We've all heard the "there's nothing in animal products you can't get from plant foods" line from our vegan friends, but clearly there is something about meat that is not present in fruits, vegetables, nuts etc., so what do you respond with when you have this thrown at you?
I am a moderator, so I just ban them. I don't have any vegan friends or acquaintances, so the internet is the only place I deal with them.
--No evolutionary biologist or paleontologist would seriously argue that there has ever been a truly vegan population.
--Zookeepers make an effort to feed animals a diet similar to their natural diet. Vegans would argue that this is the most humane thing to do, and the ideal way to treat animals.
Given those two facts, why are humans the exception to that?
I'm not saying that humans can't, in some cases, be successfully vegan. There are whole villages in China, so I've heard, that are vegan, and have been for generations. However, those populations ate very little meat for many centuries
before Buddhism turned them into vegans. They transitioned slowly, and had time to adapt.
It wouldn't be realistic to expect someone of Eskimo or Masai descent to be a vegan, on the other hand. Those populations have been eating lots of animal products for thousands of years.
I remember reading about two polar bears that were being fed dog food in some circus in the Caribbean a few years back. Animal activists got all up in arms about it, and removed the bears to a zoo, I think, because the bears weren't eating their natural diet, and weren't in their natural habitat. The vegans get mad when bears aren't fed their traditional diet. Why would they tolerate
humans not being fed
their traditional diet?
Again, I don't think it's impossible to be moderately healthy and vegan. However, you'll be healthier with some high-quality animal products, pretty much always.
My argument isn't with the health-focused vegans, anyway. They can be converted. It's the
ethical vegans that are dangerous terrorists, and who cannot be reasoned with.