There isn’t a shred of *objective* scientific evidence that supports the idea that a vegetarian or vegan diet is healthier than a balanced diet.
While many studies purport to show just that, a closer look at the methodologies reveals that they are only looking at a short term effect in parametrics such as triglyceride level changes when study subjects switch from an omnivorous to a vegetarian/vegan diet. But looking at their diets before and after, one quickly realizes that there is no basis on which to compare the before and after diets. For example, in one study, the subjects typically ate danishes for breakfast, cheeseburgers and fries for lunch, and buttery mashed potatoes, chicken fried steaks, and biscuits drenched in gravy for dinner... of course the vegetarian diet was an improvement.
There are also studies that show that children raised on strictly vegetarian diets simply do not do as well as children fed balanced diets. One study in particular showed that children on vegetarian diets otherwise receiving comparable nutrients and calories intellectually lagged behind the control group consuming animal products—and the intellectual lag remained even when they were switched to a balanced diet. In other words, their intellectual deficit was permanent.
The idea that animals raised for food and other products are somehow environmentally damaging is ludicrous. Animals have been a part of the ecosystem forever; by what logic are they suddenly an environmental hazard? There is NO criteria by which a cow is environmentally damaging, but a buffalo is not.
Last, since the animals we raise for food eat many plants that we can’t, and those plants grow in places that are marginal for growing plants that humans can consume directly—is there even enough arable land to grow the huge increase in edible plants that would be required for such a diet change on such a massive scale? How much wildlife habitat would be lost in trying to develop the arable land?
This whole idea only shows the stupidity of trying to base policy on political ideas instead of empirical evidence.
worth repeating:
Get the UN out of the US!
Interesting. And there isn’t a shred of evidence that this world can’t feed all of its people. It’s politicians who stand in the way.
Get the American government subsidies off farming that pay them not to produce; get the African tyrants out of office that take the money the world sends for food and stash it in their Swiss bank accounts!
And don’t let there be another Joseph Stalin (hear this, Barack Hussein Obama!) who starved millions of Russians and Ukrainians for political purposes.