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6 of the Biggest Lies Most Vegans Believe (#4 is the Worst!)

Photo credit: bigstock.com

Photo credit: bigstock.com

Sometimes it seems as if there is a war going on between vegans and meat eaters. Those who eat meat and dairy products believe eating only plants is unhealthy and/or unnatural. Vegans saying that meat eaters are disgusting and eating meat is unnatural.

Somewhere in the middle lies the truth.

Most vegans believe what they are saying because they are repeating what they have been told, but the truth of the matter is that most vegans are never told the whole truth.

Vegan diets do work well for some people. This article isn’t to say that every diet is for every person. Some people are lactose intolerant, others can’t tolerate any type of nuts, and still others choke and gag at the mere thought of peas.

If a certain food, or even a group of foods, is not for you, then don’t eat it. But for most people, a vegan diet is simply not the healthiest choice.

Let’s take a look at the top lies most vegan advocates use to spread fear in an attempt to convince people that eating meat is unhealthy.

 

1. Vegan Diets Supply the Human Body with All Necessary Nutrients

Well, this is simply not true as most vegans find out sooner or later. Nutrient deficiencies are extremely common among those eating a vegan diet. The most severe and problematic deficiencies are:

  • Vitamin B12 – Deficiency of this vitamin is found in 83 percent of vegans and can cause very serious health problems.
  • Iron – Most vegans have only 1/3 of the necessary iron in their blood.
  • Vitamin D – Lack of it is said to be observed in 74 percent of vegans.
  • Omega-3 fatty acids – just slightly more than a half of vegans has lower levels of EPA and DHA as compared to meat eaters.

    These are just some of the most important vitamin deficiencies. This is a scientific fact, not an opinion.

healthy food

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2.  Vegans are Healthier Than Meat Eaters

There is no doubt that there are numerous studies showing that vegan and vegetarian diets have substantial health benefits.

Although vegan advocates would like to tell you that this is due to a lack of animal protein, this is simply not the whole story. It’s like saying lasagna is made with pasta. Well, it is, but there is certainly a great many more ingredients than just pasta!

What other things do vegans cut out of their diet that makes them “healthier”?

  • Refined grains – Most vegans eat only whole grains. Refined grains lead to spikes in blood sugar, weight gain, and insulin resistance.
  • Refined sugar – Can cause insulin resistance and fatty liver as well as heart disease, obesity and diabetes.
  • Trans-fats – These are extremely harmful to the body and are linked to many chronic diseases including heart disease and stroke.
  • Vegetable oils– Highly inflammatory, filled with unhealthy levels of Omega-6 fatty acids, and the leading cause of oxidative damage.

Many vegans also remove processed foods from their diets, which are low in nutrition as well as being high in sugar, trans-fats, and artificial chemicals.

Most of the benefits of a vegan diet come from the removal of the above ingredients and not the exclusion of animal protein.

Photo credit: bigstock.com

Photo credit: bigstock.com

3. The Human Body is Not Designed to Eat Animal Protein

You might have heard vegans saying that humans are herbivores by nature, and that our bodies have an extremely difficult time while digesting animal protein. This is an outright lie. Humans have been eating animal meat for millions of years. Our bodies are perfectly capable of making full use of the nutrients in animal protein.

 

SEE ALSO: Switch to Grass Fed Meat: 5 Reasons Why You Should

 

If anything, facts show that the human digestive system is nothing like herbivores. We have short colons and very long yet small intestines with lots of hydrochloric acid in our stomachs to break down animal meat. The different lengths of our digestive systems are in the middle between the lengths of herbivores and carnivores, which means that we are naturally designed to be omnivores.

The fact that vegans cannot survive without B12 supplements or B12 supplemental foods is proof enough that a vegan diet is not natural and that humans are actually not designed to live strictly on plants.

red meat

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4. Eating Meat is the Cause of Diabetes, Heart Disease, and Cancer

This is a scare tactic that is absolutely false.

Most of these chronic diseases are relatively new to our world. Before 1930, heart disease was almost unheard of. Type 2 diabetes began increasing at a rapid rate starting in about the 1970’s.  Cancer has been steadily rising for at least the past 60 years.

Now you might hear vegans saying that meat and dairy is the root cause of these health problems but consider this; meat is a very, very old food and these health problems are pretty new to the scene.

It makes no sense to blame old foods on new diseases.

There have also been numerous studies showing that meat is not the root cause of any of the diseases known to modern man.

The link between meat and cancer is only related to the way meat is cooked. Meat that is burned, seared, or blackened is linked to higher rates of stomach cancer, but not the meat itself.

