A discussion on TFES forum

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Topics include philosophy, activism, effective altruism, plant-based nutrition, and diet advice/discussion whether high carb, low carb (eco atkins/vegan keto) or anything in between.
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brimstoneSalad
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Re: A discussion on TFES forum

Post by brimstoneSalad »

teo123 wrote:I don't know. Veganism is quite contrary to what we are told in school in biology classes about healthy diets. And we are bombarded from the media with the statements about milk, eggs and honey being healthy.
Your biology teachers are not registered dietitians; they are not educated in the subject, and are no more qualified to advise you on diet than they are to perform open heart surgery.

Doctors can prescribe medicines and perform surgeries (depending on their experience), they usually are not qualified to give diet advice.
Registered Dieticians (in the U.S., Canada, and some of Europe) are qualified to offer diet advice, but not prescribe medication or perform surgeries.
Biology teachers are not qualified to do either -- they have very minimal education on basic biology (animals, plants, etc.), and none on human medicine or dietetics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietitian

You need to learn which people are qualified to give advice on which topics.

You trust a mechanic when it comes to your car, but not when it comes to gardening.
Different people have different sets of knowledge and experience, and you need to stop assuming people have more personal credibility than they do. When your biology teacher speaks on diet, he or she is speaking out of his or her ass on topics he or she is not qualified to speak on.

When your biology teacher assumes he or she knows anything about human nutrition, he or she is making the same mistake YOU made when you assumed you understood physics enough to surmise the shape of the Earth on your own. Arrogance is a common quality of ignorance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

Your teachers are not immune. To the contrary, they're probably even more full of themselves because they're in positions of authority.

The Media is not even remotely credible -- it's politics, not science.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism

Science journalism is the worst, and nutrition reporting is terrible, because you're dealing with journalists who are both too ignorant to understand what they're reporting (they are as bad at reading as you are), and on top of that exaggerate to sell more papers/magazines/get more views.

Take your nutrition advice from credible Western registered dieticians:

http://veganhealth.org/
http://www.theveganrd.com/

Two registered dietitians who specialize in offering advice to vegans.

teo123 wrote:If they weren't, wouldn't that have to be a conspiracy?
No. It means they're stupid and greedy. Yellow journalism is a transparent problem if you spend any time fact checking.
If you read the actual research papers many of these journalists cite, the scientists who did the work do not say the same things the journalists say,

Read this article for a good example:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/magazine-features/is-butter-really-back/

Researchers are constantly complaining about how journalists are misreporting on them and misrepresenting the studies they do.

We saw the same thing with the yellow journalism on "bacon better than lettuce for the environment" and "Vegetarianism causes mutations and cancer" bullshit. There are threads on these here on this forum. It was bad journalism, extremely ignorant.
http://philosophicalvegan.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2082

teo123 wrote:And while vegetarianism is accepted in the culture, veganism isn't. If I go vegan, I will be the only vegan I know, just like I was the only flat-earther I knew, but I do know a few other vegetarians. And, to be honest, I may just like my cheese too much to go vegan.
If you just want to be seen as "normal" and you want to eat cheese because you can't be bothered to sacrifice a little taste in order to do the right thing, don't make other excuses for it by trying to claim veganism is unhealthy.

As long as you supplement B12 and eat properly, veganism is perfectly adequate.

Did you miss my last post where I talked about B12?

As discussed here:
http://philosophicalvegan.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=801&start=20#p22078
If you can't find supplements (which are better), you could eat oysters which are probably not sentient, if your parents insist you eat some animal products.
teo123 wrote:By the way, we don't buy milk and eggs from factory farms, but from the people in our and nearby villages, so we can be pretty certain that the animals aren't debeaked, kept in the small cages and abused in the way you say they are (except, of course, sent to the slaughterhouses when they are older).
Are you an expert in animal psychology, so know these animals are happy and well cared for, or are you guessing to make excuses for yourself?
Have you visited the farms in a surprise inspection to confirm all of this, rather than a guided tour where they show you the cleanest places and best cared for animals?

