True pure vegan diets are potentially dangerous, especially if you are not EXTREMELY well-educated about them. The raw vegan diets including fruitarian diets are worse.
Oh boy, I could argue all day about this one. First of all, the majority of my nerd friends live off cheetos & Mountain Dew, so anything with veggies is a
huge step up for them :biggrin:
I do agree about educating yourself about dietary changes before jumping into them, however. Vegans get a bad rap because a lot of people you see are pretty dang skinny & unhealthy-looking because they're surviving off vegan junk food, not a healthy vegan diet. For example, large quantities of soy isn't good for your thyroid. However, some of the healthiest people I know are hardcore raw vegans - crazy amounts of energy, look great, look
young, and feel good all the time. There are plenty of vegan bodybuilders, Ironman, fighters, etc. out there if anyone is looking for examples.
But yeah, as long as you're following the right guidelines, they can be great diets. I would say that the frutiarian diet is the best eating plan I have ever done in my life, but part of the rules for doing it in a healthy fashion includes eating a TON of calories, anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 a day based on your activity levels. You'll feel like garbage if you're under-eating on the fruitarian diet because you're not getting the proper amount of food intake for the type of food you're consuming. Protein is a non-issue; you don't need
1g/lb like bro-science says. Same with the fruit-based diet; the WHO's studies show that you only need something like 2.5% of your calories from protein, whereas the most common fruitarian diet consists of 80-10-10 (80% carbs, 10% protein, 10% fats) and some people even do 955 (5% protein), which is still
double the minimum needed to keep you alive.
But anyway, what's scarier is the sheeple approach we take regarding our food in America.
Heart disease is the #1 killer in the U.S., something which is
entirely reversible by diet. That means 1 out of 3 deaths can be prevented simply by changing what you put into your mouth. As that article says, "it is normal in our society to have atherosclerosis, and to die from cardiovascular disease". Better food is available & cooking information is freely available on the Internet, but ultimately it's a personal choice as to what path you follow. I'm a big fan of moderation, sort of like the 80/20 rule - eat well 80% of the time, have some fun 20% of the time. A double bacon cheeseburger every now & then isn't going to kill you, but I know a lot of guys who literally eat that every day for lunch, followed by a Big Gulp soda, fries, and a dessert. If you have the genetics to handle it, great, otherwise, there are steps you can take to eat healthier. So I'd say while veggie & fruit-based diets do have some risks, particularly if you don't do you research on what you actually need to survive & thrive on those diets, it seems riskier to continue on the standard American diet.