@Elle

"Most people don’t realize how many vegans/vegetarians that surround them, because most of us are healthy."

Vegetarians are in a minority. Vegans make up no more than 2% of the population. The issue is that most quit after a while, because there is something about the diet that doesn't work for them. I have never heard of a survey that determined how many raw vegans there are, but it is very likely that the ones who are able to do so perpetually are extreme genetic outliers.

This sounds like complete Bull shit to me to be honest . reading it just seemed like you'd never actually met a vegan. i am and i am not weak and i am not bone skinny. i do not have these so called juice fasts and i eat very healthily. just because someone does not eat meat, does not mean they eat "rabit food". it just goes to show you've never even thought about what foods we do actually eat. i definitly don't feel board of my food let alone malnurished. Also, i am the only vegan let alone vegitarian out of all my freinds and family and i don't try to force my opinions on them at all!!. Also just to clarify, vegans don't just eat superfoods they eat alot of cake too. And by your statement " we want you to come home" implies that you are uable to see vegans as fellow human beings. vegans.dom't just sit around saying "give me vegetables and seeds" they actually have..lives and jobs :/ and all kinds of interests. theres so much else i could have in commen with someone like the fact that i like composing music and i have a passion and flair ( flicks hair) for languages My russian teacher is big on her meat but neither one of us cares at all because well theres so an more other things to talk about . I never choose my relationships on who eats what. Grow up and go meet some vegans before you write bullshit like this again

Great article. I like that most of the angry vegans who turned up to comment about it are all about the anecdotal evidence and correlation-does-not-equal-causation. Such common fallacies 🙁 I am sure veganism might work for a subset of the population, but it is very much NOT how we evolved as Homo sapiens sapiens. You would have to ignore pretty much all legitimate research into the topic to come to the conclusion that we aren't suited to eat meat.

Anyway, Mr. Stanton, keep up the great work. It's refreshing to see someone blogging about something (potentially) controversial who actually does his homework.

There is a difference between a normal vegan diet and the many so called "vegan" diets which advocate calorie restriction as a way to lose weight. As someone who became vegan for ethical reasons weight loss was never my goal, at 98 pounds that would have been absolutely insane. So I never experienced the so called vegan high (this was also because I was accidentally vegetarian before going vegan, I was eating pasture raised animal products but could rarely afford $15 a pound steak)or detox. I did however experience the type of starvation you are referring to when due to stress and anxiety I almost stopped eating altogether and I did lose weight. High is not what I would call it. More like a living hell, as I struggled with depression and horrible, horrible insomnia and began to question my reality. When people see me now as a healthy, happy vegan it is because I'm eating enough calories to sustain me through the day and tons of fruit which literally make you high as sugar has an opiate effect. Contrary to popular belief eating a ton of carbs has not caused me to gain weight beyond what my normal or average weight is, partly because if your eating carbs you have a TON of energy. Your literally bouncing off the walls.

In the 3 years since I have been vegan I have never lost a tooth or missed a period. What your describing are the effects of starvation, not a vegan diet. To the contrary I find myself randomly doing pretty physical things, like while visiting my brother biking 14 miles or hiking for several hours up a mountain or doing 20-30 push ups or doing a pretty intense Zumba class without an issue. Heck, just living my day to day life in a second floor apartment I end up hiking up the stairs with laundry or groceries that are more then half my body weight and I can do this pretty easily. My brother has been vegan for 8 years and bikes 14 miles a day. Then you have people like Durian Rider (aka Harvey Jonestone) that are vegan athletes, ultra runners like Mike Arnstein, numerous upon numerous vegans that are obviously thriving.

You had me at cannibal!

-Great read.

I've been vegan for 10+ years, vegetarian for 5 years before that - always eating healthy, not one of the vegans who just eats pasta. Due to a year-long stint of nearly no sleep, high stress, and a departure from healthy eating (final year of college, working multiple jobs, sleeping 4 hours a night because that's all I had time for), I was diagnosed with hereditary Type 2 diabetes (no, I was not overweight). Graduated, lost the stressors, went back to healthy vegan eating, and sleeping regularly - my blood sugar is under control, I lost some weight, and once again feel great. I recently had a full panel of blood work done, and I'm not lacking in a single thing. There's nothing that could ever convince me that I need meat in my diet. Eating the right amounts of the right foods (well balanced), exercise, living stress-free and sleeping well agree with me.
I do believe that everyone's body is different, and some can't function properly eating vegan. I couldn't handle meat/dairy. After I went vegan, all of my multiple allergies went away, I could handle being outdoors again without feeling like I would die, I lost a few pounds (from cutting out the dairy that I had been overdoing), my skin looked better, and I no longer get horrible menstrual cramps (but am as regular as regular can be - no skipped months here). I am healthy. It's not for everyone, but eating meat isn't for everyone either. there is no perfect diet that suits everyone's needs - but I'm sure that the typical SAD diet isn't proper for anyone.

