not eating meat because you have Gout is like taking blood pressure meds because you have high blood pressure

it's treating the symptom

the underlying cause in both cases is obesity 

address the root cause or die  

 Vegetarians historically did it for ethical reasons. Pythagoras because he believed animals have souls, Plato too, Benedictine monks ate fish because fish don't care for their young so the parents won't be upset if you eat their children (!), etc, etc.  Even Alex Gleason does it for ethical reasons.

YET epidemiological studies show vegetarians living a very long time, and it's pretty obvious when you know a lot of them (I grew up a Seventh Day Adventist, many of my ancestors lived to about 100), and track health gurus and see the vegetarians living past 100 but the meat heavy promoters dying in their 60s.  I've got a huge list of people, it's super obvious, but people just refuse to accept it because IMHO they like to eat meat, so their active brains construct reasons and logic to defend this position... which is the common backwards way most people think.

I'm not saying a little meat is bad.  It isn't.  Pure vegetarianism has problems with iron, B-12, protein quality, and probably other things.  That's why I'm not a vegetarian.

And while I agree with Pythagoras that animals have souls (that is to say, they are conscious aware beings)... they don't after they are dead.  After they are dead, they are meat, which is good as a food. 

 there is something called "healthy user bias" that confounds these epidemiological studies.

namely in a society in which it is believed that meat is unhealthy and vegetables are healthy those who are health conscious will eat vegetables and those who are not will eat meat and the result will be that vegetarians will live longer than meat eaters simply because they are more health focused overall.

by contrast if you look at different cultures / nations ( as opposed to different individuals within same nation / culture ) then Koreans eat the most meat ( they eat dogs too ) and live the longest ... 

 as for Ethical Vegans most of them are just afraid of death but pretend to do it for ethical reasons.

per Nietzsche morality is always rationalized after the fact from self interest  

 I think that is likely true. 

 That is a good point.

Also, I'm far more skeptical of the ability to correct for confounders than, say, Walter Willett is.  For example, once they found a confounder and adjusted for it and their results changed massively, and an interviewer asked them about this problem, and they just tried to play it down.  But clearly, getting the confounders correct is essential... and also impossible.

Nonetheless, I'm also not convinced that this is entirely explanatory.

Koreans are small.  It is well known that within a species, the smaller individuals live longer.  (Between species, the larger ones live longer).  So that one is confounded too. 

 well you can do controlled studies but those are expensive to run long-term or with large enough sample size and even in the best designed studies there is the issue of who is paying for them ... 

 culture and family values determine our diet .. we can stay healthy  in a very wide range of food choices ..  I for example can live only on milk  alone  .. 

 

 i create my own culture and values. 

 You are both correct, and there are ways for my mom and I to maintain our dietary perculiarires/sovereignty when with the broader family without influencing or drawing needless attention to how much rice or plantains we put on our plates vs how much meat and legumes are on the plate.  

 sounds good.

remember your real issue is ENERGY POISONING.

your body has no way to expend the energy you take in ( via calories ) and this fundamental imbalance of energy in vs energy out has a cascade effect of throwing everything else in your body off balance which in turn causes all sorts of damage which creates further imbalance and further damage and so on and so forth essentially creating the downward spiral that leads to bankruptcy from medical bills followed by early death.

avoiding meat doesn't do jack shit to address any of this - it ( hopefully ) alleviates a single symptom. 

 I fully agree that, as you say "energy poisoning" is one of the major causes of modern disease, is THE cause of diabetes, is the primary cause of gout, and also increases risks of cancer and atherosclerotic diseases.  And probably the most important one to correct.

But (and this is where we differ) I also think saturated fat (apoB to be precise) accelerates atherosclerosis. And so limiting red meat (as long as you can do so without gaining wait) is another good target for health.

But avoiding energy poisoning is the bigger of the two levers. 

 if you don't like saturated fat you can eat fish instead of meat.  either meat or fish are both "higher quality" food than stuff like rice and beans.  the benefit of saturated fat is it is more shelf stable than fish oil.

as for saturated fat being bad for you - any time you miss a meal your body is eating its own saturated fat from the adipose tissue ...
 

 So you don't buy into this whole "atherosclerosis is actually caused by inflammation and seed oil plant lipids" theory, proposed by eg Paul Mason?

I'm just like your average lazy thinking YouTube watcher, who found this quite in depth talk very interesting and compelling:

Dr. Paul Mason - 'The Clotting Theory of Atherosclerosis and Seed Oil Toxicity (updated)' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lRXZfs6Sjs 

 Paul Mason is a physiotherapist. That means he has as much actual research and clinical experience on this topic as I have: none.  Many of his citations don't say what he claims they say.

I prefer to listen to this guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8tzaXQH1G4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xTaAHSFHUU