A few cool things about plants

[Guest guest]

Any essential animal-derived ingredient can be found in a vegan source.

 

It's a popular idea that vegans need to take supplements because certain

nutrients are just impossible to get from a vegan diet. While many vegans do

indeed take supplements and I would encourage the taking of plant-based

supplements for any diet to ensure optimal health, a vegan wouldn't need to

perish without it.

 

Ingredients like DHA, Taurine, B12, protein, Omega-3/6, and Iodine can easily be

found from vegan sources. For more detail on the health benefits of a vegan

diet and it's implication on children and pregnant mothers, check out our very

own Seattle Vegan Examiner, Virginia Messina. Virignia is a registered dietitian

and long-time vegan.

 

Some plants eat and use the labor of insects for surival

 

You may already know about plants like the Venus Flytrap which depend on

nitrogenous nutrition from insects (due to their unusual soil or aquatic

environments,) but did you know some plants depend on the labor of insects and

give back mutually.

 

One of my favorite plants is the Dischidia major. D. major is an unusual plant

with flat, pouched leaves. These leaves attract ants who make their homes in

the leaves where they receive protection and nutrition.

 

Meanwhile, the ants bring their insect prey back to the leaves for consumption.

Leaving behind the inconsumable parts of their dinner, the D. major is happy to

consume the remains for essential nutrition.

 

Sentience

 

Often vegans are told they are hypocritical for eating plants because they too

are sentient. This is, however a misinterpretation of the complex abilities for

a plant to react to environmental changes. The truth is, plants lack the basic

biological component which affords them " sentience, " the ability to feel pain

and have natural responses of fight and flight.

 

In fact, for us to eat some plants is actually in the organism's best interest.

It is for this reason fruits have seeds. The sugary hypanthia or walls attract

mammals to consume the seeds and expell them with our own natural fertilizer.

 

We should also look carefully at what we call " the plant. " . Unlike humans,

plants exist in different generations within their own generation. Without

getting too technical, this means some fruits and vegetables are merely the

reproductive structure which exists during only one generation of the plant.

 

 

Author: Adam Kochanowicz

Adam Kochanowicz is a National Examiner.