0:02 So lately, I've been getting comments
0:04 from a particular person on some of my
0:06 videos, and so far, they've all been
0:08 pretty polite, and I appreciate that
0:10 because I feel like we can have debate
0:12 or conversations without people being so
0:15 defensive or argumentative in a way
0:17 that's not productive. Uh, some of the
0:20 questions, it seems like this person may
0:23 have been vegan in the past and they
0:25 they find that their health has improved
0:26 or something has improved in their life
0:28 when they've reintroduced animal
0:30 products. And if that's the case for
0:32 you, then that is your experience and
0:35 nobody can say anything to that fact. I
0:38 guess I don't understand why it is when
0:41 there's a channel with a vegan on it or
0:43 a plant-based person on it who's
0:45 promoting what they've experienced or
0:48 what they they know from all the
0:51 education or books that they've read.
0:53 why it is that somebody might come on
0:55 that channel and specifically talk about
0:59 or ask why I'm not eating animal
1:02 products. I can acknowledge that there
1:04 are healthy people who are not vegan. I
1:06 can also acknowledge there are vegan
1:08 people who are extremely unhealthy. So,
1:11 we get that cuz I think both sides can
1:12 acknowledge that. And there are
1:15 definitely people on the extreme ends in
1:17 both camps who will say that it's not
1:20 possible. They'll say that it's not
1:21 possible to be vegan because you can't
1:24 get this, this, this, or that. Or
1:27 there's never been an entirely vegan
1:30 population to get any data from that
1:32 makes or that proves that what you're
1:35 doing right now is correct or
1:39 sustainable. And that is true. I don't
1:40 think there's ever been a vegan
1:43 population in all of history. But I
1:45 think in most of history, we've all been
1:47 kind of struggling when it comes to
1:49 being able to eat enough food. And we
1:51 don't live in that environment anymore.
1:54 We live in an environment of excess. And
1:56 when it comes to peoples like the
1:58 Okanowens specifically, they're always
2:00 the ones that I think of when I think of
2:02 the people who do the best or even the
2:04 African, some African tribes eating high
2:07 carb diets. They thrive. They're lean.
2:10 They're healthy. and they might have the
2:12 occasional meat, but we talk about these
2:15 people as if they're eating a lot of
2:17 meat in their diet. And they might eat
2:21 meat on the order of once a week to once
2:23 a month. Uh back in the day, like even
2:25 during biblical times, when I look at
2:27 the diets that they were having, they
2:31 only had any kind of animal products
2:33 during u maybe celebrations. That's
2:35 about it. Otherwise, most people eat
2:37 plant-based diets. And that's why I like
2:40 to promote plant-based diets. I don't
2:43 always talk about vegan diets because if
2:46 more people were plant-based, I think
2:49 everybody could be happier with it. You
2:51 cannot convince everybody that it's
2:54 morally wrong to kill animals for food
2:56 consumption. You just can't get
2:58 everybody on board with that. But we can
3:00 all acknowledge that a plant-based diet
3:03 is healthier for most people. and all
3:06 the healthiest cultures out there had a
3:09 plant-based diet. So, not plant
3:12 exclusive, but plant-based. So, that
3:14 gets us back to, well, then why don't I
3:17 include animal products in my diet? If I
3:20 can thrive on the diet that I am eating
3:25 now without having to kill an animal,
3:27 then that's what I'm going to do. Why
3:29 would I change anything up if I don't
3:32 have to? And I think that's the question
3:34 that you see a lot of vegan activists
3:36 ask asking. We don't live in a world
3:39 where all the necessary foods or
3:41 supplementations one might need to be
3:43 healthy isn't available. That's the
3:45 world that most of us live in. And we're
3:47 not telling everybody in the world that
3:50 they need to be vegan to be ethical.
