What science says about plant-based diets (Vegan)

[Silver]

Good point you just made there.

There is this vegan at work who sometimes eats eggs.

[veoli]

Do any vegans here eat insects? Would you have an issue with that?

There were insects (crushed) in turkish delight packets in a local health-foods store in my town.  Forgotten the exact number but you can find them in the ingredients labelled CI345, or something along those lines.

[Gemini]

I went vegan for a while. While I was on that diet, I discovered that people with allergies to peanuts and tree nuts can develop allergies to other legumes if they eat them in large quantities.

I was eating lots of soy. Guess what I'm allergic to now

[brewer]

Do any vegans here eat insects? Would you have an issue with that?

There were insects (crushed) in turkish delight packets in a local health-foods store in my town.  Forgotten the exact number but you can find them in the ingredients labelled CI345, or something along those lines.

We don't have them in stores here, at least not stores I frequent. I have eaten hoppers, crickets, bees, ants, scorpions and meal worms but those were all in novelty foods or speciality restaurants. Each were OK except meal worms. I know I've eaten a few on accident back when I used to two wheel. BTW, in the US, there are FDA limits for the allowable percentage for insect parts in non insect food. I think mostly grains.

I guess my point was, if your vegan/vegetarian for altruistic or environmental reasons, is there a line that you won't cross or where do you the line drawn? Eggs, insects, worms, any animal product/by-product?

[Aractus]

From what I understand even most vegans aren't 100% vegan in their food/lifestyle all the time. It was explained to me that most do the best they can but they are usually about 90% vegan the majority of the time. This is from some of my vegan friends and info I received on a vegan fo. Limited but I think probably true.

That is backed up with evidence from the USA according to this Ted-Ed video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJJtRWFL_gw


And that video is a perfect example of how ordinary people have had their reality skewed by misleading information from the veganism movement. He casually remarks that "veganisim is healthier" which is not at all what the body of evidence tells us, and believe me that we it comes to specific nutrients and minerals like iron, Vitamin D, Calcium, Magnesium, Cholesterol, etc. I know there isn't a NRV for cholesterol at present, but we get 15% of our cholesterol from the diet in an average diet - you can't expect to simply remove it altogether and there not be consequences (see the effects of cholesterol deficiency - which include depression, aggression, and other mental health concerns). Same thing with Vitamin D - the requirement for vitamin d in Winter in Canberra is "30 minutes sun exposure in the middle of the day with as much skin exposed as possible". We also know the body does not store enough Vitamin D to make it through the winter months. Dark skinned people need up to 6x the exposure, or in other words 3 hours of sun exposure in the middle of the day with as much skin exposed as possible. That's not a realistic expectation at all - especially in winter!! In fact most people wouldn't be able to leave work for 30 minutes a day to get enough sun exposure in the middle of the day, let alone 3 hours - and even if they did, professionals would need to get undressed, and then dress themselves again afterwards. Yeah sounds really realistic - especially when eating fatty fish 2x a week will bridge the gap entirely for Vitamin D for everyone - light skinned or dark.

And Gemini - yep, high soy consumption actually has other negative consequences as well, you can look them up (for example in men it can cause infertility). Overall soy is good, but not when over-consumed as is often the case in veterinarian diets.

[veoli]

There were insects (crushed) in turkish delight packets in a local health-foods store in my town.  Forgotten the exact number but you can find them in the ingredients labelled CI345, or something along those lines.

We don't have them in stores here, at least not stores I frequent. I have eaten hoppers, crickets, bees, ants, scorpions and meal worms but those were all in novelty foods or speciality restaurants. Each were OK except meal worms. I know I've eaten a few on accident back when I used to two wheel. BTW, in the US, there are FDA limits for the allowable percentage for insect parts in non insect food. I think mostly grains.

I guess my point was, if your vegan/vegetarian for altruistic or environmental reasons, is there a line that you won't cross or where do you the line drawn? Eggs, insects, worms, any animal product/by-product?

Damn! What did they all taste like? Particularly scorpions, haha.

Yeah, I think I read somewhere about insect-limit.

I've been a veggie on/off for about 6 years now and will eat eggs. But tend to make sure they are free range.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

You know, in survivor, when No Collars were eating a scorpion I remember them saying how it tasted like chicken.

[brewer]

We don't have them in stores here, at least not stores I frequent. I have eaten hoppers, crickets, bees, ants, scorpions and meal worms but those were all in novelty foods or speciality restaurants. Each were OK except meal worms. I know I've eaten a few on accident back when I used to two wheel. BTW, in the US, there are FDA limits for the allowable percentage for insect parts in non insect food. I think mostly grains.

I guess my point was, if your vegan/vegetarian for altruistic or environmental reasons, is there a line that you won't cross or where do you the line drawn? Eggs, insects, worms, any animal product/by-product?

Damn! What did they all taste like? Particularly scorpions, haha.

Yeah, I think I read somewhere about insect-limit.

I've been a veggie on/off for about 6 years now and will eat eggs. But tend to make sure they are free range.

Taste? When covered in honey or chocolate, crunchy honey or chocolate. Ants were a little citric/acid. Meal worms were crunchy bags of neutral puss. Scorpions were teriyaki glazed so it hid most of the taste. I'm told it's suppose to have a crustacean flavor but I didn't taste any.

[Aractus]

Breaking news: vegan dies while descending Mt Everest.

Monash University lecturer Maria Strydom succumbed to altitude sickness and reportedly suffered a stroke and snow blindness while making her descent on Saturday.
...
A vegan, Dr Strydom was motivated to tackle Everest by challenging the diet's stereotypes.

"It seems that people have this warped idea of vegans being malnourished and weak," Dr Strydom said in March. "By climbing the seven summits we want to prove that vegans can do anything and more."

[Minimalist]

we want to prove that vegans can do anything and more."

Back to the drawing board for that idea, I guess.