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Comment by zacharycohn | Hacker News Reader

If you want to be vegan for ethical reasons, go for it.

Vegans who are vegans for health reasons - dumb dumb dumb. A cursory biological examination of the human body demonstrates that we are omnivores. That means the human body has adapted over tens of millions of years to eat both plants and animals.

Additionally, many vegans will go heavy on soy and wheat based foods. There are many health issues surrounding soy (citations my other comment in this thread), and wheat products are not particularly healthy.

The arguments for veganism for health reasons is largely unsupported by any sort of actual science.

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>Vegans who are vegans for health reasons - dumb dumb dumb. A cursory biological examination of the human body demonstrates that we are omnivores. That means the human body has adapted over tens of millions of years to eat both plants and animals.

I don't think humans have been around that long and that our ancestors were probably not meat eaters, since most other apes don't eat meat.

The consensus is that red meat is unhealthy and there are healthier alternatives to get similar nutrients. Instead of eating other meat as well, soy provides a similar amount of protein without the saturated fat or cholesterol.

There's also the impact the meat industry has on the environment and I think the reason for someone being vegan isn't just necessarily one thing but can be several reasons for their decision.

>Vegans who are vegans for health reasons - dumb dumb dumb

Actually if you have an even basic understanding of biology and how factory farming works in the United States you'd know that this isn't totally true. A large majority of meat sold in supermarkets, fast food and chain restaurants in the US use meat that is non organic and absolutely full of antibiotics. In addition, between bovine growth hormone, mad cow disease, pink slime, the link between cardiovascular health and red meat, etc, are you actually going to make the argument that eating a vegan diet has no health benefits?

>Additionally, many vegans will go heavy on soy and wheat based foods.

Funny, as a vegetarian I (and all others I know) eat a very balanced diet that doesn't include an excessive of anything. But since you're happy to throw around generalizations, many carnivores will go heavy on fried chicken and big macs. There are many health issues surrounding obesity, heart disease, and diabetes linked to these.

I'm arguing that humans are designed to eat meat. You're arguing against factory farming.

Different arguments.

Do you actually have something against pink slime (health-wise) or did you just let Jamie Oliver freak you out?

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