Current Events > Benefits of being vegan?

(+) Yeah! (+)

What are the benefits?
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magic powers

You can pretend there are some and be popular with our vegan friends
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Bad_Mojo posted...

You can pretend there are some and be popular with our vegan friends

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You get an excuse to be a smug asshole on the internet.
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Vegans don't harass you over the fact that you're not vegan.

That's pretty much it. That, and if you don't buy specialty-made vegan stuff (but just make food from produce / buy normal stuff that happens to be suitable for vegans) it's a lot cheaper. Whereas if you do buy those things, it's more expensive.
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freelee the banana bitch won't harass you anymore
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Healthier, in better shape, measurably less contribution to climate change and pollution, not contributing to the torture and slaughter of 55 billion living things every year for no reason, more creative with cooking.
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RebelElite791 posted...

Healthier, in better shape, measurably less contribution to climate change and pollution, not contributing to the torture and slaughter of 55 billion living things every year for no reason, more creative with cooking.

Oh wow
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@Reis
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You don't ever get full

RebelElite791 posted...

Healthier

Secondary effect of usually eating less calories than a typical western diet with meat. Eating meat, but not your typical combo of mostly fried carbs is usually just as healthy. Long term vegans can also get anemic due to b12 deficiencies if they don't supplement.

RebelElite791 posted...

in better shape,

Don't confuse ideologies and lifestyles as directly attributed to the diet. A vegan diet doesn't inherently make you in better shape, but that a lot of vegans also tend to have more active hobbies.

RebelElite791 posted...

measurably less contribution to climate change and pollution

Admittedly I haven't investigated this in-depth to know for certain, but I'd be curious to the widespread impact if everyone ate vegan, since there is limited landmass to grow enough food to meet caloric demands for 8 billion people versus a small subset of the first world. Would higher demand lead to agricultural practice that mirrors the meat industry in carbon pollution? I don't know.

RebelElite791 posted...

not contributing to the torture and slaughter of 55 billion living things every year for no reason

The no reason part is a bit of a stretch. It's to eat, which we need. Certain nutrients only come from meat and the only reason vegans are able to be healthy today is through advancements in science that allow for supplements and the mass production of alternative forms of protein (which previously came from mostly animal products). In that regard, veganism is purely a privilege afforded by first world infrastructure in modern times. Good luck being vegan in any other period of history.

RebelElite791 posted...

more creative with cooking

Not mutually exclusive to veganism as any restrictive diet will require thinking outside of the box in terms of meeting caloric and nutritional requirements. And it's not like "traditional" diets are incapable of being more creative.

I don't follow any particular diet, but it doesn't mean I eat meat with every meal. I've gone to or prepared vegetarian meals. I've also eaten at some vegan places before.

It's just this kind of weird dichotomy to restrict oneself to a gimmick diet. But I still respect people's choices if that's what they want.
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On the plus side, you're well liked by other vegans. In the minus column however, everyone else thinks you're insufferable.
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You get to tell people how much better than them you are.
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You can traverse Mount Evere---
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BlameAnesthesia posted...

Admittedly I haven't investigated this in-depth to know for certain, but I'd be curious to the widespread impact if everyone ate vegan, since there is limited landmass to grow enough food to meet caloric demands for 8 billion people versus a small subset of the first world. Would higher demand lead to agricultural practice that mirrors the meat industry in carbon pollution? I don't know.

If literally the whole planet went vegan tomorrow (it won't happen but bear with me) then our Carbon Dioxide problems disappear nearly instantly.

Food also becomes much cheaper as a whole since you no longer need to give tons of it to animals.
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You don't contribute to the senselessly violent and inhumane way so many cattle are raised and killed.

It also helps the environment. It takes a lot of resources to produce beef.

I respect vegetarians a lot for abstaining from something so delicious for the sake of animals and the environment. I think that in 100 years, we'll look back at the way we treat animals today the same way we look back at the way we used to treat other people in the 19th century.
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Tyranthraxus posted...

If literally the whole planet went vegan tomorrow (it won't happen but bear with me) then our Carbon Dioxide problems disappear nearly instantly.

Food also becomes much cheaper as a whole since you no longer need to give tons of it to animals.

I'm not sure if I exactly buy that. Fresh vegan food often isn't very calorically dense, outside of junk food. And growing enough beans and lentils to cover 8 billion people is A LOT of space.

We'd see a lot more protein malnutrition, or certain vegan options will still remain prohibitively expensive for the rest of the world.

And like I said, you need to supplement some vitamins that you absolutely can't get in a vegan diet. That means 8 billion people on pill supplements. Let's talk about the carbon footprint to get that going.
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More agricultural land is used to feed livestock than would be used to feed an entirely vegan population.
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You get to tell everyone and everything that you're a vegan and will try to make yourself as if you're something special.
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BlameAnesthesia posted...

And like I said, you need to supplement some vitamins that you absolutely can't get in a vegan diet.

