I don’t know why people need to argue about what I choose to eat but people always seem to want to point out that I am *wrong* because I have a different lifestyle to them.

I’d also like to know about the other stages in the 5 Stages of Veganism. I think I’m at the “I totally want to be a Vegan but sometimes get so fed up with people criticising/commenting/judging/asking about *everything* I eat that I want to give up” stage.

Q: What’s that you’re eating?
A: Salad.
Q: Can vegans eat salad then?
A: Sigh…

Lately I’ve been pushing back against any “in our nature, historically” arguments in favour of optimal nutrition for our individual circumstances. I’m still pushing vegan all the way, but if we live in a world where we can eat raw all the time, then I think it’s worth considering if that’s something you believe would be good for you. I’m not convinced that, for example, we should focus our eating on seasonal foods specifically because it’s often claimed that our bodies digest different things better at different times of the year. I’ve no idea if that’s true, but it’s a Cheerleading tidbit I’ve heard many times. That said, there are environmental considerations with food that isn’t local which might mean more than any health pros or cons, again, depending on your circumstances…

It totally makes sense to me, much more so than meat = big brains. I mean, lions and domestic dogs eat plenty of meat, and they’re not out driving cars or surfing the net. Cooking however is uniquely human, it’s the thing that sets us apart. A fascinating theory!

He opens the book by undermining the notion that raw diets are natural. As he shows, raw is a lifestyle choice that can only really be followed if you live in an industrial society with grocery stores with refrigerated produce sections. On the other hand, he does allow that eating raw as a good way to lose weight. Which is an interest of a growing number of us who living in what is sometimes called our Toxic Food Environment.

This may be a bummer to some of us or our friends who have committed to raw. But isn’t doesn’t this go direct to the topic of Scientific Cheerleading? We always need to be ready to reassess our positions and arguments, especially if we hope to peruade others of our intellectual and moral legitimacy. Raw still has a lot going for it, especially phytochemicals and micronutrients. But arguing that an exclusively raw diet is somehow our nature is looking increasingly dubious.

Again, that’s a Some Guy quote, but it’s worth as much as the “Some Scientific Article” your dad’s citing, I reckon.

What Sayward said made me think about something I read in a book. We often compare the best part of veganism/vegetarianism to the worst part of omnivorism and that isn’t fair. It’d be more fair to compare our best to their best and our worst to their worst.

I’m not sure what my favorite bit of info is, but there is something that my dad loves saying to me but gets on my nerves. He claims that he read in some scientific article that the reason that humans were able to develop higher brain functions is because out bodies figured out how to assimilate nutrition from meat that wasn’t available in our previously vegan diet. So he tells me that it’s nice that I’m vegetarian, I have meat-eaters to thank for my higher intelligence.

It’s so important to be honest and realistic about veganism, and to be informed. We can only promote the movement if we are healthy, intelligent vegans!

Also, I’d love to hear more about these 5 stages of veganism. =)

Worlds Healthiest Foods – lots of awesome nutrition info, seasonal produce info, food of the week, all sorts of nifty info
http://whfoods.com/

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine – good info, best veggie starter guide, they have real research that they do, animal rights advocacy, school lunch “report card” rewarding schools with good healthy lunches, all sorts of good stuff
http://pcrm.org/

also check out nutrition info in http://stronglifts.com/blog/
which is a weightlifting site with very interesting stuff like this – http://stronglifts.com/vegetarian-vegan-protein-build-muscle-diet/

also check out the annoying people at http://www.beyondveg.com/ to hear about their so called research on the paleo diet

If I were a burlesque entertainer, I would be a sexy-scientist cheerleader.