Wow, I spend a day away for my wedding anniversary and all hell breaks loose! Glad everyone is having fun with this.
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I just don't think it makes any sense to eliminate an entire food group - it seems to go against our goals of being healthy.</div>
Of course, many vegetarians would argue that it is because of health reasons that they became vegetarian. But as Jake points out, even vegetarians can make poor food choices and eat an unhealthy diet – heck, potato chips are vegetarian (and I love them, darn!). Mid-life I let myself become too inactive and I am now in a cutting cycle to reduce my body fat. Still, only a bodybuilder would have ever considered me “overfat.”
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">cats get everything from meat, actually by eating whole animals, they need no other food groups.</div>
This is because they must get carnitine from dietary sources -- not the case with humans.
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">How do you intake the amount of protein, required to meet your requirements, on a daily basis? Maybe I should also ask, what do you feel your protein requirement is, based on your weight?</div>
Maintenance protein levels are no problem, but I must admit that bulking levels take a little more work. It can be done, of course, with things like tofu, plus I get a pretty good protein charge from a bean and rice burrito. However, like many omnivores, I do find protein shakes make it easier. Unlike Jake, I am a vegan, so eggs and dairy are off of my list. Outside of things like tofu and seitan, high protein vegan foods also tend to have high calories, so the shakes just make it easier to meet protein goals without gorging yourself too much. I also have an omnivorous wife, so the social aspect has to be considered, as well.
Vegetarianism is as much ethical for me as for health, but I learned long ago that proselytizing on the issue seldom makes you friends, so I avoid talking too much about it unless asked.
All of our diets involve health trade-offs. Meat eaters have to deal with the vascular effects of animal fats and, often, the potential for unwanted substances (hormones, anti-biotics) from factory-farming. I have gone long stretches without supplementing my vegan diet and have done quite will that way. However, I have recently added some things normally only found in meat (carnitine, creatine) just to see if I can do better. On balance, I consider the vegetarian route the best long term approach, but that is my opinion.
Fausto, you can’t expect everybody to buy the biblical arguments, but I appreciate them and thank you for the witness. And doctor, saying that the Bible has as much relevance as Mad Magazine is a bit much even from a secular perspective -- it has impacted western culture in a most profound manner.
Anyway, I was just wanting to hear from other veggies on the board. Where did they go? A search on the subject turns up several from earlier years. Where is Hammer-Man and the like?