They aren't sent to be killed when they're old: they're sent quite young, as soon as egg and milk production drops, and for the male calves even younger to become veal, and for male chicks killed at birth.
Because people eat the milk and eggs, as explained multiple times, the killing will continue and produce cheaper meat which will increase demand for meat (which is higher at that lower price). Even if people didn't eat it, they'd still kill these animals because they don't want to waste money feeding them and caring for them once they don't produce anymore.
Dairy and egg are responsible for enormous amounts of animal suffering too. Less than meat? Slightly. But still very large.

Dairy and egg are also not good for you. There's no reason you should be eating all of that saturated fat and cholesterol. Oysters are probably a better source of B12 if you think you must eat animal products.
teo123 wrote:I was referring to the metastudy mentioned on Wikipedia.
A 1999 metastudy combined data from five studies from western countries. The metastudy reported mortality ratios, where lower numbers indicated fewer deaths, for fish eaters to be 0.82, vegetarians to be 0.84, occasional meat eaters (eat meat less than once per week) to be 0.84. Regular meat eaters had the base mortality rate of 1.0, while the number for vegans was very uncertain (anywhere between 0.7 and 1.44) due to too few data points. The study reported the numbers of deaths in each category, and expected error ranges for each ratio, and adjustments made to the data. However, the "lower mortality was due largely to the relatively low prevalence of smoking in these [vegetarian] cohorts". Out of the major causes of death studied, only one difference in mortality rate was attributed to the difference in diet, as the conclusion states: "...vegetarians had a 24% lower mortality from ischaemic heart disease than non-vegetarians, but no associations of a vegetarian diet with other major causes of death were established".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism#Longevity
You apparently have no idea how to read. Vegans were not represented in large enough numbers in the study to make a conclusion. They could have had as low as a 0.7. Not enough data means not enough data, not "take a guess and your guess is right".

Norris has an article on the topic examining MANY studies: http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/dxrates

There just have not been many studies looking at vegans, because there aren't many vegans. But we know that vegans can get all of their nutrients, and there's no evidence that we live shorter or less healthy lives than others.
Jack Norris wrote:Conclusion

In summary, not enough is yet known about vegan mortality to draw any conclusions other than that vegans do not have unusually high rates of mortality and they probably do better than the average person due either to diet or a healthier lifestyle.
This is the conclusion of an expert after extensive research, echoed by other experts after extensive research. You are neither an expert, nor have you done extensive research, nor can you even properly read research or understand their actual conclusions. You are not qualified to draw your own conclusions on these topics. You should trust experts in the field (not auto mechanics or school teachers or journalists).

Stop trying to draw your own conclusions. You're very bad at it. Your teachers aren't better at it either; you can't trust them except on their particular subjects of expertise (none of whom have experience in nutrition or are registered dietitians).
teo123 wrote:
Why do you think that's reliable?
It's from the ADA.
teo123 wrote:I don't know now. Why aren't those credible sources?
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictio ... m/veganism
medical-dictionary wrote:Cons
Veganism may be associated with deficiencies in vitamin B12, as well as vitamin B6, riboflavin, vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, zinc, iron, iodine and trace minerals, especially in periods of growth (e.g., during childhood, pregnancy or lactation). The high-fibre vegan diet reduces absorption of essential cations by chelating calcium, zinc, iron and trace minerals.
Can you read? It says associated with: that's not causal. A vegan diet doesn't cause these things, a poor vegan diet can (just as a poor non-vegan diet can).
If you don't take B12, you will become B12 deficient.
If you don't go in the sun or take vitamin D, you will become D deficient (milk is fortified, usually -- it has man made vitamin D added).
The others are issues of just eating a proper diet and enough beans and nuts/seeds.
If you use cronometer, and follow expert advice on planning your diet, you will have none of these problems.

Iodine deficiency is usually caused by eating non-iodized salt instead of iodized salt. Some vegans are crazy and are afraid of iodized salt.

With proper planning, you can get all of the PROs with none of the cons.
What is it that makes you incapable of reading a couple pages before jumping to conclusions of your own?
Read the fucking article.
ajcn wrote:Micronutrients of special concern for the
vegan include vitamins B-12 and D, calcium, and long-chain n–3
(omega-3) fatty acids. Unless vegans regularly consume foods that
are fortified with these nutrients, appropriate supplements should be
consumed.
That's all you read, right?

