Everyone in here arguing against 4b need to take a look in the mirror. The fact that so many of you are trying push against it is in itself a demonstration of why it’s necessary. Respecting bodily autonomy does not have to be hard.
The “what about plants” argument is such a thoroughly debunked joke argument that it’s amazing anyone would continue to make it. Eating animals and their secretions requires harming significantly more plants than eating the plants directly because animals need to be fed too, and animals as food is by far the least efficient and most environmentally destructive way to have a food system.
Context matters. In the ancient world starvation was a constant threat, so a source of concentrated calories like honey could in some cases be a matter of life and death despite the dangers of getting that honey. In industrial society we have in many cases the opposite problem - the majority of the top causes of death are lifestyle diseases which ultimately come down to overconsumption and sedentary lifestyles. Too much dietary fat, especially too much saturated fats, too much sugar, too much refined foods, too much concentrated calories, too much easily consumed liquid calories.
By contrast vegans by far have the easiest time maintaining balanced bodyweight levels.
If you all could learn to let go of your prejudice you might learn to recognize that doing the right things for animal’s rights is also some of the best things you could do for yourself. These “vegans” you hate so much are just trying to get you to stop self-harming.
Animal ethics isn’t just about whether other animals are being harmed or killed, it’s also about being against exploitation. They might not be able to think in quite the same way that we do, but it’s still clear that they have their own wills and lives of their own that they want to live. It’s worth asking ourselves if we really want a society that’s willing to exploit and turn other thinking beings into commodities, even the ones whose thinking appears to be so much more rudimentary than our own.
It’s easy to dismiss them because they’re “just bugs”, but presently bugs of all species are facing radical population declines with all the ecological instability - maybe even looming collapse - that brings. Maybe we collectively might be more willing to protect bug populations and do more to protect our environments if more of us stopped to analyze our anti-bug bias and considered that they have a natural right to life like we do. The planet does not exist solely for us.
Also, honey is essentially a refined sugar that’s no better healthwise than table sugar. Date sugar/powder is a sweetener made of whole fruit and is a much better choice. Plus, it’s just weird to want to eat the vomit of other species anyway.
If the hardware can ever be shrunk enough to make even a semi-pocketable x86 handheld, I would be happy if Valve were ever to release a “Steam Deck Mini” or something.
Or maybe their new efforts with ARM support point toward a future of a much more portable Steam-on-Linux-on-ARM device.
Came in to say this. Linux on ARM is getting so close to daily driver ready.
Would you care to elaborate on what you feel like when you try living on plants? What do you tend to eat? How long does it take before you start feeling like shit?
Judging by your last comment about it “not hitting the same” my initial thought is that the issue might not even be nutritional, possibly more psychological/subjective.
The sheer amount of changes that occur on a plant-based diet are too numerous for me to be able to pinpoint any specific thing. It wouldn’t surprise me if I do get more vitamin a these days, as well as quite a few other important micronutrients that I may or may not have been low on.
And that’s not even getting into the vast topic of phytonutrients.
When something needs to be said, it needs to be said.
Sorry, but this is dangerous misinformation that you’re spreading. Refined carbohydrates are harmful and can contribute to the various forms of metabolic syndrome. However one thing being bad doesn’t automatically make something good, and there is still no single factor in heart disease that’s more causally linked than saturated fats. To demonize sugar and say fats don’t play the most significant role is about equivalent with being a climate change denier.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OkqWdY5_2-8
They’re somewhat more on the frontier of nutritional science, but no other interventions out there have had as promising of results as Esselstyn’s and Ornish’s lifestyle medicine practices - both of which call for reductions or even eliminations of cooking oil that is considered radical by most people’s standards. But their results speak for themselves.
One of the things that’s too often overlooked is that subtractions might do more to help than additions. If you’re taking a host of vitamins, herbal remedies, and strange supplements and still feeling like shit, it’s likely because all the medicine in the world won’t heal if you’re still taking poison.
Not to be that person, but I am fully convinced that eating animal products plays a decisive role in depression and other mood disorders. Not only is there science pointing in that direction, but it matches my own personal experience as well as what every other plant-based person I’ve known has experienced as well. Before the switch I was so far in a constant background noise of depression that I was ambivalent about whether I wanted to live or not.
I’ve tried a lot of things, with only ever small or temporary results at best. Going plant-based, within weeks of staying consistent with it, marked the first time in my life when I actually began to actively want to live (even in spite of our capitalist hellscape). That desire to live has endured since then to the point that it’s tempting to say I might be cured of depression.
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/anti-inflammatory-diet-for-depression/
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-boost-brain-bdnf-levels-for-depression-treatment/
Two main problems I have with cast iron - the care that they take is too much effort, and their constant risk of rusting if they’re not coated in oil at all times is just too much bullshit to deal with for a kitchen tool. The other issue is that I try as best as I can to do oil-free cooking, and cast iron is antithetical to that.
A baking sheet with parchment paper, in a toaster oven, is significantly more convenient.