- Hey, everyone. This is Klaus from Plant Based News. A couple of weeks ago, the popular YouTube channel
called What I've Learned put out a video called
Vegan Diets Don't Work. This is not a surprise,
given the channel has put out a number of videos recently
that are anti-vegan, but what was interesting about this video was that it featured many ex-vegans that've I've personally known. In this video, I'm going
to tell you the truth about these influences, how
they came out as ex-vegan, and why the plant-based
diets weren't sustainable. - Me and my family have
struggled with health on a vegan diet. - I am no longer following a vegan diet. - I found it very difficult
to maintain a healthy, plant-based diet. - I'm not vegan anymore. - For full transparency, I've been vegan for over 10 years. I first became interested
in the plant-based lifestyle after reading a book with the China Study, which showcased how the
longest-lived cultures historically consumed a
predominantly plant-based diet. I then started to look into the ethical and environmental reasons
for not eating animals, and then became a vegan. Through this journey, I've
had the opportunity to meet many of the content creators
that ditched their vegan diets. I've met people like Nicocado
Avocado, for instance, before he started this
fame-hungry, ex-vegan, downward health spiral, as well as people like Tim
Shieff and Brianna Jackson. But I would start with
Alex from CosmicSkeptic. He quit his vegan diet
a couple of months ago. He told his over 500,000 subscribers, via a YouTube community post, that he was reevaluating
his ethical position on eating animals, and had been consuming animal products again, primarily, but not exclusively, sea animals. More recently, he shared
a video elaborating on this decision, and
thankfully, we don't need to explain how you can get
all the nutrients you need while on this diet,
because he says it himself. - So people have been asking, well what's this magical nutrient,
that you can only get from an animal product, that
you can't get from plants? I want to clarify from the
start, there isn't one. Every nutrient that you need
to be healthy can be found in an adequately-planned,
plant-based diet. - Now, before we get into this properly, check out this short
clip from the interview I did with CosmicSkeptic
a couple of years ago, when he's was a vegan. - If human beings
anatomically, physiologically required animal protein or animal products for their health, for survival, would that make any of your
moral arguments less watertight? - No. No, I don't think so, because my argument is
essentially a conditional one. If we can avoid inflicting
torture, suffering upon an animal, then we should do so. - What's really interesting
is that since that interview, we see his language change. In his message where he revealed he was quitting the vegan lifestyle, for example, he refers to
sea animals as seafood, which is a simple, and
perhaps subconscious, attempt at distancing
himself from the fact that these animals are sentient beings. We see the same thing of Alyse,
another ex-vegan YouTuber previously known as Raw Alignment, where all of a sudden,
sentient cows become beef. - It's definitely in your best interest to source 100% grass-fed
and grass-finished beef. - And then also often,
fish and eggs are used as the gateway back into
non-vegan lifestyle. - I tried animal products,
some salmon and eggs. - Adding in fish and eggs, - Some eggs, and then that
evolved into wild-caught fish. - I'm eating my first egg today, - And it's not just online influences. Around the time Miley Cyrus unfollowed us, she also came out with this: - I've been, was vegan
for a very long time, and I've had to introduce
fish and omegas into my life, because my brain wasn't
functioning properly. I feel that I'm much- - [Interviewer] Slowed you down? - Now I'm so much sharper than I was, and I think that I was, at one point, pretty malnutrition, like, I- - The first night after I had that salmon, I had a wet dream. I hadn't ejaculated in months. - Yeah, well, when I hear
about these cases, or someone has, like, a single
serving a fish, you know, they're life just changes overnight. It's just physiologically,
not really possible. That screams to me, placebo effect. Even if there was something
they were missing in that food, you're just not going
to fix it that quickly. - Putting aside the stories of orgasms, and other stories that we hear, which by the way, I'm
not actually dismissing, but what I actually want to
know is, why do we always hear about the fish and eggs first? Well, fish are essentially
the polar opposite of us, and it can be hard for people to empathize with our scaly friends. Similarly, eggs seem
to be easily distanced from exploitation, as
we see Bonnie Rebecca emphasizing how important humane eggs are. - Here are the eggs that
I have at the moment. Usually I get them from the
farmer's markets, but if not, I get them from my local health food shop. And some things that I
obviously look out for is, organic free range, but also over here, they'll always tell you maximum
amount of hens per hectare. So 600 hens per hectare is
really good, and that's just something that I like to look out for, means that they have a lot of room, and it's a really ethical
humane conditions, so- - Now being completely
honest, many of us, or at least the majority of us, have probably had this romantic feeling that eggs can be ethical. Whether it's when we
go to a friend's house, and they've got backyard eggs, or whether we buy into the
humane egg marketing ploys. I just want to be super clear, eggs are always the
product of exploitation. The majority of chicks sold
to become backyard hens come from the same factories
that supply factory farms. This means the male counterpart
