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Derek Sarno: The many reasons to eat a plant-based diet | TED Countdown

Vegan chef (and head chef of TED Countdown Summit) Derek Sarno is on a mission to unleash the mighty power of plants, creating nutritious food from mushrooms and vegetables that’s full of texture and flavor — and good for the planet. He dishes out some creative cooking inspiration and shares how his personal journey led…

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Vegan chef (and head chef of TED Countdown Summit) Derek Sarno is on a mission to unleash the mighty power of plants, creating nutritious food from mushrooms and vegetables that’s full of texture and flavor — and good for the planet. He dishes out some creative cooking inspiration and shares how his personal journey led him to create amazing food that avoids animal suffering.

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59 Comments

59 Comments

  1. Toussaint Crawford

    February 6, 2022 at 8:21 pm

    Just don’t like this reasoning. Didn’t even mention health.

  2. Spencer

    February 6, 2022 at 8:23 pm

    Heck Yeah! Be Buddha, Go Vegan!

  3. Jh5578

    February 6, 2022 at 8:34 pm

    Derek is a legand

  4. Remot Human

    February 6, 2022 at 8:54 pm

    What many reasons there’s just 2: It might help w/ climate change and it might stop suffering from existing that otherwise would have. It’s not healthier, even if most people don’t eat enough veggies

    • Tony Kontonasakis

      February 7, 2022 at 12:56 am

      Yeah, and they totally cherry pick the success stories while ignoring the majority of people who haven’t succeeded on a plant based diet

  5. Daniel S.Os.

    February 6, 2022 at 9:14 pm

    God bless u Derek!!! I love your delicious creations and emphatic mindset. GO VEGAN! Help the planet, reduce your carbon footprint, be a better human being. Love animals. Not eat them.

  6. Abhay Bhatt

    February 6, 2022 at 9:29 pm

    Plants also have life you know and they do process pain, suffering and death, albeit differently.

  7. Arup ratan

    February 6, 2022 at 9:30 pm

    Correction eggs are not vegetation product man

  8. Michael Henry

    February 6, 2022 at 9:52 pm

    I prefer a decent variety of meat together with all my other variety of food. All the lovely protein goodness of meat is great.

  9. InMaTeofDeath

    February 6, 2022 at 10:09 pm

    Meat tastes good so no thanks.

  10. Glaufx Garland and Eleni von Mondlicht -Γλαύκωψ

    February 6, 2022 at 10:41 pm

    Who told to the peoples of earth that plants don’t feel pain and they don’t have souls and blood green purple or yellow and brown. Plants are animals if you eating plants you still killing living organisms species with souls (animal is every living organism with anime, even the stones and sand PANPSYCHISM) and they have souls and also are much better stronger and evolved forms of life than humans and other animals, example they live for thousands of years and they remember everything they see they feel pain they talk and they do even things we cannot. Indeed plants are better food for us but don’t say that you don’t kill something. Climate change it is a myth as overpopulation is a myth – For example Canada and Australia are huge countries with population 30 million and lager than Europe with 700 million people. So where is the over population. Also America it is empty with 320 million and larger than Europe with 700+ million. All the climate change and overpopulation is a myth – The Climate of earth always change since forever, the pollution with forever chemicals plastic radiation corporatocracy bankers global companies politicians and liars and others similar are the problems not the earth and the peoples on it and the types of food you eat.

  11. XOOM CHANNEL

    February 6, 2022 at 10:52 pm

    its not that you cant eat meat .. just in reduced portions

  12. Максим Анатольевич Сидельников

    February 6, 2022 at 10:52 pm

    If you could ask a wolf whether they would stop hunting for live prey out of compassion to their personal lives and families, or even more, if they refused from eating the flesh of a human unlucky enough to have ended up in their fangs just because “we are of the same blood you and I”, I’m sure they, gently speaking, would not accept such reasoning and go on. It’s the way of life. Nonetheless, I’m intrigued with what meals were described and how tasty they might be. If indeed vegan food can be more delicious that meat then it’s the only way to support your agenda – make people vote with their money though a better taste. Thank you!

  13. Shloomy Shloms

    February 6, 2022 at 11:23 pm

    I eat a proxy vegan diet. cows eat vegan, I eat cows. voila VEGAN!

  14. Angela Hawtin

    February 6, 2022 at 11:40 pm

    Why did you feel it was OK to dump your past into this sorry video? Pathetic!!!

  15. Douglas Johnson

    February 7, 2022 at 12:38 am

    I’ll bet this guy hasn’t heard of regenerative agriculture

  16. Douglas Johnson

    February 7, 2022 at 12:39 am

    One thing he didn’t study is how plants grow and interact with the soil underneath it and what’s the best way to improve soil health

  17. Douglas Johnson

    February 7, 2022 at 12:40 am

    Regenerative agriculture is growing food the way God designed it

    • Grapehead Wanderberry

      February 7, 2022 at 12:43 am

      The garden of Eden was vegan, veganic permaculture or biocyclic vegan standard is the greatest way to steward the earth and allow regeneration.

