NBA Players Increasingly Switching To Plant-Based Diet

[Greg Foster Jr.]

I got you. I have several friends that claim to be "vegan" but are actually just strict vegetarians. It's too hard because eggs and dairy products are everywhere. And a lot of organic products are sweetened with honey (bee vomit) instead of sugar. Not saying it's a poor life choice, just very difficult. (Side note, if you eat fish you are not vegi or vegan. You are an omnivore.)

I personally eat all kinds of meat... because I'm a good American!

Fish and veggies is called pescatarian actually.

Is there some reason fishes are seen by some as a lesser form of life so they can be eaten?
And plants too?

There's no right or wrong, it's really about empathy. It's a lot more difficult for some people to kill something that doesn't want to die vs something that's alive but not aware of it. If you could imagine yourself being driven to a slaughterhouse and being stabbed to death vs being killed while you are brain dead in a hospital. Fish are kind of a grey area... no one seems to know 100% if they even feel pain.

[12footrim]

Also, there is a school of thought that suggest it was the agricultural revolution that has directly lead to many of the problems we have today. I.E. we stopped hunting and gathering and started farming. In turn we had more food than ever, and more free time, so we started to reproduce, so we needed more food, meaning we needed more land, and the constant expansion of these civilizations, due to the need for space and resources is what lead mankind down the wormhole of perpetual war.

Watching a human evolution film, meat consumption is what actually grew the human brain according to them. When we discovered fire that allowed quicker and easier digestion by breaking it down and more efficient. The meat was the fuel for brain growth and what keeps it running.

[Harry Garris]

I got you. I have several friends that claim to be "vegan" but are actually just strict vegetarians. It's too hard because eggs and dairy products are everywhere. And a lot of organic products are sweetened with honey (bee vomit) instead of sugar. Not saying it's a poor life choice, just very difficult. (Side note, if you eat fish you are not vegi or vegan. You are an omnivore.)

I personally eat all kinds of meat... because I'm a good American!

Fish and veggies is called pescatarian actually.

Is there some reason fishes are seen by some as a lesser form of life so they can be eaten?
And plants too?

Basically it's cause animals are cute and lovable and fish aren't. That would be my guess anyway

[madvillian]

Gotta love how the blurb really just conflates a bunch of things and then credits it all to a "plant based diet" and quotes the pseudo-science documentary "What the Health" as an authority.

Playing lighter after years of bulking up will put less stress on the lower body, that's obvious.

It's not obvious that eating a plant based diet has anything to do with "energy levels" or lower injury risk. If as part of that diet Kyrie isn't going out and drinking shots on road trips and is getting more quality sleep than of course he's going to have more energy.

There are good reasons to eat less meat, most of them are environmental, a few health related.

There's not much evidence that eating a plant based diet is a "miracle cure" for everything from energy levels to cancer to knee injuries among NBA players. In fact just last year many doctors (like actual doctors, not just documentary makers) lamented the fact that so many NBA players are calcium deficient because they don't drink enough milk and in general don't get enough calcium growing up leaving their bones more brittle than prior generations of players.

[ATTL]

Sounds like NBA players want to stay dyel and not make gains

[oaktownwarriors87]

Kyrie is trying to get people to lose weight... because If we get any heavier we'll make the earth fall.

[GaaBaaBoo]

Honestly, life is short, so do what you want folks.

They go vegan cuz they want to make more $$$ in order to drink that 100k booze in the off season and so on ...

[alienpick]

Fish and veggies is called pescatarian actually.

Is there some reason fishes are seen by some as a lesser form of life so they can be eaten?
And plants too?

Fish are practically vegetables (Ron Swanson), so if you're pascatarian, just go ahead call yourself a vegetarian.

But that is a great point, and I have raised anytime someone tried to use "morality" to convince me to be a vegan. What makes an animal's life more important than a plant's? or a Chicken's life more important than that of a fish?

Also, there is a school of thought that suggest it was the agricultural revolution that has directly lead to many of the problems we have today. I.E. we stopped hunting and gathering and started farming. In turn we had more food than ever, and more free time, so we started to reproduce, so we needed more food, meaning we needed more land, and the constant expansion of these civilizations, due to the need for space and resources is what lead mankind down the wormhole of perpetual war.

