I don’t know how things work for you. Is naturism / nudism you do/live without other thoughts or ‘consequences’?
I found that my affection for naturism also affected my preference for food.
Vegetarianism
A long time ago (over 20 years) I became a vegetarian. It felt like the right thing to do. If my lifestyle is naturism (which includes health and care for the environment for me), eating more healthy things is a logical thing to do. If you think that eating a big steak and lots of gravy is healthy for you, sure, go ahead. I decided that meat and fish were not helping me at all, after a period of experimenting with different kinds of food.
In fact, not eating animal products made me feel better. A blood test I had done a few years after starting that, showed that cholesterol didn’t stand a chance inside me. “It’s going away before it’s actually there,” the medical professional told me, as I heard the results of the test. Nice, right? Add to that a lot of feeling good, and I was set for life.
So I thought.
Going vegan.
A few years ago I decided to cut out diary products too. Step by step. I don’t believe in big bang deployments when it comes to my health. A body is used to certain things, and getting used to them no longer being there is allowed to take time. That also helped me in keeping an eye on myself.
Did I still feel healthy? Good? Worse? Better?
Over time everything related to animal food items vanished and I kept feeling good. Not actually better, but that wasn’t the goal. Yes, I was going vegan, full on.
I still feel great.
The awareness that I don’t add to the suffering of animals, that are bred and killed for my food adds to that feeling. The idea that people need meat to be healthy and big and strong has gone up in smoke for me a long time ago.
Believe it or not, but there are bodybuilders and other strong people, who thrive on a vegan diet.
Or what about Mr Arnold Schwarzenegger?
Arnold Schwarzenegger is 99% vegan
And is the star of my 100% favourite Christmas film, Jingle All The Way. The 72-year-old action legend has been living on a meat and dairy-free diet for the past three years, only making very few exceptions regarding his food intake and usually when filming. Arnie’s new vegan menu is a far cry from his competitive bodybuilding days when he consumed a diet consisting mostly of tuna, meat, eggs and chicken to build muscle mass.
Environment and animals
The longer I’m following the vegan food style, the more I’m becoming aware of what’s being done to animals and our planet. I’m not going to go on about that here, this is not the place. If you’re curious, there are places like Google, Bing, Startpage and DuckDuckGo that can help you find out more. If you do, let me tell you: it ain’t pretty.
You may think that skipping meat is bad for you. If you think so, and you don’t want to change, what can I say.
But if you’re not that ‘traditional’, try to go meat and fish-free for one day per week. Just give it a go. Try something vegetarian or, for the brave, vegan, once a week. Twice a week? You might like it. It might surprise you.
Curious? Have a look at https://veganuary.com, for a 30 day trial. Get some ideas. And hopefully, get convinced.
Have a great 2022, and thank you for reading all the way to here.
I’m not much of a meat eater myself. When I’m short on time and energy I find skipping the meat makes meal time much easier.
My mother is a retired R.D. (Registered Dietician / gepruefte Diaetassistentin?) and I recall her saying that humans are designed to be omnivores. There are a few amino acids, enzymes, etc. we cannot produce from plant sources alone. However, an egg or two per MONTH is a sufficient quantity of animal sources. So Arnold Schwartzenneger’s 1% from animal sources is probably way more than enough. With that stipulation I agree with your point. The old argument of “Look At our teeth. Humans are designed to eat meat” really doesn’t work.
I’m half Polish so I have that innate fear that the Dairy Police will show up at my door if my consumption of milk products drops below their legal threshold. I’m only half joking…..
But I did have one interesting thing happen to me about this. I had an arthroscopy shortly before having my mitral valve replaced. Afterward the head nurse asked me if I were a vegan. I laughed and said no, not at all. She told me my arteries were amazingly clear for an American of my age. I told her I consumed a huge amount of dairy products. She asked about meat and I told her very little because I’m too lazy to cook it; vegetarian is just easier and I usually use olive oil instead of butter. Her response was, “You’re another one”. Long story short, she told me she’d gotten into the habit of asking about diet whenever she had a patient whose arteries were surprisingly unclogged for his age. She stated that most of the people with super clear arteries are NOT vegetarian or vegan. They simply consume very little meat, egg yolks, and butter. She acknowledged that her observations fly in the face of all conventional wisdom but the fact remains….. that’s what she sees.
My cholesterol levels are fine, but I’ll be very depressed if they start climbing. Why? I consume so little meat that cutting it completely will probably have little effect.
I’m glad you feel good and you’re healthy, Anton.
Keep in mind that cholesterol levels have relatively little to do with meat consumption, or eggs.
That these are the sole (or even major) source of cholesterol has been debunked according to my doctors. In fact the whole idea of “high cholesterol” being bad is lately in question, especially the idea that ALL cholesterol is bad by definition (there are in fact multiple cholesterols, and traditionally these are all taken together when in fact what should be considered is the balance between them more than the individual levels, unless of course they’re all at extreme levels).
Thing is, it’s not really known what causes out of balance cholesterol levels, apart from that it’s something to do with an improperly functioning liver but what causes that malfunction is pretty much a question mark. My cholesterol levels are slightly elevated and have been for a decade, despite changing my diet quite radically to include a lot more meat and take out most root vegetables and grains.
May be the health issue is one that makes the difference between naturist and nudist. I consider myself nudist, I love a nice juicy steak and also seafood and fish even raw. And I also eat salads and vegetables mainly as side dishes.
I don’t think that food makes the difference between nudist or naturist. That’s merely the label someone likes to use.
Eating animals is your choice…
I’ve nothing against people being vegetarians, but I’ve serious problems with the near religious fervour they get into trying to force their belief system on the rest of the world.
The human body didn’t evolve to survive on a diet consisting solely of plant material, we’re not cows or goats after all.
In fact our brains would never have evolved to the size they have now without the ready availability of high energy animal protein as an important part of the diet, and would never have spread to colder climates without ready access to animal fats. And those needs still exist in the human body today, as becomes apparent from the masses of massively processed plant material that vegetarians tend to consume that are manufactured in order to be as close to animal proteins and fats as possible, products that are incredibly inflamatory and tend to cause severe digestive system problems in many people (me included).
I’ve said before, and I wasn’t joking, that the “ideal diet” promoted by “authorities” that’s an extreme vegan diet these days would kill me.
With food allergies to things like soy, coconut oil, and to some extent grains and many nuts in general, plus diabetes which turns sugars and starch into literal poisons for me a vegetarian, let alone vegan diet is deadly for me even in the short run.
I am very happy for you that there is more food than what I prefer.
Seriously.
I don’t want people dying from food.
A bit of a pickle is that I don’t want animals to die for someone’s food, but that’s my thing.
one of the best examples of an all round athelete who is proudly (and annoyingly to some) vegan is Clarence. He has a bunch of tumbling videos in parks for fun but is also a weight lifter and very strong but his tumbling is amazing, especially since he is male. Just search for ‘Clarence kennedy tricking/tumbling’
As for my personal transition to a more cruelty-free and healthy diet i will forever avoid all of these plant-based ‘meats’ for the chemicals and processing but even those of us whom for medical reasons, at least now rely on some animal products, the key is ethically sourcing, no wastage, and reducing consumption to the bare minimum and this is probably a good strategy for peeps who want to avoid a hard diet transition and introduce new vegan variety and learn how easy it can be to substitute meats.
if we all do a little bit at a time it makes a huge difference