[ExI] Diet

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 28/11/2021 01:35, Spike wrote:
> Regarding the lifestyle stuff: vegetarianism is probably a good idea 
> for optimal health.

I would dispute that.

It's certainly not my experience.

Of course, everyone has to find out what works best for them, but I 
strongly suspect that the current tendency to regard vegetarianism, and 
especially the extreme variety, as being healthier than meat-eating is a 
clever piece of 'fake news' promoted by vegetarians.

I find it remarkable that the statement "meat is good for you" is 
controversial. It shouldn't be. I think part of the cleverness bahind 
this distortion of the facts lies in diverting the meaning of 'meat' to 
mean, on the whole, highly processed meat. I wouldn't dispute that a lot 
of highly processed meat isn't good. But 'meat' != 'junk food'. And if 
it wasn't for meat, we wouldn't be who we are. There would be no Homo 
Sapiens.

These days, I eat a low-carb diet, and eat a ton of meat and dairy 
products. And I've never been healthier or felt as good in my life. I've 
spend decades conforming to the accepted wisdom that fat is bad for you, 
carbs should contribute the majority of your daily calories, and meat is 
not good, especially red meat. I even became a vegetarian for a while 
(which was not a good experience). During these decades, I steadily got 
fatter and less fit and healthy. Since discovering, and experimenting 
with, the low-carb diet, that trend has reversed. It's almost as if I 
was getting younger. I'm not, obviously, but that's how it feels. I can 
honestly say I feel better now than I have in 30 years. Even as a kid 
and a teenager, my health and general well-being wasn't as good as it is 
now.

So that's why I, personally, dispute the notion that "vegetarianism is 
probably a good idea for optimal health".

And before someone says "but you can be vegetarian and low-carb!", I can 
only say: Try it. I'm not saying it's impossible, I know it works for 
some people. But so does calorie-restriction.

Anyway, I just wanted to challenge the idea that vegetarianism is an 
unalloyed good thing, that everyone should take up. It's a story that 
you shouldn't swallow whole without question, and without finding out 
what works best for you.

  Ben