Post by FruityLlama on Feb 1, 2019 14:34:59 GMT
My boyfriend was vegetarian for about 7 years and ended up nearly dead as his blood was so deficient of iron. That may in part be down to a lack of awareness in terms of how to supplement meat in his diet on his part, but I also ended up ill even when I took supplements. In fact I still don't like red meat and won't eat it much (sorry GP!) and I guess consequently I have problems with my senses. Its not entirely down to my diet but I reckon some of it might be. I am ok, but I cannot and will not try and mess with my diet too much again even though the thought of eating animals saddens me. My sister is vegetarian at the moment but what that means is that she just exists pretty much on bread, cheese, some veg and chocolate. She is ok, but claims to have had a series of mental issues over the years which won't have been helped by her diet but this isn't talked about is it...mental health awareness is on the rise but no one is out there trying to bring awareness to better diets at the same time are they even though it is known how much the two are connected.
My vegan acquaintance who is an activist for veganism has also had an alarming onset of mental health issues and is overweight (my sister was a little too before, she has started going to the gym now though). Breathing issues were a problem too and overwhelming lethargy plagued both for a while.
As Ava so wonderfully pointed out, there is unfortunately no solution without someone/thing else suffering. The circle of life and all that is sometimes hideous but so brilliantly balanced. I fear that humans and our lack of foresight will end up tipping it one way or another. Whilst I appreciate the ideals behind veganism, it is not a diet that can be spread worldwide because if it did, chaos would ensue. How will the farmyard animals cope in the wild alongside our manmade roads and cities exactly? Animals lower than us in the food chain mate at an alarming rate therefore I reckon slaughter would be rife if we suddenly all went vegan. There have been experiments into what happens to nature when we take something away or suddenly alter it. What you find when nature is left to its devices is that everything serves a purpose to keep everything running smoothly. For instance, if you take away the house cat, the eventual consequence is the demise of human beings. Why? Because domestic cats are by far the best hunters out there in terms of catching rodents like rats. Cats kill for fun mainly- they surprisingly don't catch things when hungry. But if you think about it, if we suddenly demonise cats for killing mice and rats and get rid of them- which is what happened in one experiment, the population of rats rises as a female can give birth loads of times to loads of babies within just one year. Rats carry diseases which would harm us, but even more worryingly for us and the rest of the animals out there, an overrun population of anything usually leads to reduced food supply for everyone else.
What the hell does this have to do with veganism you ask, well my point is as i said above that everything is a balancing act. There does not exist a solution that just solves everything. You take away carnivorous activities and you end up with greater suffering basically. I honestly don't think you can attach morals to this argument because there aren't any. There are with other parts of the argument of course for example with how animals are treated when they are alive.
However, people are individuals and maybe the argument isn't about worldwide domination of veganism- maybe I missed the point, but as much as I would like to not have to eat animals, I'm afraid dietry needs come first.
Further, i do not equate eating animals for nutrition to be on the same level of abhorrence as testing on animals to produce bloody make up products- now that does my head in. As if animals need to suffer for our stupid vanity. Oh and you know what else annoys me- horse riding. That leaves me cold, that does. We do treat animals awfully to be honest and I understand the need for awareness around animal welfare.
WRT veganism, I do believe improvements can be made to modern farming and that diets should indeed be balanced- too much or little of anything will cause horrible consequences and that includes too much meat. I don't think anyone should be dogmatic in their approach and brow beat anyone into anything, but when it is a conversation it is an interesting and important one to have so thanks OP!
I care very much about the treatment of animals and understand that no matter what we do, we are all residents of this planet, neither one is more or less important as we all contribute to the quality of each others lives.
My vegan acquaintance who is an activist for veganism has also had an alarming onset of mental health issues and is overweight (my sister was a little too before, she has started going to the gym now though). Breathing issues were a problem too and overwhelming lethargy plagued both for a while.
As Ava so wonderfully pointed out, there is unfortunately no solution without someone/thing else suffering. The circle of life and all that is sometimes hideous but so brilliantly balanced. I fear that humans and our lack of foresight will end up tipping it one way or another. Whilst I appreciate the ideals behind veganism, it is not a diet that can be spread worldwide because if it did, chaos would ensue. How will the farmyard animals cope in the wild alongside our manmade roads and cities exactly? Animals lower than us in the food chain mate at an alarming rate therefore I reckon slaughter would be rife if we suddenly all went vegan. There have been experiments into what happens to nature when we take something away or suddenly alter it. What you find when nature is left to its devices is that everything serves a purpose to keep everything running smoothly. For instance, if you take away the house cat, the eventual consequence is the demise of human beings. Why? Because domestic cats are by far the best hunters out there in terms of catching rodents like rats. Cats kill for fun mainly- they surprisingly don't catch things when hungry. But if you think about it, if we suddenly demonise cats for killing mice and rats and get rid of them- which is what happened in one experiment, the population of rats rises as a female can give birth loads of times to loads of babies within just one year. Rats carry diseases which would harm us, but even more worryingly for us and the rest of the animals out there, an overrun population of anything usually leads to reduced food supply for everyone else.
What the hell does this have to do with veganism you ask, well my point is as i said above that everything is a balancing act. There does not exist a solution that just solves everything. You take away carnivorous activities and you end up with greater suffering basically. I honestly don't think you can attach morals to this argument because there aren't any. There are with other parts of the argument of course for example with how animals are treated when they are alive.
However, people are individuals and maybe the argument isn't about worldwide domination of veganism- maybe I missed the point, but as much as I would like to not have to eat animals, I'm afraid dietry needs come first.
Further, i do not equate eating animals for nutrition to be on the same level of abhorrence as testing on animals to produce bloody make up products- now that does my head in. As if animals need to suffer for our stupid vanity. Oh and you know what else annoys me- horse riding. That leaves me cold, that does. We do treat animals awfully to be honest and I understand the need for awareness around animal welfare.
WRT veganism, I do believe improvements can be made to modern farming and that diets should indeed be balanced- too much or little of anything will cause horrible consequences and that includes too much meat. I don't think anyone should be dogmatic in their approach and brow beat anyone into anything, but when it is a conversation it is an interesting and important one to have so thanks OP!
I care very much about the treatment of animals and understand that no matter what we do, we are all residents of this planet, neither one is more or less important as we all contribute to the quality of each others lives.