At different points in my life I have identified as a vegetarian, vegan, pescetarian and even a brief stint as a strict raw-foodist.

I used to eat my weight in fruit and nuts and I can guarantee I’ve eaten more chick peas than all readers combined!

And now I Eat By Design.

What Happened?

 

What convinced this lifelong vegan to finally give up the boycott and captain the meat parade?

But before I get into that…

• This post is in no way intended to offend any current vegetarians – remember I was right there with you, I likely believed many of the same things you do and trusted the same science to back up my stance.  I don’t expect 1 blog post to convince you 🙂

• There’s way more in common between a well-designed vegetarian diet and eating By Design than there are differences.

• In no way do I regret being vegetarian and I’m so grateful my parents raised me the way they did.   It taught me to question my food choices and understand that the food quality was as important as what I ate. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Where Does The Cow Get His Protein?

There are a lot of reasons why people choose to be vegan: ethical reasons, political reasons, environmental reasons and of course health reasons.

For a much better and more robust discussion on the first three, please see The Vegetarian Myth (by Lierre Keith).  I learned a ton from her well-referenced book and she thoroughly debunks all 4 of these  arguments (in my opinion).

In my family’s case, it was always about health.  My Dad was 28 when his doctor told him he would have to take blood pressure medication for the rest of his life.  And you know what else comes with that prescription: a stern warning about all that fatty red meat you’re eating…

The evidence seemed to be really stacking up against animal fat and protein: saturated fat appeared to cause heart disease and red meat was being linked to a variety of cancers.

At the same time vegetarianism was experiencing its first big push into the ‘mainstream alternative.’

Lastly It all seemed so logical – inherently we understand plants are an essential part of our diet, so more must be better, right?

And after all, where does the cow get his protein?

BTW, I used to love throwing that one smugly back at people who questioned:  “But where do you get your protein?”

Nerdy sidebar: This is a one of many classic false arguments repeated by many vegetarians.  Next time you hear it,  here’s how to break it down. For this question (where does the cow get his protein?)  to be relevant we have to accept the premise that the digestive system of a cow is the same as a human – so that our bodies extract nutrients like protein in a similar way.   Something that is swiftly disproven upon examining the 4 stomachs a cow needs to digest its food properly, not to mention that a cow spends approximately 14hrs a day eating to satisfy its nutrient requirements.

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

The point of me sharing that back-story is two-fold. First, my grandma always told me stories are best told from the beginning…

but more importantly I want to highlight why I think a lot of people embrace vegetarianism then and now: largely due to gross misinformation on the consequences of eating animals and the oversimplification of what our body requires to be healthy.

Fortunately for them (and me!) it’s possible to survive on fruits and vegetables.  I don’t think you can thrive, but clearly you can survive!

And I don’t regret for 1 second the experiences I grew up with.

Much like we see kids adopt unhealthy eating habits from their parents, I adopted some great, healthy habits that have served me to this day. I grew up eating huge bowls of salad made with veggies from our garden; I had access to lots of fresh organic fruits; they didn’t fill us with wheat or soy;  the concept of a treat was making ‘ice cream’ with frozen bananas and strawberries…

I’m forever grateful for those habits, and many others I took from my parents.

With those great habits also came some liabilities: namely that I had swallowed hook, line and sinker all the same “evidence” that had convinced my parents.  I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

In other words, I became dogmatic.  I only read books that supported my views; I would repeat statements like how unhealthy butter was or that protein was vastly overrated and that eating red meat increases your risk of cancer – all without ever investigating these claims.

In spite of the major contradiction  that humans are capable of digesting meat,I accepted without question that the ideal diet was a plant-based diet.   After all we come from apes and have you ever seen a chimpanzee eating a steak?

…it turns out chimps are excellent hunters and have been hunting and consuming other animals for millions of years! 

That of course is not proof that humans should eat animals, but it does  highlight a rather uncomfortable reality for the vegan argument: our evolutionary history is covered in blood.  More and more evidence is showing that our human ancestors relied on ever-more advanced hunting techniques to broaden our food supply – at least as far back as 2 million years ago.

More uncomfortable still is the clear association between this evidence and the increase in early human brain size.  It definitely looks like eating animals had a significant effect on building a bigger, more calculating brain.

This correlation doesn’t prove anything, but it does support the argument that humans benefitted from eating other animals, so why would that change?

Our By Design Diet – It’s Written In Our Genetic Code!

It turns out that you can actually see evidence of our requirement for animal fat and protein built right into our genetics. There are several nutrients that are ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL to our survival and the only source is from eating other animals.

A great example of this is Omega 3 fats – a subgroup of fats that’s getting a lot of attention right now.

Every cell in your body requires omega 3 fats in some capacity.  Here’s the rub: while animals who’s natural diet is 100% plant-based (like a cow) can easily convert other fats to the ones we need, as humans we lack this ability.  The only way we can fulfill our requirements for omega 3 fats is by consuming animal fat.

Vitamin B12 would be another example.  Its an essential vitamin (your body doesn’t work properly without it) and the only natural source is from eating animals.

So let’s get this straight: written right into your genetic code is the  requirement for these and other essential nutrients; your cells won’t work properly without them.  These specific essential nutrients can only be found in sufficient quantities by eating other animals.

Therefore, a plants-only diet is optimal for humans.  hmmm…

Nail In The Coffin

The final straw came when I sat down with a respected nutritionist/naturopath who evaluated my food diary.  At the time I was consuming huge quantities of fruits, soy and other legumes (man, I ate a lot of chickpeas…).

He explained to me how I could definitely survive on my diet but that it was far from optimal. Oh, and that I was likely to die younger due to all the cell damage from the large quantities of sugary fruit I was consuming.

Yikes!  fortunately instead of turning me off, his statement made me wake up and start questioning.  As I learned more I began cutting my fruit consumption, added in fish and later eggs.  It didn’t take long to notice some positive changes.

Gradually I ate more animal products and in September of 2011 I went fully ‘Eat By Design’ and the results soon followed.

Here’s what I noticed:

• more energy and no afternoon crashes
• better, more consistent sleep
• greater concentration
• finally able to gain weight
• greater satiety (feel hungry way less often)
• regularly can go 16-18hrs without eating or feeling hunger
• not to mention way more options when I’m eating out!
• oh, and I really like bacon…

I still eat huge bowls of salad, I always look for the highest quality foods and I still love my banana/strawberry ice cream.  All great principles that I learned from being a vegetarian.

What I will say is that based on all my research and study into nutrition and human performance  I am convinced that animal protein and fat are necessary to be as healthy as possible.

Want to learn more about Eat By Design?

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