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Comment by StacyC | Hacker News Reader

My wife and I have been on a very low carb / high fat diet for the last 4 months, and we have never felt better. Eating lots of eggs, bacon, steak, butter, some veggies and fruit. We both lost weight too. Also cut out processed food, sugar and grains — bread, pasta, rice, cereal — basically a ketogenic diet, which adapts the body to burning fat more readily.

We both have also noticed that we just feel more mental clarity, more energy and no cravings for junk food. It is amazing. I hope this message gets through in the U.S. eventually.

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>Eating lots of eggs, bacon, steak

The problem with that is that the consumption of animal products is unethical. You should consider switching to a vegan low-carb diet to decrease suffering.

How much suffering am I going to reduce from a low carb vegan diet? How well does this diet work for someone like me who needs 3400 calories to build muscle?

Unethical is a strange term of eating animal products. I don't think this "ethical" diet is going to work for me.

'How much suffering am I going to reduce from a low carb vegan diet?'

I don't know.

'How well does this diet work for someone like me who needs 3400 calories to build muscle?'

Well.

'Unethical is a strange term of eating animal products.'

I don't find it strange to call the slaughter of animals and mistreatment of animals unethical.

Admittedly I do think it probably is unethical to eat animals.

However one thing I've always wanted to ask a vegetarian, these animals I'm eating would not exist without demand for them. So so long as I make more efforts to buy organic and well treated animals - is this still unethical? If I had a choice, be born as a chicken on an organic farm or not exist at all I'd definitely pick the chicken option.

> If I had a choice, be born as a chicken (...) or not exist at all

Consider all the sperm or eggs you're "wasting" by waiting for the right moment to be a parent -- you are consciously choosing to not give life to many such entities.

Surely those entities, if they had the chance, would try to convince you to create them?

(My point is that this kind of "bad existence vs. no existence" thinking is rather absurd.)

> So so long as I make more efforts to buy organic and well treated animals - is this still unethical?

Here's a couple of discussions on the topic.

http://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/comments/1kkn05/as_a_non_vegan... http://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/comments/ikg34/can_eggs_ever_b...

The consumption of plants is unethical, they're living organisms too!

Animals experience suffering and pain on a far more visceral level than spinach. To suggest otherwise is dishonest.

They also experience life more viscerally than spinach. What's your point. Tis better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. Also bacon is tasty.

Keep your moral proscriptions to your self.

> What's your point.

My point is that the person above me suggested it's also unethical to eat plants because they are also living organisms. I'm pointing out the mistreatment of animals (obviously) is far less ethical than mistreatment of plants.

> Tis better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.

If you're suggesting it's better to exist than not exist, it depends. I'd rather not have existed at all rather than exist in a torturous and hopeless existence.

> Keep your moral proscriptions to your self.

You don't know me. I eat more meat than most people. It's just that people are in my opinion overly dismissive of the ethical problems with eating meat and it's hard to discuss these ethics because a lot of people are overly dismissive or retort with silly counterpoints such as "plants are also living organisms".

But less life will probably have to die in order to sate you if you're a vegan, if you add up the food that the livestock would have to eat (most of the calories that a herbivore animal will eat will not be translated into calories for the animal that is going to eat that herbivore; last I saw only 10% of the calories consumed carries over to the next animal).

Unless the livestock is grass-fed or something... I don't think anyone is that concerned with the life of grass.

You're getting down voted a lot, but there's no doubt in my mind that in 100 years, given the current trends in political correctness and suitability of artificial meat, this will flip 180 degrees.

The treatment of the animals our food comes from is an issue that, as we get richer, we will begin to have the luxury to care about and the tools to fix.

You can go to jail for being especially cruel to your dog (and rightly so), but somehow the treatment of chickens packed in cages without room to move their entire lives is only recently becoming a concern.

And I say this as someone who eats meat and doesn't feel that it's wrong. If I live long enough maybe I'll change my mind.

>The problem with that is that the consumption of animal products is unethical.

I fail to see why it is unethical to eat animals or how your comment adds anything to the discussion.

It's just your opinion, not some moral standard in our society.

My wife and I are also on the keto diet; I attribute our success to /r/keto on reddit.

Also on /r/keto, down nearly 30kg :) My life is absolutely turned around.

/r/keto'ers, unite!

You probably feel better because you've lost weight. You could be eating nothing but Oreos and probably feel better after losing weight. Your blood panel would improve too.

I've been losing weight through simple calorie tracking. When I hit my daily limit I stop eating. I eat whatever I want. I've lost 22 pounds and feel great.

EDIT: Here's a nutritionist who improved his health markers eating nothing but junk food - http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/

The thing you're doing goes under the name "paleo diet" for me, but no matter the name: It definitely works.

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