Low protein levels in almond milk is not a problem

I drink almond milk regularly. There are many brands of almond milk that don't taste great, but there are many that taste really great as well. You need to try different brands to determine which is best for you.

Dairy milk can be particularly hazardous for hormonal health due to its high levels of estrogen. Many people know that soy is high in phytoestrogen, but what is less well known is that the prefix phyto- means "plant" and this should be a strong clue that plant estrogen in soy does not work well in humans (animals). Dairy milk, on the other hand, comes from cows, which are not only animals but also mammals, just like humans. We are closely related to the cow, and the estrogen in cow's milk (estradiol) is highly potent in humans.

Men who drink dairy milk regularly suffer from a significant drop in serum testosterone levels due to high levels of mammalian estrogen (estradiol) in dairy milk.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19496976

Almond milk has zero issues with estrogen, both plant estrogen and mammalian estrogen. However, many people, when arguing against almond milk, argue that its protein content is low.

My response to this is that the protein content of food is hardly a great indicator of how healthy it is. If it were, milk would not be unhealthy compared to, say, protein shakes. In fact, if protein were the measure if how healthy food is, we should all drink protein shakes all the time since one cup of protein shake contains about 25 grams of protein compared to dairy milk, which contains only 9 grams of protein per cup.

Of course, focusing on protein is a concern if you protein deficient, but virtually no one suffers from protein deficiency in the developed world. Even if you do have a high need for protein if, say, you were a bodybuilder, milk is very inefficient because protein shakes contain more protein. Furthermore, if you were a bodybuilder, you'd be very concerned about the mammalian estrogen in dairy milk and its impact on serum testosterone levels.

Rational Misanthropy

I pray to God that there will be a massive financial depression that will plunge the world into violent warfare and render the human species extinct. Our extinction will ensure all suffering is eradicated forever. To hedge against the possibility this won't happen, I've borrowed from the bank to invest in leveraged ETFs, and if the financial collapse doesn't happen, I'll hopefully be rich enough to play a major role in destroying humanity so that the earth, the animals, and humanity itself no longer needs to suffer.

Chicken contains high levels of phthalates

Going vegan will not eliminate industrial toxins in your body, but the scientific evidence shows that it will significantly reduce it.

Vegan chocolate from Woolworths

Got this vegan chocolate from a Woolworths in Melbourne CBD.

Christianity has reformed but Islam has not

Statement:

Christianity has been reformed, the crimes mandated within Islam aren't the norms of the West.

And IF a Christian within the West commits a serious crime then it's dealt with by man made democratic law, not divine unreformed Islamic law that will have you acquitted if a father kills his own daughter if she supposedly shamed him within an close to 100% Islamic country.

The Christian house in much cleaner in the 21st century.

Response:

Christianity hasn't reformed. It's simply lost its power. If Christianity had its way, we'd be stoning non-virgins. Democracy and Christianity are independent. You can have Christianity's powers limited by democracy and the same can apply with Islam.

"If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you."

Deuteronomy 22:20-21

Q&A: Is conversion of ALA to DHA inefficient?

Question:

Don't we need DHA to be healthy? You cannot consume ALA and rely on it to give you DHA because conversion of ALA to DHA is poor. The science is there. We only convert about 4% of ALA to DHA, and for EPA plus DHA, only 12%. See the study below:

http://www.dhaomega3.org/Overview/Conversion-Efficiency-of-ALA-to-DHA-in-Humans

Answer:

Vegans can easily get DHA by taking microalgae-based DHA supplements. I recommend taking DHA and EPA supplements from Deva Nutrition. The Deva supplements contain about 130 mg of DHA per pill, and it is recommended you take one or two per day. Let's just round it up and say we need 200 mg of DHA per day (there is actually no medical consensus on how much DHA you need per day).

Suppose you didn't want to take DHA supplements because you couldn't afford them. If conversion of ALA to DHA is 4% then that means we need 5 grams of ALA per day. 15% of chia seeds by weight is ALA, which means we only need 33 grams of chia seeds per day, which is about two tablespoons.

But vegans cause harm too...

Q: If it's not vegan to ride horses, is it vegan to watch shows such as Game of Thrones? Is it vegan to watch tv shows that use animal actors? Being vegan is impossible because no matter what you do, you are harming animals.