Did you read this?
ajcn wrote:SUMMARY
Vegans are thinner, have lower serum cholesterol and blood
pressure, and enjoy a lower risk of CVD. BMD and the risk of
bone fracture may be a concern when there is an inadequate
intake of calcium and vitamin D. Where available, calcium- and
vitamin D–fortified foods should be regularly consumed. There
is a need for more studies on the relation between vegan diets
and risk of cancer, diabetes, and osteoporosis. Vitamin B-12
deficiency is a potential problem for vegans, so that the use of
vitamin B-12–fortified foods or supplements are essential. To
optimize the n–3 fatty acid status of vegans, foods rich in ALA,
DHA-fortified foods, or DHA supplements should be regularly
consumed. Vegans generally have an adequate iron intake and do
not experience anemia more frequently than others. Typically,
vegans can avoid nutritional problems if appropriate food choices
are made. Their health status appears to be at least as good as
other vegetarians, such as lactoovovegetarians.
(Other articles in
this supplement to the Journal include references 83–109.)
Also read their recommendations. It's not hard. This is a very positive conclusion about veganism. How you took anything else away from this I don't know.
teo123 wrote:
A vegetarian diet can meet current recommendations for all of these nutrients.
Does the same go for the vegan diets?
That is what they said, if you would read it carefully. They defined vegetarian diets as including total vegetarian, or vegan diets.
Yes, the same goes for vegan diets.

You need B12. And if you don't take D, you need some sunlight. You should make sure to get Omega 3 from walnuts or flax (or chia or hemp if you have it). You can also easily supplement on calcium. If you don't have plant milks, you can use a calcium based antacid.
teo123 wrote:Probably not. They think that natural equals better.
The B12 supplements are made from bacteria.

Tell them something like: "All B12 is made from bacteria, which are natural, meat contains B12 because animals eat feces full of bacteria, or have enteric fermentation. In the past human ancestors could get some B12 from living in a dirty environment and drinking contaminated water and eating dirty food which is rich in B12, but today we live in a clean environment with less bacteria, and eat clean food, so we need to supplement."

That convinces some people. In reality, our ancestors also ate feces... but maybe don't mention that.

If not, and they still won't buy you supplements, then I'm sure somebody will send you some if you can't find any yourself. B12 is very cheap.
teo123 wrote:
do they not have soymilk at your store?
No.
They should have antacid tablets made with calcium carbonate.
Take one a day with orange juice (or with an orange).
Some orange juice is also fortified with calcium, in which case just drink that and skip the antacid.
teo123 wrote:And why would they slaughter them if nobody ate meat?
Because they don't want to pay to feed them after they stop producing. And they don't want to pay to raise the male chicks or bulls when they don't get anything from them. They're mouths to feed, and that costs money. They will always kill them as soon as they stop producing enough milk and eggs to make it commercially viable, and males will be killed as babies.
teo123 wrote:How do we know that?
Behavior. How do you know your parents love you? How do you know human parents love their children?
You need to be a little less skeptical of others' behavior. Animals are not pretending to love their children, and they aren't intelligent enough to care about or understand evolution as a reason to behave that way (neither are most humans).
teo123 wrote:I meant, the food itself would be more expensive because there would be less customers.
:roll: You need to stop thinking you understand things. You don't understand economics.
The fewer people want to buy something, and the larger the supply of that thing, the cheaper it gets.

Supply and demand is like this: Price = Demand / Supply
Bigger supply with the same demand means a lower price. Lower demand with the same supply means a lower price.
teo123 wrote:If we stop eating eggs and milk, they won't be customers of food any more, so the price of food is going to go higher, for the same reason as the price of gold or oil is high.
Do you think at all before you type? What's wrong with you? How did you get all of this precisely backward?

Gold and oil are not expensive because nobody wants to buy them and there's too much available. They're expensive because many people want them and there's a limited availability.

If there was suddenly twice as much oil available, the price would fall drastically.
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brimstoneSalad
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Re: A discussion on TFES forum

Post by brimstoneSalad »

Cirion Spellbinder wrote:
brimstoneSalad wrote:Scientific consensus is not based on one study, which can be poorly conducted, or the researchers dishonest, or using a small sample size or have confounding variables. It's when many studies agree with each other and are repeated that you rise above bias and it becomes scientific consensus.
How many studies is "enough" studies for something become scientific consensus?
It takes a few years, because there has to be time for others to criticize it. Eventually, scientists in the relevant field just all accept it (or the overwhelming majority), at which point it becomes consensus. It's not about a set number, but about a degree of certainty sufficient to convince experts.
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EquALLity
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Re: A discussion on TFES forum

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teo123 wrote:Well, she is in jail right now. I live with my father whom I haven't seen in about seven years.
Aw. =/
Why is she in jail?

