I think everything I said makes sense in a context where people (including the study authors) are using this paper to argue for veg*nism. I’m arguing that the study is both weaker than reported, and (weakly) pointing in a different direction than reported. I agree that if a fish farm lobbying group was using this paper to claim that fish were the cure for aging, that would be very misleading and I’d argue against them too.
What you originally said was “say it’s not at all obvious that a vegan diet has health tradeoffs ex-ante”. I think what you meant here was “it’s not clear a vegan diet is net negative.” A vegan diet leading to lower energy levels but longer lifespan is the definition of a trade-off.
It would be helpful if you clarified the population you are talking about. I’ve already said I think some people’s optimal diet is vegan, and for some other people vegan is the best out of the options they can realistically achieve. So unless you mean a substantial probability everyone’s optimal diet is vegan, and there is no such thing as a prohibitive health issue, we’re not disagreeing.
I also feel like saying “modulo things like B12” is burying the lede. A lot of my point is that vegan advocates are recruiting people without providing the necessary nutritional education, and are in some cases fighting that education even when it’s done in a vegan-compatible way.
What you originally said was “say it’s not at all obvious that a vegan diet has health tradeoffs ex-ante”. I think what you meant here was “it’s not clear a vegan diet is net negative.” A vegan diet leading to lower energy levels but longer lifespan is the definition of a trade-off.
This might be semantics, but when you said “Change my mind: Veganism entails trade-offs, and health is one of the axes” I (until now) interpreted the claim as vegans needing to trade off health (writ large) against other desirable properties (taste, cost, convenience, etc), not a tradeoff within different components of health.
I don’t have a sense of how common my reading was, however, and I don’t want to put words in Natalia’s mouth.
I think everything I said makes sense in a context where people (including the study authors) are using this paper to argue for veg*nism. I’m arguing that the study is both weaker than reported, and (weakly) pointing in a different direction than reported. I agree that if a fish farm lobbying group was using this paper to claim that fish were the cure for aging, that would be very misleading and I’d argue against them too.
What you originally said was “say it’s not at all obvious that a vegan diet has health tradeoffs ex-ante”. I think what you meant here was “it’s not clear a vegan diet is net negative.” A vegan diet leading to lower energy levels but longer lifespan is the definition of a trade-off.
It would be helpful if you clarified the population you are talking about. I’ve already said I think some people’s optimal diet is vegan, and for some other people vegan is the best out of the options they can realistically achieve. So unless you mean a substantial probability everyone’s optimal diet is vegan, and there is no such thing as a prohibitive health issue, we’re not disagreeing.
I also feel like saying “modulo things like B12” is burying the lede. A lot of my point is that vegan advocates are recruiting people without providing the necessary nutritional education, and are in some cases fighting that education even when it’s done in a vegan-compatible way.
This might be semantics, but when you said “Change my mind: Veganism entails trade-offs, and health is one of the axes” I (until now) interpreted the claim as vegans needing to trade off health (writ large) against other desirable properties (taste, cost, convenience, etc), not a tradeoff within different components of health.
I don’t have a sense of how common my reading was, however, and I don’t want to put words in Natalia’s mouth.
Life is trade-offs all the way down.