  18. Douglas Johnson

    February 7, 2022 at 12:41 am

    I’m not against eating a lot of plants but I don’t see any reason I need to give up my meat

  19. Douglas Johnson

    February 7, 2022 at 12:42 am

    Everybody needs to look up Gabe Brown’s TED Talk

  20. Junyi Ngo

    February 7, 2022 at 12:51 am

    no

  21. Tony Kontonasakis

    February 7, 2022 at 12:55 am

    The last 6 years of my life have been the healthiest ever since going carnivore at 17. Lost 70 pounds in 5 months, then packed on way more muscle since.

    Yet you never see mainstream sources push keto, low carb, or carnivore eating lifestyles. It’s all meatless and plant based, while completely cherry picking the people they use to push plant based diets and ignoring the majority of people who don’t thrive on them

  22. Ryan S

    February 7, 2022 at 1:03 am

    Those mushrooms would go good on a ribeye. Too bad u cant eat the most nutritional food which is a ribeye while being a vegetarian. What about peoples suffering? My friend and many people try to be vegetarian and it almost killed them. Just saying. TED, i swear u only put on vids that are designed to brainwash people?

  23. Ryan S

    February 7, 2022 at 1:04 am

    U dont think the pentagons imprint on the world isnt worse than meat? Think again!

  24. John Whiteman

    February 7, 2022 at 1:12 am

    nice

  25. Pentru Barbati

    February 7, 2022 at 7:44 am

    yum yum yum

  26. Zenn Exile

    February 7, 2022 at 7:57 am

    Veganism is a literal impossibility and also serves no logical, moral, or ethical purpose. All crops have an animal death footprint larger than just killing an animal and eating it of the same calories. 90% of global crop production is reductive and catastrophically harmful to wildlife. And this only considers macro animals. There are trillions of microscopic creatures being violently ground to a pulp and dissolved in acid every single millisecond of every single day…

    The only moral and ethical path is omni-consumption. We must shift from isolating and growing mono-culture crops to a permaculture model. And our consumption needs to reflect the excess production of these permaculture models. Plants, animals, insects, fungus, bacteria, it must all be consumed to preserve the life that preserves us.

    The vegan delusion is a corporate ad campaign. Life cannot be compartmentalized and sold as branded commodity. We must return to a system that depends on our consumption for balance. Not one that we must artificially sustain to support manipulated feelings, and profit. Sustainability requires that we grow all forms of consumable life to great enough abundance that we can sustain ourselves off the excess.

    That is the only way forward. Every other path including global vegetarianism will continue to degrade and destroy the ecosystems we depend on for survival. We need herd animals to process and spread waste, we need insects to pollinate plants, we need fungus and bacteria in the soil breaking all the waste down and feeding plants. We need everything all at once and in “problematic” abundance. So that we, our need to consume as humans, is the solution to that problem.

    It’s so very simple. But all of you have to stop fighting impossible culture wars and start focusing in on the class war that is using campaigns like Veganism as weaponized propaganda. If you don’t want to eat animals, more power to you, but unless we replace the wild world we destroyed to plant your soy, there won’t be any animals or plants for any of us to eat. And very soon. The solution requires animal life be problematically abundant as well, so humans will need to continue consuming them. As well as globally embrace the consumption of insects.

    Specialized diets put the entire human population and the future of life on this planet at risk. Eat a little bit of everything. And if you can, try to support more life than you need to consume to live. That’s an ideal that is possible, and would drastically improve global conditions moving forward. Veganism is a corporate scam and cannot exist. It’s meant to put you in a binary conflict and distract as many of you as possible from reality.

  27. EzhegAB

    February 7, 2022 at 8:08 am

    The joke is that he himself will be eaten by mushrooms at the end

  28. Invox

    February 7, 2022 at 9:56 am

    Why is it that everytime I ear a talk about vegan or vegetarian food I immediatly get hungry and think about steak? 🤔

  29. Ty D¡e

    February 7, 2022 at 11:08 am

    Veganism isnt for everyone… it made me sick for 1.5 years.

  30. beverlyd1951

    February 7, 2022 at 12:25 pm

    ❤️❤️

  31. Andy Cordy

    February 7, 2022 at 12:52 pm

    I’m very pro vegetable based diet for all the reasons you describe except the concept of plant based foods for a changed world being free from animal suffering. They are not.

    It is impossible to grow vegetables without killing millions of animals. The bugs, worms,, small reptiles/amphibians might not be fluffy, feathery and cute but they and their habitats are destroyed when we till the soil to plant our foods.
    Particularly when the growth of human population is out of control and no plan to change that aspect of our self destructive activity as a species, there is no way to feed humans on a world wide scale and prevent the destruction of billions of smaller animals.

  32. Bernard Lease

    February 7, 2022 at 12:53 pm

    What’s wrong with eating animals?

  33. dePlant

    February 7, 2022 at 12:57 pm

    My body is a temple. I don’t pollute it with meat. But i do like to pay someone with HepC to inject toxic metals under my skin like Mercury Chrome and Cobalt.

  34. Country Fried Vegan

    February 7, 2022 at 1:52 pm

    Great video! Always have enjoyed your cooking! Plant power 🌱💯💯💖!!!

