There are a few cultures in the world, traditional Inuit and traditional Maasai and some ethnic group up in Siberia among them, which subsist only on animal foods. (The Maasai occasionally eat roots but they’re not a staple by any means. They also drink what we would call mead, but that’s from honeybees.) There are no vegan traditional cultures.

I found out the hard way that I can’t seem to get enough vitamin A from beta carotene any more. This is true whether or not I supplement. It was messing up my reproductive system, to the tune of periods so heavy I literally could not leave the house. I can tell when I’ve been slacking on my retinol (from fish liver oil) supplementation: The cramps and heavy bleeding come back. But I can keep it under control with enough vitamin A intake. I CANNOT OBTAIN VITAMIN A FROM PLANT FOODS. There are no plants with vitamin A in them. It is entirely an animal-made vitamin. Beta carotene is only a precursor and if you can’t convert it (if you have diabetes or hypothyroidism or some other disorders), you’re in trouble!

I also can’t get B12 from plant foods and I need that too. We all do. If you’re comfortable getting B12 from factory-made supplements then knock yourself out; for me it’s easier to just eat a steak. I take supplements too, but I believe it’s healthier to get nutrients from food than isolated in a pill.

People talk about how unsustainable beef is. Listen up: In order for the whole world to follow a vegan diet we would have to accelerate global warming. The staples of a vegan diet are grown in full sun. That means deforestation is REQUIRED in order to eat a grain- and soy-based diet. And you would have to eat those foods, at least the grain; you can’t get enough energy from fruits and veg alone unless you want to do nothing else but eat all day. Now, cattle and other animals can be raised under light tree cover. You don’t have to clear-cut to raise them. Ranchers just do that for their own convenience.

A farm run without animals is an unsustainable farm requiring petroleum inputs or slave labor to keep it running. Animals eat weeds and bugs, scratch up the soil, fertilize with their manure, work as draft animals for plowing and even bees help fertilize flowers for fruit production. Good luck replicating those tasks without a lot of slave labor or machinery. You just can’t. And if you’re going to have animals around to help you farm then you’re going to have to eat them too.

I don’t agree with factory farming either but this is also partially a class issue. Everyone needs animal foods, because we are not herbivores. It’s not a matter of opinion or “lifestyle.” It’s human nutrition 101. Y’all complain about doctors not knowing anything about nutrition, then you tell us all with a straight face that human beings can thrive on tofu or spirulina. Let us know how that goes ten years from now when you’re infertile and suffering from pernicious anemia. And this is what the poor would have to look forward to if they eschewed grocery store meat because the animals weren’t happy enough. We’re going to have to change USDA policy as to which food production is subsidized before you will see a wide-scale change in how animals are raised. Cows can eat grass and hay, chickens can eat weeds and bugs, and there’s no reason to subsidize grain and soy when we can subsidize pastured organic animal operations instead.

That’s what it’s going to take. Preaching at people that they should not follow a species-appropriate diet is not the way to get there.

The real point of the story comes in now. Being a yoga instructor, I used to attend many yoga workshops. I certainly love the workshop part but have never experienced such food fascism in my life. It was after a workshop when everyone decided to go to dinner. I, following what my body has been telling me for years, decided to order a dinner with meat (pork to be exact). The people at the table acted like I had just committed the greatest crime known to man. I will never forget the looks and the few comments made by others. It really only cemented my belief that health is a very individual issue.

Anyway, thanks for your thoughtful words.

I’m happy to have discovered your blog and have some commentary for today’s topic.

Live and let live is a fair-sounding ideology. The problem is that when it comes to dietary choices, it is a bit more complex. And no matter what our ideologies, there are some choices we each make personally that have reaching effects upon us all.

What others eat effects the long term health of each of us. This is for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is environmental impact. It has been well documented that:

“The food system is responsible for about a third of greenhouse gases,” Michael Pollan told NPR’s Renee Montagne. “It is also responsible for the catastrophic American diet that is leading 50 percent of us to suffer from chronic disease, and that drives up health care costs.”

Factory-farmed beef consumes 33 calories of fossil fuel for every single calorie of meat produced, as well as creating huge amounts of air, soil, and water pollution, and–can–cause serious health problems in those who over-consume. Pollan further states: “25 to 33 percent of climate change gases can be traced to the food system. Another surprise it that we know that diet-related chronic disease is a big deal, but I was surprised, looking at the history of nutrition, that those diseases that we take for granted as what will kill us—heart disease, cancer, other cardiovascular diseases, diabetes—were virtually unknown 150 years ago, before we began eating this way.” Of course, Pollan is referring to the bigger picture of not only over-consumption of meat, but the high incidence of processed foods, fats, and sugar in the modern SAD, or standard American diet.

Yes, those who choose to eat animal products and protein can argue and lobby for an overhaul of the current environmentally-disastrous feedlot system, humane farming, and other shifts of impact. According to the World Resources Institute, more than half of all grain grown in America goes to feed animals and not people; a huge fraction of the petrolieum-based herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers applied to grains plus all agriculture land and water use are put in the service of livestock. Eating lower on the food chain can dramatically effect the use of fossil fuels and water. (Mike Tidwell, Audobon Jan-Feb 2009).

And I would never go so far as to say that all of my personal choices, dietary or otherwise, can stand up to the scrutiny of environmental impact. Yet in venues where it undeniably makes a difference and where there are alternatives, it behooves us to examine our habits and make adjustments that can have an effect on sustainability and impact for the present and future health of us all.

I’d like to know if Dr. Dean’s food suggestions are based on the book, Eat Right for Your Type (or the “blood type diet”)? I personally like to eat what I like with regard to the food practices that are good for the entire planet.

With regard to Dr. Dean’s recommendation to eat beef, some readers have noted the correlation between saturated animal fat and heart disease. I would like to point out the less published correlation between beef eating and brain disease. Just recently the media reported the correlation between Alzheimers and the neurodegenerative disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob (related to and possibly not that different from “Mad Cow”). It has also been not so widely reported that American and Canadian “downer” cattle regularly make it into the food supply. I don’t think my ancestors had to be concerned about things like factory farming and rampant cruelty to animals! For those who can’t afford to buy absolutely organic beef, what would your suggestion be?

I liked Dr. Dean’s “nasal lubricant” suggestion and the ways to get more vitamin C. It would be nice to be able to “sleep without electricity,” and the suggestion to at the very least remove all electronic devices from the bedroom is sound advice.

I’d like to thank Dr. Dean for her hard work on the first module!

A visit to the WestonPrice.org site is a real eye opener for many vegetarians who have the courage to read positive scientific research that meat is a vital nutrient dense food for many cultures and populations and quite possibly a best choice for a healthy life for them.

On the other side, research involving a large vegetarian population of American Seventh Day Adventists over many years, has shown that a vegetarian diet has unique measurable health benefits for that group over the general population

Swami Rama, a famous Yogi form India was one of the first Gurus whose abilities were measured by science used to tell his western students…I don’t care what you eat, I only care about what you think about when you eat.

In school we are taught the Metabolic Typing Test, and although I come out as a mixed type I definitely lean towards being a meat-eater.