My husband was a card-carrying PETA member and vegetarian since the age of 15 when I met him in his 32nd year. Obviously, he eschewed it for ethical reasons. Being Dutch, he certainly grew up eating lots of meat and he missed eel and herring the most.

I'm from Texas myself, and having one of the most outrageous metabolisms on the planet (see my website), I was not at all interested in such a diet. Also, I was born and raised in an agricultural community, so I knew that it was possible to farm animals humanely and felt it was important to support such farms.

I have always had a difficult time maintaining my weight even within the range of 30 pounds below average for my height, but over the first several years of our marriage I found myself losing even more ground and frequently struggling to stay above 40 pounds underweight. This was for the simple fact that it was easier for us to share meals, and since my husband was that rare breed of vegetable-hating vegetarian, this was generally an awfully poor meal in terms of nutrition. Lots of pasta/carbs (which I simply burn, and he stores as fat), fake meats, etc.

Because we both work within the field of life extension science we always keep up on dietary news and supporting evidence for health claims of particular diets. By last year the evidence in favor of a primal diet was so overwhelming that my husband quit vegetarianism...after 21 years. And he is definitely feeling and looking all the better for it.

Things weren't so straightforward for me. After a couple of months on a quite low-carb paleo diet (again...sharing meals), I had an alarming cardiac event during which my blood pressure (usually around 100/65) spiked to 200/100 and I developed an ongoing case of heart palpitations which did not stop until I added carbs back into my diet. Which makes sense, if you consider my extreme metabolism. Now I make sure to get plenty of "good" (complex) carbs and have started weight training in order to give the protein I consume something to do. I am currently about 25 lbs underweight and still making great progress in building muscle. Most importantly, I feel incredible and have not had any further scary cardiac events.

Just remember: NO DIET is one-size-fits-all. Please, get to know your body and what it needs. If you can afford to do so, guide your efforts with frequent blood work in order to determine what your deficiencies are instead of supplementing something because you're "supposed" to. And try to correct deficiencies through natural means (diet, sun exposure, etc.) alone before supplementing. And you know, all the usuals that really ARE good for everyone -- avoid chronic, unrelenting stress, get plenty of exercise, and adequate sleep. Your body and brain will thank you.

I have been a vegetarian for 2 years so far i feel just fine....i think the vegetarians/vegans you are talking about are doing it wrong. Im sure everything you saying is a fact but i learned to replace B12 and other vitamins im missing, i am a healthy vegetarian and im working on bieng vegan. You just have to do it right or dont do it at all. I wont ever eat meat again main reason for the treatment of animals and i want to make the environment better.

Ex-vegetarian here, 17 years, 3 of them vegan.

Things went great for me until I turned 30 years old, then it was just continuous, unstoppable weight gain. Eventually I became pre-diabetic and was continually exhausted.

I started eating meat and my weight stabilized and I regained a bit of vitality, but did not burn off any fat.

Then I started using a blood sugar meter regularly and saw that I respond poorly to carbohydrates of any form, not to mention alcohol.

Now I am on a high-fat diet largely-consisting of butter, egg yolks, liver, 100% chocolate, mushrooms, and spinach with little bits of things like bell peppers and berries. My blood sugar has fallen back to healthy levels, I am losing fat rapidly while maintaining strength, and I have tons of energy like I felt back in my 20s.

So commenters have mentioned both autophagy and hormesis as processes of death eating itself (reapsorption and eliminating tumors, cancers etc.). I have read about autolysis too. I'm not going to ask what is the difference, because I have just googled it and have to yet read it. What I want to say is that this is a veeery interesting subject and I think that it should be paid more attention by all of us. It may be mother nature's most supreme cure.