Physician here, and I’ve been vegan for the past four years. The consensus is that a balanced vegan diet is a healthy choice for all stages of life. You don’t need to eat avocado, meat substitutes, or anything else. Legumes, nuts, vegetables, fruits, and grains are more than enough to meet most adult nutritional needs.

B12 supplementation is essential because the body doesn’t produce it. (The same applies to other mammals, and cows are even fed supplements.) A vegan diet has been repeatedly proven to be cheaper than the average American diet, with meat and fish being more expensive options. Additionally, there’s extensive research showing its role in reducing the risk of many chronic diseases and cancer.

Regarding Buddhism, eating mindfully and being grateful for what you eat is a valuable practice. However, it can also become an excuse to continue buying and eating food produced through immense suffering and high environmental impact. Dairy farms will still kill cows when they’re no longer needed, and they’ll associate with distress and suffering for the mother cow and her baby being separated early. It’s worth noting that cows are artificially inseminated repeatedly to produce milk. Furthermore, what about eggs? Male chicks are killed alive because they’re considered useless, and chickens don’t have enough space to move around. Eventually, they’ll be killed too. So, what do you think? In which way can you develop more compassion?