A: Vegans try to reduce animal suffering as much as practicable. Just because it's impossible to be perfect it doesn't mean there cannot be progress. Just because you cannot save 100% of your income it doesn't mean you should not save at all. Just because it's impossible to achieve perfect sterility it doesn't mean you should perform surgery in the sewers. Just because I eat plants or cause harm to living beings by watching Game of Throne, it doesn't mean I should rape a little girl. It's pretty obvious, but we humans tend to grab into any rationalization to justify some habit or prejudice we already hold.

Are supplements useless?

Q: "Haven't studies shown vitamin pills to have no positive effect (apart from fish oil and calcium)?"

A: Some do and some don't. It's important not to generalize and say that because one supplement doesn't work (such as antioxidant supplements) then therefore all supplements don't work. Some have been proven to work while others have been proven not to work.

 

Do vegans need to take flaxseeds for omega 3?

Ground flaxseeds are a great source of omega 3. Two tablespoons of ground flaxseeds provide you with enough ALA, EPA, and DHA.

If you don't want to grind flaxseeds, you can just take two tablespoons of chia seeds per day. Chia seeds have approximately the same amount of ALA as flaxseeds but you don't need to grind them. You can just mix them in with your smoothie. If you're really lazy like me, just buy microalgae-based DHA supplements.

Will Cyanide in Vitamin B12 Supplements Kill You?

One of the most common arguments used against the vegan diet is the argument that you will develop a nutritional deficiency and, in particular, a deficiency in vitamin B12.

However, although it is possible for a vegan to have a vitamin B12 deficiency, being a vegan doesn't necessarily mean you will become vitamin B12 deficient.

Vitamin B12 deficiency can easily be found in fortified food or drinks such as Vitasoy Original Soy Milk, which contains 50% of your recommended dietary intake of vitamin B12 per cup. Vitamin B12 can even be found in Braggs Nutritional Yeast as well a vegan meat from the Fry Family Food Co. In Australia, the Vitasoy soy milk and Fry Family vegan meats can be found in Woolworths (also known as Safeway) supermarkets. Nutritional yeast is more difficult to find, in my opinion.

If your diet is low in vitamin B12 fortified food, an alternative is to take vitamin B12 supplements, which can be purchased from either your local chemist or online via major retailers such as Amazon or iHerb.

However, some people have raised concerns that most vitamin B12 supplements on the market contain cyanide in them and therefore they are poisonous.

There are B12 supplements without cyanide called methylcobalamin. Many vegans who are afraid of cyanide poisoning take this form of vitamin B12 due to fears of cyanide poisoning. However I take cyanocobalamin. I am aware it contains cyanide in it (or when it breaks down in the body it forms cyanide), but I do not consider it harmful. The levels of cyanide are too small to be of any harm.

Cyanide is a natural chemical that is found in water, soil, and even the air that you breathe as well as fruits and vegetables that you eat. The amounts found in cyanocobalamin are so small that they pale in comparison to the amount you absorb naturally via vegetables, air, etc. Jack Norris RD's page provides a great explanation:

"The safety of cyanocobalamin has raised concerns due to the fact that cyanide is a component of cyanocobalamin, and the cyanide molecule is removed from cyanocobalamin when used by the body’s cells. Cyanide is also found in many fruits and vegetables and so humans are always ingesting small amounts of cyanide, and like in most fruits and vegetables, the amount of cyanide in cyanocobalamin is considered to be physiologically insignificant.

"According to the European Food Safety Authority, 'Data of from a Norwegian dietary survey show that the average and high (97.5th percentile) daily intake of [cyanide] among consumers amounts to respectively 95 and 372 micrograms/person or 1.4 and 5.4 micrograms/kg bw/day (7).' The amount of cyanide in a 1,000 microgram cyanocobalamin is 20 micrograms."

http://jacknorrisrd.com/safety-of-cyanide-in-cyanocobalamin/

Be True to Yourself

I have just came back from brunch at Monk Bodhi Dharma in Balaclava. I was there with some vegan friends.

It was really nice to be around vegans because I really click well with these people. Whenever I am with my family, they are so negative. All they do is complain about this or that. They usually gossip about what other people are doing or they complain about corrupt politicians. They don’t actually do anything. Most vegans are actually doing something. By not buying animal products and instead buying vegan products, they are reducing demand for animal exploitation.

I have so many people in my life who I just don’t like being with. On Friday after work I met up with a bunch of people I used to work with. Most of these people were working in other areas now. I hadn’t seen them in years. They were all grown up now and they were either getting married or were in the process of getting married. They were also planning children. Many also purchased houses and some were buying investment property. I felt left out and odd because I was single, I had no intention of ever marry or ever having children, and I prefer to invest in stocks or ETFs rather than property. I really felt like I wasn’t among my people. 