Two studies, one involving more than 1.2 million people and the other with nearly a half million subjects, found absolutely no link between unprocessed meat and either heart disease or diabetes.

protein foods

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5. High Protein Diets Will Kill You

Vegans really hate high protein, low carb diets.

This is understandable when you consider that high protein diets mean consuming lots of the foods that vegans don’t want you to eat.

You might find it interesting that someone did a study comparing high protein diets and low fat vegetarian diets. This controlled study is often referred to as the “A to Z Study.”

After a one year period it was found that those on the high protein diets:

  • Lost more weight than those on the vegetarian diet
  • Had lower overall blood pressure than those on the vegetarian diet
  • Had greater increases in their HDL (good) cholesterol levels
  • Had lower levels of triglycerides
  • Were much more likely to stick to their high protein diet

And this was just one study. There are more that show similar results. There is absolutely no scientific evidence to back up vegan claims that high protein diets are unhealthy or that they could do you any harm.

Healthy Diet. Flax Seeds

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6. Vegan Diets Reverse Heart Disease

Vegans state over and over that a plant only diet is the one and only diet proven to reverse and prevent heart disease.

Although they base this claim on two studies, done by Dean Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn, these two studies are flawed.

1. Ornish asked his subjects to change more than just their diets. His subjects stopped smoking, began exercising, and doing daily meditation, among other things. His diet was also not vegan, merely low fat vegetarian. (Meaning that these subjects still ate dairy and eggs.)

2. Esselystyn’s study involved only 22 people and had no control group. They also used large doses of statin drugs which lower cholesterol levels.

Since these studies involved the use of drugs and other changes besides simply a change of diet, they can hardly be held up as perfect examples of the reversal of heart disease!

Some people turn vegan to protest the way in which meat animals are born, raised, fed, and slaughtered. No one can argue that point. If your main objective is the better treatment of animals, say so. But to try to manipulate people into going vegan by using scare tactics is just plain wrong and serves no purpose.

References:

Ajcn.nutrition.org

Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Ije.oxfordjournals.org

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43 Comments

  1. Luis Hernandez

    Jun 15, 2016 at 7:51 pm

    You’re entitled to your own opinions, which this is, but not your own facts, which this is not.

    • Star Exvius

      Aug 23, 2016 at 6:59 pm

      That’s your opinion

      • Robin Lillian

        Apr 3, 2018 at 12:01 am

        Opinion: I like ice cream.

        Fact: Ice cream is cold

        Forcing your opinions on others: Ice cream is murder. (Lie)

  2. Nic

    Oct 29, 2016 at 10:27 am

    This article is complete utter bullshit. This should not be allowed to be published. You are giving out misinformation. Now let’s talk about why.
    For one you are using the words vegan and vegetarian interchangeably when they are in fact 2 different things! Why do I say that? Because the article is supposedly about vegans but when you start talking about a “study” comparing protein you use day vegetarian which isn’t even the topic. You also refer to meat as old food and say humans have been eating it for millions of years! That is completely false as no one has any evidence to support us being here for a million years! Not even close! Even the oldest civilization of the world ancient Mesopotamia was only around 7,000 years ago! And in there own writings they believed we were created about 450,000 years ago. And that is the oldest reference I have seen anywhere to the beginning of man so no we haven’t been eating meat for millions of years.
    Next let’s look at the fact that you site some “study” again and say there is no direct link link between “UNPROCESSED” meat and any modern disease. First of all that is a lie! Second of all the vast majority of meat found in stores today is “PROCESSED” so that is a pointless study to call out. (Yea like 95% +)
    Simple Google search will point out that vegetarians on average live about 7 years longer (women) and about 10 years longer (men) seriously Google it. RIGHT NOW!!! PLEASE!!!
    Now anyway I’ve already wasted too much time on this piece of crap article that is very poorly researched.but I have to point out one last thing. When you talk about our digestive system you LIED again. Our digestive system is only medium in the sense that we are medium sized creatures. But it is actually the exact same size in comparison to our body and that of other herbivores! Please do a simple google search to find this information readily available! Please take this crap down. If you wish to bash vegan isn as a lifestyle atleast do it with real facts and don’t make up a bunch of non-sense.
    Good day.

    • Mark McKarrion

      Mar 2, 2017 at 5:49 am

      Everything you just posted there is complete nonsense. Dumb vegan.

    • Aaron Owens

      Jul 26, 2017 at 9:00 am

      They have proven through other methods that humans gave eaten meat for over 2 million years. You should take 5 minutes to do a little research.

