In a recent post, I wrote about the “Healthy at Any Size” movement and how it is not only wrong but potentially harmful. A positive attitude and self-esteem certainly contribute to a healthy life, but no one is metabolically healthy just by thinking positive thoughts.
Today I want to talk about another politically charged health topic: “plant-based” diets. First, I find it curious that the two most popular diets in America right now are plant-based and keto. The first is generally devoid of animal fat and low in protein. The other is almost exclusively those things.
Talk about polarization!
Many people eat a plant-based diet because they think it’s healthier to do so. They’re wrong, but that’s something I’ll write about in a future post. Here I’ll just point out that the Food Pyramid is heavy on the plant products, and the obesity rate in the U.S. has quadrupled since its adoption.
Others eat a plant-based diet because they think doing so will “save the planet.” Because cows fart, and farts are methane, and methane is bad, etc. First, the world population of beef cattle has been dropping since the 1970’s, as you can see from the graphic. Second, both natural wetlands and rice farms produce more methane.
So nyah.
But I don’t even really care about these minutiae. Environmentalists sure as hell aren’t going to support paving over our majestic wetlands, and rice farming isn’t going anywhere. I tend to take a when in doubt, zoom out approach to such things, so let’s zoom out a bit. Actually, let’s zoom out a lot:
The earth rotates at over 1000 mph, revolves around the sun at more than 66,000 mph, and our galaxy rotates at more than 467,000 mph. In short, we live on a gyroscope hurling us around at speeds the human mind can barely grasp. But wait, there’s more! Our galaxy (along with the other 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe alone) is flying through an immeasurable void at over 2,160,000 mph.
And no one knows why.
I respectfully submit that loading your Prius with all the non-GMO kale Whole Foods has to offer will not affect the outcome.
Thanks for reading,
Dan
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