No Single Diet for a Big Planet

The increasing pressure for everyone to convert to a vegan diet smacks of ignorance and righteousness. Yes, that includes scientists, and shame on them.

This stated universal solution for the health of everyone on this planet and all the ills of climate change is fraught with negligence to the fact that not every person can subsist in good health on a vegan diet. Nor is it necessary (some bold scientists have published data on why).

While the public, and many scientists, claim that adopting a vegan diet is the most important way to lose weight, be healthy, reverse climate change, and treat the planet better, there are reasons to believe this isn’t always the case. Despite the prevalent binary thinking and judgement of our Western society, fad science, and culture, there is no one, universal, de facto “right” diet for everyone. Our genetics, physiology, medical history, economic status, food accessibility, and aesthetic tastes are vastly varied. Absolutisms are rarely absolute.

Many people have food sensitivities and/or allergies: allergies to peanuts, gluten-related disorders (including wheat allergy and insensitivity to fructans), intolerance to yeast and/molds (such as in leavened breads, beer and several cheeses), phytates in m,any legumes and vegetable (taboo for people prone to kidney stones), “onion intolerance” (sensitivity to ingestion, even dermal exposure, to one or more plants in the Allium family), fructose malabsorption (bad things happen when eating even a small amount of most fruits), legume (including soybeans) intolerance/allergies, and the list goes on. People with these sensitivities and allergies may be unable to commit to a vegan diet without jeopardizing their overall health.

Another topic rarely seen in the lay media, and uncommon in the scientific literature, is the nutrient efficiency of a diet containing even a small amount of animal products - meat, milk, yogurt, cheese, eggs. By comparable weight, animal food products contain more protein (especially in the context of complementary amino acid profile), bioavailable minerals, and energy than any non-animal product. 

The cautionary point here is that most of the consumed energy is in the form of lipids, aka ‘fats,’ especially cholesterol. Primates -yes, us, too- evolved to store dietary fat for emergency energy in cyclic periods of famine. However, in our modern world of convenience and accessible plenty, we no longer need as much, and eat too much of it. Also, removing excess fat and eating naturally lean meat is an alternative.

The loud proclamation that everyone should embrace a vegan diet is unwarranted and impossible for many people. Nor should the reason of significantly reducing our carbon footprint be justification for imposing guilty consciousness. Some people just can't adopt a vegan diet. Moreover, a universally adopted vegan diet will not solve the demand for food and reverse climate change. 

Research at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service found that removing animal protein from the diets of many people would increase nutrient deficiencies that have been associated with certain health risks, like cardiovascular disease. Mary Beth Hall, animal scientist and one of the study researchers  at the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center, comments in a press release,

“Different types of carefully balanced diets — vegan, vegetarian, omnivore — can meet a person’s needs and keep them healthy, but this study examined balancing the needs of the entire nation with the foods we could produce from plants alone. There’s a difference between what’s possible when feeding one person versus feeding everyone in the U.S.”

More importantly we should put more emphasis on growing some of our own or buying locally produced food, learn to make better food choices, eat balanced meals of both vegetables and animal products, plan meals centered around seasonally available foods, and stop piling so much food on our plates. 

Oh, and spending less time on our devices, in our vehicles, and getting off our butts and moving around around would not only reduce our appetite, improve our health, and possibly shrink that carbon footprint. Add supporting informed policy change at the local, state and national levels, too.