this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2024
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Buddhism and other neighboring systems tend to arrive at veganism being virtuous
That's also my hunch - that Buddhism in particular has a high percentage of vegans. I still would like to see the data though.
Just to add to the mix: Third Day Adventists encourage going vegan, and quite a few of them are vegetarian. It’s not a huge religion, but I know that they’ve even been studied for their longevity.
I Adventist health studies are amazing.
Except that a strict Buddhist diet is not vegan. Somehow traditional religions always realised that humans need animal protein.
Why am i still alive and healthy when we need animal proteins so bad?
Are you healthy though?
Real productive arguing whether a faceless stranger online is healthy.
You can be both healthy and unhealthy without animal products just the same as you can be consuming them. Organic and GMO foods aren’t limited to vegan and non-vegan diets, and processed food is readily available for both.
For me personally, it’s about not paying someone to kill an animal that did nothing to deserve being confined and slaughtered. I’m passing all my physicals and check-ins with flying colors, so I’ll continue not scarfing down dead animals down my throat.
Good luck to you!
Would you care to elaborate on these "strict buddhists"? Provide sources please.
The myth of people needing animal proteins has been so thoroughly debunked for so long now that anyone still making that claim should not be providing dietary advice without getting properly informed.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DMwf_9wqWY0&pp=ygUqZXZlcnl0aGluZyB5b3Uga25vdyBhYm91dCBwcm90ZWluIGlzIHdyb25n
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDC6Q5upKPE
Also the interview you've posted is a complete unscientific lunacy and propaganda.
The wikipedia article on Buddhist vegetarianism covers everything here. You can see from some writings that Buddha had made some concessions of eating animal flesh for members of the sangha, but that was only because of their specific context, where they were operating outside the normal economy and relying on receiving alms. Another passage sets further restrictions on monastics:
Another text further declares that there are five type of livelihood that the lay follower should not engage in - one of them is the selling of animal flesh.
So to situate these requirements in a modern context, it would be like a person living a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle to the best of their ability - but also accepting whatever the food pantry has to offer, or possibly going dumpster diving and eating whatever they find. The point is to seek to do the best we can, as much as our circumstances allow.
In Mahayana the injunctions against consuming animals only gets more direct and unequivocal. And in general Buddhist ethics are naturally very aligned with at least the reduction of suffering side of vegan ethics.
The example in your video sounds like it was largely a socioeconomic matter - they do what they can, with what they have. Of course it could also be, at least to some extent, that they haven't engaged with the matter enough to move away from oyster consumption. They might not have a central nervous system, but things are not so cut and dry.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_vegetarianism
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zvE7W1l8wfY
I'm sorry, but if the insights of a respected and accomplished Standford scientist, who routinely contributes original science on the relevant subject matter, is spreading unscientific lunacy - then what exactly counts as good science to you?
Well, as we can see, Buddhists are ok with meat. That's the whole point! The same is true for Hindus, etc.
As for "scientist" - https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074/50-years-ago-sugar-industry-quietly-paid-scientists-to-point-blame-at-fat
The industry is still quietly sponsoring fake studies to push their agenda. The whole modern veganism is their invention. Every time you see a pro vegan study without any sponsors (which rarely happens in real science) you know it's 100% fake shit. Especially when it goes against multiple other valid studies.
Some Buddhists are okay with meat, but clearly Siddhartha Gautama himself was absolutely not.
That article quotes Marion Nestle, someone who has been interviewed on Plant Chompers before. Sorry, but you really just sound like a conspiracy theorist - the bottom line is that the full volume of evidence in nutritional science leans way more in favor of plant-dominant diets than anything else.