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Comment by throwaway189262 | Hacker News Reader

I think it's strange how vegan diets are marketed as "healthy". Humans have evolved to need protein in their diet. Until modern times, a vegan diet meant death. Just because it's possible now with various meat substitutes doesn't mean it's healthy

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What? Have you ever heard of soy, beans, lentils, chickpeas or the huge variety of seeds? You don't need meat to get your protein, as many eastern folks have proofed over many many years.

Exactly, this huge variety of non-meat protein sources is new. As recent as 100 years ago you ate whatever you could get ahold of. And that always included some meat if you didn't want to die.

Many of these new sources don't have complete protein profile needed to be healthy.

[citation needed]

Look at amino acid profile of these foods. Many of them do not provide "complete" protein. As in, they're missing some building blocks the human body can't fabricate.

It's possible to have a healthy vegan diet but it's a lot of work because you have to look at what amino acids and various nutrients are missing. It's much easier to just add meat to your diet. And anecdotally, a lot of vegans buy the "healthy" marketing and don't even pay attention to things like amino acid profiles. Which is unhealthy and frankly dangerous

All that is meaningless considering that some of the most essential elements do not naturally exist in plant based food. Creatine, Taurine, Vitamins D3 and B12 just to name a few.

You can supplement these elements as the animals you eat get this supplemented too. You don't need the animal medium to transport these elements.

Taurine is not essential. The body makes its own creatine and taurine.[0][1] B12 is available in a number of vegan sources[2], though vegans should generally supplement it.

[0] https://veganhealth.org/taurine-and-carnitine/

[1] see "Creatine for Vegans" https://www.fitbod.me/blog/natural-food-sources-creatine

[2] https://www.freshnlean.com/blog/vegan-b12-sources/

You don't need "meat substitutes" to eat a well-balanced, vegan diet. Chickpeas are more calorie/protean dense than chicken and beef, for example.

And full of phytates which impair absorption of minerals. There's much more to food than just macronutrients.

Vegan diets work great until you get IBS, which unfortunately affects more and more people with no discernible cause. Meat, so reviled these days, doesn't.

To be honest with you, I don't have much to say on the topic of phytates.

However, anecdotally, I went vegan after suffering from digestive issues for years, and the diet combined with a healthy amount of fermented foods has made a night-and-day improvement to my digestive health.

And anecdotally I went full carnivore after suffering from IBS, and my digestion and mental health improved immesurably. Any kind of pulse, grain or seed noticeable worsens my IBS and digestion. YMMV.

I think it's worth getting to the bottom of, without anecdotes. Meat consumption in the modern day is not only an ethical concern, but a major environmental concern as well.

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