Any Vegetarians/Vegans here?

[James2014]

We have different standards here in the USA. My friend I went to college with has/still is taking chemistry classes(She is in vet school now).

Synthesized, possibly; healthy, no. All the vegan cat foods have too much fiber for a carnivore. Also most have corn, which my cat is allergic to(cheap cat foods use corn as a filler). My cats are on grain free food(no corn,wheat,or soy), same for my dogs.

Organic does not have pesticides or other harmful things. Organic meat tends to come from grass fed cows, not on fattening corn.

Does your friend actually do any significant chemistry research? ie not just weekly practical sessions or short projects?

So you agree it could be synthesised, then surely one could in principle just remove the fibre. Simple.

Re organic food, What you say is just conjecture, you present no studies. In fact our bodies are very good at metabolising pesticides at the levels that are found on non organic fruits and veg. Organic beef does not mean that cows are fed only on grass, they can also be fed organic grain/corn. Grass feeding will decrease the amount of fat in the meat, but there will still be a lot of saturated fat, I see no reason why it would affect the amounts of many other toxic chemicals in meat eg high levels of haem iron and carnitine, in addition to the toxins created when meat is cooked at a high temperature.

Well you say that much of medical science is junk, yet the studies you produced to defend the health benefits of vegan diets - as I pointed out to you - are total junk.

Most medical science is junk because the statistics they use in their analysis is of poor quality. Most epidemiology and randomised controlled studies are actually of much higher statistical quality, but most medical science however comprises of animal studies with very low sample sizes. You however have no reason to dismiss the studies I quote as junk other then your own bias ie, if they are cherry picked studies then produce some studies showing the opposite.

What about wool? Without wool what would you use for upholstery? Cotton or Synthetic fabric? Not hard-wearing, fails rub tests. Synthetic fibers are bad for the environment. Leather? Yes it works - but it does get hot if in the sun (car seats, etc). Vinyl? Vinyl is hard-wearing, but uncomfortable because the material doesn't fold and conform to body shapes, as such you could use it but it would certainly NOT be ergonomic or comfortable. You could use silk - it'd be expensive, and for some reason neo-veganists view it as cruel as well...

Synthetic fibres are not bad for the environment (or at least any worse than deriving it from farmed animals, which produce a huge amount of methane as well as the CO2 produced form the infrastructure required to farm animals), and there are plenty of artificial leather alternatives. Furthermore its hardly beyond the realms of conceivable science that even better alternatives could be made should we choose to invest in the research.

Your reasoning sounds a lot like that of somebody suffering from an eating disorder and makes me wonder if vegans can develop ED's from following their lifestyle?

A person with an ED may actually vomit involuntarily when fed a normal meal, and eating "normal" also causes anxiety, stress, fear/dread and depression. All of these things are negative, and is therefore a circle of logic going back to to comfort of the ED.

Re smoking: It's not morally wrong to smoke in moderation. It's also not negative for your health to do so - there are no studies that show somebody who smokes socially/occasionally has a different risk level for cancer than a non-smoker. Think about cholesterol - cholesterol is good for you, but too much of it in your diet can be very bad and have serious consequences on your health.

Regarding eating disorders, this is just another ad hominem attack. You are the one so obsessed with meat that despite all the evidence that veganism is healthy you still cling to anecdotes that people need meat.

Regarding smoking, even occasional smoking is associated with ill health. . There is no known level of smoking that has been shown to not impact on health, but we do know on the other hand that smoking in general causes disease. Similarly, there's is no known level of meat eating that has been shown to not impact on health, but we do know on the other hand that meat eating in general causes disease. We also know that meat and smoking contain a number of toxins that harm health. Vegan food however is protective against a number of diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Additionally, we do not need any cholesterol from our diet to be healthy. The liver produces all we need from other fats. At the very least all the evidence shows that you should eat less meat to be healthy. If that is enough to convince you to reduce your meat intake, and produce less suffering for yourself, for animals, and reduce the burden of illness on society then that is all a good thing.