Over the past week, I have been experimenting with vegetarianism. The title of this post says “pseudo” because I haven’t done it every day, my goal was three days per week and I hit it.
Probably my main reason for cutting back on the amount of meat I eat is because it’s better for the environment. I’ve witnessed the receding snow caps in Patagonia, read about the melting Arctic and how ships can now navigate through it, and that cow farts are a major driver of greenhouse gases. By changing my own behavior and reducing my demand for meat, it allows me to feel better about myself even if it doesn’t help that much (I should point out that both former President Bill Clinton and the head of the International Panel on Climate Change have recommended reducing meat consumption in order to help combat climate change).
One of the problems for me about going vegetarian or worse – vegan – is that I have associated it with making a political statement. I have in my mind this picture of dirty hippies who don’t eat meat because they are more moral than the rest of us. That is, they believe that because they don’t eat sentient beings, that makes them morally superior than the rest of us omnivores.
It’s very hard for me to shake that image, even if it’s not true for everyone. And it’s not just that. The whole morally-superior position goes into a slew of other left wing positions that I do not want to associate myself with.
So you see, there is a psychological barrier.
And what’s worse, look at my reason for wanting to go vegetarian – to help combat global warming! This is a political cause and I am changing my behavior, so what do I think of others who don’t?
I’m trying really hard to contain my arrogance; I’m just making my own small change. I’m still early into this experiment but as time passes, my guess is that my belligerence will get worse.
One reason I didn’t do it is because of the health benefits. I’m not convinced that vegetarians or vegans have a healthier diet than other diets like the Paleo diet or Dash diet.
I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s not that vegetarians consume less meat than omnivores which makes them feel better, but because they consume less junk food than the typical person that makes them feel better. Junk food is what causes most of the health problems. Thus, it’s the bad stuff that drags us down and its elimination is where we see the benefits.
There are plenty of studies that say “Oh, this diet is the healthiest” but they are done on people who eat healthy diets (the one they are trying to promote) and have healthy lifestyles (they exercise much more), compared to those who eat a lot of junk food (in addition to meat) and do not exercise very much. There are no control groups of people with the same lifestyle but whose only difference is eating meat (the China Study is the closest but the analysts who use it to support their cause tend to cherry-pick their findings).
Thus, while I agree that vegans and vegetarians have healthy diets, I am not convinced that it’s much better than someone with a similar diet who eats meat in reasonable portions, and doesn’t eat junk food.
At the same time, I fully concede the possibility that I am just trying to rationalize my own dietary choices and that I am cherry-picking data to support my own conclusions. My own biases are preventing me from seeing objectively.
Sigh.
Part of the problem with dietary advice is that are there so many contradictions. Different diets each have their own list of Do’s and Don’t. Below is a table comparing three diets, and I have highlighted in red where they contradict each other:
| Food |
Dash Diet |
Paleo Diet |
Vegan Diet |
| Grains |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Fruits |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Vegetables |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Low fat and non-fat dairy |
Limited |
No |
No |
| Lean meats, fish, poultry |
Limited |
Yes |
No |
| Nuts and seeds |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Legumes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Fats |
Limited |
Yes |
Depends |
| Sweets |
Limited |
Limited |
Limited |
- The Dash Diet and Vegan Diet say that Grains are okay, even great. But the Paleo Diet says that you have avoid them at all costs – no bread, cereal or anything else made from wheat.
- The Paleo Diet says fats are high as well as some animal protein, but the vegans say none of it is allowed at all, while the Dash Diet lets you have some.
- The Dash Diet and Vegan Diet say legumes (e.g., peanuts) are okay but not the Paleo Diet. Not even soy is allowed in the Paleo Diet.
- Some Paleo Diets (e.g., Tim Ferriss’s Slow-Carb diet) recommend that you don’t eat fruit because of all the sugar in them.
You can see from all of this that no one can agree on all aspects of a healthy diet: animal products are fine vs. they are terrible for you; peanuts are fine vs. don’t eat them; fats are okay vs. don’t eat them; grains are fine vs. they are bad for you.
Contradictions!
Having said all that, this past week I cut down on my animal products. I’ve already been eating more fruits and vegetables. I just increased them instead of eating meat, and switched in more tofu. Here are the results:
- In a restaurant, I had tofu with phad thai and some other Asian food. I liked it! But when the wife bought it from the store and cooked it in a stir fry, I did not like it.
- The smoothies the wife makes are pretty good. At first, I would have them for breakfast, but they made me so full I wouldn’t have anything else. This wasn’t that much of a problem for me, but I wouldn’t have any water or coffee. This led to me getting headaches by 11 am due to dehydration. I have modified this to eating a normal breakfast, taking the smoothie to work and then drinking it later.
- Sometimes in the evening I have a salad for dinner along with quinoa and bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. That works for me.
- When I first started, I thought I’d have way more energy than I do now. Instead, I found myself getting tired in the afternoon at work which hadn’t happened to me in a long time.
- I am proud of myself for eating more fruits and vegetables, especially more green vegetables. I’ve discovered kale and chards; the mixed greens from Trader Joe’s are the best, in my view.
- I have lowered my % body fat, according to the scale that measure it I have lost 1% to 1.5% body fat.
So you can see, my results are a mixed bag. Maybe I do feel better but the change has been so gradual that I haven’t noticed it, and if I went back to my previous lifestyle I would definitely notice.
I will have to keep this up for three more weeks before I can give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to this change.
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