And here's what my vegan Professor friend had to say.....
Some info from various sources (had to go look some of this up so that I wouldn't just be talking out of my own knowledge )
"Many people, eating a vegetarian diet are convinced that it's very healthy, but in the end they suffer from depression, overweight and most other modern diseases."
Dickerson & Davies (1986) studied matched pairs of vegetarians and non-vegetarians with regard to their general health. It was found that the vegetarians made 22% of the visits to hospital out-patients of non-vegetarians, and spent a similarly reduced proportion of time in hospital.
Vegetarians have less coronary heart disease death (Key et al, 1999), reduced blood pressure problems (Margetts, 1986), less type II diabetes (Snowdon, 1985), lower rates of cancer mortality (Thorogood, 1994; Phillips, 1975; Willett, 1990, Chen, 2002), fewer gall bladder issues (Pixley, 1985), less osteoporosis (Abelow, 1992).
"Most vegetarian diets also lack fat content and the fat they do eat are unhealthy poly-unsaturated (vegetable) fats."
Vegetarians can easily get plenty of fat, even vegans can. Saturated fats and transfats are the worst fats. Sat. fats are primarily found in animal products (eggs, butter, cheese, whole milk), and in coconut, palm, and palm kernel oil. Trans fats are in processes stuff like margarine and crackers. Vegetarians and vegans can easily eat unsaturated fats like canola oil, olive oil, flax seed oil, nuts, avocado, soy products, and nut butters.
"You will need to eat more fats: Raw butter and cream are the best."
Raw diet does not typically include butter or cream. And these items are very high in cholesterol.
"Cold pressed Virgin Olive oil, and coconut oil come in second. Raw nuts also contain healthy fats."
Ok, but, he just said that vegetarians don't eat healthy fats. Most veg. folks do eat olive oil and nuts, and some eat coconut oil as well (though the jury is still out on that one).
"What did Gandhi eat ? He ate eggs, cheese, cream, butter and nuts."
Well, kind of. Ghandi was a vegan for a while, then went to goats milk. He also emphasized wheat, and rice, and then fruits and vegetables. He advocated raw foods at times, but at other times in his life, not so much. It was about simplicity, not just health.
As far as soybeans go, yes, they too much soy is not a good idea. Too much anything is not a good idea. I would not recommend eating a brick of tofu a day, but most vegetarians don't.
"No animal in nature develops cancer, diabetes, overweight, etc in the ratio's we humans do on our "healthy" modern diet. The main difference is that animals in the wild eat all foods raw and unrefined and we are eating everything cooked and as refined possible."
I think that is an oversimplification of things, but sure, we are too far from nature for our own good with regard to food issues, but we also aren't dying due to as many nutrition problems as we used to "before." And, we are far from nature in a lot of ways, not just food... I suspect that the person writing this article (typing away on his computer) isn't ready to give up the electric that also causes cancer and depletes the ozone.... or the deoderizers etc. that may be impacting our homones, etc.
