Is a Vegan diet unnatural?

I mean, surely there were many times in Human history when there was no game to be had. And have me really involved that much gastronomically that much sense before we ate meat?





I'm a Vegan, and I feel great, but my Dad (Who's 90% Vegetarian for health reasons) thinks I'm crazy, and that my Diet is not something Humans are designed for.|||Humans are omnivores, so there is no point comparing us with either carnivores or herbivores because we are neither. We have characteristics of both dietary features.





How would you define "natural"? No other animal cooks its food, so the only real natural diet is a raw food one. It's not particularly natural to buy food at the store, so you will have to grow/forage for your own. Plates aren't natural, so use your hands only. Ok, being a bit silly now.





I'm just saying that "natural" is a false concept when it comes to humanity. VERY little of what we do exists in nature.|||Well, the whole reason I became vegan was simple because I went to the library to study up on the human digestive system and try to determine for myself (that is, ignoring all of these fitness and diet books) what the best foods for athletic performance are. It quickly became apparent that when meat, dairy, fish, or any animal product enters the digestive system, that the human body just is not designed to deal with it. Animal fats go straight into the bloodstream and start clogging things up, slow down the blood flow, and reduce performance. I tried cutting out meat and dairy, and (being in the peak season for training) noticed an immediate performance increase the next day. A big increase. That got me really interested in the subject and I continued to study human nutrition and connected topics for the next decade. So, yeah, I'd say it's natural. And, sure, humans had periods of starvation, they also probably had periods of eating just about anything they could get their hands on in areas of sparse edibles etc. But, I'd say that if there were things all around that were growing that were edible, I'm sure humans would rather just pick fruit off a tree than run around trying to kill some animal for food -- that's a lot of work.|||Well if we really want to get down to what's natural and what's not, surely cities, houses and cars are not of the natural world as they're man made.





Humans are omnivores. The acids in our stomach are that of a carnivore's but we can live on a vegan diet just fine. There's really nothing unnatural about refraining from meat. Many primitive cultures ate very little meat, some people- like the Jains- refrained from eating anything from an animal.





As for running down a rabbit...I'm really sorry to say this but it's something a human can actually do. My mom grew up on a farm where they actually ate rabbit. They'd run them down and if they didn't have a heart attack by then, they'd snap their necks. There are many animals that we can kill with our bare hands if we wanted to but that would probably be even more inhumane and you have to realize that a lot of animals also use tools to get their food. I'm not saying I like it, but that it does happen and it's not that crazy to think.





I would define natural as something that is a given in the non-man-made world. Is it natural for an omnivore creature to chose to eat a herbivore diet? Well looking at Pandas, a lot of them are built to eat fish but most of them chose to eat a diet of bamboo in most cases.





Is it natural for a rational being to think about what they're eating and how to cause the least amount of suffering to other beings around them? I would say so.





It's completely in our nature as rational beings. To not care would be...unnatural.|||Not only do I feel that a vegan diet is unnatural, I feel it is morally wrong.





Millions of people around the earth would love to have the ability to eat the meats, milk products, even honey that vegans turn their noses up at because of their "beliefs." It seems like such a pretentious, indulgent thing that only people with too much food and access to food could do.





I guess that's why it hasn't really caught on in places like Africa, South America and Asia where people are starving.|||i know that the vegan way of life is not natural, vegetarianism may have its benefits but there is no substitute for a balanced diet, why go to all the hassle of finding proteins and iron, when there's an abundant source of it in meat. sure our ancestors might have occasionally had to go without, but that doesn't mean that they where so much better off.


to be honest, the very fact you have time to worry about what your food once was means you have too much food. you should like any other animal on earth be extremely grate-full for any food you can get.


also when the animal is already killed and prepared, don't you think its wasteful to refuse it.


the one that really gets me though is insects, they should be eaten, i mean would you refuse to eat a vegan product knowing that there was likely 2-3 grams of insects mushed up in it, and in a related question, do you eat peanut butter ?, every time a tractor digs up the food many hundreds of insects die as a result, do you stop eating root vegetables ?


