UberaDpmn said:
It isn't exactly meat that raises your cholesterol levels, it's fatty meat - sausages, burgers along with basically anything that has been fried or is very oily or fat based.
If you're worried about your cholesterol levels then just eat lean, good quality meat.
False. All meat contains cholesterol. Fatty meat might contain more but all animal products - dairy, that lean chicken breast you had for dinner - contains cholesterol.
Again, I challenge you to find me one person out there who eats meat who has a cholesterol level of 125, as I do, with LDL and HDL both at approximately 62, being an equal ratio of good to bad cholesterol. Just one. You won't be able to do it. Vegans, on the other hand, have an average cholesterol ranging from 120-130. Average.
UberaDpmn said:
The problem I have with vegans / vegetarians is that they put their own personal success as a model everyone can follow. What they don't take into account is that 'the masses' are generally quite stupid.
People are more lazy than stupid, I think. They don't want to adopt a plant based diet because it's "hard" but you get somebody with advanced heart disease and watch how fast they'll "learn" the Ornish plan, for example, and follow it. The problem with people is that they have to be half-dead usually to change their habits, instead of changing them in the first place.
And I honestly don't really mind what other people do - I'm no militant vegan or meat police. I can point to this, though:
http://www.thechinastudy.com/
And you can draw your own conclusions about how healthy it is to eat meat; even in small amounts.
If meat were not available at all, there would be severe protein deficiencies in the population all over the world because they would not target the vegetation that does have proteins (Like... spinach and a few others I think? :S ) and they would not think to take supplements (I mean, a substantial portion might, but they would be in the minority).
No, there are already countries where eating meat is extremely rare - like in rural china where some villagers get meat once a year, if they're lucky - and they still live longer than Americans do and get plenty of protein. All without access to even basic healthcare. Interesting, no? Again, check out the China Study. Or Dr. McDougall's program. Or Dr. Dean Ornish's program. or Dr. Joel Fuhrman's diet - Fuhrman being probably the healthiest diet I've ever seen, focusing on greens as opposed to grains. (Though even McDougall's focus on whole grains is healthier than the SAD - Standard American Diet.)
Dying of protein deficiency is extremely, extremely rare in almost any developed country. There's more protein, gram for gram, in broccoli than there is in steak.
http://www.dachia.com/Broccoli_vs_Steak.html
Can you imagine trying to get the whole of a large country like the US to follow a strict diet? Really? Really?
Humans are omnivores for a reason - we need the meat, it is the most high protein food readily available and relatively cheap. If we were pure vegetarians we would have trouble digesting the plant matter.
Where are you getting that from? Humans have no issues digesting plant matter. At all. Whatsoever. We're designed for it. We're omnivores designed to eat pretty much whatever organic non-toxic material we can find.
People don't need some insane diet, they need a balanced diet and a lot of exercise. It's like the elephant in the room - go for a goddamn run and don't eat fast food!
And better yet, to get your cholesterol really down without having to take statins, eat a vegan diet, exercise, and get 6-8 servings of raw fruits and veggies in every day.
I've had quite a bit of training in nutrition and I used to actually eat a low-carb Atkins diet when I was an athlete as a college-aged guy. The result was, for me, higher cholesterol than I would like and general feeling of malaise. Changing to a vegan diet was probably the healthiest thing I ever did for myself.
Is eating vegan "junk food" good for you, like over-processed soy products, etc...? No, of course not. Making your own food as close to the natural form as possible is usually best - whole grains being better than processed breads, whole vegetables better than freeze-dried crap in a box, etc.
It's a matter of priorities. It's not "hard" to be a vegan and get all the protein and nutrients that you need. I daresay it would be much "harder" to get heart disease in my 40's or 30's like a lot of Americans do.
I don't know a single vegan with heart disease, by the way.
