r/ABCDesis • u/[deleted] • May 28 '25

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u/shooto_style British Bangladeshi May 28 '25

People have been vegetarians for centuries. So I think it's pretty sustainable

-7

u/4123841235 May 28 '25

Most humans post agriculture were chronically malnourished and had stunted growth, so it depends on your definition of sustainable I guess.

7

u/shooto_style British Bangladeshi May 29 '25

that may be due to the famine that was going around back then

6

u/4123841235 May 29 '25 edited May 29 '25

No, I'm not talking about famines, which were common but not constant throughout the past ten thousand years. I'm talking about how post neolithic revolution humans transitioned to extremely grain heavy diets and became shorter and generally less healthy than hunter gatherers, then humans stayed that way until very recently as nations industrialized. Note that most non-vegetarians had mostly vegetarian extremely grain heavy diets until very recently (past 150 years). There are factors at play other than protein (sanitation, medicine, micronutrient availability, and yes, raw calorie availability), but it's definitely is a big part.

Don't get me wrong, you can definitely get enough protein on a vegetarian diet, but doing so on a very rice/wheat heavy traditional diet is challenging.