I Need to Eat Meat to Get Hormones
Posted by amymylove on Jul 23, 2010 · Member since Apr 2009 · 5266 posts
A fellow vegan just said this to me in a PM:
"I just had a guy tell me I need to be careful about being a guy and a vegan cause he claims that I won't get the hormones I need since they all come from meat... Didn't have much to refute that argument... Any ideas??"
I told him that our bodies produce all the hormones they need naturally so that is a really stupid question...
Any better answers to this smarties?
I don't think comments like that are deserving of a comeback. Obviously the person who said that did not know what they were talking about, but I think yours was fine. I just think its a shame people don't know about basic nutrition yet they preach to vegans/ vegetarians about unhealthy diets!
I agree with everything stated above except for that stupid quote.
I don't know if a more intelligent answer would work because this person doesn't seem very intelligent anyway (at least about nutrition and bodies). I think a better thing to do next time is to ask him, "Oh yeah? How so? How is this exactly?" Let him attempt to spell it out for you.
So, let me just clarify: the position being argued is that the glands of a *cow* are thought to produce more appropriate human hormones than the glands of a *human*?
???
Yeeeaaaahhhh, um, wow. That is a not-smart person (whoever told your friend that, I mean).
Where do cows get their hormones, btw, within this very creative hypothesis? you know, since they only eat plants?! Perhaps... idk... mammals have some kind of a physiological means of actually producing these hormones? hmmm... maybe involving the hypothalamus and pituitary gland, in some way? Nah, that's just crazy talk. Sorry.
Your response was fine; if you kept from laughing, you prob'ly did better than I would've. If it comes up again, have your friend send 'em this link, & say let's discuss it once everyone understands where hormones actually come from... http://www.biology-online.org/3/3_hormone_production.htm.
That should end the annoyance to you & your online friend, if not the actual stupidity. Wow.
I should think the only hormones we get from meat are the synthetic ones injected by human farmers. And how much growth hormone does an adult need?
This is why humanity frightens me.
That might be fitness-related?
Testosterone is raised by eating saturated (e.g., meat) and monounsaturated (e.g., avocado) fats. A person on a vegetarian diet has a naturally lower testosterone level than a person on a meat-rich diet, but testosterone can be raised by 2+ years of regular exercise.
That's the only hormone I can think of for this, though.
regarding testosterone, alcohol also reduces its circulating levels in a variety of ways. I'm not sure how much one needs to drink to have an effect on their muscle mass/etc, but it may help to abstain or drink less.
as something made from cholesterol, it would be understandable that someone with lower cholesterol would have lower levels of hormones produced from it. But maybe that's not such a bad thing, considering some cancers and cholesterol's effect on health. It seems like maintaining a healthy vegan diet would be better for exercise in the long term and exercise tolerance years down the road than eating meat just for the sake of muscle mass now.
Alcohol also interferes with growth hormone, but I've read that all you need to do is go to bed reasonably sober to avoid a GH dip. (Which leaves sb out, harhar.)
Just thought I would share what my corpse eating friend sent via fb chat tonight... "no, my position is that human glands produce nothing with proper nourishment, and we simply dont get that nourishment from a diet that excludes all animal by-products" I also put the cow statement about farmers injecting with hormones and he responded with this... "it's a general statement, again, I dont want to argue this...I said animal, not cow"
Wait, what? since when are cows not animals?
i think the friend meant that animal products in general are necessary, but not specifically cow. Like one could avoid the whole hormones thing by not eating cow but other animals.
Sigh. I like it when people have "positions"/theories on biological stuff that's completely elucidated. Like your body can't make hormones w/o animal products - sterol hormones are made from cholesterol. Cholesterol is made by the liver and intestines, and is made from acetyl CoA. Acetyl CoA is produced by the metabolism of fat, protein, or sugars (any of them). Those nutrients are present in both a vegan and non-vegan diet. Eating more cholesterol should not increase the amount of hormones produced, because there are multiple mechanisms that cause negative feedback of cholesterol production (if cholesterol levels go up, cholesterol production goes down). Unless said friend wanted to give himself heart disease for the sake of working out (kind of self-defeating).
I'd like to know why people believe you need animal products to survive but vegetarians, vegans and people with different allergies aren't dying in record numbers.
i remember there was some person who believed that the tiny amount of animal product contamination in a vegan diet was the reason why vegans could still be healthy, and that a vegan who somehow manages to avoid it completely would be unhealthy/have deficiencies. Yeah.
i remember there was some person who believed that the tiny amount of animal product contamination in a vegan diet was the reason why vegans could still be healthy, and that a vegan who somehow manages to avoid it completely would be unhealthy/have deficiencies. Yeah.
ummmm psycho...
minke: people fear veganism for some reason... it goes against the brainwashing they have been subjected too and choose not to snap out of... change scares people, having the power to make decisions scares people... zombies
I'd like to know why people believe you need animal products to survive but vegetarians, vegans and people with different allergies aren't dying in record numbers.
Because we have a much graver afflictions - being weak, wishywashy, and/or crazy SUV bombers, or at least that is what mass media tells me.
I do have to say that some most of the meds that keep me alive contain lactose or lactose monohydrate. Not much I can do about that, cuz I like living. :P
Hence why I say I'll never be able to say I'm vegan.
I'd like to know why people believe you need animal products to survive but vegetarians, vegans and people with different allergies aren't dying in record numbers.
Because we have a much graver afflictions - being weak, wishywashy, and/or crazy SUV bombers, or at least that is what mass media tells me.
you forgot insane, angry activists.
though I guess that goes with SUV bombing.
I agree. People who are not vegan have not spent nearly as much time investigating health and body functions and they need to MIND THEIR OWN PLATES or get the facts right! All of our hormones are intact! :-D