How devastating would the news be for you if your doctor told you that you need to eat a vegan diet in order to live healthfully?

Very devastated. I tried going vegan in university for a month , and I got sick and lost a lot of weight. Nearly killed me. If someone made sure that I was ok and eating well then everything is ok.

I would be sad for not being able to enjoy more food, but it wouldn’t be so bad. I have a taste for vegetarian food anyway.

I grew up in Texas and ate beef at least 5 days a week. Thanks to my dad’s best friend, owner of a major beef packing company, my family had our choice of only the finest cuts, far better than anything the stores were selling at the time. I loved beef.

Nonetheless, I started cutting my red beef intake years ago for health reasons, so cutting it out altogether wouldn’t be devastating at all—just a bit annoying until I got used to a vegan diet.

One can get used to any kind of diet if a doctor says do it or die.

It would be rough. I was vegan for about 8 months and I didn’t thrive. Within days of reintroducing eggs and dairy my health improved rather dramatically. I don’t want to have to go down that weakening road again.
I have no objections to the practice, I just happen to be someone who is not healthy as a vegan.

Vegetarianism would be hard but not terrible for me; veganism would be harder. I do love cheese and ice cream. But if my life depended on it, I could do it.

I would be left almost speechless. I could only look at him/her and say, “When can I move in?”

No problem, as long as it’s not cancer.

I’m not giving up my meat, cram it doc. I want a second opinion. And even that wont phase me, I’m gonna die anyway.

I’m a carnivore. I do like a good steak, plus I like cheese and eggs. I wouldn’t be happy.

Since I’m on a low-carbs diet it would be very hard.

Meat, cheese, eggs, fish and butter are what I eat. Veggies and some fruit.

I’d get a new doctor, because I know for a certainty that he’s wrong. A vegan diet is the most likely to be unhealthy. A correctly balanced diet for humans should have a whole lot more fats and protein than most vegan diets are likely to provide. Any doctor who doesn’t know that is just misinformed.

@CWOTUS

There are some people with certain illnesses that can’t process meat or fiber without serious after effects. That was part of my hypothetical question

I would by a handgun. I don’t actually eat much meat. But OMFG if I couldn’t eat cheese.

I would be totally undevestated. New doctors are a dime a dozen. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting one.

(and Jeebus Christmas, @johnpowell…..we’re using handguns to defend our cheese now ?)

@PullMyFinger Great right wing talking point – If good guys don’t have guns, only mice will have guns. When seconds count, your cat is minutes away.

I could do it I don’t eat a lot of meat as it is, but…. I wouldn’t be happy about it.
Also, there is no way I am giving up cheese, let the arteries clog I don’t care. Ya gotta die of something might as well be good food. That’s my thought on the matter. haha

Since this is hypothetical, I’m answering not as if I’m looking for a second opinion, which I would be pursuing if it were a true situation.

I love my daily Greek vanilla yogurt with added fresh fruit and walnuts, so that would be very sad to give up. I guess I could find a vegan alternative. Milk in coffee, milk in ice cream….. I also love cheese. Cheese and crackers, cream cheese on a bagel or on toast with walnuts. Eggs are in a lot of things I eat and once in a while, I’ll have hardboiled eggs. Add to this giving up meat, it would be quite a change and difficult to say the least.

Wait a second. This would mean that I couldn’t go to Menchies anymore ??

No, no.

No-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-NO !!

If there was a block of Cheddar and my mom next to each other and I was forced to shoot one.

Lets just say I wouldn’t be shopping for a casket for a quasadilla.

We recently started on a largely vegetarian diet to help lower cholesterol, and it isn’t that bad. We have meat two or three times a week, and I’m trying to cut back even more.

Healthfully? Haha, is that even a word?

My dad was told that very thing. He was part of a study 27ish years ago when he had his heart bypass. It had to do with the Ornish diet.

In my mind I believe strongly I would be much better off in a vegan diet. I’ve never done it 100%, but I’ve gone through stints where I come close, trying to be really good about it at home, but cheating in restaurants. I wish I had genes where it didn’t matter so much what I ate.

Right now the only cheat at home is a little skim milk here and there, and egg whites a couple of times a week, and a taste/bite when I prepare a meat dish from scratch for my husband to check the seasoning if need be. Depends what I’m cooking.

My sister has been vegan for humane reasons for over 30 years. She initially tried to avoid leather goods also, but that proved to be too hard to do 100%. She does opt for nonleather when possible.

@JLeslie was your dad benefitted in any way?

^^His cholesterol number went way down. He also started taking statin drugs, so the number is a little convoluted. This was many years ago as I said. Ornish basically proved you can reverse some of the crap clogging your arteries with a very strict diet.

My dad now does eat skim dairy products and egg whites/egg beaters. He cheats in little bits here and there on his current diet regimen, but sticks to it fairly well. He still takes statins.

He had bypass surgery at age 46. He was short of breath doing his regular walk from his parking space to the front door of his workplace building. He mentioned it to a friend, and the friend urged him to go to the doctor ASAP. The doctor gave him a stress test, and not more than a couple of minutes into it they made my dad stop, the wouldn’t let him finish the stress test. Then into angiogram, and he had over 70% occlusion in the widow maker artery.

The surgeon wanted to use a piece of mammary artery for the bypass, but his were to clogged, so he had the typical leg vein used for the surgery to reroute the blood flow around the heart. Arteries are nice, because they are wider.

The surgeon said since my dad was so young when he developed heart disease he would likely need more intervention, more surgery, within about 12 years. Like I said, this was over 25 years ago.

Two years ago he did have a stint put in, but that was the first “heart” surgery since the original he had at age 46. Ten years ago he was assigned a new Primary Care doctor, and this doctor thought to listen to his neck. No one had been doing it! I call this negligence. Anyway, they scheduled a sonogram right away, he had one carotid very blocked. They did an MRI to see how well his blood circles from one side of the brain to the other (called the Circle of Willis, and only about a ⅓ of the population has an extremely well functioning one from what I understand) his was perfect.

Anyway, when they had him in surgery to clean out the one carotid artery that was so very blocked up, they found it to be over 90% blocked, and afraid that a piece might break off and cause a stroke, they chose to completely tie off that artery. If it had been caught earlier, he would still have two functioning carotids.

I absolutely believe his mostly vegetarian diet has extended his life, along with the statin drugs. I think if he was still a vegan it would be even better. He is overweight, has been since I was a young child, his mom died in her early 50’s from a heart attack, and he ate terribly as a young person, and young adult, without much exercise for many years. Plus, he smoked for over 20 years.

When I eat vegan my cholesterol drops 60–70 points. Maybe it would be more if I did it longer term, I don’t know.

I couldn’t be “devastated” because I wouldn’t believe him. And we are non-compliant patients anyway. I’d consider cutting back on meat even more, possibly, but yeah; I’d get a second opinion and make him look like a dope around his colleagues. haha

I would be fine on a vegan diet. I’d be sorry to give up cheese and yogurt. I like cooking poultry & fish & steaks for family meals & dates, but for myself I’d be happy without.

I suppose I could eat a vegan diet if the laws were changed to permit the killing, butchering and eating of vegans. But I’ll need some recipes.

@CWOTUS Fava beans and a nice Chianti. LOL

Vegan food is absolutely amazing and so much better than other foods in my opinion. But I’m from Los Angeles where everyone is health and beauty conscious.

It’s more of a state of mind being vegan. Once you get that state of mind, it becomes easier. You won’t even think or want to pollute your body with other foods.

Not very. As long as I can still eat chocolate?