Surviving My First Vegan Attack on Instagram
“The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it”
Recently, I was rather frivolously (dare I mention the word) "attacked" on one of my social media posts on Instagram.
Usually, I would turn a blind eye -- but this really did initiate a fire in my heart and only reinforced what I do -- something, I would imagine, holds true for the vegans (shouldn't really say that because not all correspondents were vegan -- but for the context of this blog post I will make it easy and say "vegans") who initiated this too.
I decided to embed this little dispute that took place on my Instagram page into a blog post because:
- I wasted two hours of my time responding -- I didn't want to respond in an unreasonable manner so I let the initial anger die down, recollected my thoughts and then responded accordingly.
- What I said is content at the end of the day. I believe in what I wrote, but I still maintain an open-mind and acknowledge flaws on both side of the argument. Content is what I produce, so it only seems fitting to add my two cents here, too.
The Comment...
I have blurred the names out of respect even though this did happen on my very much public Instagram profile. Anyway, continue as you were...
I wrote my response on the Evernote App within my phone and because it was the equivalent of a school essay, I had to paste each individual point separately. So below is my full response that I wrote in Evernote. I have not edited it (besides taking out names) prior to the incident so I apologise for any gramatical errors (even though I constantly make them within my blog).
My Response...
I would love to read anything that can further educate me on this topic, especially the historical aspect. So please do send them☺️
I know I’m only fueling the fire because yourself and [name of person] are both clearly emotionally involved in this instance so here we go:
- Not once do I admit to owning a degree or being an expert— if you’ve followed me I state this clearly and concisely. And if I “offend” any experts out there with degrees then I guess... I’m sorry🤷♀️
- Yes i agree with you. Historically, many individuals who ate meat had severe health problems due to eating dried meat with very little refrigeration and terrible contamination.
- I have not been testing on myself for a “few months” — I am constantly self-experimenting and SHARING my findings. I’ve been Keto for 5 Years and recently shifted to a more carnivorous approach as a SELF-EXPERIMENT to better understand my OWN biological reaction to food.
- “A diet like the one you suggest is sustainable for a short period of time before it give you serious health issues” — is that why there are thousands of people that have been doing strict carnivore for 20 + years and have got rid of a majority of their chronic illnesses and arthritis? Go check out meatheals.com . The Inuit population in Alaska eat almost zero vegetables and carbs and only animal products— mainly fatty meat — and have NO CANCER and some of the highest levels of antioxidants and vitamin D levels because these are produced endogenously when following a low-carb approach. On the contrary, supposedly healthy, less-meat and fat consuming countries like Japan are facing a diabetes crisis.
- In my opinion, we are carnivorous apex predators according to evolution. I agree with you, our digestive tracts can handle both plants and meat — but, whereas we can virtually eat any animal-based product on earth, the same does not hold for plants.
- “We are meant to eat meat, but not as much as people eat nowadays.” — WHAT IF I TOLD YOU RED MEAT CONSUMPTION HAS BEEN ON THE DECLINE OVER THE LAST FEW DECADES. Yes. People have shifted to eating more poultry-based products of which I don’t support. I try and eat pasture-raised eggs from local farmers in the Cape Town area as much as possible. The centralized poultry and dairy industry is shockingly unethical, I strongly agree. The current US diet is 75-80% plant based as it is — but of course no one will mention this.
- “We are meant to eat a balanced diet of grains, fruit and vegetables.” — the very term “balanced diet” was invented by the criminals who published papers supporting the use of SUGAR in our diet. CARBS like grains, in any form, create diabolical hormone responses which negatively effect our gut microbiome. Grains are not meant to be in our diets. Especially modern grains with crap like glyphosate which is highly cancerous!!
- “Also, vegetables aren’t carbs.” — of course they are. A simple google search and logic will tell you differently. Yes. They aren’t refined and have tons of fiber — but they’re still carbs — of which, many contain highly INFLAMMATORY proteins like lectins which effect millions of people.
- “Please educate yourself correctly before making these posts that could potentially kill someone” — we are literally facing a health crisis worldwide and you are worried that A POST will potentially KILL someone? Oh please. This is the most absurd thing I’ve ever read. In fact, I CRAVE education. I want to learn. Please send me any study or link you have and I’ll gladly read it. But to go ahead and say I could kill someone is the most ridiculous thing I’ve read. You should be more worried about the amount of people dying from heart attacks and cancer due to the over-consumption of refined carbohydrates and a sedentary lifestyle than wasting your time writing shit like this. I’m a little speechless to be honest😂
- “Someone who’s spoken to several dietitians, doctors and has been a happy vegetarian for 6 long years with no bad side effects.” — I’m super chuffed that being vegetarian has worked for you. But, If dietitians were educated on the LATEST research (not some 80’s and 90’s bullshit that was conducted under bribery and false accusations from corporate food companies against fat) then we wouldn’t be sitting with over 422 million people worldwide with diabetes. We are literally in the middle of an autoimmune epidemic. Diabetes is the biggest pre-cursor to a majority of heart attacks, kidney failure and strokes! What are “no bad side effects”? You’re supposed to have ZERO side effects.
