Talk:Flexitarianism

Land use diagram misleading

The land use diagram suggests that if we ceased to eat beef and sheep we would need a lot less pasture to feed the population. There is an assumption behind that that all land is the same and can switch purpose, which is obviously not true. I live in a very hilly area; it is known for beef and sheep farming because most of the fields are too hilly for arable farming. The few fields that can be used for arable are used to grow spring and winter barley, and swede that are used for animal feed in winter when it's too cold for the grass to grow. Also, the soil is not sufficiently deep/fertile for arable.

There is another assumption that we don't need to eat meat, despite the fact that it was eating meat that allowed our distant ancestors to move from gatherers (primitive societies) to hunter gatherers (more sophisticated societies) because meat could sustain us for longer giving us the time to develop tools and methods, which then led us to farming; it is inextricably linked to our social evolution and increase in brain size (hunters need to be more intelligent than the animals they hunt). We would not be the homo-sapiens we are today if we had not become meat eaters.

Although we've been taught that plant based cooking oils, margarine etc, are healthier than their animal equivalents, it now appears that most of our modern chronic illnesses are caused by cooking oils made from seeds; we didn't have nearly as much of these modern diseases (hypertension, stroke, heart attack, Macular Degeneration, Type 2 Diabetes, Alzheimer's) when we cooked with animal fats; see the science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csK2ootU5xM . Flexitarianism, for health reasons, may be much healthier than vegetarianism. We might need a new term for people who choose not to eat much or any meat, but want to cook with animal fats for health reasons. Oils from fruit seem to be fine, but a lot of what is labeled as 'olive oil' is counterfeit (modified seed derived oil in the bottle), and very difficult for the consumer to tell the difference between the two. FreeFlow99 (talk) 11:20, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

Please read WP:NOTFORUM and WP:OR. Your post contain misinformation. You have not provided any reliable sources for your claims. Your claims about modern chronic illnesses caused by vegetable oils is laughable and is a typical online conspiracy theory currently being promoted by the carnivore diet community. In reality there isn't a shred of clinical evidence or epidemiological data that vegetable oils are bad for health or cause chronic disease. All of the medical studies we have on vegetable oils like rapeseed or sunflower actually show a reduced risk of heart disease, cancer or type 2 diabetes. We have a Wikipedia article on Linoleic acid, with good sourcing. This talk-page is not a forum to promote conspiracy theories about vegetable oils. Most of what you are claiming has no relevance to the topic of flexitarianism. If you want to suggest article improvements you need good WP:RS. We are not going to add content to Wikipedia that is not properly sourced. A YouTube video is not scientific evidence. Psychologist Guy (talk) 11:58, 2 October 2024 (UTC)