We all know that our diets these days are loaded with toxic chemical poisons that do all sorts of really nasty damage to us. We all want to limit those chemicals as much as possible. So, below we will take a look at the main culprits one by one and how prevalent they are in the vegan diet.
To answer the question in the title though, no, vegans will typically not consume as many harmful poisons as a traditional western diet and the multitude of reasons why will become evident below as we unfold each one at a time.
Be sure to read each of the sub-headlines to see if you’re interested in any of the specific topics, as these are some of the most commonly asked questions on the web and you may find few that you’d like to discover the answer to as well.
This is part 1 of a 2 part article. For part 2 click here!
Do Vegans Get As Many Pesticides In Their Diet?
Overall, there could be instances where they get just as many ‘total’ pesticides as a traditional diet, but this answer on the surface is not what it seems.
Vegans tend to consume a lot more organic produce, organic produce still has some pesticides on it, just that they are natural pesticides and not the ones that rot out your liver.
Vegans need to wash there produce too. Gone are the days when you could walk out back of your own house and have multiple fruit trees, berry bushes and a big garden.
That lifestyle still does exist for a few people, but for most that’s just a nostalgic memory.
In those days you knew exactly what was on every tree and every plant, because if it was there, you put it there. Now however, there is a chemical cocktail waiting for you every time you eat.
It’s not just the chemicals sprayed on just the apple you’re eating, it’s what happens when you combine them with the strawberries and cherries you’re eating and the lettuce in your salad.
On top of that, you used chemical dish soap to clean up with and some de-greaser spray for the stove top and then the chemicals in your laundry soap that are leaching into your skin along with the shampoo you used earlier.
All these things go into your body and combine to form new things.
Then you mix it with auto exhaust, paint fumes, carpet glue fumes and over 100 others you aren’t even aware of in your everyday life, and you start having the recipe for problems.
This is why eating as clean and organic as you can is so important. If you could just remove half of the chemicals you’re exposed to, then you could potentially stop thousands of reactions in the body as these chemicals meet and reform into new ones.
Does A Vegan Diet Contain As Many Steroids As Meat Eaters?
No. Typically the steroids you find in your diet are going to be administered to the animals to make them grow bigger for slaughter.
Since vegans don’t eat animals, and since there would be no reason to inject a cherry tomato with testosterone, then no, vegans typically don’t get near the levels of steroids in their diets.
In fact, other than incredibly low traces that are found everywhere, you would likely be hard pressed to find steroids of any kind in a vegan diet.
Does A Vegan Diet Contain Antibiotics Like A Meat Eaters?
Antibiotics are typically administered to animals especially when living in close quarters, such as chickens being raised 8 to a 4 foot by 4 foot container. They will generally put the antibiotics right into the feed so they are getting a low dose of that stuff all the time.
With chickens in such tight quarters, they have to de-beak them (cut off their beaks) otherwise the when the chickens go insane they start pecking at each other and causing wounds.
They still peck at each other, but with their beaks gone they have a hard tome injuring each other.
Pigs, cows and others are given large amounts of antibiotics when they are transferred to the feed lots before being slaughtered. This is because they will many times be standing in several feet deep piles of their own poop and pee.
When they are like that, any small injury where it breaks the skin is a recipe for infection, so they just dose them all on antibiotics because they are so cheap.
Over 65% of all antibiotics used in the US today are for animal food production. The others are for pets, humans, experimentation, some are used to prep lab utensils etc.
However, yes, you read that right. Over 65% are just for growing animals as food.
So, if you for one second don’t think that those antibiotics end up in the foods that most people eat, then you need to look at a few content studies. WW
We know that these antibiotics cause immeasurable harm to our environment, our drinking water that they leach into, our bodies microbiome that represents the majority of the matter of our entire bodies and our immune systems.
This is nut’s and it’s got to stop.
Many cities have found these antibiotics in their water supplies even after treatment.
Does A Vegan Diet Contain As Many Drugs As Meat Eaters?
No, it doesn’t. The drugs that people are referring to are the steroids, antibiotics and others that are typically fad to the livestock in the animal processing industry. Since vegans don’t eat animal products, they then don’t consume any of these drugs.
That’s one of the main benefits to the vegan lifestyle is that you are not typically bombarding your body with all the drugs and chemicals associated with other, what we call ‘traditional’ dietary habits.
Does A Vegan Diet Have As Many Fungicides As Meat Eaters?
No, and here’s why? The vast majority of crop use fungicides are used in animal food crops, not human food crops. This means that, we are putting the fungicides into the soil and spraying the plants that we use to feed livestock far more than the foods humans consume directly.
