[nikolay]

I am an Eastern Orthodox Christian, and about a third of the year, we're vegan. Even after giving enough time for enzymatic adaptation and soaking beans the proper way and changing the water at least 3 times (imagine the footprint!), and following all the proper steps, I still cannot digest well beans and lentils, and other plant foods without significant discomfort. If I don't feel well after eating plant foods, I cannot believe it's good for my body! The constant bloating and pain do not occur when I am on the omnivore diet and when those foods are not the main course but are eaten in small quantities. So, maybe for some people, given the specifics of their ancestry and adaptation, the vegan diet is good, but it's not for me. I cannot imagine having no quality dairy in my life (I don't eat surrogates and stress on quantity, not quality), and I don't have issues with gluten like others do, but I don't overeat carbs. I don't feel nutritionally satisfied when eating large amounts of pasta or rice, and I cannot imagine how these carb-heavy foods are better for the environment than traditionally raised cattle. The moral aspect of eating meat is complex: what's better - to raise farm animals humanely and allow them to be alive or not allow them to ever exist? Even in nature, those animals would have been eaten by carnivores - I don't see myself eating a cat, but I do eat prey animals.

[myshpa]

Our diets are the culprit of your digestive problems, imho. It's not something you cannot change. Humans are slowly losing their ability to digest fiber, and the bloating & pain is there, because your digestive track is not accustomed to high-fiber foods.

Solution is not to avoid fiber, but to add it to your diet progressively. There is a plethora of health problems connected to the lack of fiber in one's diet. I've found that's best to start adding it after few days of water fast, when the "bad bacteria" is weakened.

I don't feel satistied after rice too (and don't eat almost no pasta), I think that fiber & some proteins are necessary for satiety when on plant-based diet.

> soaking beans the proper way and changing the water at least 3 times (imagine the footprint!)

"The amount of water used for meat production in just 35 hours could provide drinking water for everyone on earth for a year." [0]

> I cannot imagine how these carb-heavy foods are better for the environment

Plant based food are. There is enough evidence and scientific consensus.

> what's better - to raise farm animals humanely and allow them to be alive or not allow them to ever exist

We've stolen living space from wild animals and decreesed their diversity - 100 years ago humans and cattle were 2% of weight of the total biomass of land mammals. Now it's about 96%. [0] In other words, we've destroyed the natural habitat and countless animal species, with tens of thousands more threatened by extincion, and replaced them with farm animals, just for our food preferences. [1]

> Even in nature, those animals would have been eaten by carnivores - I don't see myself eating a cat, but I do eat prey animals.

Without us there would not be so many farm animals (obviously). The lion has no other option than to eat other animals. We've got plenty options ourselves, just the will and/or knowledge is missing.

[0] https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/consumption/foods-... - Meat production water usage [1] https://xkcd.com/1338/ - Land mammals [2] https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets [3] https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production