Why hadn't you seen your father for seven years until now?
I think brimstone addressed this.
teo123 wrote:Why do you think that's reliable?
It's made by a credible source, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
teo123 wrote:Does the same go for the vegan diets?
Vegan diets are included under vegetarian.
See?:
It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that 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.
teo123 wrote:I was referring to the metastudy mentioned on Wikipedia.
Brimstone addressed this also.
teo123 wrote:Probably not. They think that natural equals better.
Did you ask? It can't hurt to ask.
teo123 wrote:And why would they slaughter them if nobody ate meat?
Like brimstone said, because it costs less money after a certain point.
teo123 wrote:Well, yes, but that's mainly because they get more money by selling their meat than by keeping them alive, right?
That must play a role, but it would still cost less to kill them. Killing animals isn't really expensive, but feeding them their entire lives is.
teo123 wrote:How do we know that?
Brimstone addressed this one too.

Why do you think cows are in distress when you take away their babies?
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Re: A discussion on TFES forum

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brimstoneSalad wrote:Corporations are made up of people who have ethical compasses (companies are full of whistleblowers on other issues), the trouble is that a lot of people are ready to discount nonhuman animals as having much if any ethical consideration, under the excuse that "god gave man dominion over animals", or belief that they aren't sentient, or that it's necessary to kill them.
When we regard or rationalize something as necessary, it's very easy to turn off the conscience.
That's true, but money and political power often corrupts people and makes them ignore ethical violations.
brimstoneSalad wrote:Some governments make a habit of lying and disseminating propaganda. This depends on government corruption and censorship (without which it's functionally impossible for the government to maintain a lie long). Lies always leak, but if the media isn't allowed to report on the leak, it can be contained.
Not necessarily, because individuals can spread information. The Internet does that pretty quickly.
Also, it wouldn't be a good thing if it were true.
brimstoneSalad wrote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruptio ... ions_Index
This is not terribly reliable, but it's in the right ballpark. The various blue shaded countries have governments that are generally trustworthy.

Now politicians are another matter entirely, they lie profusely, but it's easy for an individual to lie when motivated to do so (we don't have such reliable whistleblowers popping out of our brains and informing the press).
Political parties are less inclined to lie, but they can be delusional like the clergy or any religion (any party, and both Democrats and Republicans in the states, but on different issues). This is distinct from scientific consensus, where there are mechanisms in place to control for bias and a tradition of following evidence rather than dogma.
I agree that official positions of the US government are generally trustworthy.
However, some important ones aren't (ie the position on the Iraq War, which was drenched in political corruption).
brimstoneSalad wrote:Military secrets, and those essential to national security, are hard to keep too, so what they do is limit the information to those who need to know, and spread numerous lines of misinformation: e.g. "Our secret base has 2k people and is located in Brazil" "Our secret base has 5k people and is located in Argentina" "our secret base has 500 people and is located in Chile"
Because the real information will inevitably leak, the only way to hide it is a huge volume of misinformation so nobody can figure out which is real.
That makes sense. Do you have a source, though?
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Re: A discussion on TFES forum

Post by brimstoneSalad »

EquALLity wrote: That's true, but money and political power often corrupts people and makes them ignore ethical violations.
To some small extent, but it is far from an absolute corruption: it at most bends their ethics a bit. A larger consideration is obedience: e.g. just doing their jobs, and feeling relieved of responsibility. Because those in charge are actually not in charge, but subservient to shareholders, even the CEO (like a politician) has to pander and do what he must or be replaced.

