I've been reading Tasha's writing about being vegan and then transitioning back to omnivory, and it's made me think.
Originally she posited veganism as the "perfect" diet, the "best" diet, the one-size-fits-all good-for-everyone-and-the-planet diet. Then, after she had to stop being vegan because it was making her sick, she seemed to think the same thing about omnivory.
I don't think there is a one-size-fits-all diet. I think that if most people eat less meat and fewer animal products, most of us, and the planet, will be better off. But for any individual person, their diet is not any of my business and I have no right to judge. (And I really try not to; I'm guilty of being judgmental about the people who like to flaunt their carnivory, but really, I have much better things to do with my energy.)
Anyway; some people do well as vegans and some don't. Some people do well as vegetarians and some don't. Some people do well eating meat and some don't. This depends on their bodies, their minds, their cultures, their socio-economic class, their geographic location, and many other factors.
By way of example, I'm going to talk about what happened when I went vegetarian. I hear a lot of accounts of people going vegan and vegetarian that recount how wonderful it was for them and how much it improved their health, but not many accounts like mine, which goes: nothing happened.
I stopped eating meat over a period of a few years, and also tried to reduce my dairy intake/switch to organic dairy from pastured cows. I have the same amount of energy as I did before, I put on a good deal of weight (which I think is unrelated), and I still get sick about as frequently. My skin cleared up a bit, and my periods got lighter, but not right away, and I think that has to do with just getting older.
I'm okay with this, because I didn't go vegetarian for the health benefits, but because I didn't want to eat flesh any more. But dietary changes are not always miraculous, not always a magic bullet. Be gentle and patient with yourself. If a particular way of eating doesn't give the results you wanted, you don't have to stick with it. Just listen to your body, and do right by it.
2 comments:
Claims of magical improvements upon becoming veg*n set me on edge a bit, too. When I hear people talk like that, I assume either they're riding the high of a really awesome placebo effect, or they must have eaten complete garbage beforehand.
Nothing happened to me, either. First I became lacto-ovo vegetarian. It was fine. I didn't feel fatigued all the time like some people warned, nor did I feel a boost of energy like other people promised. Ditto my veganism -- I did research on proper nutrition and eased into it over the course of a few months, and while I enjoyed trying new kinds of food I didn't get the clear complexion or boundless energy that some people talk about.
In my opinion, eating less meat and fewer animal products can be motivated by ethics, and has the ability to be quite healthful, but treating it like a fad diet sort of cheapens that.
I agree with you about Tasha's writing. I also find it annoying that she'll say things like "eat whatever diet is right for you" (I'm paraphrasing, there), yet she also posts about "debunking" veganism and other things clearly designed to provoke vegans. And then she acts so shocked and hurt when vegans are provoked. It feels pretty disingenuous to me.
I did lose 15lbs. when I went vegan, but it took about a year. I think this was mainly due to the fact that I ate a lot of cheese, baked goods, and ice cream in my pre-vegan days.
I think humans can adapt to all kinds of diets. The Masai (sp?) people in Africa eat mostly cows, milk, and cow blood, and they are very tall and athletic. But then, there are vegan athletes, too!
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