If someone is aware of how to balance a vegetarian diet so they still have an intake of nutritional elements which most people derive from meat or other animal sources then it can be healthy. But it's my personal observation that most western vegans are surly, weak, listless, pale and sunken eyed, and in some cases resemble recently released concentration camp survivors. They are not what I'd describe as "healthy".
We may be primates but that doesn't mean we have the same digestive track and nutritional needs as the (other) great apes. Plus, even chimpanzees, our closest cousins, hunt and eat meat when the opportunity presents itself. I think it usually comes down to someone taking a moral stand that the killing of anything with a brain and big brown eyes (broccoli noticeably lacks both) is wrong.
It’s a fake moral stand.
Millions, if not billions, of innocent creatures are killing during farming. Whether insects, rodents, or deer, animals are slaughtered to grow vegetables and produce. This idea that somehow living a vegan lifestyle saves animals and is somehow superior is a total crock and those that push it are foolishly ignorant and or total liars.
Eat what you want, i dont care, just dont let it give you some false sense of superiority.
I have vegans in my extended family— 3 adult siblings — but not all of them are as you describe. One of the females looks absolutely beautiful, but she seems off-balance every time I see her.
She has two brothers. One of them looks perfectly healthy, a very attractive man. He was a jerk before he turned vegan, so I can’t blame the diet. The other, a very nice young fellow never looks that healthy, but you would not guess he is vegan. I knew his father when he was a young man, and he never looked healthy either, although he was not a vegan then. He is now, and he looks like he is about 15 years older than he is.
That said, I do think we tend to eat a lot more meat than is healthy for us.
You need to meet some new people.