Being British, living out in the country in Australia, I’d not really come into contact with PETA until recently.
I checked out one of their adverts, apparently airing during the Super Bowl thingyamabob on youtube here and the bold assertion it presents got me thinking.
I would like to know what studies show this? Have there been any serious studies into vegeterian love making? (And by that, I don’t mean sticking cucumbers where they don’t belong). I imagine it would be very difficult to study this kind of thing properly.
Well, perhaps a better question would be, what is it about meat that would make you a worse lover? I’ve heard steak can make certain ‘juices’ taste not so great, but neither me or my girlfriend can really tell the difference… :dubious:
So, I’m looking for the facts!
(Sorry if there’s already a similar thread floating around)
Personal experience from having been in both sides of the fence:
Doesn’t make any difference.
Besides “better sex” is highly subjective.
Also, PETA uses all sort of propaganda to push their agenda.
I agree with their message somewhat, but don’t like the way they go about enforcing it.
I spent more time on PETA’s worthless website than I ever plan on doing again, and I can’t find a technical paper, published study, or even a list of citations. Mostly I can find the same old “McDonalds is teh Bush / leather shoes == Jewish skin lamps / every paramecium deserves respect” horseshit I can get on the SDMB (but without pop-ups). For a bit more sanity I searched Google Scholar, JSTOR, Pubmed, and I must be using the wrong search terms or something, but I’m not finding these groundbreaking studies. I am finding some references to an interview from USA Today back in 1998…I’d be interested if folks here, especially the PETA members on this board, can point me to what these authoritative studies claimed by PETA are.
(Other sources claim it’s all a chain of cause and effect from a study that lower BMI (since vegetarians do seem to have lower BMI values) is linked to better sex life, but IIRC there was a serious problem with causality. That is, whether thinner people were having better sex because they were considered more attractive in general, or because they had a biological change.)
IME, all the really kinky people I know came from conservative backgrounds, so I’m not so sure about that as a potential link.
Now, there are studies that link a larger amount of certain vegetables in the diet leading to better health in certain areas that would be connected with your sex life. Such as tomatoes lowering the risks of prostate cancer.
It has been found that high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes can all cause impotence. These conditions can, in some cases, be associated with a diet poor in vegetables and high in meat.
Essentially, healthy people are more likely to be capable of having sex. But being a vegetarian doesn’t automatically make you healthier, nor does eating meat automatically make you less healthy.
Healthy people have better sex lives. Vegetarians are healthier than average. Therefore, vegetarians have better than average sex lives.
My opinion is that anyone who watches what they eat with a view to a balanced diet and nutrition, etc. will be healthier than average. In general vegetarians are more likely to do this because the are concerned about avoiding the dead-flesh. That is, I don’t think the health benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle is because they avoid meat but because they are generally watching their overall diet.
What I’d heard was that a meat and fish diet, and certain vegetables, or more specifically, vegetarian friendly condiments, like wasabi, or soy sauce, cause certain, urm, bodily-fluids-of-the-sort-that-get-tasted-during-your-favorite-sexual-practice™ to be less, palatable, than other, better, vegan choices, would, for flavoring. Urm. Or something.
I think we all see where I’m going with this. And maybe, from that little love-life hint, the whole, vegans have better sex sprang up.
While no general conclusions can be drawn from the ad itself, I think it’s certainly possible that the women in the ad itself have better than average sex.
That’s not faulty logic. If we were all vegetarians, we would not raise as many animals.
The question of doing them any favors kind of depends on your ethical beliefs. Utilitarianism might find that being a vegetarian is immoral, if your farm animals are happy animals like they have in California.
All in all, it seems to be more a case of healthy people make better lovers, not vegetarians per se. Nothing in particular about vegetables make you better in the sack and nothing in particular about eating animal products in moderation would be detrimental.