    • shirley xia

      Nov 19, 2017 at 9:36 pm

      Bullshit, Nic. Why dont YOU do some research, huh? You don’t have to bash the original article, just because you are vegan, you know all, showoff. Triggered much?!

    • shirley xia

      Nov 19, 2017 at 9:37 pm

      I hate exclusive perple, who think they are the best and stuff and try to impose their views onto someone else.

      • Mark right

        Nov 21, 2017 at 1:12 pm

        I hate exclusive perple, who think they are best and stuff and try to impose their views onto someone else. For example I love inslaving my wife and killing baby, but all these people who think they are better and stuff keep trying imposing their views on me, I know right the cheek of it ! They say I shouldn’t and they’re ‘going to stop me’ I’d like to them try the fuckers try. Thanks for the spopport and advice of not listening to other people’s opinions. xxx

        This is a joke, I don’t kill babies or inslave my wife.

        • Robin Lillian

          Apr 2, 2018 at 11:56 pm

          So you think meat eaters kill babies and enslave their wives? (Only men eat meat?) You are so incredibly sick. You are certainly proof that the poor nutrition from a vegan diet causes mental illness.

        • lookin4trace

          Dec 31, 2017 at 7:28 pm

          bullshit i’ve had more metatarians lecture me.

          i never said a thing to those bastards.. how about just eat right?

    • GQRugged.

      Jan 10, 2018 at 4:19 pm

      How come you didn´t touch on ALL of the other FACTS that were provided in the Article?

    • Robin Lillian

      Apr 2, 2018 at 11:51 pm

      So articles you disagree with shouldn’t be “allowed” to be published?! Want to see an authoritarian who wants to force people to live his/her way? Look in the mirror. Censorship sucks. So do you.

      You are an hysterical kook who is actually the one presenting lies and misinformation. You haven’t actually presented even one piece of documentation. Just a bunch of yelling and screaming and name calling.

    • Vincent W

      Apr 13, 2018 at 4:49 pm

      Nic, you are stupid. Yes.

      I’m just going to comment to the fact that you point to the “beginning of man” not knowing anything about evolutionary biology. There are fossils dating back 1.9 million years ago of the homo erectus, which ate raw meat until about 500,000 years ago when they learned how to Cook. Or are you only referring to Homo Sapiens? Which would in itself be faulty.

      Your comment on this article was totally worthless and you cited no facts, like the article itself. “That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” – That goes for you both.

  3. Anto

    Nov 12, 2016 at 1:31 am

    My personal opinion (I’m a qualified nutrition therapist) is that both diets, vegan and omnivore, have their good points, and on balance, for me, a vegan diet is better. I’m 70 yo and at risk for prostate cancer and flesh foods are better avoided by men in this situation.
    I’m not convinced by the claims that a vegan diet must lead to nutritional deficiencies, I suspect that such deficiencies might be attributable to incorrect eating habits interfering with proper digestion and absorption, unrelated to the vegan diet.
    Note: I’m talking about a balanced, HEALTHY, vegan diet, not just eliminating animal foods.

    • cattlewrangler .

      Aug 18, 2017 at 11:36 am

      Since when does a nutrition therapist give claims that only doctors are qualified to give? Stick with fornaluating diets and stay away from the false doctor advice.

      • Anto

        Aug 24, 2017 at 8:11 am

        Sorry to contradict you there cattlewrangler but this is exactly the sort of opinion we’re trained to give, and if you know any medical doctors and ask them they’ll tell you they’re not qualified in the field of nutrition.
        As for formulating diets, you’re confusing nutrition therapy with dietetics, a completely different discipline. Hope that helps, feel free to get back to me if you want any more info.

    • SIGmund Fried

      Oct 15, 2017 at 8:35 pm

      Nutrition therapist? How many years and how much money did you waste on that?

      • Anto

        Oct 15, 2017 at 10:14 pm

        It was a 3 year fulltime course back then (95-97), don’t know about now. How much money? couldn’t say. It was comparable to what I paid for my uni degree subjects – per subject that is, my uni studies were a few years longer. Hope this helps SF.

    • Daniel Gonzalez

      Dec 2, 2017 at 5:04 pm

      In your opinion sure. However, I find that low carb dieting has done me much more good.

      • Tony Ocran

        Feb 16, 2018 at 11:41 am

        you’re all ignorant filth

        • Daniel Gonzalez

          Feb 16, 2018 at 6:29 pm

          Well I appreciate your baseless opinion.

