Jul 5, 2011 -- 11:22PM, solfeggio wrote:

Girlchristian -

Thank you for your very interesting post.  I appreciate your answering so soon!

Anyway, my husband and I have been vegan for about twenty-five years now, I guess.  We were previously vegetarians.  Then, one day, my husband said: Let's go vegan.  Huh?  I said.  I had no idea what a vegan was!  So, he explained that we'd have to give up the yogurt, which I loved, and no more milk or eggs, etc. 

I admit that I wasn't too keen on the whole idea at first, thinking that, since cows didn't have to die to give milk, or chickens to lay eggs, I didn't see why we couldn't just keep on being vegetarians.  But, he explained that even milk cows go to the slaughterhouse eventually, that male baby chicks are put into a grinder, and battery hen farms are really horrible places.

We shouldn't be supporting these industries just because we like to eat yogurt and fried eggs, he told me, and I agreed.  Once you look into the animal agriculture industry, it's like a house of horrors.

So, we went vegan, and it really was no big deal.  We eat pretty much what everybody else eats, just without the meat/dairy.

For myself, I never did smoke, and I don't drink, but this is mainly because my brother is an alcoholic, as were other family members, and I didn't want to end up that way.  And I don't eat any processed sugar because diabetes runs in our family and I really don't want to develop that disease if I can possibly help it.  I'm practically an expert on low GI foods and plan all my meals around them.

But, then, I'm pushing 70 and, as our (much younger) GP is always cautioning, as we get older we do tend to be more at risk for age-related illnesses.

Thanks for sharing! I was never able to go vegan, despite trying several times. Due to a bladder condition, I can no longer have soy (for whatever reason, it aggravates the condition) so I pretty much avoid all the "fake" meat products even though I used to love them!

Like you, diabetes runs in my family so I exercise and monitor my sugar. I've never even tested high so I'm doing okay. I'm 5'8" and 130 pounds so being overweight wouldn't be a concern for me either.

Ebon wrote:

> Yes, we did. Cows were domesticated somewhere between 9,000 and 11,000 years

> ago and we have been evolving ever since then. Evolution doesn't just stop.

Interestingly, scientists have found that the lactose-tolerance genes in humans evolved on three separate occasions and have rapidly spread through large sections of the human population since then.  This indicates that lactose tolerance is a very valuable positive trait - that it very much helps the survival of people who have it.

Also interestingly, human gene variants have also been showing up that make the carriers basically immune to the effects of high-cholesterol diets ... and yes, they're spreading too, though they haven't gotten as far yet.  There are also some small populations who have adapted to a diet that is extremely high in meat, even fat (such as the Inuit).

As you say, evolution just doesn't stop.

Jul 6, 2011 -- 1:45PM, IDBC wrote:

Howdy Solf  

Even vegan diets are not without their drawbacks. 

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/11...

 

ScienceDaily (Feb. 15, 2011) — People who follow a vegan lifestyle -- strict vegetarians who try to eat no meat or animal products of any kind -- may increase their risk of developing blood clots and atherosclerosis or "hardening of the arteries," which are conditions that can lead to heart attacks and stroke. That's the conclusion of a review of dozens of articles published on the biochemistry of vegetarianism during the past 30 years.

I think we can all agree that what to eat and not to eat is a complex subject. 

 

There are many different factors to consider.  

 I also think that what a person eats or doesn't eat is their choice.  

 

 

WIth respect, Abner, I think you have oversimplified the health issue. Here, in place of the news story to which you provided a link, is the actual abstract of the article by Li:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21204526

Now note that this paper is about biomarkers of disease risk, not incidence of disease. The clearest link between a vegan diet and an abnormality in a biomarker is B12, since this vitamin is difficult (but not impossible) to obtain via purely plant sources. Yet we do not see vegans routinely succumbing to pernicious anemia, the consequence of B12 deficiency. There have indeed been some case reports, especially in infants breastfed by B12-deficient mothers, but the majority of cases of pernicious anemia have nothing to do with diet (most occur in older people, who are also subject to microcytic forms of anemia, and in people with gastric disorders that leave them deficient in Intrinsic Factor, which is necessary for B12 absorption).

Here is a review that tells a different story:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20701748

This review finds that a vegetarian diet is associated with a lower risk of venous thromboembolism, whereas the paper by Li noted that certain biomarker values characteristic of vegetarian and especially vegan diets might be associated with increased VTE risk.

All of which is to say that disease risk is a lot more complex than might be suspected from looking at biomarker assays.

Jul 6, 2011 -- 9:17PM, mainecaptain wrote:

I am a vegetarian working towards veganism, my blood tests come out incredibly well, and that is as I recover from cancer treatement.

My hopes and poor prayers are with you, mc.

Jul 6, 2011 -- 10:24PM, Heretic_for_Christ wrote:

Mainecaptain,

I had no idea you have been under treatment for cancer. I hope your recovery will be complete, and that you will continue to grace Beliefnet with your gentle spiritual insights for a long time to come.

Sincerely,

Heretic--your friend

(((((((((((Heretic)))))))))) thank you so much, friends like you, make my life even more precious