I'm waiting for meat-based veggies.
Farm to table is best, but we can't all do that. So the closest we can get to that, the better off we'll be. The perimeter of my grocery store is my aim. And organic when I can get it.
Only vegans are real vegetarians, no matter what people say. What plant (vegetable) did that egg or milk come from? Those lacto-ovos are just picky eaters who want to be included into what they think is the elite veggie club.
IMO, a vegan diet is not a healthy one.
I don't care how many studies try to complicate this. In simple terms:
- I have the alimentary canal length and function of an omnivore
- I have the digestive enzymes of an omnivore
- I have a need for the nutrients only available in animal products, or manufactured supplements to mimic those nutrients
Therefore, I should eat an omnivorous diet.
Plants are very hard to digest. Horses have a mile long digestive tract, and plenty of animals get nutrition from their feces because the food is only partially digested. Rabbits, deer and others eat their own feces to run it through again. Cows and other have several stomachs so they can ferment their food before digesting it. I am not eating my feces, and I have only one stomach. The only fermented food I drink is wine.
If I wasn't supposed to eat meat, why equip me with enzymes to digest meat, and why do I have a need for heme iron, vitamin b12 and 5 other nutrients only found in meat?
I think the problem is corporate food. When you look at the ingredients in most packaged food, a lot of what you read isn't food. But it increases shelf life, in some cases makes storage easier, and makes profits for corporate food.
A small business only needs to make enough profits to pay employees, and have enough left over for the owners to make a living. Profits only need to increase by the inflation index. More is good, but not necessary.
A corporation needs perpetually growing profits. If the profits are only keeping up with inflation, the stockholders will jump ship. Stockholders want to make more profit than the inflation index, that is why they own the stock in the first place.
To keep the stockholders, the corporation needs to increase it's profits by the next quarter, then increase profits even more by the next one after that, and the one after that, and the one after that, ad infinitum. If not, the stockholders won't be making profits and they will sell.
There are many ways to do this, make cheaper food using filler instead of real food, adding ingredients that will extend shelf life, 'kill the competition' which of course is meat and dairy, grab more market share by putting more tasty sugar in the product, and so on.
Thus - you need a plant-based corporate diet and we have a plant based version of the meat your body is craving. It isn't as nutritious for you as the real meat, but it makes a profit for us, and we don't care about you, only profit. So you need to quit eating meat (kill the competition) and enjoy this tasty frankenfood that looks a little like meat and tastes a little like meat, and makes us a lot of money.
At least that's the way I see it.
So I ignore all the press because it's all advertisements.
I pay attention to what my body is built to eat, an omnivorous diet. In addition, I know that for me (perhaps not for you) if I eat more than 20 net carbs a day, I gain weight so I cut the sugars and starches to a minimum.
I've done this since Keto was called Atkins. I turn 77 this month and am on zero medications. I don't catch colds or the flu, never-ever miss work due to illness, my bloodwork is all in the normal zone, and once a year my doctor tells me that I'm an easy patient, and to just keep doing what I'm doing.
So you can have your fake meat, you can have your plant-based diet, you can have your frankenfood, I'll eat what my body was designed to eat, and omnivorous diet, and I'll watch what each food does to me, and learn how to maintain a healthy weight.
Sure I miss huge desserts, donuts, apples, corn on the carb, french fries, and other high-carb foods, but I'm healthy. Without your health, nothing else matters.
Bob