Ok I'll try to divide up my wall text a bit better this time

I totally acknowledge that people in the past, and even in present day, some people have to live a certain way in order to survive, but for the vast majority of people that doesn't apply.


Taste:
Like most of the senses in the human body, the sense of taste is in a constant state re-calibration. It's highly subjective and easily influenced over mere seconds but also long periods of time. They say it takes 3 weeks to acclimatize from things you crave, from salt to heroin. That's why most healthy eating books tell you go to cold tofurkey (see what I did there ) for 3 weeks. It's all about the brain chemistry. After 3 straight weeks you aren't craving it. (The habit might still be there but, the chemically driven cravings are gone).
Try it yourself by eating an apple before and after some soft drink. First the apple will taste sweet, and after it will taste sour. Or try decreasing salt over a 3 week period, it'll taste bland at first, but if you go back after 3 weeks it'll be way too salty.



Food science:
One of the major things stopping me from not being vegan, was the health concerns, so I read a number of books about plant-based eating.
There is a new book "How Not To Die" by Dr. Michael Greger. If you want scientific proof of a plant based diet this the one stop shop. 500 pages explaining tens of thousands of studies, some going for decades and involving hundreds of thousands of people. I was blown away at the simple fact that so many studies get done. Most of them are interventional studies also, meaning they are able to show cause and effect (unlike observational or corrolational studies, as he explains in the book). 150 pages of this book alone are lists of references to studies. It's pure unbiased science. (It's not a vegan book either in case you are worried about him being biased).

At the risk of spoiling the book - whole foods like apples and broccoli doesn't give you cancer, in fact they go a long way to preventing it, some bean based foods are as effective as chemotherapy, and without the side effects. I thought it sounded it ridiculous, but the science is valid.
Of course you can visit his website he explains all new research almost daily at nutritionfacts.org in 1 or 2 minute videos.
He also has a checklist phone app called Dr.Greger's Daily Dozen.

There are other authors too, most of these ones have recipes too, such as Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Neal Barnard, Dr. Cadwell Esselstyn, Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr Joel Furhman.
Health-wise it's the best thing you can do for yourself. And if like me you thought eating healthy meant salads, you'd be as wrong as I was I haven't had a salad for years. My blood results and vitamin levels are exactly what the books said they would be.

Try it for 3 weeks, but make sure you do it the right way as explained in the books, and you'll be shouting from roof tops about what a change it's made to your life. The other thing is, you get to eat more, and the more you eat it's healthier. What a weird concept in a world where we are constantly being told to calorie count (it doesn't work btw).

Environmental:
I've read a lot about ethics, reason and evidence based thinking, as well as nutrition and health (as a result of my own skepticism). So I could and I enjoy talking about these all day long. On the environmental side of things, I'm not as aware, but there some documentaries such as Earthlings and Cowspiracy which paint a pretty clear picture.
Anyone can do the maths even at a rough level - there are 56 billion animals bred and slaughtered each year. Feeding 56 billion animals (many of which are bigger than people) takes a lot more food than a mere 7 billion. Therefore it must take more crops and land to feed them, not to mention the land the animals occupy themselves, as well as the land they destroy by dump their waste products (feces are toxic in those concentrations, where as plant waste, is just compost)
The other thing is that many of these crops are grown in countries where people are starving, using up the fertile land to feed our livestock instead of the people. How f'd up is that?
It's reasons like that why countries like the Netherlands are asking their people to not eat meat more than 3 meals a week.

Productivity and economics:
Countries like Finland have government assistance to switch farmers from dairy to berry. Because they got sick of being sick:
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/dietary-guidelines-from-dairies-to-berries/

The world won't go vegan overnight, and realistically it will never be 100% vegan (people still smoke after all). There will be more than enough time to transition. And surely you aren't suggesting that we should eat meat and dairy to keep someone employed? I don't want anyone to lose their job, but to do something pointlessly cruel just to keep a person working seems wrong.

Animal industries are also heavily subsidized in many countries, so if they were to stop being subsidized that's money freed up for other projects, such as the ones in Finland.

The last bit:
If you eat a plant based diet, just like the cow you'll never have constipation, thanks to all of the fibre
When it comes to enzymes, humans are lactose intolerant because after the age of 2 the enzyme lactase stops being made by the body (unless you keep drinking it). Humans also don't have another enzyme called uricase (true omnivores, and carnivores do), which is the enzyme used to break down the protein called uric acid. As you might know gout is caused by too much uric acid, forming crystals in your joints.
However humans have a multitude of enzymes for digesting carbohydrate rich foods (plants). And no carbs don't make fat despite what the fitness industry would have you believe (as the books above explain).
Appealing to history as well, when they found fossilized human feces, it contained so much fibre it was obvious that humans ate primarily a plant based diet. (Animal foods don't contain fibre).

The reasons why you wouldn't want a whale to eat krill for you is:
1. Food is a packaged deal - there is nothing harmful in something like a potato. But feed a lot of potatoes to a pig, and eat the pig, you're getting some of the nutrients of a potato, but also heaps of stuff you're body doesn't need from the pig, like cholesterol, saturated fat, sulfur and methionine containing amino acids etc And no fibre. (low fibre means constipation and higher rates of colon cancer).
2. Your body's health is also dependent on the bacteria living inside you. (fun fact, most the weight of your poop is bacteria!) The bacteria inside you needs certain types of food to live. If you eat meat, you're starving your micro-organisms, and the less good bacteria you have, the less they produce certain chemicals and nutrients , and you get a knock on effect. The fewer the good bacteria also makes room for bad bacteria which make chemicals you don't want.
Coincidentally, if you eat 3 potatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you have all the protein you need - it worked for Matt Damon on Mars right?

