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Be a Vegan and Save the World?

The Lancet has come out with a new report saying "Repent! The End is Near!" These days, that means someone wants you to live on grains, beans, nuts and vegetation to save your health and civilization itself; coming to Jesus for salvation would be absurd to them. But there are flies in the ointment that only a bunch of academics could fail to observe: After being goaded for decades to move towards such a diet, people in developed countries are fatter and more diabetic than ever.  Growing these crops destroys natural habitats, uses fertilizer that depends on fossil fuels, and requires pesticides (even if organically grown).  Much of the land on earth is unsuitable for growing anything but livestock.  Such a diet is nutrient-poor and completely unsuitable for many people. The poorest countries tend to have frequent fighting and ((#%(@!#y governments, not citizens who are oddly unable to figure out what to eat.  Bison, deer, elk, antelope and other game used to roam

What Difference Does it Make Why it Works?

This is the question someone asked me the other day in regards to the good results I've had on low-carb. Beyond just satisfying your curiosity, having a lattice work of mental models, as Charlie Munger puts it, can save you a lot of trouble. Without mental models of (in this case) human digestion, evolution, nutrition research, journalism, medical education, and even politics, all I'd have is just something that works for acid reflux. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Something that works might only work in certain situations, could be unpredictable, could have unintended consequences, or could just be a placebo effect. Knowing how something works reduces the danger.  As Munger's partner Warren Buffett put it, "Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing." Yet how often are people overconfident when they only know a thing or two? The web is full of bros who cut down on the beer and pizza, got some exercise and lost 40 pounds--and you can, too!

Girls: Eat a Steak!

One study after another over the past few years has shown low-carb, high fat diets to be good for correcting weight and lipids. Other studies have found iron deficiency is very common in women. So why do so many young women in the paleo community advise limiting red meat (high in iron) and animal fat and eating lots of vegetables instead? They remind me of the Intelligent Design crowd: people who recognize intellectually that the creation story in Genesis is a myth, but emotionally aren't ready to abandon it or make waves with friends and family who still believe. Some of the authors say (credibly) that they have or had an eating disorder; others seem to want to keep on being nice girls who don't eat too much or too richly and don't want to lead others astray. At least, that's how it comes off to me, someone from a blue collar family who grew up in the 80s when priss was an insult and a lot of girls went to McDonald's for lunch. What no nice paleo girl woul

Hot Ex-Vegans; Donal O'Neill Can Turn a Phrase

If you read Fathead , you've heard of exvegans.com and the documentary Cereal Killers . But if you didn't follow the links, you've missed out on some great stuff. Want some eye candy or a good laugh? You must check out www.exvegans.com . The site is a directory of "ex-vegans" and "vegan sell-outs" that names names gives the cities, descriptions and photographs of vegan apostates. Where can I meet one of these ex-vegan guys? Most of them look like magazine models and sound more interesting than dating site bios that try to sound interesting. Raw Brahs, San Diego: "Pretty boys who make videos famous-for-being-famous but not much more." Sean Dunaway, Las Vegas: "Originator of 30 bananas a day sucks.   Was vegan and 'got too skinny' so is now a meat-eater and body builder.  This guy plays favorites on the forum and takes sides.  He is  very cruel how he socially manipulates the forum and you get a sick feeling around him .  He

Paleo Vegetarianism?

Much more endnoting is needed! -Cindy Hoffman, one of my high school English teachers It's a shame that vegan activist Dr. Neal Barnard didn't learn English composition from Mrs. Hoffman: maybe we could see where he got the numerous pro-vegetarian quotes from paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey--enough to fill half a chapter in The Power of Your Plate . Leakey, according to Barnard, says that hunting in modern times isn't very important except as a macho male thing (page 175), that meat accounted for a small part of the diet on the African savannah (page 174), that the "excess of meat" from domesticated livestock is unusual (page 174), and that we wouldn't have had the teeth to deal with tearing flesh and hide (page 171). These statements are attributed to the same Richard Leakey who said, just two years before The Power of Your Plate came out in 1995, The expansion [of diet] involved making meat an important food source, not just an occasional items

Richard Leakey: Meat was a "Substantial Component" in Diet 2.5 Million Years Ago

Richard Leakey with skull of Australopithecus (left) and Homo habilis (right). Photo from fotosimagenes.org Let me start with this: if you're a vegetarian, and enjoy good health on your diet, that's fine with me. Everybody should have a diet that works for them, and if you've found it, I won't discourage you from following it.  That said, evolution doesn't support human vegetarianism--unless you go back to Australopithecus (see photo). While doing a bit of research, I came across an odd quote attributed to paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey: "[y]ou can’t tear flesh by hand, you can’t tear hide by hand … We wouldn’t have been able to deal with food source that required those large canines” (although we have teeth that are called “canines,” they bear little resemblance to the canines of carnivores). It shows up on several vegan and vegetarian websites and articles, but with no source cited. I call it an odd quote because from what I'

Process This!

