questions to vegans

[pokerply]

hello,

I am ex-vegan myself and wanted ask some questions for vegans.
I agree vegan diet is healthy and it very easy to eat too much animal products.

1)Is vegan diet "best" and/or "perfect"?
2)Are you emotionally attached to vegan diet?
3)Do you belief that any meat or dairy in the diet will lead to some type disease long-term? (more then vegan diet will do alternatively)

Just want hear opinions on theses questions without any debate about ethics of eating animal products.
Thanks.

[EquALLity]

Can you start a topic about your 'vegan story'? I want to know why you went from being vegan to being non-vegan and to talk about it.

1) Do I think it's the best diet there is? Well, I think the healthiest you can be on a vegan diet is healthier than the healthiest you can be eating animal products.

Perfect? Well, it's not like vegans all eat diets that are that alike. Some vegans eat lots of shitty things that happen to be vegan.

2) What, like, "OMG no I can't eat that solely because it came from an animal; I'm gonna cry!"?
No!

3) Not always, no. Like, if you drink a drop of milk per month......

If you consume animal products regularly, I think they probably will, but not necessarily.

What do you mean by more than a vegan diet would do? Like, do I think vegan diets are less likely to cause these problems? Again, not all vegan diets are that alike. It's not like there's some set vegan diet.

"You must eat quinoa every Tuesday."

[brimstoneSalad]

As EquALLity asked, we would be interested in knowing why you left veganism. However, this slanted survey (that is, a survey that gives away the answers it expects), rather reveals how you felt about veganism when you were vegan, and probably why you left.

1)Is vegan diet "best" and/or "perfect"?

There is no such thing as a single vegan diet.
There are bad and good diets that happen to be vegan.

All other things being the same, a person who eats one egg a week, or a glass of milk each week is statistically not going to be as healthy as a person who eats broccoli instead provided the latter is getting B-12.

Whether removing a thing from a diet is good or bad depends on what it's replaced by. If you replace egg and milk with vegan doughnuts, you may not be better off.

When animal products are replaced by vegetables, the diet is better than one that includes those animal products.

There is no such thing as a "perfect" diet. That's absurd, and if you believed that when you were vegan, it's no wonder you gave it up; you were following a dogma, not a lifestyle.

2)Are you emotionally attached to vegan diet?

No, that's absurd.

I'm emotionally attached to being a decent human being, and not unnecessarily harming animals for my enjoyment. This just generally happens to require a vegan diet to do.
The attachment is indirect.

I have no problem with people eating meat out of garbage cans which would literally go to waste (freegan). I wouldn't do this, however, because I also personally find it disgusting, and it's unhealthy. To each his or her own though, as long as they aren't harming others.

3)Do you belief that any meat or dairy in the diet will lead to some type disease long-term? (more then vegan diet will do alternatively)

This question indicates your ignorance of nutrition and health matters in general.

Smoking a pack of cigarettes a day will not lead to some kind of disease in the long-term. It will only probably lead to disease. Nothing is guaranteed. In the population as a whole, where you have a statistically significant number of people, smoking leads to disease (but not in every case).
Different people are more or less resistant, and most of the disease we're talking about are statistical issues; particularly ones like cancer.

You can get cancer from a single cigarette, or you can smoke every day for 90 years and not get cancer.
Your odds of getting cancer go up the more you smoke, but it's all a matter of statistics.

And again, I have to remind you, there is no such thing as a single vegan diet.

You can design a vegan diet that has a high risk of cancer and heart disease. However, if you want to design a diet which has the lowest risk possible, you will need to exclude "natural" animal products, because these increase your risk factors (you will also exclude things like palm oil, coconut oil, peanuts, and even some healthy plant foods which have low antioxidant content, since it's an issue of maximizing healthy food).

Just want hear opinions on theses questions

I have no "opinions" on these questions, aside possibly from #2 if you stretch the definition, any more than I have "opinions" on whether the Earth is round and orbits the sun. These are matters of scientific fact. And the nature of the questions themselves indicate a complete ignorance of health science on your part.

