I have lots of vegetarian friends. I hold no complaint to people who take the vegetarian way of life (or even the vegan way of life), but as with all things I believe a skeptical eye is key. Making the decision to stop eating meat for reasons of personal preference, dislike for the meat industry, sustainability, or any number of reasons are absolutely valid choices. Me, I’m trying (badly) to eat a lot more vegetation simply because I recognize that my diet has for too long been too focused on pasta and meat. But the idea of saying goodbye to meat completely just doesn’t seem like one I’m willing to make.

So I’m not actually debunking the idea of vegetarianism, but I wanted to post a link to this article on Science-Based Medicine about a book called The China Study: Startling Implications For Diet, Weight Loss, And Long-Term Health. It was a book that evaluated a rather huge data set and made claim that a vegetarian diet was one that would prevent or cure the vast majority of diseases. As the author, Harriet Hall, states, she had reviewed the book initially and had some issues with it, but left the in-depth combing of the data to others. Now that combing has been done, and it would appear that the book suffers from a bit of confirmation bias on the part of the author.

I particularly suggest my vegetarian and vegan friends read the article by Dr. Hall and the evaluation of data that inspired it. I am in no way suggesting that your lifestyle choice is wrong, but simply that some of the things you may believe about the health impacts of your decision may not quite be entirely accurate. That doesn’t mean I’m asking you to start eating meat, just that you should (as should I and all others) be aware of the impacts your diet has on your health one way or the other.

If I sound like I’m tip-toeing around a bit, it’s not intended that way. I have no trouble bashing vegetarians when they are obnoxious to me about the horribleness of my decision to continue to eat meat. However, in this case I see no reason to be a cock. Most of the vegetarians I know are fantastic people who do not make their politics my problem, and I present this to them in the interest of sharing new information. To those vegetarians and vegans who are jerks about it, you can instead cram this study up your cram-hole, ya carrot-eating mudkip.

Jim