Are Plants Food?
“Plants aren’t born food?” the commenter says. Another commenter says “we aren’t plants”. Another commenter says “we’re made of protein and fats”. Yet, if the plants were gone the animals would die; yet, if the animals died the plants would continue to flourish. However, they do benefit from being consumed because this helps propagate them via the seeds in the feces of animals. Eating plants is at the crux of the cycle of life, not eating animals. Plants are at the heart of the carbon cycle. They make all animal life possible.
CARBOHYDRATES
Plants transfer the carbon that makes up over half of your substance. You are more carbon and water than anything and that is what plants are made of (CarboHydrates). The air you breath comes from plants (oxygen from photosynthesis) and the carbon we exhale (from the plants we eat) is sequestered by plants. And with the help of the sun, plants produce the glucose the trillions of cells in your body use for respiration (energy). And glucose is the most important fuel source on the planet! Hydrologic and Carbon Cycles
It should make sense then why the Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine, and National Academies recommends more Carbohydrates than Fats or Proteins.
| Macronutrient | Range (percent of energy) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Children, 1–3 y | Children, 4–18 y | Adults | |
| Fat | 30–40 | 25–35 | 20–35 |
| n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acidsa (linoleic acid) | 5–10 | 5–10 | 5–10 |
| n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acidsa (α-linolenic acid) | 0.6–1.2 | 0.6–1.2 | 0.6–1.2 |
| Carbohydrate | 45–65 | 45–65 | 45–65 |
| Protein | 5–20 | 10–30 | 10–35 |
PROTEIN
With the help of bacteria plants fix nitrogen to create the amino acids we call protein. All come protein comes from plants! Plants are were all amino acids (protein) originate from! Animals instead come with excessive amounts of branch chained and sulfur containing amino acids that recirculate into the blood stream. And these amino acids may be the culprit behind various cancers and inflammatory diseases like the leading causes of death; cardiometabolic diseases (heart diseases, diabetes, and neurodegenerative diseases). Nitrogen Cycle
FIBER
Plant fibers remove toxins, excess hormones and cholesterol. The fibers ferment into beneficial short chain fatty acids that are healthful for the cells in your colon. And all this comes from exclusively from plants! Plus plants on average are 64 times more antioxidant rich and they don’t produce the oxidative inflammatory reaction that animals do.
Dietary cholesterol only comes from animals and is oxidized which is inflammatory. It cannot be removed like other fats through Animals on the other hand rot (or more scientifically accurate “putrefy”) in the colon. And animal flesh & secretions cause colon cancer, other cancers, and other chronic diseases that result in premature death. Top 14 Causes of Death
FATS
Plants have the perfect fats like the omega 3’s that are plentiful and easy to get from plants. Without even trying, just eating whole plant foods may be enough. But, a small handful of walnuts will also most likely equate to an adequate amount even when accounting for low conversion. Or a couple of table spoons of ground flax. If you’re concerned get tested. Some people lack intrinsic factor to convert ALA properly. Animals have toxic fats like trans fats which are banned except for in animals, saturated fats which are correlated with various chronic diseases and premature death, omega 6’s which are thought to bring down mood and cause inflammation, palmitic acids that may contribute to cancer metastasize. There is utterly, profoundly no logic in your stance for consuming animals.
CHILDREN
The sooner children are vegan the better, more protective eating plant based will be for them. Because associations were “stronger among younger participants, among participants with a longer duration of adherence to a vegetarian diet, and among men relative to women. In particular, the most recent meta-analysis found a 22% (95% CI: 12%–31%) lower rate of stroke mortality among vegetarian men relative to their omnivore counterparts”. Plant Based Diets on Cardiovascular Health
Further evidence shows phytoestrogens from soy being more protective if consumption started early in life and continued throughout life. This video on An Overview of Science of Nutrition talks about it around the 30:30 minute mark.
Diets low in saturated fats (less animal fat more plant fat) “introduced in infancy and maintained during the first decade of life is associated with enhanced endothelial function“. And this video talks about it further, “Heart Disease Starts in Childhood“. Furthermore, “children are now getting disorders like adult-onset diabetes. Teenagers, starting out their lives with a chronic disease“. And if you care about your kids you’ll stop serving them meat. “”Our children are seven times more likely to develop a brain tumor eating just a single hot dog a week than using a cell phone. In fact, if our children insist on wanting to be Oscar Mayer wieners, they are multiplying their odds of getting childhood leukemia by 950%.” NutritionFacts.org
Cancers
“Diet, obesity, and metabolic syndrome are very much linked to various cancers and may account for as much as 30–35% of cancer deaths, indicating that a reasonably good fraction of cancer deaths can be prevented by modifying the diet. Extensive research has revealed that a diet consisting of fruits, vegetables, spices, and grains has the potential to prevent cancer (Fig. 8). The specific substances in these dietary foods that are responsible for preventing cancer and the mechanisms by which they achieve this have also been examined extensively. Various phytochemicals have been identified in fruits, vegetables, spices, and grains that exhibit chemopreventive potential (Fig. 9), and numerous studies have shown that a proper diet can help protect against cancer (46, 67–69). Below is a description of selected dietary agents and diet-derived phytochemicals that have been studied extensively to determine their role in cancer prevention.”
It’s no wonder that we’re so perfectly adapted to eating plants when we allow ourselves to be. And that the medicines people take come from plants. The animals people eat get their nutrients FROM PLANTS. Human breast milk more closely resembles the nutrient profile of plants. Even evidence about our ancient ancestors shows we’ve been starch based for 100’s of thousands of years if not millions. Early Evidence of Eating Starch and more recently Carbs Made Big Brains
More resources:
This list will be growing. This page started on 7/19/2021 as an attempt to collect my thoughts into one location. This will make it easier to respond to the pervasive lack of knowledge about this subject evidenced in the comment section of videos and social media posts.
Cancer is a Preventable Disease
New Research Shows Plant Based Diet May Reduce Risk of Atherosclerosis
Meat and Fish Consumption and Cancer