Whenever you went vegan, it is apparent that you followed it mindlessly, like a dogmatic religion, believing just not eating animal products was the cure to all human problems. This is a problem with a lot of "vegans".

Animal products are bad. But there are plenty of vegan foods that are bad too. In order to eat as healthfully as possible, that means abstaining from unhealthy food, including animal products AND unhealthy vegan foods.

without any debate about ethics of eating animal products.
Thanks.

It's not your place to demand something like that.

If you're eating animal products (arguably aside from rope-grown oysters, and invasive species), and you're not a freegan, you're being unethical. This is an open forum, and people can speak their minds freely. You shouldn't expect to be immune from criticism.

[Jebus]

I am ex-vegan myself

No you're not. There is no such thing as an ex-vegan. Perhaps you tried a plant based diet for a while, but please do not call yourself an ex-vegan.

[Corelich]

I am ex-vegan myself

No you're not. There is no such thing as an ex-vegan. Perhaps you tried a plant based diet for a while, but please do not call yourself an ex-vegan.

Whats the problem with ex-vegan? What if he had a paradigm shift in his life? I call myself an ex-christian and some people tell me i never was a christian which is absurd. I just had a huge change in my life. Im an ex-omnivore/carnivore aswell. Why can't you be an ex-vegan?

[EquALLity]

(you will also exclude things like palm oil, coconut oil, peanuts, and even some healthy plant foods which have low antioxidant content, since it's an issue of maximizing healthy food).

Peanuts too? I better get almond butter or something.

Is there anything else I should worry about? Is it just foods high in bad fats?
http://www.healthaliciousness.com/artic ... ed-fat.php

Oh, I see nuts are up there. =/ I guess I'll eat the ones low in bad fats.

[Jebus]

Why can't you be an ex-vegan?

One can be an ex dietary vegan but to be a real vegan one commits oneself to a life time of avoiding the causation of animal suffering and exploitation. Someone might argue that a person can commit him/herself for a life time of veganism and then change his/her mind but the decision to leave veganism shows that this commitment was never there in the first place.

[miniboes]

Why can't you be an ex-vegan?

One can be an ex dietary vegan but to be a real vegan one commits oneself to a life time of avoiding the causation of animal suffering and exploitation.

Yeah, that's just your idea of a 'real' vegan, just like a Christian might think that to be a 'real Christian' you need to make a life commitment, therefore if you stop being a Christian you were never a real Christian. A lifetime commitment is hardly a requirement for being vegan, the only requirement is abstaining from animal products.

[brimstoneSalad]

Why can't you be an ex-vegan?

One can be an ex dietary vegan but to be a real vegan one commits oneself to a life time of avoiding the causation of animal suffering and exploitation.

Yeah, that's just your idea of a 'real' vegan, just like a Christian might think that to be a 'real Christian' you need to make a life commitment, therefore if you stop being a Christian you were never a real Christian. A lifetime commitment is hardly a requirement for being vegan, the only requirement is abstaining from animal products.

Corelich and miniboes are right. To say otherwise is a no true Scotsman fallacy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman

People can actually change to be less rational, unfortunately. Atheists can become Christians, vegans can give up on caring about animals health and environment and switch to a meat based diet -- I have known several. Cognitive dissonance and absurd rationalizations are never stronger than with ex-vegans.

Bad people can become good ones, and unfortunately good ones can become bad ones too.

That said, it's hard to believe that the original poster was ever a very intelligent or informed vegan. But being intelligent or well informed aren't requirements for being vegan, otherwise there would only be a few vegans in the world.
That would be like making a requirement to be Christian reading the entire bible cover to cover -- which few people alive have ever done.

[Jebus]

Why can't you be an ex-vegan?

One can be an ex dietary vegan but to be a real vegan one commits oneself to a life time of avoiding the causation of animal suffering and exploitation.

Yeah, that's just your idea of a 'real' vegan, just like a Christian might think that to be a 'real Christian' you need to make a life commitment, therefore if you stop being a Christian you were never a real Christian. A lifetime commitment is hardly a requirement for being vegan, the only requirement is abstaining from animal products.

By your definition anyone who abstained from animal products for a day can go ahead and call himself an ex-vegan (as many do).