There is no such thing. I'm not vegan but please don't peddle bullshit like this.
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RebelElite791 posted...

More agricultural land is used to feed livestock than would be used to feed an entirely vegan population.

The problem is scaling protein. Animal products will have more fats and protein compared to vegan options, period.

Feeding 1 million vegans is relatively simple. Scaling the protein requirements to 8 billion people is hard off beans, lentils, wheats, and barleys. Guaranteed a mixed world where the current demand of meat and animal products wasn't so high such that most food options center around them. (i.e., most people regularly eat vegetarian or vegan meals, just not every time) would be better for the environment than going to the other extreme.

Like I said, you get some nutritional deficiencies that are impossible to meet with a vegan diet. You now need infrastructure for required supplementation or fortification of all foods with what is missing.
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cows are pretty shit for the ozone, if we all just stopped eating beef we'd fix quite a few problems
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Tyranthraxus posted...

There is no such thing. I'm not vegan but please don't peddle bullshit like this.

The only way vegans get vitamin B12 is foods fortified with it or through supplementation since it only comes from animal products.

Most educated vegans should (and do) know this. And symptoms of deficiency take years to develop, but can cause permanent neurological deficits.
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BlameAnesthesia posted...

Guaranteed a mixed world where the current demand of meat and animal products wasn't so high such that most food options center around them. (i.e., most people regularly eat vegetarian or vegan meals, just not every time) would be better for the environment than going to the other extreme.

Ahh, I didn't realize I was speaking to a climate scientist. My b.
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RebelElite791 posted...

Ahh, I didn't realize I was speaking to a climate scientist. My b.

Are you?

And are you just considering the sole impact that animal farms have? What about the theoretical increase in infrastructure required to fortify all foods with vitamin b12 by 8000% to meet demand for 8 billion vegans?
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Soy breasts
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BlameAnesthesia posted...

RebelElite791 posted...

Ahh, I didn't realize I was speaking to a climate scientist. My b.

Are you?

And are you just considering the sole impact that animal farms have? What about the theoretical increase in infrastructure required to fortify all foods with vitamin b12 by 8000% to meet demand for 8 billion vegans?

Still less impact than factory farming in this stupid-ass scenario, and still not pointlessly torturing and killing other sentient beings for human pleasure. Stop being a pedant.

SpiralDrift posted...

Soy breasts

Not a thing.
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I'm getting bored of this conversation cycle, but...

You really think there's more environmental strain to farm plant protein and b12 (which is a bacterial product found in massive quantities in any natural body of fresh water) than beef?

I can't do this anymore lol
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RebelElite791 posted...

Still less impact than factory farming in this stupid-ass scenario, and still not pointlessly torturing and killing other sentient beings for human pleasure. Stop being a pedant.

You're making an emotional argument here that doesn't follow from our original point. If you honestly operate under the presumption that every non-vegan is a sadist who enjoys animal torture, you're the reason vegans aren't taken seriously at all.
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BlameAnesthesia posted...

Tyranthraxus posted...

There is no such thing. I'm not vegan but please don't peddle bullshit like this.

The only way vegans get vitamin B12 is foods fortified with it or through supplementation since it only comes from animal products.

Most educated vegans should (and do) know this. And symptoms of deficiency take years to develop, but can cause permanent neurological deficits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12#Plants_and_algae

Try again. Thanks.
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BlameAnesthesia posted...

RebelElite791 posted...

Still less impact than factory farming in this stupid-ass scenario, and still not pointlessly torturing and killing other sentient beings for human pleasure. Stop being a pedant.

You're making an emotional argument here that doesn't follow from our original point. If you honestly operate under the presumption that every non-vegan is a sadist who enjoys animal torture, you're the reason vegans aren't taken seriously at all.

Nope. But they're willfully ignorant about the process that goes into their food.

And you ignored my first point.

Krojen posted...

I'm getting bored of this conversation cycle, but...

You really think there's more environmental strain to farm plant protein and b12 (which is a bacterial product found in massive quantities in any natural body of fresh water) than beef?

I can't do this anymore lol

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I couldn't do it full time but I do enjoy making vegan meals here and there. They aren't cheap but there are some pretty decent meat substitutes out there now or fare from other cultures that are tasty without meat or animal products.
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Krojen posted...

You really think there's more environmental strain to farm plant protein and b12 (which is a bacterial product found in massive quantities in any natural body of fresh water) than beef?

No, beef is definitely more environmentally straining in its current practice.

Suddenly eliminating all forms of animal products as well as meat to feet 8 billion people is a lot more of a clusterfuck logistically than just "growing more grains."

Vegan diets have the privilege right now of "being creative" with ingredients because there are like, what, 1 million vegans?

Suddenly needing to feed 8 billion means those "creative ingredients" will be a hard demand to meet and the staples are more than a linear increase to make sure the population isn't protein malnourished as a whole.
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Getting protein on a vegan diet is by no means an issue my dude.