of every female chick born is shredded live on the first day of life, as they cannot be exploited for eggs. If the hatchery
misidentified the male chicks and they're sent out with the females, they'll likely be killed, just
a few weeks old, by the farm. And yes, this includes backyard
farms and homesteaders. This is well demonstrated
in this clip we found of a small backyard farmer
who hatches her own eggs, and similar sentiment is shared by a community in the comments - One of you two has been rejected. Who do you think it is? Wrong, it's you. You are staying, you are
staying, you are gone, sorry. Wasn't sure about you, but
I'm going to tip towards gone. So, gone. One of you two has been rejected. Who do you think it is? Wrong. - If this is what it boils down to, right? In nature, the wild ancestor chickens laid 10 to 20 eggs per year, just enough to ensure the continuation
of their species. But the chickens we
farm now have been been selectively bred and
genetically manipulated to produce up to 300 eggs every year. This puts a massive
burden on their bodies. It causes a host of
unavoidable health problems. Even if they are rescued,
they'll often die prematurely, because their bodies have
been genetically brutalized. But it goes one step
further, because the ethical and moral inconsistencies
among ex-vegans become apparent even before they go back
to consuming products. Take Alyse Parker, for
instance, who bought a dog from a breeder while still
claiming to be an ethical vegan. As we know, every purchase
from a breeder condemns a shelter dog to death, which
is definitively not in line with the principles of ethical veganism. We see a similar thing
of Bonnie Rebecca when, almost immediately after
going ex-vegan, she shows off an expensive kneel rug
and a feather-filled couch. If you stop being vegan for
your health, why wouldn't you continue to abstain from animal products in all other aspects of your life? Anyway, the next online
figure I want to talk about is John Venus. - Been amazing, you know,
this is what I'm about. Vegan fitness is what I do. So for me, it's like a mini
dream come true, for sure. - I always used to see him at events, and then a couple of years
ago, he made some videos about how the vegan
lifestyle is very dangerous. And then a year later, said it wasn't, and jumped back onto
plant-based lifestyle. So I'm not sure if he's vegan or not, but I remember seeing a
post of him, proudly shared on his Instagram, about
how he killed a reindeer. He described a process
of cutting, ripping, and breaking the animal's body. They claim the lifestyle
shift was due to concerns around children consuming
a plant-based diet. Is there any merit to that, though? - I mean, there are
some legitimate concerns around providing enough
calories to promote growth. When you look at, sort of, the
whole foods, plant-based diet approach, you know, no oil,
no added sugars, and whatnot, it can be challenging for a child with a pretty small stomach to consume enough calories to support their growth. And yeah, if they're undereating, we might see them run into issues. If we look at some of
the more recent studies like the Vichy Diet Study out
of Germany, you see that no, the kids, if they're eating
same amount of calories, or a similar amount of calories to their omnivorous counterparts, they're getting similar amount of protein. If anything, they have a
favorable micronutrient intake. They grow just fine. It's very compatible
with what we're seeing, out of the omnivores. If you look at the maybe few
kids who were growing at, say, a slower rate, perhaps
being qualified as stunted, they either had really short parents, or they were eating very,
very low amounts of calories. - Another thing we brought
up with Dr. Matthew Nagra is the observation that
a lot of these ex-vegans tend to go on extreme diets. - Something that I see a
lot in that sort of group, is that they'll go with a raw vegan diet, they'll do fasting. Once they start
incorporating animal foods, they'll go to the carnivore side, like, its never in the middle. - I think a good example is
Yovana Mendoza, who started off with raw veganism, even says herself, she took things to the extreme,
right from the beginning, naming herself Ravana. She centered a YouTube
channel around raw, oil-free, soy-free, gluten-free,
quote-unquote cleansing recipes for weight loss, and
even extreme water fast. Three years in, she realized
a raw vegan diet just wasn't sustainable for
her, started incorporating cooked foods, which is great
to see, because cooked foods like legumes are extremely
beneficial for our health. - In fact, we have, over
the last about a year or so, we've had two meta-analyses
of prospective cohorts suggesting that legume
consumption can lower the risk of cardiovascular disease,
and all-cause mortality, with the benefits being seen up to, even about 400 grams a week. But yeah, legumes,
excellent source of protein, excellent source of minerals and fiber on a plant-based diet. And so I would really advise, you know, anyone on a plant-based diet,
to try to incorporate them. - [Narrator] Alyse Parker
also went raw vegan overnight, and over the years, tried
every extreme version of a plant-based diet,
including high carb, low fat, high fat, no carb, and water fast. - Today I'm going to be sharing with you what I'm eating, a full
What I Eat In A Day. - One of you back at a
partner, also initially on the raw 'til four train,
which is a high raw diet popularized by Freely the Banana Girl. Then we have Tim Shieff. - I tried whole food, plant-based, I tried like high carb diet, which was the main one for athletes. I tried high fat vegan,
I tried junk food vegan, and tried eating with no guilt. And then I got into other
things, like urine therapy, which for me, as the human