Many people have tried to change me. Some of my friends have tried to set me up with girls (my father did this as well) but I found that being in a relationship with a girl did not enhance my life whatsoever. I found it tiresome to be responsible for entertaining a girl. Whenever she was not happy, it was my fault. I prefer to just be single. 

I have always felt weird about being single because it’s not socially accepted. Society expects certain things from you, e.g. get a girlfriend, get married, have children, buy a house for yourself, and then buy an investment property. When I’m with my old work colleagues, it’s all about conformity to these ideals: who has a wife, who has an investment property, who is getting married, and so forth. I remember a few night ago when I told a friend that I like to spend my free time watching YouTube, and he told me that I should “find a girlfriend” as if that is for some reason the highest purpose of any man’s life. 

Lately I have been trying to just be honest with what I care about. Be firm with my beliefs. In the past I would just stay quiet and allow people to lead me. They would try to find girls for me or try to get me married. Now there is no compromise. I do what I want to do and I don't accept other people trying to direct my life. In fact, when I was with my old work colleagues, they asked me how my dating life was, and I told them flat out that I did not want to date ever and that my family has given up on trying to get me date because I am stubborn and will never bend to anyone else's values. I would rather die. I also told my friends that I will never get married and I will never have children because I have been turned off my annoying children. Surprisingly, they seemed to respect my choice. I think that makes all the difference. People will respect you if you have a view of how you should live. If you’re wishy washy, they will try to push their views on you because you seem lost and in need of direction. I need to be firm with my values and my beliefs. If I am a vegan, I should stick with it and never waver. If I want to be a man who goes his own way and never gets into a relationship with women or never marries them, I need to give my reasons for it and loudly advocate it. The same applies for my investment beliefs. If I truly believe it is better to buy stocks, I should give firm reasons why. Even if you believe property is a good investment, you can easily buy property funds on the stock exchange. 

I think I have been inspired especially by Durianrider in a video called Why I Don’t Care Anymore where he discusses the importance of being true to yourself. If you are bold and forceful for what you believe in, people will hate you for it, but these people are people you don’t want to be around anyway, so your honest behaviour is a filter that removes people you shouldn’t be around, and people you should be around will be drawn and attracted to you, and you will spend more time with them.

Review: Mantra Lounge

Recently I had lunch at Mantra Lounge in Carlton. The place is near Melbourne University. It was a cold day, so I needed to eat something warm, and the food pictures on the internet for this place looked like they served warm food. In fact, even during the summer I prefer eating warm cooked food because I have sensitive teeth.

Mantra Lounge is 100% vegan, which is refreshing because it means I can order without worry and feel normal. I don't need to explain to anyone that I want no cheese, etc.

I ordered a "supreme" meal deal for about $18 and received a plate of lasagna with a salad (beans). I also had a chocolate "pleasecake" and a hot chocolate. The meal was extremely filling, and on a cold day it was very warm.

The location is also nice as it overlooks the old buildings of Melbourne University. There are giant old trees on the road. Leaves were falling from these old trees as I ate, which was very pleasant.

Review: Monk Bodhi Dharma Balaclava

Monk Bodhi Dharma is quite a small place. It’s important to look at the Monk Bodhi Dharma website as well as Google Maps first to see where it is. The website instructs you to park in a nearby Woolworths parking area, and from there it is a short walk to the cafe/deli. Thankfully you don’t need to pay anything at the Woolworths carpark. Driving and parking here is really easy.

Source: monkbodhidharma.com

When I arrived, it was a Sunday morning, so it was quite busy. A group of friends and I needed to wait fifteen minutes. Once inside, I noticed that the place is cramped and crowded. Everything on the menu is vegetarian and can be veganized. I ordered a veganized avocado on toast (called "The Avo"). This dish was recommended to me and I enjoyed it. The avocado was delicious because they mixed something into it (perhaps chilli) that enhanced the taste. I really liked it. If I had to give one criticism, it would be the bread, which was a little too hard for my liking. I also had a soy flat white with my meal. I was told that the coffee in this place is renowned all over Melbourne. I am not a coffee expert, so I cannot give my opinion. Most coffee for me is the same, so I end up judging a cafe by how extensive their vegan milk options are and how happy and nice the staff are.

All up I paid $19 for both the avocado on toast as well as the soy flat white. The place accepted Mastercard.


The Avo (Vegan) at Monk Bodhi Dharma Balaclava