3:51 It's supposed to be about whether or not
3:53 it's possible for that person to eat
3:55 that kind of diet. This channel seems to
3:57 go a little bit further in talking about
4:00 what the ideal diet might be. And it's
4:02 worth noting that I don't think that
4:04 people can achieve that ideal very
4:08 easily. If the ideal diet based on what
4:10 I understand of the Bible, and I know a
4:12 lot of people roll their eyes at that
4:15 concept, I used to be one of them. But
4:17 the ideal isn't possible because we
4:20 don't live in an ideal world. We live in
4:22 a very different kind of world. We are
4:24 not in the Garden of Eden. So then there
4:26 are some different ways we can go about
4:29 filling in those gaps. Some people might
4:32 talk about having lowfat, lean cuts of
4:34 meat from a healthy animal. That was
4:36 what the question is. Why don't I have
4:39 that? And I will say I did at one point
4:41 when I was doing more of that paleo
4:43 style. I wasn't like the unhealthy put
4:46 butter and MTC oil and coconut oil and
4:49 mix it in with my coffee kind of paleo.
4:52 I ate fruit and vegetables, avoid beans
4:56 and grains, and I ate animal products.
4:58 And by animal products, I mean meat. Uh
5:00 I even did I didn't even do the whole
5:02 dairy thing because I think people were
5:04 a little more strict about getting rid
5:07 of dairy from your diet because it
5:10 wasn't what they believe paleo people
5:13 were eating. And to be fair, dairy makes
5:15 no sense for humans. It might have made
5:17 sense for people who couldn't grow
5:19 anything else and all they could do was
5:23 eat cows and and the secretions of those
5:26 cows, you know, the the milk meant for
5:29 their babies. But once we're all weaned
5:32 from mother's milk, from human milk, it
5:34 makes no sense for us to continue having
5:36 it. And the fact that so many people in
5:38 the world are allergic to milk, it makes
5:41 sense that we shouldn't have it and we
5:43 shouldn't promote it, especially on any
5:45 kind of food pyramid. If a lot of us are
5:47 allergic to it, it shouldn't be on
5:49 there. There should be there's a plenty
5:51 of other ways to get whatever nutrients
5:53 people think they're getting from dairy
5:55 on that. But fortunately, this person
5:56 wasn't asking about that. They were
5:58 asking about the lean meats. So, yes,
6:02 when I was paleo, I did the lean meats
6:05 then. I [clears throat] had I don't know
6:07 and I I was very particular about it.
6:09 Part of the reason why I cut back and
6:11 started doing more plant-based besides
6:13 the environmental reasons I wanted to do
6:16 better. It was because it was simply too
6:19 expensive. And that does make a lot of
6:22 sense. If people were to eat the kind of
6:25 meat that they say they all value, they
6:27 wouldn't be eating it three times a day.
6:29 And that's what people seem to want to
6:32 promote, including the food pyramid.
6:34 Everybody thinks that somehow we're all
6:37 fat and protein deprived. And that's not
6:39 the culture we live in in America. We've
6:42 never eaten more protein than we do now.
6:45 So, I don't need the excess protein. I
6:47 don't need the excess fat because it
6:49 might be lean meat, but it's not that
6:52 lean. It's not There's still some animal
6:54 fat in it. And there's certainly animal
6:56 protein in it. And if anybody's watched
7:00 or read anything from T. Colin Campbell,
7:02 you will see the association with
7:06 increased animal meat or animal protein
7:09 meant increased rate of cancer. So he
7:11 talked about it being you can turn it on
7:14 and you can turn it off. If I can get
7:16 all the nutrients I need from plants
7:20 alone, why wouldn't I do that instead?
7:22 The only reason a lot of people keep
7:24 meat in is because of taste and
7:27 tradition and it's what they grew up on.
7:30 And my aunt made me something special
7:33 and I'm going to eat this. And there's
7:36 this is the controversy.
