Independent Leyton Orient Forum

Lucky7 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 11:24 am Vegans will always let you know they’re vegans. You may have heard this old Vegan joke before —
“An atheist, a Vegan and a crossfitter walk into a bar. I only know because they told everyone within 2 minutes.”
They’ll also make sure everyone knows they’re having a green smoothie for breakfast. And they have this oh-not-so-subtle way of turning their nose up at your processed foot-long Italian meatball sub.
Once in a while, a vegan friend may even suggest you sign up for Veganuary, an initiative that urges you to go vegan for the entire month of January.
There are 700 million vegans on earth. In other words, there are 6 billion meat lovers inflicting serial torture on farm animals, destroying wildlife, and hastening climate change. The world is about to end because of us. And every vegan will let you know every so often.
Vegans, for the most part, fall into three categories:
A. Born vegans
B. The weight watchers
C. Animal-loving crusaders
If there’s another kind, I don’t know yet.
Type A
You’re the vegan I love. Truly. You don’t care about theories, Cowspiracies or health benefits. You eat what you’ve always eaten.
You were born vegan. To vegan parents and grandparents. And great-many-times-over-great grandparents. You have what we call “green diet genes”.
You’re genetically programmed to love broccoli and bitter gourd juice. Your body would go into shock if it’s treated to a steak.
You are the original vegan. You keep it simple and we love that.
Type B
They’re everywhere — your friend from high-school, your co-worker, your brother and anyone who’s having a vegan moment. Veganism is your answer to the inch war. You believe a vegan meal plan is going to magically shrink your waistline.
You’re an evangelist for whole grains, leafy vegetables, beans, lentils, soy, berries, apples, bananas, sesame tofu, and blueberry flax quinoa. Since you’re smart and you know secretly it’s a diet from hell, you slip in “healthy fats” as well. Vegan ice cream, anyone?
If all these superfoods cut your weight by half as you claim they do, then you’re going to put every nutritionist and gym out of business. But, life isn’t so simple. Neither is the human body. It’s a complicated machine.
Unlike the cow, we don’t have four stomachs to digest cellulose. And all day to eat.
Since sometimes even the best of us tend to forget, we’re designed to eat high-nutrient foods in small quantities (animal, vegetable or both) a few times a day.
If we’re overweight, it’s because we’re doing the opposite. We’re eating larger amounts of low-nutrient foods (processed, refined and manufactured). Your body doesn’t care if the nutrients are from animals, vegetables or otherwise. Go after the nutrients, not the vegetables.
Type C
You’re “the nuts among the berries”. You’re the animal fanatic who would make a PETA activist blush. It’s your life’s mission to save the animal kingdom from the likes of me. Your heart beats for anything that breathes and moves and lives.
You like plants. In your salad, soup, tarts, and smoothies. I like them too — in my garden.
You love animals. Your heart bleeds for them. Where I see a juicy burger, you see a sacrificial cow. You have a heart of gold. I have a heart of stone.
You will throw every vegan theory at me, to convert me. To harvest my meat-loving soul. But do you realize, in your enthusiasm to save one species, you are inflicting hardship on another?
Your new-found love for quinoa means higher prices for South America’s staple food. Locals can no longer afford the quinoa you’re tossing into your rainbow salad.
Haven’t you heard of Mexico’s ‘Blood Avocados’? The 200 million avocados shipped to America every year. That’s right, to fuel your morning smoothie. Besides, what’s movie night without guacamole?
While avocados help your diet, it doesn’t help Mexican farmers who pay extortion money to drug cartels cashing in on the craze.
Your love for palm oil over butter to save cows costs us our forests. And over-harvesting destroys the very habitat that keeps animals, insects and the entire ecosystem ticking.
It’s for the same reason, soy and maize fields are criticized the world over. Over-farming strips the soil of nutrients. How do you correct that? Add fertilizers which then flood our lakes, rivers, and oceans killing the fish you’re trying to save.
How are factory-farmed meat and dairy any different from over-farmed fields of soy and maize? It’s the same thing.
What we should do is eat far less meat, way less than we currently consume. The human body does not need 222 pounds of meat a year. And yes, we should put a stop to industrialized grain-fed meat production.
Abstinence is not the answer. In fact, the odd grass-fed steak may help save the planet, after all.

Proposition Joe wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 1:33 pm Yes, and have already done so.

Each to their own but anyone who doesn't think that industrial scale animal farming is killing the planet and creating a terrible legacy for their grandkids/future generations is lying to themselves or is just a general science denier.

OyinbO wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 2:55 pm Yes, of course I would. And I'm already starting to "transition", albeit slowly.

The typical person doesn't have strong views either way on this subject. Which means that as soon as veganism becomes as easy (or easier) than non-veganism, and as cheap (or cheaper) you'll see lots more people doing it. And we're well on the way - it's much easier to live a plant-based life than it was 10 years ago (though still not exactly "easy")

StillSpike wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 3:26 pm Oh, and just to add, pedantically, whether of not one becomes vegan won't "save the planet". Becoming a vegan might save the planet's ability to support human life, I suppose, but either way the planet will still be here until it crashes into the Sun