA say "appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases", If you want to be healthy, then go vegan.

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