  4. B_Realist

    Feb 18, 2017 at 9:31 pm

    Great article. Homo Sapiens 200k Years. Hominids 2.5 million. Strong evidence supported by every living anthropologist. Lol. http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-sapiens

  5. Eugeniu Sofroni

    May 2, 2017 at 7:01 pm

    Fake news !!!

  7. Covfefeghost

    Aug 3, 2017 at 1:39 pm

    Always knew vegans were full of ?

  8. Anto

    Sep 19, 2017 at 6:12 pm

    OTOH animals bioconcentrate contaminants found on plants; a steak dinner is going to contain 10-100 times the amount of glyphosate, PCBs, lead, mercury, . . . that a vegetable meal will.
    And as those with breast cancer or low-grade prostate cancer will tell you, all animal foods – meat, eggs, dairy – contain oestrogen which will aggravate the cancer and tend to make it aggressive.

  9. shirley xia

    Nov 19, 2017 at 9:40 pm

    I hate people who are so exclusive e.g. SOME vegans. They think they are the best and try to impose their views onto others. Well, Im not taken in that easliy by SOME of their bullshit. I love meat, but I also eat vegetables and fruit. No one on Earth is going to stop me from eating meat. So there, stop trying to put you opinions onto someone else, and get off your high horses.

    • Robin Lillian

      Apr 2, 2018 at 11:59 pm

      Mostly the reason they chose veganism was because they wanted to prove that they were better than other people. They get off on feeling superior.

  10. m1chae2

    Dec 26, 2017 at 9:30 am

    I’m just starting to read up on this. Doing a vegan cleanse and I feel pretty good. On the B12 thing, there is information out there that says that B12 is from bacteria and can be found in dirt. Since we wash our vegatables today, we get rid of the dirt, but if you pull a carrot out of the ground and eat it, you might get the B12 you need. So I’m not sure that you are right on that point. It seems the truth lies somewhere in between. Like eating Meat is not the end of the world, but some people think you need to eat meat at least once a day, which just seems way of. Couldn’t you get all you need out of meet by eating it once or twice a week.

    • Mirabella

      Dec 29, 2017 at 10:03 am

      The B12 in the dirt comes from decayed animal remains. Basically, it’s not vegan.

      • m1chae2

        Dec 29, 2017 at 10:55 am

        Listen I’m not vegan and I’m not eating dirt. So I’m not trying to take a stand. I like meat. I want to eat less of it. But not stop. Dead things are a part of the soil and become a part of vegetables etc. if that made something non vegan then nothing is vegan.

        • Mirabella

          Jan 2, 2018 at 4:12 pm

          That’s not true. Plenty of things are vegan. Just not b12. That only comes from animals. “Vegetarian” sources of this are derived from decayed animal remnants in the environment. You can be a true vegetarian but not a true vegan. Well not for long anyway.

          • m1chae2

            Jan 2, 2018 at 9:52 pm

            Nobody calls vegetables not vegan just because they were grown with the help of animal based fertilizer. Just because b12 happens to be from animals only (taking your word for it) doesn’t mean other nutrients in your food don’t originate from animals.

    • ALEX xo

      Jan 12, 2018 at 11:56 am

      I argued that same point to a Vegan , apparently it doesn’t matter if you reduce the consumption of meat, animals are still being killed for a ‘taste preference’, so you should cut it out of your diet completely. I have a problem with that because a vegan life style is simply not for everyone. I.e Individuals with Celiac disease or person who are allergic to nuts etc.

  11. lookin4trace

    Dec 31, 2017 at 7:27 pm

    i’ve been vegetarian, pescatarian and vegan.

    pescatarian wins when it comes to little waste, heart health and supplemental sufficiency.

    sorry.

  12. Marco P

    Jan 16, 2018 at 12:55 pm

    This artice is spot-on. Vegans are brainwashed, if not they give up after sometimes since both the health and ethical arguments are complete BS. The worst aspect is the cognitive dissonance since the narrative says you become a superhero after going vegan and it happens that during the first months you do have some benefits (we all eat too much and even bad animal foods) but after some time the reservoir is depleted, minerals, vitamins and even the so important animal proteins, yes. The point is that ONLY meat eaters can ameliorate the conditions of animals by choosing sustainable farming and in general only the well-aware but not biased consumers can choose the best for environment: for instance legumes are eco-friendly, they don’t deplete the soils and the water, but grains, mais and a lot of things vegans eat are a disaster for our planet. Animals eating grass on mountains are on contrary a great resource and have a positive effect on mountain’s ecosystems, just to say. Vegans seem to have a very naive and cartoonish view of the world but claim to talk for animals and environment