plant food

The food charts I was taught at school implied that meat and dairy were essential and had to be eaten every day in the same way that one and one equalled two. No one asked what happened if you didn't. It was inconceivable.

And yet many communities have lived on a largely plant based diet for millennia. Until recently, most of the world ate meat on special occasions like carnivals (from the Latin for meat). A small fraction of the meat, egg and dairy consumed nowadays.

health
The increase in meat and dairy consumption over the past century is a main cause of the epidemic of Western lifestyle diseases like cancers, osteoporosis, diabetes and heart, vascular diseases. Also auto immune diseases like arthritis, Lou Gehrig's Disease(ALS), Crohn's, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, fibromyalgia, systemic lupus, scleroderma, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome(CFS) and endometriosis. One of these illnesses is usually followed by another.

There are indications that a plant based diet with fresh fruit and veg helps prevent many other conditions including macular degeneration, cataracts, PMS, migraines, bad breath and body odour, and produces healthier nails and hair.

Animal products are estimated to be the largest risk factor for cancers including breast cancer and some cancer clinics are putting recovering patients on a vegan diet after chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Westerners are increasingly changing to plant based diets to recover from illness. Many who make the change from compassion for other animals, to save the planet or as a food preference are surprised to find the health benefits.

Health, feelings and fitness usually improve on a reasonably balanced vegan diet. Typically no more recurrent colds or flu, headaches, runny nose, depression, lack of energy. Some effects are immediate, others take a few months. Often friends, family and medical professionals shrug off the improvements, while attributing any problems to a shortage of meat in the diet.

Plant-based foods especially raw foods protect against most of the western lifestyle diseases. They are much more efficient sources of energy and nutrients for humans. Easier to digest and utilise. They contain antioxidants, enzymes and other phyto-nutrients that are essential for our well-being and protect against disease.

Research is starting to show a complex interaction between plants and animals as plant DNA and other components are being found intact in animals and interacting with their physiology. This is no surprise to those raw vegans who pay close attention to the varied and subtle effects of different plant foods on their energy levels, health and feelings.

Eating further down the food chain means less heavy metal and pesticide resides in food.

Animal based foods are contaminated by micro-organisms dangerous to humans during farming, storage and processing and their metabolic by-products damage the human digestive, metabolic and eliminative systems.

adaptation to plant food
Humans have evolved with the anatomy, physiology and biochemistry of herbivores. This includes the vision, metabolism, pH, enzymes, teeth, behaviour and the long gut and digestive system of herbivores. Plant food is a better fit in most ways.

Humans can survive on a diet of mostly animal products if some are eaten raw and fresh and offal is used. Meat and milk can be partially decomposed by micro-organisms to predigest them. Life span is shorter and health not as good as vegan communities.

compassion
Deep down most people are uncomfortable with the exploitation of other animals even if they haven't consciously thought this through. Most people have to steel themselves to kill them.

It is not such a large step from the exploitation of other species to the exploitation of our own. By exploiting other animals we learn to overlook the feelings of others and look them in the eye and relate to them as a commodity.

The social contract is based on compassion. It assures that fellow citizens are not going to hunt you down or trick you into becoming their dinner. This contract is a fairly recent and from stories of its breakdown here and there, cannot be taken for granted. Killing other animals crosses the boundary and exposes the fragility of the contract but this can usually be quietly ignored.

Just being vegan opens up for onlookers all sorts of possibilities like death or exploitation at the hands of others and so can be an existential threat.

If someone reacts to you being vegan with ridicule or anger to elicit strong feelings in you there is probably more happening than just concern or curiosity. Part of their reaction may be to shut out the threat you represent and keep feelings of guilt or fear at bay. The way you respond may alleviate or expand their fears

environment
Eating vegan reduces our impact on the environment. Meat requires much more land and water to produce and is more destructive and polluting. The consumption of animal products is one of the main causes of deforestation, global warming and indirectly, hunger, starvation and war. The most effective thing an individual can do to minimise greenhouse gases is to not eat animal products.

Emerging industrial societies are increasing their meat consumption to levels tens of times more than their historical ancestors and hundreds of times more than some traditional communities. This change does not fit with large and growing human populations.

spiritual
Most religions including the major religions have traditions of vegan or vegetarian eating particularly in their meditative orders. Respect for other beings, communion with the natural world and emotional and intellectual clarity are among the reasons cited for this.

cuisine
A plant-based cuisine is richer and more varied. Vegans have in practice a much wider variety of foods to choose from especially as their senses of smell and taste return.

A wide range of ingredients and subtle food combinations can be used once the heavy and dull tastes of animal products are out of the way.

adjusting
The body may take a few months or a year or so to fully adjust to any vegan diet. Different digestive enzymes are secreted and there are changes in the metabolic pathways as energy comes more from sugars and carbohydrates and less from the less efficient and more toxic breakdown of fats and protein. The degradation products of plant foods are easier on the metabolic and eliminatory systems.

Those who switch in a negative way by not eating animal products rather than wanting plant foods usually feel better eating vegan and come to prefer the tastes. Non vegan foods become less enticing or repulsive and plant foods become a natural preference rather than a conscious choice.

The senses of taste acclimatise to food eaten over the last few days particularly to salt, fat and sugar so after a few weeks a return to a previous diet may feel strange and not so attractive.

After decades of eating vegan, animal products are usually difficult to digest and they smell and taste unpleasant and bring a noticeable drop in performance and feelings of well-being.

Research shows that vegetarians tend to measure higher in intelligence than the overall population without suggesting whether this is cause or effect.

copyright (C) John Brasted 2008
updated 6. Feb. 2012

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