Max, just for some balance (and to help build an appetite for that BBQ), everyone should also watch the amazing French documentary, Steak (R)evolution, also on Netflix.:)

Netflix::
Web Link

Trailer
Web Link

If we are not supposed to eat animals, why are they made out of meat?

@Mr.Recycle, I just signed up for Netflix. Steak is the food of the gods!

Max,

Enjoy your vegan diet. I won't 'alter' my worship for meat at the altar. Got the Weber pot fired up with skewers loaded with all kinds of meats. I'm a 79 year old farm boy from Montana. Never been in a hospital in my life, not even born in one. Hope to enjoy many more BBQ's out on my patio. Keep checking the obits tho, I'll make it there someday.

Thank you for promoting a plant-based diet. Despite numerous and well researched benefits to eating little or no animal foods, I'm afraid no amount of science will change most peoples' minds. But keep trying.

Max Greenberg, you have just become my favorite blogger at Palo Alto Online. :-)

Kazu: Humans are made of meat too. Perhaps you would have been one of the last men standing in the Donner Party.

To all my meat eating readers out there, I still love you.

Love you too :)

I have been reading and trying out different diets for health reasons.
Vegetarianism and veganism were two that I was very curious about because
they have the best spiels and propaganda. The gang of Colin Campbell,
Essylstein?, and others, most of them centered up around Santa Rosa
have a very good story backed by a lot of scientific facts.

The problem is that when I really began paying attention to their claims
they were exaggerating and reading things into studies that I did not agree
were their conclusions and summations of many of these studies.

Oh, there is overwhelming evidence that the standard American diet is
now unhealthy for most of us. To the best of my understanding the
reasons are as follows:

1. Not enough fresh fruits and vegetables.
2. Way, way too much sugar. Suggested is 6 tspns, average is 29 tspns.
3. Too much processed foods and chemicals.

However, there are really no studies, much as the vegans want to claim
that meat is toxic that actually say meat is toxic. This is where you will
see the vegans bouncing off the walls when they talk about the subject
making claims that meat is toxic, gives you cancer and heart disease.
( If you already have heart disease or coronary artery disease eating
plants based only may help to remove arterial plaque ... at least that
is the claim of vegans )

I like the slogan from Michael Pollan, eat food, mostly plants, not too much.
That makes sense, is doable, and can pretty much still be configured into
a normal American lifestyle, if you live outside a food desert anyway.

Another good one to remember for the plant mix is GBOMBS, meaning
greens, beans, onions, mushrooms, berries and seeds. If you throw some
meat, fish, dairy in there without overdoing it you will be healthy.

@ Plane Speaker,

Quick question on your last paragraph--I like mushrooms, but what nutrients do they have? Are some varieties better than others?

WilliamR ... the GBOMBS acronym comes from Dr. Joel Fuhrman.
His website is www dot drfuhrman dot com
Here is what he says about mushrooms.

M – Mushrooms

Consuming mushrooms regularly is associated with decreased risk of breast, stomach, and colorectal cancers.

In one recent Chinese study, women who ate at least 10 grams of fresh mushrooms each day (about one mushroom per day) had a 64% decreased risk of breast cancer. Even more dramatic protection was gained by women who ate 10 grams of mushrooms and drank green tea daily—an 89% decrease in risk for premenopausal women, and 82% for postmenopausal women, respectively.17-20

White, cremini, Portobello, oyster, shiitake, maitake, and reishi mushrooms all have anti-cancer properties—some are anti-inflammatory, stimulate the immune system, prevent DNA damage, slow cancer cell growth, cause programmed cancer cell death, and inhibit angiogenesis.

In addition to these properties, mushrooms are unique in that they contain aromatase inhibitors—compounds that can block the production of estrogen. These compounds are thought to be largely responsible for the preventive effects of mushrooms against breast cancer. In fact, there are aromatase-inhibiting drugs on the market that are used to treat breast cancer.

Regular consumption of dietary aromatase inhibitors is an excellent strategy for prevention, and it turns out that even the most commonly eaten mushrooms (white, cremini, and Portobello) have a high anti-aromatase activity.21 Keep in mind that mushrooms should only be eaten cooked: several raw culinary mushrooms contain a potentially carcinogenic substance called agaritine, and cooking mushrooms significantly reduces their agaritine content.22-23

Great info coming from contributors. Regarding mushrooms, Paul Stamets is one of the world's leading authorities on the benefits of mushrooms and has a very successful business selling various extracts and all things mushroom related: Fungi Perfecti (www.fungi.com) He did a TedMed talk a few years ago in San Diego where he brought on stage someone very close to him who took some immune-enhancers for a period of time and appears to have reversed a terminal cancer. My understanding is lightly sauteing mushrooms releases protein which you don't really get when eating them raw.

Bacteria eat us, so why shouldn't we take our own turn at the meat table?