Then of course you have the facts that, most vegans eat an organic diet, they are typically staying away from foods that have been sprayed or soils that have been treated with this garbage. Vegans consume the highest number of organic foods of any group per capita.
The second thing to realize is that, for the most part, organically grown foods don’t typically need fungicides used in their production. Organic growing methods, while a bit more expensive, generally don’t requite treatments with fungicides, they are able to flourish just fine without them.
The real need for fungicides is created when the soil is so depleted that it has no defense systems left (immune system) then fungus’s take hold and attack root systems and tubers primarily.
Instead of strengthening the soil they use chemicals which then weaken the plant while killing the fungus. It’s a vicious circle that won’t end until they decide to do it the right way and naturally rebuild the soil.
Does A Vegan Diet Contain BGH Like A Meat Eaters?
BGH or Bovine Growth Hormone is used to enhance the growth of the bovine (cow, cattle) species. It can be incredibly harmful to humans. What we tend to forget is that human babies grow quite slowly. A baby cow is eating a milk with cow hormones in it designed to grow that calf from 60 to 100 pounds at birth to over 1,000 pounds (average 1,085) when it is a yearling (one year old).
There is no reason for humans to drink the dairy of another species. If we suggested that humans should drink rat milk people would freak out. But say they should drink cows’ milk, and no one bats an eye. Neither are our species. So, what’s the difference? Really, there isn’t any.
Why would we feed our children milk that is designed to grow a calf to over 1,000 pounds in just 1 year?
This makes no sense. Then, the drug companies, in their infinite wisdom decided to spike the milk by injecting the mothers with BGH.
Now the calf grows to as much as 1,400 pounds in the first year.
But, what happens to humans who drink this spiked milk? There are no long-term studies to date that have given definitive answers. There have been a few studies, but they are easy to poke holes into, they were funded by the companies that make the drug.
In our view this makes these studies completely worthless, in fact beyond worthless because it’s quite possible they promote misinformation.
Does A Vegan Diet Have All The Nutrients Of A Meat Eaters?
Yes, it can if the person eating a vegan diet is eat a well-balanced one that includes all the micro nutrients and macro nutrients that are found in the other diet and that are required for optimal human health.
If a vegan diet is well planned out there are no nutrients that are only found in a meat eaters’ diet that are not found in a vegan diet.
Some people will say, but what about Vitamin D and B-12 though?
B-12 is not actually in the meat. It comes from the bacteria that settle on the meat and produce waste as they feed.
One of the main sources of b-12 has always been pond and river water. The bacteria in the water provided the most reliable source of B-12 for most of human history.
You have to remember that there was no refrigeration of meats. So, when most tribes or hunters made a kill, they would eat it right on the spot. It takes time for bacteria to fall on the meat and begin to feed in enough quantity to provide adequate B-12.
If they ate it right on the spot, which many did, this was not a reliable source.
We drank lake water, river water, pond water and well water. All of which have reasonable levels of B-12.
In fact, the reason we throw silver into a well and call it the wishing well is that we are literally wishing the well, well.
We are throwing in silver as an antimicrobial, antibacterial to keep the water safe to drink.
When towns would dig a new well they would hold a lottery and those that lost had to throw a weight of silver down the well. It could be in the form of silverware, a candelabra or silver coins.
That contribution would keep the bacteria at bay making the well safe for the town to drink from.
Does A Vegan Diet Cause ED Like A Meat Eaters?
No, it doesn’t contain the animal fats that become solid at room temperature, nor does it contain the needed cholesterol to block arterial function. What you need to keep in mind is that; the reason doctors can accurately predict a heart attack within 5 years of their patient having Erectile Dis-function issues is that ED is also caused by the blockages of arteries.
The penis is reliant on blood flow to maintain an erection. If the artery, veins and capillaries of the area are blocked than blood flow is limited or cut off all together.
Once these small cardio flow areas are cut off, it’s just a matter of time before the main ones to and from the heart start experiencing issues. The reason is, they are both the same problem.
Whole vegan foods do not contain the properties needed to contribute to this challenge.
Yes, absolutely. You can eat a garbage vegan diet too. Then, yes, it’s possible to continue to worsen the situation. But, with a whole food vegan diet, no.
Sources
1. https://www.nrdc.org/experts/david-wallinga-md/most-human-antibiotics-still-going-us-meat-production
2. https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/19460300542
3. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S027869150900146X
4. https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/ehp.1409385
5. https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/20173356655
6. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2190/PRTT-HT8G-4FNQ-ATJJ