With Veganuary coming to a close, it makes sense to kickstart our blog by talking about food.
Whether you're an avid vegan who finds yourself in debates about why being vegan is the go-to movement for climate-friendly living, or whether you're someone who hates the entire concept, this is for you.
Vegans preach that a plant-based diet is the healthiest out there, but the anti-vegans believe it's the unhealthiest. So, what's the truth? Well, it's neither here nor there. Do a vegan diet in the wrong way, it's unhealthy. Do it right, and it is!
It, of course, depends on how you do it (like every other diet ever).
Let us tell you a story.
The story of the disease of discovery: scurvy. A disease resulting from the lack of vitamin C.
Back when sailors were crossing the Atlantic and the Indian ocean, scurvy ravaged ships. Sailors were dropping dead like flies (more sailors were killed due to scurvy than in the American Civil war).
Why was this happening? Nutritional deficiency. Sailors were living on a diet of salted or dried beef, pork, and fish as well as dried peas, beans, and onions. They would eat this for months at a time with no fresh fruits and vegetables. This led to massive deficiencies, and thus scurvy.
We're not even going to get into how horrendous scurvy can be. That's a conversation for another time.
Now, this little anecdote isn't to tell you that meat has no nutrition in it at all. But this tells us how a diet isn’t dependent only on certain inclusions and exclusions. It’s how it’s done collectively. This is why switching to veganism needs to be done right.
It isn't as simple as making switches. Your diet should have an overall nutritional balance and be supplemented when necessary.
If your primary source of iron was from meat, and you're going vegan, you need to see how you're going to cover it up. This is luckily not hard to do, but a switch from meat to mock meat is not the answer and this applies to all other food swaps, too.
& supplementing with Vitamin B12 is an absolute must for vegans. While most of us irrespective of diet are now deficient in Vitamin D.
With this in mind, why is it necessary to say adios to meat?
Kurzgesagt tells us in their video - "Is Meat Really That Bad?"
They give us unbiased, data-backed information on all issues related to meat. They made us consider things we never had before. For instance: can we significantly reduce the impact of our meat-eating habits if we buy locally sourced meat? Long story short, no we cannot. The most intriguing part of this video, however, was the comparison between the carbon emissions of different foods.
The best part though? This isn't some drabby video. Food for thought with some visual candy? Count us in!
If ya'll wanna check it out, here's the link!