  35. Ash Zhu

    February 7, 2022 at 2:59 pm

    Plant based diet, if not consumed correctly, is nutrition deficient and can be dangerous. This video should emphasize on how to eat a healthy plant based diet instead of persuading audiences into it using personal stories but without a proper introduction to the diet. For any person with normal BMI, if you want to start eating plant based diet, make sure you consume enough B12, calcium, iron, animal AAs. Yes it does sound ridiculous that a supposedly healthier diet requires intake of vitamin and minerals.

  36. Amelia Lynn

    February 7, 2022 at 3:03 pm

    Food production is responsible for one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Meat does not need to be produced so it is the vegan food causing this! Also, your fruits and vegetables are being transported all over the world and the US in order for you to get it!Transporting food over long distances generates great quantities of carbon dioxide emissions.

  37. 1DCCX

    February 7, 2022 at 3:22 pm

    We can’t cut emissions and pollution without compromising on lifestyle. Over the last 17 years, since BP/Ogilvy coined ‘carbon footprint’, especially the last ten, there is a huge narrative to avoid meat and avoid petrol and diesel driven cars; a proliferation of ‘plant-based’ and substitute meat products for example in our supermarkets. Next up is eating insects.

    I’m here to say it’s a big con. It’s a fantastic proposition – take something that is real and amplify it to create new economic opportunities. No-one can dissent, because dissent is crushed under a weight of evidence for climate change where you are denounced a loony for questioning it. There is very little critical analysis about it even. But assume there is a climate crisis: here is where it is going commercially – leases (debt) on new electric vehicles, debt on heat pumps instead of gas boilers; eating cheap filler (like insects). You will all lap it up. Taking a serious problem and using it to con people.

    • 1DCCX

      February 8, 2022 at 9:21 am

      @Naff Brown I don’t believe all that looney crap I just think wealthy people want the masses to make the sacrifices whilst seizing new opportunities for a return.

      They are using legitimate concerns to deflect from who is really responsible eg the big oil and energy companies are responsible for pollution and damaging the environment, but we are too busy lapping up their advertising to demand that they fix the problem properly.

      At its most basic, our environment and energy is a global, macro issue, it’s a) caused by macro scale forces and therefore b) needs a macro solution. Processes that use energy create waste. It’s a fact. So let’s see some solutions from the biggest processors instead of deflecting it onto the individual consumer and citizen to adopt some substandard lifestyle the wealthiest generally don’t even follow.

  38. Acolhimento Veg

    February 7, 2022 at 4:09 pm

    👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

  39. Iron Maiden

    February 7, 2022 at 5:03 pm

    Humans do some strange things after they’ve had a shock to the system. I always ask a Vegan, “why is it ok for animals to kill other animals, but not ok for humans to do it?” If it’s all about the earth and all life being in this together, then so are Humans.

    • Daniel Marcantuno

      February 8, 2022 at 1:33 am

      I believe the big difference between humans non human animals that are carnivores is humans don’t require meat to survive. We are able to create and have a solid grasp and f science. Non human animals don’t.

  40. snoop darkholme

    February 7, 2022 at 8:25 pm

    ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

  41. Shadeed Single

    February 7, 2022 at 9:02 pm

    Lets just promote plant suffering 😂

  42. Shadeed Single

    February 7, 2022 at 9:03 pm

    Don’t wanna eat meat, but want something like meat😂😂

  43. BuddyCBuddy

    February 7, 2022 at 10:12 pm

    Why do you murder plants?

  44. Dr Seuss

    February 7, 2022 at 10:52 pm

    Don’t eat non animal

  45. Teri Scallon

    February 8, 2022 at 12:13 am

    Cool

  46. 45°N regenerative homesteading

    February 8, 2022 at 6:31 am

    8 years ago I had an epiphany: I was walking on a beautiful greek beach and all around me there was plastic. I swore to myself not to buy food wrapped in plastic anymore. Since then, I grew my food by myself.

  47. Aquarian K.

    February 8, 2022 at 7:01 am

    TED please talk about Islam too. It has complete guidance towards all aspects of life, from eating to living and even discusses about life after death. It gives a meaning to life.

  48. Alexander Vladimirov

    February 8, 2022 at 8:39 am

    Do plats suffer when you use them?

  49. mick mccrory

    February 8, 2022 at 12:19 pm

    I threw some plant based sausage out for the raccoon, & he wouldn’t eat it.

  50. Alyssa Parr

    February 9, 2022 at 5:21 am

    absolutely love this message, small efforts made by many people make huge impacts

  51. Commenter

    February 9, 2022 at 4:26 pm

    More plant-based/vegan stuff, TED 👍👍

  52. The Big Dawg

    February 9, 2022 at 10:23 pm

    Lol vegans.

  53. Dante’s farts

    February 9, 2022 at 11:26 pm

    What about the animals they kill to keep off the crops?

  54. pamela oneland

    February 10, 2022 at 12:41 am

    I love this.
    Sincere condolence too.

  55. Pamela Ofuani (oneland)

    February 10, 2022 at 12:41 am

    I love this.
    Sincere condolence too.

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