So on a "super-woke level," becoming a vegan perpetuates all these evils. What's up, Kyrie?

A good (fictional) book about it, that is recommended reading for high school kids is "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn.

Yeah, if we ALL went vegan/vegetarian the world would be ****. There wouldn't be enough land to make enough food. If anything vegans/vegetarians pit more stress on agriculture and therefore the environment. Plus it's really expensive for the average joe to afford a vegan diet

[Evolution999]

Eat what you naturally would eat if you lived in the wild. Nuts/Berries/Fruits/Fish. Once in a while meat if you could catch a deer or even rarer a boar.

You wouldnt find wheat appetizing or a cow appetizing. Funny thing that is most of what we eat lol

[Pickled Prunes]

Is there some reason fishes are seen by some as a lesser form of life so they can be eaten?
And plants too?

Fish are practically vegetables (Ron Swanson), so if you're pascatarian, just go ahead call yourself a vegetarian.

But that is a great point, and I have raised anytime someone tried to use "morality" to convince me to be a vegan. What makes an animal's life more important than a plant's? or a Chicken's life more important than that of a fish?

Also, there is a school of thought that suggest it was the agricultural revolution that has directly lead to many of the problems we have today. I.E. we stopped hunting and gathering and started farming. In turn we had more food than ever, and more free time, so we started to reproduce, so we needed more food, meaning we needed more land, and the constant expansion of these civilizations, due to the need for space and resources is what lead mankind down the wormhole of perpetual war.

So on a "super-woke level," becoming a vegan perpetuates all these evils. What's up, Kyrie?

A good (fictional) book about it, that is recommended reading for high school kids is "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn.

Yeah, if we ALL went vegan/vegetarian the world would be ****. There wouldn't be enough land to make enough food. If anything vegans/vegetarians pit more stress on agriculture and therefore the environment. Plus it's really expensive for the average joe to afford a vegan diet

You get at least twice the calories per acre growing veggies than raising livestock.

[Northface82]

bunch of hipsters making millions

/s

[bargnanimvp]

Gotta love how the blurb really just conflates a bunch of things and then credits it all to a "plant based diet" and quotes the pseudo-science documentary "What the Health" as an authority.

Playing lighter after years of bulking up will put less stress on the lower body, that's obvious.

It's not obvious that eating a plant based diet has anything to do with "energy levels" or lower injury risk. If as part of that diet Kyrie isn't going out and drinking shots on road trips and is getting more quality sleep than of course he's going to have more energy.

There are good reasons to eat less meat, most of them are environmental, a few health related.

There's not much evidence that eating a plant based diet is a "miracle cure" for everything from energy levels to cancer to knee injuries among NBA players. In fact just last year many doctors (like actual doctors, not just documentary makers) lamented the fact that so many NBA players are calcium deficient because they don't drink enough milk and in general don't get enough calcium growing up leaving their bones more brittle than prior generations of players.

Milk isn't even the best source of calcium though, it's a marketing myth that humans should even be drinking more milk created to get rid of the excess stockpile of milk created after world war 2 and to help support the farmers who switched to dairy to provide more calories. More calcium shouldn't equal more milk.

And yeah like you said part of the increased energy will be that being on a diet like this is likely meaning cutting out junk, a lot of those magical diets aren't so much what you are eating on that diet but the fact being on that diet means cutting out bad habits you had while not dieting.

[MrVince]

Yeah, if we ALL went vegan/vegetarian the world would be ****. There wouldn't be enough land to make enough food. If anything vegans/vegetarians pit more stress on agriculture and therefore the environment. Plus it's really expensive for the average joe to afford a vegan diet

Yeah, because farms, factory farms, slaughter houses, and most of all the farms used to grow the food we feed the animals doesn't take up space either? The agriculture industry is one of, if not, the worst greenhouse pollutants on Earth. The only valid point you really made was that it is more expensive for the average joe. But I'm sure if government subsidies were more in line with vegetables as they are with dairy then a bit of that can be alleviated.

[the_process]

I wonder if there is any relationship between this article and the one right before it, "Karl-Anthony Towns In Favor Of NBA Allowing Medicinal Marijuana"?

