I'll admit I have a bee in my bonnet about vegans. I got halfway through a video about "What People Hate About Vegans" before I felt the exasperation get overwhelming. It was about studies that showed people disliked vegans for their relentless moralizing. Since I tuned in to hear nutritional science, the constant denial in vegan videos is what I "hate about vegans."

But then, I had to seek out what I wanted. In a paper published just this February I see a polite layout of the problems.



I knew about the B-12 and how vegans lose mental abilities as a result. I didn't know about malignancies, and that is really upsetting. Because while vegans do love the moral high ground, they also must believe that this is the healthiest way to eat, and people seeking health try veganism, and sometimes, they get trapped there. And suffer more. Especially, ironically, cancer patients. I am ready to believe they prey on these people in particular, knowing their vulnerability. Wouldn't they interfere with the keto diet we know is being prescribed for some of these patients?



Yesterday I went kayaking for the first time in I don't know how many years, because my brain was also not working during that time. I'm grateful my brain is coming back along with my strength. But not getting much in the way of B vitamins is why the US and UK supplement their food supply. Because the large-scale consequences of these deficiencies are so great.

I think this masks the worst elements from being recognized, especially since the entire basis is built on the denial of a species-specific diet. They will argue that everyone can live entirely plant-based, and we can't. There's also the constantly ignored environmental impact that would ensue if everyone tried.

Which is not very moral, if you ask me.

We've had a solid month of family gatherings, sad and joyful, and for me to be able to do so much, with relatively little crashes, shows I can manage better than before.

But the discouraging part is all these people who are smart in other areas are clueless about the health impact of their health choices.

I explained to someone that the only nutrition in the bread and pasta was what got put there as a public health preventative, and it's not even of high quality.

It was as though I had switched to sign language. Those 45 calories of diet bread are about culinary pleasures. And at least this person budgets them accordingly. They lost 20 pounds by adding enjoyable activities the past few years. Actively seeking answers, yet sometimes baffled by the information they get.

Because the marketing from food industries so dominantes the public discourse. I put my life on the line and still fell for messages pounded into my head my whole life.

Still a process to dig out "vague feelings," but worth the effort. I have decided if my reason for doing something cannot be clearly articulated, I should investigate further.

I'm a big fan of intuition, but it must act on accurate information.

The moral high ground of vegans is based on the erroneous belief that they are eating in the most nutritionally healthy way as well as the most environmentally sound way, both of which are untrue. It is a position that is both arrogant and ignorant and has the potential to do great damage to people and the environment, yet so many people have fallen for it. There is nothing “moral” about being a vegan. It is certainly not moral to advocate a nutritionally unsound diet nor is there anything moral about a holier than thou attitude.

Many years ago, in the two years before my first oregnancy, i was introduced to a woman with a malfunctioning child, to put it simply.

She was the tenant at a horse barn run by a retired emergency nurse.

The woman was vegan, per the nurse. As was the child. The child suffered from brain damage and overall lack of meat protein. The two year old was damaged for life.

The made a huge impact as I was trying to get pregnant at the time. My kids got meat, real meat, not McNuggets. My kids got real vegetables. I cooked. AND I ignored the push push push during pediatrician visits to give low fat milk at two years old. Gave full fat milk.

Our brains need quality fat, meat fats and milk fat, and we need meat proteins. Like a steak or chicken leg.

I shake my head at vegan. Senseless. As there is no real bases for it, the only reason left to defend it, is an unreasonable argument.

They are also of the belief that using or consuming ANY product of animal origin, including eggs, dairy products, or honey, and that human use of any of those is somehow harmful to the animal.

Again, that is untrue.

Eating an unfertilized egg in no way harms a hen or kills a potential chick since an unfertilized egg will not hatch. The hen will produce eggs at the rate of 1 (and sometimes 2) per day during laying season (long daylight hours). Fertilization of the egg only takes place in the oviduct, not after the egg is laid. If there have been no roosters around to mate with the hens, then the hens are not going to lay fertilized eggs. In order to avoid harming "potential chickens", all they need do is to purchase eggs which are not fertilized. Most eggs sold are not fertilized, and that's not just referring to those produced by mass egg laying operations, but also most cage free, pastured, and organically fed eggs. You can tell the eggs are not fertilized, because when buying fertilized eggs, the egg carton will proudly display that they are fertilized eggs, and you will pay a premium price for those eggs, because the chicken farmer is not going to keep a rooster around if they aren't earning anything extra for the trouble of keeping a rooster.

Cows produce far more milk than a calf can possibly consume. If the excess milk is not milked off, the cow runs a very real risk of developing a nasty, painful, and potentially even deadly case of mastitis. If the cow dies, that calf will no longer have it's mother's milk. You're actually doing the cow and the calf a favor by using the excess milk she produced, and the cow will feel great relief at having her udder emptied of the excess milk. Having grown up on farms, I've seen the cows make their way to the milking barn - they want to be milked so that they can be relieved of all that excess milk. This of course assumes that the cow is not separated from the her calf as soon as the calf has consumed all benefit from the colostrum, with the calf put on a calf formula so that all the cow's milk can be sold - that of course is not the best thing for the calf. If you find it offensive for a calf to be separated from it's mother before the calf is naturally weaned, then make sure the milk comes from herds that are allowed to wean naturally. (There are other aspects to consider, such as precocious milkers - cows who continue to produce milk long after the calf has been weaned. Same thing can happen with goats and sheep. My SIL had a goat that continued to produce copious amounts of milk for years after her last kid was weaned. It's much kinder to allow the goat to continue milking the goat until her milk supply dries up naturally than it is to force the milk to dry up)

Honey bees produce far more honey than they can possibly use. But the bees don't realize that, so they will continue to create honey combs and fill the honeycomb cavities with honey as long as they have a place to create a honeycomb, whether they will ever use that much honey or not. The bees won't suffer if you don't use the excess honey - but neither will they suffer if you do use the excess honey.

I believe a lot of Vegan beliefs about what's harmful to animals is based purely on ignorance of animal husbandry practices.

It's an entire FRACTAL of ignorance, or they would understand that under the category of UPF-4, the worst, we find the phrase "most vegan foods." That should speak volumes about what their diet is like, but only crickets are heard.

There's also another telling detail to me, an animal rights activist. They don't understand that we also domesticated these animals. We have a humane obligation to continue with our support and mutual benefit.

That's why I like the humane farming movement slogan: One Bad Day. A farmer said her pigs lead happy lives, longer than in the wild on average, and much more comfortable. Then, like all of us, we have a bad day.

I find that much more in the spirit of cooperation. That's why we all banded together in the first place.