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The Vegan Religion
How belief too often precludes discussion
Some time ago I happened to write an approving comment on someone else’s Medium article in which the author pointed out a simple truth: a strict vegan diet carries significant metabolic risks unless the practitioner takes steps to augment what is, for the human species, a sub-standard diet.
There is an abundance of evidence from human dentition through the gastro-intestinal tract that we humans are obligate ominvores. Indeed, paleontologists strongly suspect that the comparatively large brain of the genus homo is a direct consequence of a shift to augmenting a largely plant-based diet with increased consumption of animal products.
Furthermore, there is overwhelming clinical evidence that unless the practitioner takes supplements to augment a strict vegan diet, a wide variety of neurological impairments occurs in consequence of lack of vitamin B12. Additionally, sub-optimal omega-3 levels are frequently observed in vegan blood samples as are relatively high cases of anemia, in cases where vegans do not adequately augment their diet with appropriate supplementation.
There is a wealth of medical evidence supporting all these basic statements of fact, and links to a few references are given at the end of this article. There are, of course, a great many more references of the same sort and the…