At lunch today a couple of coworkers mentioned how icky they found meat. What a nice topic of conversation! If we hadn't been at the table, I'd have mentioned that plants process poop .

Recovery: How It's Going

Best conversation yet: Cashier: How did you get hurt? Me: I fell off my bike. Cashier: Are you going to ride a bike again? Me: Nope. Cashier: So you didn't lose your common sense. That was Sunday. It's Friday, and strangers have stopped asking what happened to me since I'm a lot less black and blue now. I'm washing my own hair, putting on makeup and getting through a day at work without exhaustion. I don't do much at home besides cooking and dishes, and out-eating a teenage boy. Two eggs or a quarter pound of beef is a snack; either one used to be a meal. Rebuilding flesh and replenishing blood (I bled for a day when I fell) must take a lot of nutrients. I'm not wearing the extra calories--I've lost weight. The braces are working. My front teeth are straighter than they've been since I was a kid, and I can chew a little bit, very carefully. Since the tooth that broke was narrower than an implant, I'll have to have my top teeth re-aligned t

Sybil: Multiple Personality, Hoax, or Vitamin Deficiency?

After [Dr. Connie Wilbur's] presentation a Q & A followed, and someone asked how [recovered multiple personality disorder patient] Sybil was doing. Connie's answer was brief, almost throwaway. Sybil had lived for a long time without much energy, she said, because in addition to everything else that was wrong with her, she had suffered for years from a disease called pernicious anemia. Another audience member followed with an unrelated question, and that was the end of pernicious anemia and Sybil. No one stopped to think about the bombshell Connie had just revealed. -from the book  Sybil Exposed(1) My, how times have changed. In days of old, people who acted strangely enough were said to be possessed and put through bizarre and dangerous rituals to cure them. Wait, we're still living in that era. Change "possessed" to "multiple personality disorder" (or "dissociative identity disorder" as it's called now) and you have the story of

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead: A Review

Do you like come-from-behind-to-snatch-victory movies? Do you like road trip movies? Buddy movies? Documentaries? If you do, you may like Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, a movie in which financial entrepreneur Joe Cross seeks to lose weight and cure a rare skin disease through a two-month juice fast. Do you enjoy testing your critical thinking and debunking pseudo-science? If you do, this movie will give you plenty to chew on. My criticism isn't of Joe Cross or his friend Phil Staples--I admire their strength of will and Cross's compassion for Staples, who was just an acquaintance when he called Cross for help from halfway around the world. Nor am I critical of their break with nutritional orthodoxy or the short-term results they achieved: they both lost 90 pounds or more, their hives disappeared, their energy increased, and their blood pressure and cholesterol improved. They either reduced or quit medications (including prescription prednisone for their hives--that's the

Attack of the Rose Bush

"Just because plants can't scream and run doesn't mean they want to be eaten. And just because they don't have teeth or claws doesn't mean they aren't fighting back." -Lierre Kieth, The Vegetarian Myth, p. 148. Ms. Keith is referring to chemicals in grains that can wreak havoc on human intestines. But the phrase came to mind today when I passed too close and too fast to Ilse Krohn Superior, the rose shown, and then dug out a thorn embedded in my leg. (Yes, roses are food--deer browse them, and wild roses set hips, or fruit.) Ilse Krohn Superior: 1, Lori, 0.

An Empty Vessel Makes the Most Noise

Tonight at my party place I was standing at the dessert bar when an old guy came up and started loudly asking for service. He spoke to me and I told him I indulged in a gluten-free cookie once in a while (it would have been the first time since I started the cavity healing diet). I didn't mention the cavity healing diet because I just wanted to get a snack and go back to the dance. Nevertheless, Mr. vegan preacher made his spiel. Stuff this dude said: "I came all the way up from Cherry Creek [one of Denver's high rent districts] to get a half price dessert." (He said this twice.) "We've been eating wheat for tens of thousands of years without a problem." "Japanese eat plenty of soy and they don't have a problem." "Fruit isn't acid." "What's acid reflux?" "What do you eat for protein?" (Answer: meat. Unspoken answer: we've been eating meat for millions of years.) "I wish I could help you."