You really don't need the naturalness claim to be a veg*n! That is, moral/spiritual reasons alone are adequate to justify following a veg*n diet (assuming the diet works for you, of course). Further, if the motivation for your diet is moral and/or spiritual, then you will want the basis of your diet to be honest as well as compassionate. In that case, ditching the false myths of naturalness presents no problems; indeed, ditching false myths means that you are ditching a burden.
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Whose Diet is Really Natural?
The suffering endured by the majority of animals raised in contemporary animal agriculture far outweighs any desire of mine to eat the same as my prehistoric ancestors. But, even if the animals' suffering were of no consequence, these assumptions are dubious:
* There is one prehistoric or natural diet.
* This diet can reasonably be approximated today.
* This diet is optimal for human health in today's world.
Today's commercial plant foods and meats are different than the foods available in prehistoric times. We eat hybrids of plants and we feed foods to animals that they would not normally eat. We keep them confined so that they do not exercise. We cook animal products to make them palatable and to kill pathogens. We cook vegetable foods that would otherwise be inedible. The U.S. food supply is routinely fortified with a host of vitamins and minerals (such as vitamin D in milk), and most people who turn to what they consider to be a more natural diet as adults have often benefited from this supplementation.
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