http://www.whatyououghttoknow.com/show/2008/02/08/what-i-want-to-know/

The linked video no longer matters. Congrats.

Gurgle, I know I’m guilty of dispensing snide comments, although only to close friends of mine, and only in jest. Still, I can easily see how it could grow tiresome; if every time I admitted to liking burgers somebody asked, “How could *that* be your diet?” I’d probably get sick of it in short order… Another interesting thing you brought up is that you feel others think you are judging them. I’ve never felt that way about vegans, personally, but it’s cool to hear your point of view, especially that you consider your choices to be yours and nobody else’s business. Great post!

Tinako, awesome post. Just one thing, though, he was only pointing out the canines to demonstrate that we are biologically omnivorous; in fact, he specified the molars, which are not present in carnivorous mouths. Certainly our canines are underdeveloped at best, vestigial at worst, but the fact that we have them along with incisors and molars demonstrates that the natural diet of our ancestors consisted of both plant and animal matter. I thank you for your level-headed and informative post!

One of the things I love most about WYOTK is the comments. They never seem to degenerate into juvenile name-calling as they do on some other websites.

good show as always.

Aside from some of the smarmy and ignorant jests made in the video I thought it was good. Veg folks get used to hearing the snide comments all the time.

My wife, our children, and I are vegan. Most of the vegans that I know do so to reduce suffering. So, that is a handy metric for determining what is and is not acceptable. For example, the plight of bacteria does not really resonate with anyone that I know.

For my family, we have made a choice to live an examined life. We look at everything we do and why we do it. The moral consequence of our choices are considered every day. This spills far beyond just our diet, though that is a big part of it. How a product is produced, where the materials come from, how the workers are treated, etc. are all factors.

Some might say “What a pain in the ass!”, which is certainly your prerogative. For my wife and I though we feel morally obligated to do the right thing.

The usual vibe I get from most people when they learn about my veganism is that I am some how judging them by my choices. They then feel obligated to justify their position, when frankly I don’t really care. I made my choice and I would love to have more people like my family, but your life is yours to live not mine.

Great show, but a few things: 1. Human canines are pathetic. People point to them and say “Look, just like a lion.” Have you seen lion’s teeth? Look at your dog’s teeth. Anyway, most vegetarians don’t give up meat because they think we aren’t meant to eat it. They give it up because it is unhealthy, cruel, and/or wasteful. Whether you agree or not, pointing to your canines is, well, pointless.

2. Most Americans get too much protein (4th paragraph of http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=11234). It is a health problem. Did you know that protein robs your body of calcium if your diet is already low in calcium, which most Americans’ are? So to imply that vegetarians need special help from nutritionists to survive without meat is a distraction from the truth that vegetarians generally eat much healthier than non-vegs, and that people eating the typical high-protein, high-fat, high-cholesterol, low-fiber, processed-food American diet ought to RUN to a nutritionist. You can absolutely have an unhealthy vegan diet, but you are no more likely to just because you have eliminated animal products.

3. Whether vegans eliminate leather, wool, etc. is related to why they are vegan. If for health reasons, they probably don’t care about wearing animals, and if for cruelty reasons, they are probably aware of those products and find them easy to eliminate.

Now to the forum comments. Most vegans do not eat bugs, thank goodness. Carmine, a red food coloring, is an example of a bug product.

It always surprises me that intelligent people ask how vegans can tear the poor carrots from the ground and hurt them. Plants do not have nervous systems, so they do not feel pain.

Finally, for those of you who dismiss vegans as bleeding hearts, I ask you if you are aware of how your meat gets to you. I can practically guarantee you that I could show you many things about meat production that you would say is not right, and I’m not talking about a few bad stockyard workers – it’s systemic abuse, and you’re paying these people to do it. When I stopped eating meat, it wasn’t because I thought we didn’t have the right to eat animals. It was because I felt we didn’t have the right to abuse them, and I wasn’t going to pay someone to do it. Before you make your next flip “Beef, it’s what’s for dinner” comment, I encourage you to look into the subject more.

Sure, they have muscles, nerves, blood, the whole nine yards. I don’t know anyone who eat insects, and also claims to be a vegan. Just to clarify, the chimps in my example, are not vegan.

I love the quote at the end. I heard it once as a child, and now I can’t remember who said it…(time for a little web research)…ah, it was A. Whitney Brown. Good ol’ Whitney. Very humorous.

Most vegans don’t use the scientific nomenclature that differentiates animals from plants, while yeasts are more closely related to what we generally refer to as animals, it’s hard to argue that that relationship makes them “meat” in the conventional sense. We tend to think of animals as things which have nerves, so all monocellular members of Animalia, beyond being strictly unavoidable to consume, are not considered meat or their excretions “animal byproducts”, by any but the fringe literalist of the vegan world (who I have heard of, but never seen in the wild, and I know lots of vegans).

I’m back. Actually I do eat meat, not to excess, but I do love a nicely cooked piece of meat. I can understand not eating meat because a person might think its bad for them, but there are others who can’t inflict pain to these animals. Well, aren’t veggies alive? They grow, they eat the nutrients from the ground and they even breathe (they turn CO2 to Oxygen) so shouldn’t that argument be moot? Just thinking out loud, I really don’t mean this to be offensive to veggie eaters.

Where’s the beef?

Yeah, another thing that you forgot to mention is a “complete protein.” You need to eat proteins that have all the amino acids in them. Amino acids are the chemicals that make up the proteins. Our bodies can only synthesize 10 amino acids… Our diet must include the following amino acids: arginine (required for the young, but not for adults), histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine. If one of these above listed animo acids are not found in our diet, our body will destroy another proteins in our body to obtain it, or just not make the protein it was going to make. Luckily, the above listed amino acids are produced by plants, you just have to find a diet that includes all of them (I think a mixture of corn and black beans have all of the essential amino acids).

The biggest example of diet having to include animo acids is cats… not eating cats… but the cute kittens eating meat. Cat’s cannot synthesize Taurine or Arginine. Taurine is an amino acid, technically it is a amino sulfonic acid, only found in meat. Without eating meat, a cat will develop extreme heart and kidney troubles in a short amount of time. All cat food made in and/or sold in America must include 0.1% taurine… sorry, no veggie cats. Oh yeah, Taurine is added to energy drinks, so no red bull for veggies, unless you are okay drinking a meat by-product… I’m just pulling your leg, they more than likely use synthetic taurine (but I would ask the company before consuming a case of red bull before finals).