Yep, bunch of damn hippies playing basketball nowadays

That's called progress

Actually, it’s regression. Check out Phil Jackson and Bill Walton back in the day.

[ChokeFasncists]

stay woke fam

but forreal go vegan everyone. its the best way in every single way. there literally isnt a single valid argument against it.

Yeah there is. It's expensive as hell to buy real, fresh food. Unless you eat nothing but frozen or processed trash, but that stuff isn't good for you even if it is vegan, so it really defeats the purpose.

Beans?

[ChokeFasncists]

Fish and veggies is called pescatarian actually.

Is there some reason fishes are seen by some as a lesser form of life so they can be eaten?
And plants too?

Basically it's cause animals are cute and lovable and fish aren't. That would be my guess anyway

Goldfish?

Or maybe it's from the evolutionary point of view, fish is more primitive?

[Harry Garris]

stay woke fam

but forreal go vegan everyone. its the best way in every single way. there literally isnt a single valid argument against it.

Yeah there is. It's expensive as hell to buy real, fresh food. Unless you eat nothing but frozen or processed trash, but that stuff isn't good for you even if it is vegan, so it really defeats the purpose.

Beans?

There are exceptions to every rule!

[ChokeFasncists]

Yeah there is. It's expensive as hell to buy real, fresh food. Unless you eat nothing but frozen or processed trash, but that stuff isn't good for you even if it is vegan, so it really defeats the purpose.

Beans?

There are exceptions to every rule!

[ChokeFasncists]

OTOH, why not do flexitarianism?

Just eat less meat, it's good for health, karma, the animals and the environment.

[MetalFingaz]

Is there some reason fishes are seen by some as a lesser form of life so they can be eaten?
And plants too?

Fish are practically vegetables (Ron Swanson), so if you're pascatarian, just go ahead call yourself a vegetarian.

But that is a great point, and I have raised anytime someone tried to use "morality" to convince me to be a vegan. What makes an animal's life more important than a plant's? or a Chicken's life more important than that of a fish?

Also, there is a school of thought that suggest it was the agricultural revolution that has directly lead to many of the problems we have today. I.E. we stopped hunting and gathering and started farming. In turn we had more food than ever, and more free time, so we started to reproduce, so we needed more food, meaning we needed more land, and the constant expansion of these civilizations, due to the need for space and resources is what lead mankind down the wormhole of perpetual war.

So on a "super-woke level," becoming a vegan perpetuates all these evils. What's up, Kyrie?

A good (fictional) book about it, that is recommended reading for high school kids is "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn.

Yeah, if we ALL went vegan/vegetarian the world would be ****. There wouldn't be enough land to make enough food. If anything vegans/vegetarians pit more stress on agriculture and therefore the environment. Plus it's really expensive for the average joe to afford a vegan diet

At least in the US, most cropland is used for commodity crops like corn, soy, hay/alfalfa, and wheat, in that order. The majority of the first three are used to feed animals or for fuel (ethanol/biodiesel). Not counting wheat, cropland for food accounts for only 3% of total acreage. (Source: USDA Economic Research service: https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/84880/eib-178.pdf?v=42972)

But crops to feed animals are not an efficient use of that land, calorically speaking:

Yes, the corn fed to animals does produce valuable food to people, mainly in the form of dairy and meat products, but only after suffering major losses of calories and protein along the way. For corn-fed animals, the efficiency of converting grain to meat and dairy calories ranges from roughly 3 percent to 40 percent, depending on the animal production system in question. What this all means is that little of the corn crop actually ends up feeding American people. It’s just math. The average Iowa cornfield has the potential to deliver more than 15 million calories per acre each year (enough to sustain 14 people per acre, with a 3,000 calorie-per-day diet, if we ate all of the corn ourselves), but with the current allocation of corn to ethanol and animal production, we end up with an estimated 3 million calories of food per acre per year, mainly as dairy and meat products, enough to sustain only three people per acre. That is lower than the average delivery of food calories from farms in Bangladesh, Egypt and Vietnam.

(Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/time-to-rethink-corn/)

Which is to say, we have plenty of cropland to feed every American a vegan diet. Whether we should is another discussion.