SUZHOU (CHINA) - When Han Jiali's beloved cat Dabai was taken from her Shanghai home last year, she embarked on a hunt for her pet that took her deep into the bowels of China's underground feline meat trade.
Yeah, I hate both of those arguments because they’re always presented as a logical “gotcha” when in reality they’re nothing but appeals to “common sense,” which of course is a cultural construct and not at all “common.” The B12 argument in particular I’ve heard from people who know someone who knows someone who heard from someone that you get “sluggish” and have “brain fog” if you go vegetarian/vegan. Aside from the hearsay nature of it, often these are people who jumped feet first into the lifestyle without doing even the most cursory and basic of research and treated it as a “diet” rather than a lifestyle shift. Of course not supplementing B12 and living off pasta and processed frozen foods and junk food will leave you feeling like shit. I’ve been on the path for 4 years now and have never had a single deficiency or problem. But it takes planning and understanding your body’s nutritional needs, and for a lot of people that’s an ask too far. Theyre happy to ignore the suffering of animals and the horrors of the insudustrial meat/dairy production system if it means not having to make the smallest of changes.
Yeah, I hate both of those arguments because they’re always presented as a logical “gotcha” when in reality they’re nothing but appeals to “common sense,” which of course is a cultural construct and not at all “common.” The B12 argument in particular I’ve heard from people who know someone who knows someone who heard from someone that you get “sluggish” and have “brain fog” if you go vegetarian/vegan. Aside from the hearsay nature of it, often these are people who jumped feet first into the lifestyle without doing even the most cursory and basic of research and treated it as a “diet” rather than a lifestyle shift. Of course not supplementing B12 and living off pasta and processed frozen foods and junk food will leave you feeling like shit. I’ve been on the path for 4 years now and have never had a single deficiency or problem. But it takes planning and understanding your body’s nutritional needs, and for a lot of people that’s an ask too far. Theyre happy to ignore the suffering of animals and the horrors of the insudustrial meat/dairy production system if it means not having to make the smallest of changes.