Hello and thank you for your article,
I’ll identify as a bad-vegan. My wife calls me a flexa-tarian or a culture-tarian — I’ll eat haggis or my family’s traditional home made sausage!
The documentary definitely had some weak moments and yes, some of the research or evidence presented was questionable. I am not sure why they did not work with Dr. Esselstyn (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldwell_Esselstyn), Dr. Campbell (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._Colin_Campbel) l, or Dr. Barnard (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_D._Barnard). While it was good to see Dr. Ornish on, I sometimes feel that the other three mentioned are better at speaking to a whole foods plant based diet from a much more evidenced based position. And, I feel that the evidence they use is much more robust and tested.
One of my very favorite quotes from Dr. Esselstyn, who is a cardiac-thoracic surgeon — the quote goes something like — “People often tell me that being vegan is very extreme. I tell them that what is extreme is that every year 30,000 Americans (don’t quote me on the number) will end up on the surgeons table. We will crack open their chest, stop their heart, take out veins from their legs and sew them into their heart and then start their heart again. That’s extreme!”
There is more than enough evidence available to support the move to a whole foods plant based diet. Kind of like climate change. You can read the evidence or not but the evidence is still there and the answer is very clear.
The movie was very focused on men and the traditional view of being a man. That whole scene with the three lads and the erection tester was fucking hilarious and very interesting. It was all quite effective but I think maybe a bit out-dated.
I became vegan after having to do work in a meat processing plant. I work as a paramedic and a patient had severely broken their leg after falling near the kill floor. That was in 1996.
So while there is obvious evidence to support moving toward vegetarianism or veganism — it’s the ecological and moral issue that I think needs to be addressed around meat.
And please understand, if you want to eat meat, eat your heart out (ha, hahahaha). But do so only if the meat is ethically sourced and organic.
Please consider how absolutely vile and shockingly inhumane meat processing plants are. Folks . . . wake up to this. Please. Like I said, you want to eat meat, go ahead but please ensure that it is ethically sourced and organic.
Equally as shocking is how the planet is sacrificed to create viable land for either the growing of food for livestock or the actual space for livestock to live. One only needs to look to Brazil to see how the planet is being sacrificed for meat.
Again, thank you for your article and the opportunity to explore this concept further.
ps — The movie was correct when it spoke about B12 and the source of B12 . Animals in meat processing facilities are now provided with B12 supplement.