And there are 1-2m vegans in the US alone, IIRC.
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I'm done arguing with moral crusaders who are too idealistic and "willfully ignore" the practices that would be required to feed 8 billion with such restrictions.

I'm open for working on solutions outside of our current shitty practices. I don't think your guys' extreme solution is necessarily better.
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"extreme solution" lmao
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RebelElite791 posted...

Getting protein on a vegan diet is by no means an issue my dude.

For an individual, absolutely not an issue. Making sure 8 billion get enough? You're underestimating the challenge in that.
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BlameAnesthesia posted...

RebelElite791 posted...

Getting protein on a vegan diet is by no means an issue my dude.

For an individual, absolutely not an issue. Making sure 8 billion get enough? You're underestimating the challenge in that.

1/8 of those are malnourished as is. Let's not pretend everyone at the moment A) is healthy and well-nourished, and B) gets enough protein.

There are MANY options for protein. Eat some fucking beans and shut up.
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There are no benefits you tree licking nerds
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Tyranthraxus posted...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12#Plants_and_algae

Try again. Thanks.

Congrats, you now need to solve the problem of making sure 8 billion people have access to algae and hope nothing happens that wipes out that particular agricultural niche.

Because just like how shitty animal farms are with antibiotic use, what kinds of shortcuts will large algae farms/plants do to meet 8 billion demand that hopefully doesn't introduce a bacteriophage that happens to affect algae populations?

You're putting humanities eggs in one basket. Then throwing those eggs away because you're vegan.
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Syntheticon posted...

On the plus side, you're well liked by other vegans. In the minus column however, everyone else thinks you're insufferable.

Think? Look at this post..

RebelElite791 posted...

Healthier, in better shape, measurably less contribution to climate change and pollution, not contributing to the torture and slaughter of 55 billion living things every year for no reason, more creative with cooking.

...and tell me you can't feel the insufferable smugness oozing out of Rebel.
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BlameAnesthesia posted...

Congrats, you now need to solve the problem of making sure 8 billion people have access to algae

on the scale of making something globally accessible. This is like, baby difficulty. People don't eat algae because it tastes terrible, not because it's hard to get.

shipping out bean curd and seaweed salad which tastes much better to 8 billion people is much more difficult.

BlameAnesthesia posted...

that hopefully doesn't introduce a bacteriophage that happens to affect algae populations?

algae aren't bacteria what the hell would a bacteriophage do to algae? bacteriophages only attack bacteria.
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HiddenLurker posted...

...and tell me you can't feel the insufferable smugness oozing out of Rebel.

Imma start pm'ing you every time someone on this board makes a topic whining about vegans and you can tell me who the smug ones are.
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Damn I thought we were passed the b12 issue. Okay. You think we'd have a serious problem farming a common bacterial product? So much so that it's easier to just farm animals for b12? Forget about many meat products getting their b12 value from supplements.

So beef is out of the question, good. Now which meat do you think it's easier to feed the population with than lentils?
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Tyranthraxus posted...

People don't eat algae because it tastes terrible, not because it's hard to get.

So why the fuck was this even your point?

"Hey, vegans can get vitamin b12, a necessary nutrient that in deficit will cause a macrocytic anemia that leads to permanent neurological problems, but it's in one food source that tastes like shit and Tyranthraxus posted...

algae aren't bacteria what the hell would a bacteriophage do to algae? bacteriophages only attack bacteria.

Substitute with whatever microorganisms can affect algae. You're not addressing the actual issue here, which is that a singular source of one vitamin is not smart when you propose the entire world needing it.
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BlameAnesthesia posted...

So why the fuck was this even your point?

"Hey, vegans can get vitamin b12, a necessary nutrient that in deficit will cause a macrocytic anemia that leads to permanent neurological problems, but it's in one food source that tastes like shit

It's in literally seaweed which actually tastes good and in tempeh which tastes meh but very much a staple food product.

BlameAnesthesia posted...

Substitute with whatever microorganisms can affect algae. You're not addressing the actual issue here, which is that a singular source of one vitamin is not smart when you propose the entire world needing it.

substitute "thing that doesn't refute your argument" with "thing that refutes your argument"

how about no u

and there isn't a singular source of B12 even among plants and furthermore even if you were to cut plants out of the picture B12 can be manufactured by bacteria.
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RebelElite791 posted...

HiddenLurker posted...

...and tell me you can't feel the insufferable smugness oozing out of Rebel.

Imma start pm'ing you every time someone on this board makes a topic whining about vegans and you can tell me who the smug ones are.

Great you wanna get modded for harrassment be my guest.
Oh and if you have not noticed several "vegens" already commented and yes they were pretty insufferable.
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being just plain better than everyone else
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Tyranthraxus posted...

even if you were to cut plants out of the picture B12 can be manufactured by bacteria.

I never said you couldn't get B12 by other means. My original post was even talking about fortifying vegan foods that didn't have it. I suggest you reread my posts so you understand my position better.
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