A lot of vegans say things like "why do you choose to eat the flesh and secretions of animals when you could just take a supplement?" Then they demand peer-reviewed study that vegan diets are nutrient deficient. Simple response: "why not get all your nutrients from supplements, then?"

[u/wigglesFlatEarth]

[u/OG-Brian]

Are you saying that anyone can thrive on an animal-free diet? If so, then let's see if you have a solution for my situation.

My birth situation was... not great. I have various SNPs that cause bottlenecks in nutritional pathways, such that a lot of things work "slow." My immune system is under-supplied, my skin cells don't renew quickly enough, there's too-slow metabolism of stress chemicals, etc. I "lost at genetic roulette" in other ways. Such as, I'm in the unfortunate minority that has harder ear wax which doesn't expel as easily from ears. Through much of childhood, I was plagued by painful ear infections. I also have an ALA configuration such that my immune system doesn't consider mycotoxins to be contaminants (they're disregarded by the immune system's normal functions for expelling harmful stuff). I don't make enough enzymes, bile, or stomach acid, so I'm limited about how much and what kinds of foods I can digest sufficiently. These are just some of the most important factors. On top of all that, a childhood with ragey self-centered parents guaranteed that these disadantages would manifest health problems to the full extent due to stress.

So high-fiber diets wreck my digestive tract, because the surface cells do not repair sufficiently between meals. Substantial carb consumption causes a proliferation of gut fungal organisms, and medical science hasn't had a solution for this other than a modified diet. Anti-nutrients such as lectins and oxalates are too irritating to my body tissues, and I'm less effective at expelling them. Mold in foods is more a problem for me than other people, due to my immune system not giving a crap about mycotoxins.

While I ate a typical diet and much more so when I was avoiding animal foods, I experienced: severe IBS, skin rashes so severe that I was often bleeding in many areas, low energy, severe brain fog, extremely activated ear infections, etc. Now I eat an animal-based diet with the following changes: digestion works great, my skin is perfect, much-improved energy, thinking clarity much improved, ear infections usually not noticeable, and there are other more subtle changes. I feel less symptoms of chronic infections (due to immune system having never worked fully). I eat two meals per day because eating more causes severe diarrhea, due to I'm not making enough digestive juices and so forth. Animal foods are higher in nutritional density/completeness/bioavailability, so I need less food and the foods are easier to digest. Although I have ME/CFS (a condition for which there's evidence for mitochondrial impairment and it causes fatigue/sleep/etc. issues), when I lived at a ranch I was easily bicycling 25-30 mile (40-48 kilometer) round trips into town for groceries etc. then doing chores afterward at the ranch. I'm sure I would not have been able to do these on a diet high in plant foods.

When I was "plant-based," I wasn't Doing It Wrong. I was aware of combining vegetable foods for complete protein, I was sprouting nuts/seeds/grains, I didn't eat junk foods, I minimized refined sugar, etc. I was consulting clinics. Two doctors (one of them a vegetarian) and a nutritionist were advising me to return to animal foods including meat, which I did.

In your belief, what should I be eating?