Plant-Based Pragmatism: When Diet Meets Ethics | Luke Gabites

Yeah, that's really interesting because...

it does i think it does depend so much on us individually and the choices that we're making as well because again like we can look at the research and look at the average and it's like yeah okay maybe plant-based has a certain impact on average on the environment but i think once we also look into food systems and like i'm not an expert in food systems by any

means but

like even just yeah just like getting into a garden like i've been getting into gardening the last few years and actually connecting back to our food and for me connecting to my food and seeing where it's coming from growing my food like i'm out there killing slugs in the garden because if i don't they're going to eat all of my bok choy like it's just being realistic with the environment and it's like it's easy to be oh yeah i'm vegan i'm doing so good but we don't know necessarily where our food is coming from and it might be coming from this huge industrial farming system that's putting huge amounts of pesticides onto giant like hectares of corn or soy or whatever and it's killing like millions and millions of insects and smaller animals that live in the fields and everything and I think it's important to temper it as well.

It's like we just have to do the best that we can as well.

And that's something that I've kind of struggled with in the kind of vegan world is there seems to be such a perfectionism around it, which is like you're either doing all of this stuff perfectly or you're not doing it at all.

And you're not part of this group and we're actually going to come after you and be really negative about it.

and i don't know if you've experienced that at all and like what you've shared but i have certainly experienced that from both sides i know you've talked about that you get like carnivores coming after you vegans coming after you but just sharing evidence-based nutrition that is also values-based we all have different values but i think we could probably get a bit more

into the values conversation later but

i think it's yeah it's it is such a complex topic and where everyone sits in it will be different and also it's evolving like it's really interesting to talk to you about it and hear your perspective because i like i am youngest myself and changing my perspective on things and also for me like as a practitioner working with clients Well, it's not always good to go super strict into something as well.

Like I've worked with quite a few clients recently who've potentially had, you know, difficult relationship with food in the past that's been quite restricted.

And to tell someone like that to go and eat a really restrictive diet can actually reinforce these like negative psychological loops that they have.

So there's a lot of aspects like that that I've been thinking about as well.

and yeah i'd love to hear your perspective on that as well

It's such a good point because there are no inassociations between the rigidity and extremeness of a diet with eating disorders.

And it's not that the extreme diets actually cause the eating disorders.

It's considered to be a reverse causation where people with eating disorders will gravitate to those things.

Yeah.

But that's not necessarily good for their journey either, right? And I'm certainly not saying that people shouldn't be vegan.

I think if people want to be vegan and thrive on a vegan diet, they absolutely should be vegan.

In the same way that if someone wants to be low carb or keto and they thrive on that, then absolutely, 100% do that.

think one of the bigger things is that not only does a diet need to be appropriate for somebody it needs to be appropriate across the board it needs to be appropriate physiologically psychologically psychosocially culturally and it has to fit with someone's ethos and so people just need to come to that place of comfort i think and you know peace and security within their own diet I found that, I'd love to get your perspective on this as well, because one thing that I've experienced a lot is when I post about, I usually say a vegan diet specifically so that people don't confuse a vegan diet with veganism, but they still end up confusing it.

say a vegan diet is not appropriate for everybody and people come back and say well yes it is there is no medical contraindication to a vegan diet and I say well I can think of at least one it's a systemic nickel energy especially given that it's comorbid often with inflammatory bowel disease or other conditions they'll either come back with trying to dispute that which you can't do because i've never had anyone provide a strong enough rebuttal with you know a diet that actually works a vegan diet that actually works for someone with a systemic nickel allergy but what i often also get is people say well but you're talking about a diet veganism's not a diet it's the ethos and philosophy of you know minimizing harm as far as you practically can So I then reply to those people, well, that makes me a vegan then, right? Despite the fact that I eat meat.

I eat meat relatively minimally, I should say as well.

Well, I think relatively minimally.