- The link between a vegan diet and serious mental health disorders like depression and chronic anxiety is a very real problem for many people. It’s extremely hard to meet your amino acid, creatine and cholesterol in-take on a Vegan diet. Cholesterol is a crucial building block to cells — but most importantly, for the brain which is made up of 70% fat!
- Not once have I dismissed the vegan diet due to ethical reasons. If you are vegan for the simple fact that you don’t want to incur harm onto any animals — even though I know In some cases it causes more harm than good (can send more information if you’d like) — then I completely understand. I respect the living shit out of that. But for the love of God, don’t attack me for saying what I believe to be true.
- And lastly, my biggest reason for doing what I do. MY MOTHER. Just over 6 years ago my mom had been vegetarian for over 30 years of her life. She was severely underweight. She had chronic arthritis. She would pass out in the car rides home from school endangering not only my life but those around me. She was depressed, unmotivated and in a dark place. She followed a similar diet to mine which eventually turned to a full ketogenic diet and now I’m happy to say at the young age of 60 years, she is in the best shape of her life. This is why I do what I do. So once again, your RIDICULOUSLY unwarranted statement about me “potentially killing someone” is the reason I just wasted 2 hours responding to this.
Yes. Everyone is different and everyone responds differently to different foods — but, a serious intervention needs to take place in today’s modern dietary guidelines to alleviate the damage caused by decades of false information.
This entire comment that I wrote probably means nothing to you because people like you approach the vegan diet as a religion. So no matter what I say or do you will never look at the other side. I’m as open minded as you’ll get and I’ve looked at both sides and have come to the conclusion that a predominantly meat-based and Keto diet is for me. Is it for everyone? Maybe not. Everyone is profoundly different.
Once again. Just so I’m clear I’m not an expert, nutritionist or doctor— the above statements is my opinion based on what I’ve read and observed— just so we clear.
I appreciate you taking the time to write that thought-provoking comment and give your opinion. That’s what my instagram page is about. If you have any other questions please ask away. Have an awesome day🙌☺️
“It doesn’t matter how many people don’t get it. What matters is how many people do”
After I wrote this, the vegans went on to pin ONE of my points about the correlation between mental health issues and going plant-based -- which I expected -- completely ignoring everything else.
The entire reason I wrote this was to say that, although I'm not a major influencer in the paleo/keto/low-carb/carnivorous community, I want people to see my view. So it's out there. I want you to understand where I'm coming from so we don't have any misinterpretations.
To make it clear: I'm not "promoting" carnivore and certainly not saying everyone should go carnivore (just saying the word carnivore is overboard -- the technical term is paleoethic ketogenic diet). Following carnivore for a period of 2 months was a SELF EXPERIMENT -- of which, I documented and shared my findings.
These vegans who wrote this are great people only trying to better the world we live in. I understand. But, approaching disputes like this in that manner is completely unjustified in my opinion.
Here is a guy that uses ethically sourced toothpaste and deodorant due to my passion of supporting the environment for goodness sake. I 99% of the time #RefuseTheStraw when I go out and donate to various funds that support the earth we live in.
All this negative energy could be directed towards a more productive project.
Was my Instagram post a little biased towards consuming only meat as an alternative to plants? Maybe. Was I intentionally trying to attack the vegans of the world? Definitely not. One of my closest friends is a vegan and it's liberating to have conversations with her on the topic.
Clearly we were all highly emotionally invested in the topic at hand which unsurprisingly resulted in some heated arguments.
Lesson learnt:
I will leave you with this: If you don't agree with my opinion, please don't follow my content, unsubscribe from my newsletter and un-follow me on social media platforms. I want to be transparent, honest and true to myself.
Never again will I waste my time writing a response like that.
But, I just want to say thanks to everyone who messaged me in support of my work. I put in a crazy amount of time and I certainly don't get paid for it.
It's been a crazy year of growth for me and my brand and I can't wait to continue along this path of living an Optimal Life.
Proost!
RESOURCES:
Read the entire comment here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BiB13gtB_TR/?taken-by=joshsdailybrew
“BE YOURSELF BE PRESENT BE BOUNDLESS”