This Is Your Brain on Veggies
Far be it from me to criticise non-meat eaters simply on the basis of what they are. I was a strict vegetarian from ages 12-14, and these days I still go through phases where the thought of eating meat is fairly repulsive, so I can sympathise with the choice not to chow down on animal flesh. I can even understand veganism, although I personally disagree with the moral aspects of the belief.
But you know how people who go on the Atkins diet or who drink a lot of diet soda go a little bonkers? I think certain veggie-eaters share the same problem.
See, people on the Atkins diet don't get enough carbohydrates, and since carbohydrates are basically brain food, if you don't eat carbs, your brain don't get fed. Similarly, diet sodas (and other "diet" foods sweetened with aspartame) contain phenylalanine, a large amino acid that competes with the amino acid tryptophan. Tryptophan is a serotonin precursor, so less tryptophan means less serotonin and more mean, angry people.
Not that you can't have a full and balanced diet if you only eat vegetable matter, and most people who are concerned enough to be vegetarian or vegan would probably be more aware of such things than people who aren't, but people are people no matter what they eat, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the majority of people don't spend a lot of time agonising over the amino acid content of their diet, be they vegan or no, and also that dietary requirements in general are tricky to understand and be aware of in situ, and therefore there are probably a lot of herbivores wandering around off their gourds from lack of some vital mineral or other. Possibly they think the benevolent energy of Mother Earth will protect them.
I think this movement is probably the result of some nutritional deficiency, because it is beyond my power to imagine that it could arise from any rational thought process:
The Daily Mail - No sex, please, you're a carnivore
"When you are vegan or vegetarian, you are very aware that when people eat a meaty diet, they are kind of a graveyard for animals," she said.
Wow, hey guys, maybe you should avoid long walks in the forest-sorry, I mean GIANT BUNNY RABBIT GRAVEYARD. Also, maybe you shouldn't eat plants, because you know what plants do? They totes thrive on decomposing plant and animal matter in the soil. OMG PLANTS ARE CARNIVORES TOO! Oh, and you know what you did, you vicious parasites? You completely stole nutrients from your mums for like, almost a whole year. And then, OMG, I hope you weren't breastfed, because that would totally be consuming animal byproduct. AND ALSO CANNIBALISM, I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY NOW.
It's not like it actually matters where you get all your component atoms from. They're all the same, just arranged differently. I promise, there is no supernatural force that remains in the carcass of an animal that is not also present in the carcass of a plant, which distinguishes the former from the latter. It's all just so much carbon, with some hydrogen and oxygen and a dash of zinc, copper, iron, magnesium, potassium, etc., etc., and once it hits the hydrochloric acid, it's pretty much just a big, brownish glob of goop, anyway. You could eat dirt straight, and if dirt actually contained protein, you'd be good to go.
I get it, you don't want to be physically intimate with someone who doesn't share your philosophical beliefs. That's cool, Catholics are supposed to marry other Catholics, and such, but why conflate that with pseudoscience? "Non-Catholics haven't eaten the body of Christ; carnivores are made of dead animals!" Bullshit. You eat plants, you're made of dead animals, too. That's what natural decomposition is, after all. Becoming compost. If you don't eat that cow, your flowerbed will. And then it'll pollinate, and you'll get plant spooge all over you. Plant spooge formed from the flesh of dead animals. LOL.
But you know how people who go on the Atkins diet or who drink a lot of diet soda go a little bonkers? I think certain veggie-eaters share the same problem.
See, people on the Atkins diet don't get enough carbohydrates, and since carbohydrates are basically brain food, if you don't eat carbs, your brain don't get fed. Similarly, diet sodas (and other "diet" foods sweetened with aspartame) contain phenylalanine, a large amino acid that competes with the amino acid tryptophan. Tryptophan is a serotonin precursor, so less tryptophan means less serotonin and more mean, angry people.
Not that you can't have a full and balanced diet if you only eat vegetable matter, and most people who are concerned enough to be vegetarian or vegan would probably be more aware of such things than people who aren't, but people are people no matter what they eat, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the majority of people don't spend a lot of time agonising over the amino acid content of their diet, be they vegan or no, and also that dietary requirements in general are tricky to understand and be aware of in situ, and therefore there are probably a lot of herbivores wandering around off their gourds from lack of some vital mineral or other. Possibly they think the benevolent energy of Mother Earth will protect them.
I think this movement is probably the result of some nutritional deficiency, because it is beyond my power to imagine that it could arise from any rational thought process:
The Daily Mail - No sex, please, you're a carnivore
"When you are vegan or vegetarian, you are very aware that when people eat a meaty diet, they are kind of a graveyard for animals," she said.
Wow, hey guys, maybe you should avoid long walks in the forest-sorry, I mean GIANT BUNNY RABBIT GRAVEYARD. Also, maybe you shouldn't eat plants, because you know what plants do? They totes thrive on decomposing plant and animal matter in the soil. OMG PLANTS ARE CARNIVORES TOO! Oh, and you know what you did, you vicious parasites? You completely stole nutrients from your mums for like, almost a whole year. And then, OMG, I hope you weren't breastfed, because that would totally be consuming animal byproduct. AND ALSO CANNIBALISM, I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY NOW.
It's not like it actually matters where you get all your component atoms from. They're all the same, just arranged differently. I promise, there is no supernatural force that remains in the carcass of an animal that is not also present in the carcass of a plant, which distinguishes the former from the latter. It's all just so much carbon, with some hydrogen and oxygen and a dash of zinc, copper, iron, magnesium, potassium, etc., etc., and once it hits the hydrochloric acid, it's pretty much just a big, brownish glob of goop, anyway. You could eat dirt straight, and if dirt actually contained protein, you'd be good to go.
I get it, you don't want to be physically intimate with someone who doesn't share your philosophical beliefs. That's cool, Catholics are supposed to marry other Catholics, and such, but why conflate that with pseudoscience? "Non-Catholics haven't eaten the body of Christ; carnivores are made of dead animals!" Bullshit. You eat plants, you're made of dead animals, too. That's what natural decomposition is, after all. Becoming compost. If you don't eat that cow, your flowerbed will. And then it'll pollinate, and you'll get plant spooge all over you. Plant spooge formed from the flesh of dead animals. LOL.