Of course, they all ultimately answer to the consumer, who has the final ethical responsibility.
EquALLity wrote: Not necessarily, because individuals can spread information. The Internet does that pretty quickly.
Look at North Korea.
EquALLity wrote: Also, it wouldn't be a good thing if it were true.
I don't know what you're saying here.
EquALLity wrote: I agree that official positions of the US government are generally trustworthy.
However, some important ones aren't (ie the position on the Iraq War, which was drenched in political corruption).
The mistake about weapons of mass destruction was thanks to an echo chamber. What are you talking about, "political corruption"?
It was stupidity, not corruption. Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
EquALLity wrote: That makes sense. Do you have a source, though?
Look into disinformation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disinformation
You can find some brilliant strategies from WWII which are now declassified if you search for them.
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Re: A discussion on TFES forum

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brimstoneSalad wrote:To some small extent, but it is far from an absolute corruption: it at most bends their ethics a bit. A larger consideration is obedience: e.g. just doing their jobs, and feeling relieved of responsibility. Because those in charge are actually not in charge, but subservient to shareholders, even the CEO (like a politician) has to pander and do what he must or be replaced.

Of course, they all ultimately answer to the consumer, who has the final ethical responsibility.
I don't think it's to a small extent. Corporations constantly do immoral things to advance their profits to people, not just animals.
brimstoneSalad wrote:Look at North Korea.
Well, that's a special case. The population is brainwashed from birth to never question the govt., and not taught critical thinking.
brimstoneSalad wrote:I don't know what you're saying here.
It wouldn't be a good thing if governments could restrict information like that.
brimstoneSalad wrote:The mistake about weapons of mass destruction was thanks to an echo chamber. What are you talking about, "political corruption"?
It was stupidity, not corruption. Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
What are you talking about, "stupidity"?
Let's dispel once and for all with the ficiton that Dick Cheney didn't know what he was doing, he knew exactly what he was doing! ;)

I agree that it was incompetence to some extent, but there were clear examples of lying about the state of our knowledge of Iraq's weapons program.
This isn't unfounded; it's based on a report within the government detailing our knowledge of the program and internal memos of certain government officials.
Cenk Uygur did a story on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y9OwdlHm00
brimstoneSalad wrote:Look into disinformation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disinformation
You can find some brilliant strategies from WWII which are now declassified if you search for them.
Ah, I see.
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Re: A discussion on TFES forum

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EquALLity wrote: I agree that it was incompetence to some extent, but there were clear examples of lying about the state of our knowledge of Iraq's weapons program.
Politicians tend to exaggerate their certainty about everything. It's a problem that admitting uncertainty is seen as weakness. The issue is more that they convinced each other thanks to the echo chamber the Bush administration created.
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Re: A discussion on TFES forum

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brimstoneSalad wrote:
EquALLity wrote: I agree that it was incompetence to some extent, but there were clear examples of lying about the state of our knowledge of Iraq's weapons program.
Politicians tend to exaggerate their certainty about everything. It's a problem that admitting uncertainty is seen as weakness. The issue is more that they convinced each other thanks to the echo chamber the Bush administration created.
It wasn't an exaggeration; they outright light about specific knowledge.
It's hard to believe it's a coincidence that Halliburton, a company Cheney was CEO of, profited so much as a result of the war but that there was no link between it and the corruption of oil interests.
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Re: A discussion on TFES forum

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EquALLity wrote: It wasn't an exaggeration; they outright light about specific knowledge.
If they haven't been formally charged or pardoned, it's probably not quite the smoking gun you assume it is. I don't really trust TYT on these issues. Do you have another source for what you're talking about?
EquALLity wrote: It's hard to believe it's a coincidence that Halliburton, a company Cheney was CEO of, profited so much as a result of the war but that there was no link between it and the corruption of oil interests.
It may or may not be. It's probably something in between, where there may have been biases involved. This is a serious problem in politics which is controlled for in science.
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Re: A discussion on TFES forum

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brimstoneSalad wrote:If they haven't been formally charged or pardoned, it's probably not quite the smoking gun you assume it is. I don't really trust TYT on these issues. Do you have another source for what you're talking about?
Have you actually seen the video?
Cenk isn't just sharing his opinions; he's using the literal texts of the report and quotes.

Here's the link again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y9OwdlHm00
brimstoneSalad wrote:It may or may not be. It's probably something in between, where there may have been biases involved.
I agree that it's probably a mix, but it's pretty clear to me they were lying due to their own interests. Why else would they lie so significantly?
brimstoneSalad wrote:This is a serious problem in politics which is controlled for in science.
What?
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