if a fly flies into your open mouth whilst your talking, or driving or something, do you feel bad for accidental eating it ? or just killing it ?|||YES! If you're taking vitamin/mutivitamin supplements to compensate for the empty gaps in your nutrition, yes. It is unnatural!! Vitamin B12 is only found in animal based products such as milk, eggs, turkey, ham, fish, etc. Vegans would need to eat those fortified cereals. There is NO vitamin B12 in ANY, ANY plant products!!! And the average vegan needs to eat more plant products per gram than any meat-eater in order to get an adequate amount of protein, all of the essential amino acids, zinc, selenium, phosphorus, niacin, vitamin B6, iron and riboflavin.|||With all of today's pollution and all, meat has turned bad for you. Vegans don't eat meat or lacto or dairy products. This is very healthy. You're not crazy.


Diet is our choice, but scientific research shows that vegetarian, vegan, and raw food diets have ended in smaller chances of getting heart disease, high cholesterol, cancer, etc.|||Because you have to refrain from eggs, which contain essential amino acids, and meat, which is an irreplaceable source of iron, you're bound to show sympthoms of deficit.


Besides, consider that yoghurt is an important antitoxin.|||He's right. If there wasn't game, there were insects, honey, other animal products. Vegan is completely unnatural for humans. Even "vegetarian" apes eat insects for protein.|||Murder, rape and a myriad other crimes are "natural" in that we are capable of them and they satisfy an urge. That is no reason to commit them. We are better than that, at least some of us are.|||I don't think the farming industry and cheese making industry seems very NATURAL|||1.A carnivore's teeth are long, sharp and pointed. These are tools that are useful for the task of piercing into flesh. Omnivore's (meat and plant eaters) teeth are similar to that of carnivores. Man's, as well as other herbivore's teeth are not pointed, but flat edged. These are useful tools for biting, crushing and grinding.





2.A carnivore's jaws move up and down with minimal sideways motion. The jaw motion of an omnivore is similar. These are tools that are useful for the tasks of shearing, ripping and tearing flesh and swallowing it whole. Omnivores swallow their food whole and/or with simple crushing. Man's, as well as other herbivore's jaws cannot shear, but have good side to side and back to front motion. These are tools that are useful for extensive chewing, crushing and grinding of grains and other high fiber foods. Animal flesh cannot be crushed, ground and chewed with the tools Yahweh gave man without some degenerating process such as cooking or frying.





3.A carnivore or omnivore's saliva does not contain digestive enzymes. Man's, as well as other herbivore's saliva is alkaline, containing carbohydrate digestive enzymes.





4.A carnivore's stomach secretes powerful digestive enzymes with about 10 times the amount of hydrochloric acid than a human or herbivore. The pH is less than or equal to "1" with food in the stomach, for a carnivore or omnivore. For humans or other herbivores, the pH ranges from 4 to 5 with food in the stomach. Hence, man must prepare his meats with laborious cooking or frying methods. E. Coli bacteria, salmonella, campylobacter, trichina worms [parasites] or other pathogens would not survive in the stomach of a lion.





5.A carnivore's or omnivore's small intestine is three to six times the length of its trunk. This is a tool designed for rapid elimination of food that rots quickly. Man's, as well as other herbivore's small intestines are 10 to 12 times the length of their body, and winds itself back and forth in random directions. This is a tool designed for keeping food in it for long enough periods of time so that all the valuable nutrients and minerals can be extracted from it before it enters the large intestine.





6.A carnivore's or omnivore's large intestine is relatively short and simple, like a pipe. This passage is also relatively smooth and runs fairly straight so that fatty wastes high in cholesterol can easily slide out before they start to putrefy. Man's, as well as other herbivore's large intestines, or colons, are puckered and pouched, an apparatus that runs in three directions (ascending, traversing and descending), designed to hold wastes that originally were foods high in water content. This is so that the fluids can be extracted from these wastes, now that all the useful nutrients and minerals have been extracted and the long journey through the small intestine is over. Substances high in fat and cholesterol that have been putrefying for hours during their long stay in the small intestine tend to get stuck in the pockets that line the large intestine.


