What's My Steak Stake?

First off, I have someting to confess, I am not a vegan. Surprised? I assume you may be wondering what a carnivore like me is doing writing a website on the vegan diet. Truth is I am not a vegan and I don’t see myself becoming one. However, my brother is a vegan. He is a big proponent of eliminating meat from one’s diet and believes a healthier lifestyle with result. I, on the other hand, love meat, so much in fact, that part of the reason I went to school in Texas was the Texas BBQ. I always believed that humans were meant to eat meat, and eliminating it was simply unnatural. In the spirit of brotherly rivalry, I set out in search of reasons to persuade my brother back to the dark side of eating meat. Vegan Athlete is a result of my findings.

An Open Letter to My Brother

Dear Brice,

I believe a congratulations are in order. For what you ask? Well, over the past four months, I have been trying to prove you wrong. What else do you expect from your pesky younger brother? You have proven to me through your years of devotion that this eating habit of yours is not simply a diet, but a way of life, and unfortunately won’t be going away any time soon. I have scoured the internet looking for evidence to convince you that your vegan ways must go and that you should regress back to the days of eating any and all meats.

You started out slow, first cutting out soda, then candy. I thought it would never last. One day you decided to be a pescetarian, limiting your meats to only fish. Years later I made a terrible decision, buying you the book Whole by T. Colin Campbell and from then on there was no going back to your carnivorous ways.

Nevertheless, my hopes for that side of you to return never completely disappeared. Sometimes I’d watch you prepare your dinner and could almost hear a faint voice in the distance begging to be released from the prison you have trapped him in. It was my job, nay, my duty to bring you back, and so began my journey into the vegan or carnivore debate.

Finding concrete evidence against the vegan diet was more difficult than I expected. For every claim against veganism, there was a claim refuting it. Even when I narrowed my search to athletes, there was no proof demonstrating their need for consuming meat.

There are plenty of examples of vegan runners, swimmers, tennis players, even bodybuilders rising to the top of their field. This is when I began to consider the unthinkable, that I might be wrong. Sure, being a vegan athlete may not be as easy as a carnivorous one, but you have your reasons for being vegan and in all my efforts, I couldn’t find one piece of evidence to hold against you.

In the future you will hear to judgements from me about your diet, no quips about your quinoa salad, and no uneducated jabs further spreading lies about the vegan diet. I guess I have to find something else to bug you about because as your little brother, it’s what I do.

- Duff