Any Vegetarians/Vegans here?

[James2014]

This is what you need as a bare minimum:

1. a "control" group from the population of people who: have never smoked (or have only smoked very occasionally) as an adult, do not drink alcohol or coffee at all and have not for the last 5 years or longer, do not take any non-prescription medications, AND perhaps most importantly are neither overweight or underweight.

You can not data mine your control group - which is all the study that you quoted seems to do, and in fact they do not have a proper control group anyway. So you cannot know what the dietary habits of this control group are - at all, it's your control.

Next you need vegetarians that meet the same criteria (don't drink, don't smoke, don't drink caffeine, don't take drugs, and weigh a healthy weight).

Next you need vegans that meet the same criteria.

Then, and only then, do you see whether either of these groups is healthier than your control group.

That by the way is a bare minimum, what I'd prefer to see is a proper controlled trial.

So essentially you are saying that all epidemiology is invalid? Controlled trials are great but it does not invalidate epidemiological studies if they are big enough and are well controlled. It comes down to statistics, and if you have a big enough sample then the results hold true. I

If what you say is true and I am cherry picking, then show some studies that demonstrate that people on well planned vegan diets are unhealthy. You seem to demand of me decades long randomised control trials to show that veganism is healthy, but are happy to accept anecdote in support of your argument.

For randomised control trials, what we do have are studies that look at the effect of vegan diets on disease, eg improving the symptoms of those with type II diabetes and rheumatoid artharitis. Furthermore, if we look at all the observational studies, a vegan diet lowers the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease risk factors.

The fact is all the available evidence shows that a vegan diet is healthy and is protective against a number of diseases, including some cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and rheumatoid arthritis. Now you may very well be right, and better and bigger studies may come along and over turn all these findings. But until they do the evidence is clear. Veganism is healthy. That's why the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (whose membership includes 150,000 health care professionals) say...

"Vegetarian diets, which contain no meat (beef, pork, poultry, or fish and shellfish), are naturally low in saturated fat, high in fiber, and full of vitamins, minerals, and cancer-fighting compounds. A multitude of scientific studies have shown that vegetarian diets have remarkable health benefits and can help prevent certain diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. We encourage vegetarian diets as a way of improving general health and preventing diet-related illnesses.
Vegan diets, which contain no animal products (meat, dairy, eggs, or other animal products), are even healthier than vegetarian diets. Vegan diets contain no cholesterol and even less fat, saturated fat, and calories than vegetarian diets because they exclude dairy and eggs. Scientific research shows that health benefits increase as the amount of food from animal sources in the diet decreases, making vegan diets the healthiest overall."

The National Health service, America Dietetic Association and PCRM all agree. And for good reason, the evidence shows you are wrong. Eating meat is cruel an unnecessary for health.

Try this one:

• 
  
  So, I've been vegan for 5 years, vegetarian for 10 years before that. Here's the problem:
  
  I am allergic to soy, which I have done fine with. Somehow, I've developed a severe peanut allergy, and am starting to show symptoms of other allergies to legumes and nuts. I'm not sure how much longer I can remain vegan and survive.
  
  But I don't want to not be vegan.
  
  Does anyone know of any really useful alternative protein sources? Solutions to the problem? I can go on shots and such, but many of the allergen preventatives are animal tested or animal derived. This is such a pain in the butt.
  
  I suppose I'm writing because the depression of this is simply hitting me so hard, I don't know how to deal with this.

If a physician or nutritionist tells you to eat meat or dairy or take animal-derived supplements for your health, according to you, they'd be wrong?

Yes, they would be wrong. The patient could still acquire complete protein from both mycoprotein and quinoa. Additionally the amino acid that is lacking from grains is lysine, which is made synthetically and sold in supplements. Therefore a diet based on grains, mushrooms, mycoprotein, vegetables and fruits with supplemented lysine and multivitamins would be a very healthy diet indeed. With appropriate monitoring from a trained nutritionist, the patient could acquire all protein from vegan sources.

Additionally, I would also enquire about their vitamin status as B12 deficiency can also cause depression. Are they getting enough iodine and is that causing hypothyroidism. Many things could be affecting the patients health, but none of them need meat to treat these conditions.

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Can you really find no more edifying entertainment than watching carnivores tear apart incautious, uppity, overreaching herbivores?

You mean like when you appeal to nature?

An animal won't help us because we helped it to reduce its suffering.