7:38 I don't find that there's a whole lot
7:42 wrong in being plant-based
7:44 almost all the time in your life and
7:47 then being the person that relaxes their values
7:49 values
7:51 because if that'll get that person to
7:55 eat far fewer animals than going to the
7:57 extreme end of vegan which is such a
8:00 small you know s such a small percentage
8:03 of us. I would rather that person get
8:06 rid of most of the animal products and
8:09 then that one time they go off to France
8:12 and they just have to have that treat,
8:15 then let them. And let's not guilt trip
8:18 people either. Uh I know it's an ethical
8:20 thing for a lot of vegans to want to
8:23 make sure animal exploitation is
8:26 completely zero. And I get that,
8:28 especially when they relate it to things
8:31 like, "Oh, only a little bit of rape is
8:34 okay. Only a little bit of murder is
8:38 okay." That's the equivalent um point
8:42 that they're trying to make. And while I
8:46 see the point, just know that most
8:50 humans, most people don't put animals on
8:52 the same level as humans, and I don't
8:53 think they're going to change their
8:57 minds. So, for a lot of vegans, it just
8:59 sucks and they, you know what, you kind
9:01 of just have to get over it. And that's
9:03 where I've been. I used to be a very
9:06 angry vegan. But also, I think a lot of
9:09 meat eaters just need to stop pushing
9:13 their agenda on the vegans. I don't see
9:16 why anybody would want to force or try
9:18 and get another person who's eating
9:21 plant-based and they're healthy to try
9:25 and acknowledge or eat meat occasionally even.
9:26 even.
9:28 Like, what's the point in trying to get
9:32 somebody to lessen their values?
9:34 It's one thing if you were trying to
9:37 improve their ethical values, but to
9:40 lessen it when there's no need for it. I
9:43 don't get it. The only other thing I
9:44 could see is from more of a selfish
9:47 standpoint, and that might not be it.
9:50 I'm just guessing.
9:53 But if if you feel the need to justify
9:56 your own choices in your diet, then you
9:59 don't need to try and justify it by
10:01 trying to get vegans to eat meat. Like,
10:04 that doesn't make sense. So, just let
10:07 them be their ethical selves and get
10:09 through life. And if that means they're
10:12 going to be unhealthy for it, let it be,
10:14 you know, just let it be. Let them be
10:17 unhealthy. Some, like some of us went
10:19 and changed our diet assuming it would
10:22 be less healthy for us until we did the
10:26 research, starting with Caldwell Esson,
10:29 um going to uh T. Colin Campbell, going
10:32 to Neil Barnard, like researching all
10:35 these guys and then seeing what people
10:37 from the Blue Zones that what they're
10:39 doing, right? Seeing what people were
10:41 thriving on. So, it sounds like this
10:43 person believes in the high carb,
10:46 low-fat diet and just having the
10:49 occasional meat. I think that's where
10:52 they're at just from these comments. Um,
10:55 and if that's you,
10:57 you know, live your life. you're doing a
11:00 decent job probably not promoting eating
11:03 meat three times a day like most people
11:05 are. We don't need more people promoting
11:08 meat. We need more people promoting
11:11 sustainable plant-based starch-based
11:14 diets. I also had another thought on the
11:16 whole thing. If the idea of a perfect
11:19 vegan diet is keeping you in that place
11:21 where you feel you have to reintroduce
11:25 meat to be healthy again, then maybe you
11:29 are going too extreme. Maybe you need to
11:32 have rice and beans and avocado and all
11:34 those other plant-based foods that are
11:37 still healthy for you.
11:40 Um, stop with a all fruit diet. Stop
11:43 with just the fruit and vegetables.
11:46 diagnose yourself. Are you somebody
11:48 prone to the eating disorders? Are you
11:51 somebody who tries to purposely undereat
11:53 by a lot because you are seeking a
11:55 certain kind of body? If you are
11:57 struggling with this concept and you
12:00 think you need meat to be healthy, know
12:02 that it might not be the meat that you
12:04 needed, but the calories that you are
12:07 finally allowing yourself when you eat
12:09 meat. So,
12:12 whenever I see people like failing on a
12:15 vegan diet, I tend to notice that they
12:17 are the the extreme type. They've gone
12:19 to certain extremes. And going to a
12:22 no-fat diet is an extreme diet. It's
12:26 even extreme within veganism. So,
12:28 if that's where you're at and you feel
12:31 you need to reintroduce the animal
12:34 products, maybe reintroduce the higher
12:38 calorie plant foods. Eat sandwiches.
12:42 Eat burritos. Have some vegan pizza.
12:45 There are plenty of unhealthy vegans out
12:47 there. There are plenty of vegans who
12:50 eat enough food. All right? You don't
12:53 need to go to extremes.
12:55 And if you felt better eating the lean
12:58 meat, that might have been you. It's