7.Animal flesh, composed of the most highly complex type of protein that exists, requires vast amounts of uric acid to process. Uric acid is released into the system in amounts necessary to break proteins down into amino acids. Uric acid is a toxic substance responsible for the aging process and must be flushed out and dealt with. That is one of the jobs of the liver. In relative terms, a carnivore's liver is a tool designed with the capacity to eliminate ten times as much uric acid as the liver of man or other plant eater.





8.A predator has a gait, large paws and claws, which enable him to hunt, chase and trap his prey. These are tools meant to kill. Man's gait, as well as other herbivore's is designed only for mobility. Examine your hand, fingers and fingernails. Is this an apparatus properly designed for catching, trapping, killing and ripping apart cattle, hogs, chicken and fish? How does this work for picking fruit from trees or harvesting vegetables? The foods your hands were meant to gather are typically, high in water content, high also in fiber to sweep the wastes out of those intestines, and collectively contain every vitamin and mineral necessary to sustain human life.





9.A carnivore's frame of mind is totally geared for hunting and killing. Man's frame of mind is compassionate, friendly and reveres life. When the lion spots another furry animal, something might instinctively click in his head that tells him to hurry up and get dinner. When man spots a furry animal, rather than show his children how to take its life and eat it, a more likely instinct is to pull over, get the camera out and take a picture. Put a young baby chick and an apple in a crib with a six-month-old baby. What will he instinctively attempt to eat and play with?|||a natural human diet is all about meat, nuts, tubers and fruits. we didn't eat veggies and milk until humanity started farming. who would go gathering into the forest for some lettuce? just ask the bushmen what they eat. mostly meat, nuts, berries, tubers and whatever they can find in the kalahari desert and we all evolved from them. you can trace your mitochondrial dna back to them. although they eat tubers they would otherwise go for the fruits if possible, but in a desert you just rely on tubers for carbohydrates because they won't lose water when buried.





eggs are natural but I don't eat them because they aren't an abundant food source. since the early reptiles in the carboniferous period (before dinosaurs), eggs were eaten. it's a good protein and choline source.





now ask yourself how much are humans designed to digest someone else's milk. half of the world has lactose intolerance. mostly it's whites that don't have lactose intolerance, then it's middle easterners, blacks, asians, and apparently native americans are the people with most lactose intolerance. but we are designed for fruits. we can handle quite a lot of sugar, but not too much. otherwise we get fat and develop diabetes.





iron is in large amounts in nuts and grains such as wheat. iron isn't rare. this is where animals get it. the reason chicken meat is so poor with vitamins is because they're feeding them an unnatural diet. no worms and bugs? low amounts of vitamin B12.





"Millions of people around the earth would love to have the ability to eat the meats... I guess that's why it hasn't really caught on in places like Africa, South America and Asia where people are starving."





it's such a failed argument. I'm a philanthropist and all what the poor truly want is their staple food (corn in americas, beans in africa, wheat in middle east, rice in asia). the food aid that goes to them is all about grains and nuts. so far only plumpy'nut contains milk. maybe someone sends some canned meat but I doubt. nuts and grains is what will last long and is cheap enough to produce. and it hasn't caught in those places because they don't have internet or tv where someone could tell them about veg*nism. otherwise there are a lot of vegetarians in india.





and the teeth and digestion are also flawed arguments. we aren't what most herbivores and carnivores are. we are primates. we have a completely different diet and physiology. pandas eat bamboo. can we compare with them? no, pandas have a mutation and now can't taste meat. while apes and monkeys thrive on fruits and veggies, there are many that eat meat. I read an article about a species of rare apes or monkeys that were tried to reproduce in a zoo. they couldn't mate until researchers and zookeepers gave them some meat to eat (insects or fish I guess). primates are omnivores with fruits, nuts and leaves being a predominant diet.|||We aren't designed for it, look at your teeth.