who living that experience, I felt benefits from it for years. - It's important to say that Tim Shieff has been coming back onto
the plant-based diet, after a couple of years as an ex-vegan. But the point is, he
highlights yet another person who's tried lots of different,
restrictive versions of a plant-based diet,
and then had some trouble. - I've done a lot of
crazy things in my life, but I haven't eaten only meat for 30 days. - [Narrator] That was
Alyse Parker, and she's one of the many ex-vegans who
jump from vegan to carnivore. In my opinion, the carnivore
diet is the most extreme form of the elimination diet,
because you're eating entirely flesh, which is
similar to human flesh I eat, or am made up of. So some people with extreme allergy issues have found it beneficial
in the short term, but there's no long term
data on this unsustainable, unethical path in eating. And here's the really key thing. A lot of people use the
carnivore diet as a halo effect to justify all forms of
animal product consumption. Take Alyse Parker, for
example, who ate bacon, a class one carcinogen,
daily during this challenge. It's pretty ironic then, that
she claims grass-fed beef impacts your body differently
than factory-farmed beef, which is sentiment we
hear from most non-vegans. - I made a point to learn
about the importance of meat quality, and how much
of an impact it can make, both on our health, and the environment. - Yeah, there are a lot
of grandiose claims made about the, like, grass-fed
organic meat and that, and when it comes to health,
I mean, we know, at least with a fair degree of certainty,
some of the main components of red meat, in particular,
that are harmful. We know that the saturated fat content, perhaps the dietary
cholesterol content injury, perhaps the heme iron, as
well, it can be, you know, increasing risk of chronic diseases, like cardiovascular diseases,
colorectal cancer and so on. And those are going to be inherent to grass-fed products, as well. Now, if you're having
really lean cuts, yeah, the lower its saturated fat, perhaps the fat content
is a little bit different in grass-fed options, versus conventional. But you're not getting rid of all of that. And we have multiple
substitution analyses now, where you, where they model
what it would look like to replace relatively small
amount of animal protein. Let's say, what, 3% of
calories from red meat protein, in particular, with plant protein. And we see reductions in risk of cardiovascular disease
mortality, all-cause mortality. And that's independent of the
fatty acid and fiber content. One of the biggest benefits of
switching from meat to, say, a plant protein source would
be the increase in fiber, and the decrease in saturated fat, possibly the increase
in polyunsaturated fat, depending on which sources you're using. Yet they essentially removed
that from those analyses, that we still see a significant benefit. - So moving on, another thing
we hear from Alyse Parker is that the carnivore diet
helped with digestion. - The digestion was
honestly, totally fine. In fact, it was way better
than when I was vegan. - Some people do notice,
at least in the short term, some improvements in symptoms, especially gut-related symptoms, when
adopting a carnivore diet, I think is totally because
it is an elimination diet. If something is affecting you, and you're eliminating
most things, chances are, you're going to hit whatever
it is that is bothering you. People will suggest, well, I
feel great, I'm in great shape, therefore, this diet is healthy. And they're looking at
that short-term, say, bump in their health. But that doesn't say us,
doesn't tell us anything about long-term health. Not at all. I mean, you can look at smoking. Smoking might make someone
feel good in the temporary, but it doesn't lead to
better health outcomes. You can talk about hard drugs, too. People feel pretty good
when they're doing them, doesn't lead to a lot better
long-term health outcomes. We shouldn't be extrapolating
these short-term improvements in symptoms, perhaps
that aren't even related to chronic disease to, oh,
this is going to be fine for me over the next 30, 40, 50 years. - What are your thoughts? Do you think it might be
more than a coincidence that these popular ex-vegans have so many behaviors in common? - How many ex-vegans do you
know who ate a balanced, two and a half thousand
calorie diet per day, who develop sibo, or other gut issues? How many vegans do you know
who develop pathogenic bacteria in their guts, without
drinking their own piss? - So what do you think,
when I get asked about this, I normally tell people two things. Number one, the longest-lived
cultures, historically, consumed a nearly
exclusively plant-based diet. Number two, the largest
dietetic associations in the world saying
exclusively vegan diet is nutritionally adequate
for all stages of life. - So the one thing I
really want to stress is, that if you're struggling
with your health, seek out professional
care, work with the doctor, get a diagnosis, hopefully, and then you can work on improving that. If that needs to be
done through nutrition, then work with a nutrition
professional, like a dietician. You can perhaps get a
referral from your doctor. When you're going to,
you know, social media for your health concerns, or Googling, you're going to go down
all sorts of rabbit holes, going to essentially be
shooting in the dark. There isn't a need, as
far as I'm concerned, to start eating animal products again. I haven't seen a condition where that would absolutely be necessary. Sure, there are conditions
where it's, perhaps, more difficult, in which case, yeah, professional guidance
might be the way to go. But again, just get that diagnosis, and work with professional. I just can't reiterate that enough.