"Kaiser Permanente Encourages Plant-Based Diets

VegNews Daily
Kaiser Permanente Encourages Plant-Based Diets

By Melissa Nguyen | May 16, 2013
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The healthcare company’s peer-reviewed medical science journal tells physicians to promote plant-based diets to patients.To address the rising cost of healthcare and skyrocketing rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, medical publication The Permanente Journal recently released an article encouraging physicians to advise patients to reduce meat, dairy, and processed food consumption and implement a plant-based diet. It points to research showing that consuming whole foods can reduce the need for medication for chronic illnesses and decrease risk of fatal ischemic heart disease, all while offering the most cost-effective prevention and low-risk medical intervention. “Healthy eating may be best achieved with a plant-based diet … Physicians should consider recommending a plant-based diet to all their patients,” the article states."

thepermanentejournal.org/issues/2013/spring/5117-nutrition.html

I'm a little annoyed he'd equate apples to poptarts in the spectrum of healthy eating.

It's important because some people are very illogical when it comes to diets many overweight people have tried punishing diet and exercise and evolve two modes of being that of 'dieting and exercise' or fall off the wagon and 'eat anything and no exercise' which endlessly cycle for decades. The better approach would be to have constant manageable exercise regardless of food intake to reduce cardiovascular risk and alongside that generally healthy eating which can tolerate the occasional teat or indulgence.

The idea that exercise solely exists to burn off dietary excess can only lead to unhealthy ideas.

This is true. There are tons of recipes out there that are healthy, well varied, and still taste fantastic. I tend to use Cooking Light's website as a reference for healthy recipes when looking for inspiration, and you'll be surprised at what you can come up with. (In one publication of their magazine, they extolled the virtues of butter, and yet every single related recipe was perfectly healthy.)

In general, healthy living should be a combination of both healthy eating and good exercise.

All those stupid, stupid food trends with all that 'good' advice about healthy eating. What I loathe the most are vegans who try to emulate meat products. That's the hight of stupidity. But...
there's money to be made.

Video's blocked but why do I get the impression that this is a vegan propaganda video? I support healthy eating/lifestyle but pushing a specific set of foods as the universal solution to a whole host of medical problems is insane.

@CaptainPlanet I didn't say eating a healthy diet and exercise makes people depressed. I'm saying caloric restriction and exercise, over the long term (often the only way to maintain weight loss) makes people depressed. Calling caloric restriction healthy eating is a joke. If it worked for you, good on you. I know many for whom it simply hasn't worked. What works better is becoming comfortable with your body, exercising, and healthy eating over the long term. It often doesn't shed the weight, but you end up healthier and happier. The problem I have is with using the scale, or BMI, or waist size, or any other bullshit metric to measure health. The two simply don't correlate. I have a friend that was the pull-up champion at his gym that was qualified as "obese" by BMI.

you;re just wrong. nobody Needs to be obese (rare genetic diseases aside)
you're wrong to tell people they need to be obese
and your wrong to insinuate that healthy eating / exercise makes people depressed
eating well and being active make people feel good. know what makes people depressed? obesity, its a deadly sin, by which i mean you will be dead, decades early, if u decide being healthy is just not a choice you can make.

>> ^bmacs27:

The ultimate issue is "is it a choice?" ... Many people exercise everyday, eat a healthy diet, lead healthy lives, and are just fat. Honestly, it's the last bastion of socially accepted prejudice.

That reason TV video is a lot of BS. Kids eating healthier is good for everyone. The kids have more energy and are happier. If they keep up the healthy eating they'll be happier, healthier, more energetic adults. happy + healthy => more productive, innovative, energetic => greater economic value to the nation. Feed them well while they're young and you can buy bigger guns in the future.

Fresh fruits and vegetables ARE better for you. The fresher the plant the more the beneficial chemicals haven't been destroyed in wastage. The longer an apple is uneaten the closer it is to bad. Can anyone argue that a bad apple is better for you?

Finally, if you get the kids to like locally produced produce it will benefit the economy locally and nationally as opposed to fast food sourced abroad.

I wonder who the hell that woman was working for. She seemed sneaky.

^Until healthy eating can mend a broken leg, we are going to need a health care system.

This is bullshit. Things happen. If he was under 10 then that's different. Kids will eat what they want.. when they want. People need to take care of the things they can in life, absolutely. I am not for something like this being regulated by any sort of government.
Cheap food=unhealthy food. Face it. Coupons are almost all for unhealthy food. Make the change there and get kids information on healthy eating habits. Ever purchase organic food or buy vegetables?? It is going to cost more to do that. I hate this. I am up voting it for inspiring me to be angry as hell. Good sift.

I do love this show Well, I wouldn't watch it on my own, but of the shows I end up watching with my kids, this is one of the more entertaining for adults to sit through.

Plus the messages about healthy eating and exercise really do get across. To see my kids racing around like mad things being Sporticus is wonderful (Not that they don't run around like madthings all the time... just sayin')

Tags for this video have been changed from 'usda, clone high, healthy eating' to 'usda, clone high, healthy eating, animation, marilyn manson' - edited by Issykitty