I did a search for this topic, but I didn't find any threads. Has anyone heard of any vegan bankers? Is this possible?
I'm not vegan, but I've thought about it. My supervisor (for a part-time, non-banking job) says she's vegan and it gives her more energy. My thought is more energy = more productivity = better banker. Any thoughts?
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Don't change your diet just to be better at your job.
I should have explained that better. I wouldn't change my diet just for increased productivity, but also becuase it's probably healthier than my current diet.
sounds like a great reason to me
If you aren't totally committed to being a vegan for religious/moral issues, I wouldn't bother. Bankers don't have time to cook their own food, and good luck finding something tasty, filling and vegan to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks at the office (not to mention while traveling, meeting with clients, etc.). If you want healthy, order chicken instead of steak and eat more vegetables, but being a vegan (even vegetarian, really) requires a lot more energy than the rewards you will get from it.
I guess it depends where he lives. In NYC it's pretty easy to be vegan.
I tend to laugh at the notion of "healthier." My hippie brother only purchases "all-natural" and "untreated" food products. Fact is, most of us are going to die between the ages of 70 and 90 years old, including those who consume few fats or sugars. The longer you live past 70, the more your quality of life declines (exponentially). Barring incredible unforeseen scientific creation or divine intervention, not a one of us is going to live a day past 120 and I'd argue that not many of us would care to live that long anyway.
I'd argue that you need to strike a balance between caveman and pot-smokinig hippie.
The world ends in a few years - didn't anyone tell you? A scientist finds the cure for cancer, but it makes us turn into ultra-aggressive super zombies. We all live until 25 (assuming your about 22 now). Eat all the meat you can!
Not if I make it to Vermont!
It's interesting that you mentioned cavemen. Cavemen have been on my mind since a friend mentioned a book she had read about the ideal human diet. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of it, but the book explained that originally, humans were gatherers, eating nuts, fruits, and vegies. I'm not convinced that humans were intended to eat meat (although, again, I have done little/no research on the topic). Some point to intestinal length as a multiple of total body length. Others say that because the majority of primates (our closest cousin) are herbivores, maybe we should be too. It seems that the scientific consensus is being a vegetarian is healthier. If it's healthier, than why not? You body will likely function better. I say this as I have a fridge full of frozen hamburger and chicken.
Sorry for the tangent. Has anyone known a vegan/vegetarian banker? I agree with AltESV -- it's probably not going to happen. Can anyone speak from experience on this?
I think the book you are referring to is "The Omnivore's Dilemma".
Actually there are a lot of vegan bankers and PE professionals. I'm one, and know of a fair few others. We don't tend to advertise it, because generally it's not relevant. But people who go out to eat with me know where I stand on it. One of the ibanks here has a CEO that's not only vegan but raw vegan. He's 50 and looks 30, and is ex special forces. He credits his vegan diet with his ability to just crush special forces training and run circles around it.
It's not about the length of your life, but how healthy you are while you are alive. if you eat bacon and steak regularly, you are likely to have all sorts of health issues (heart disease, high blood pressure etc.) by the time you are 45. You will spend the rest of your life on drugs and not able to enjoy life, not to mention being a liability to your family. This is my motivation for eating healthy.
i'm with you man. I've enough problems in my life without health issues / cancer / heart disease. I'm just trying to make it through, be healthy, and make some $ while I'm at it.
Delirium2, many people would argue that eating not-so-appetizing vegetables for every meal, doing boring exercises for an hour or so per day, and constantly counting calories is not exactly a great quality of life either, especially in the context of the finite nature of our lives. Again, I think there needs to be some sort of a balance between the weirdo who runs 10 miles per day and the person who is morbidly obese.
I try to do both - I try to run, and to eat healthy. Why not right? I don't count calories or eat yucky food. I LOVE BROCCOLI!
Studies have by and large shown that diet has a bigger effect on health than exercise, but of course you should do both. "You cannot outrun a bad diet forever."
^^^^above was to F9, not delirium.
Balance? Haha, this is banking! Balance is 60 hrs / week. Banking is >90hrs. All or nothing. Morbidly obese or vegan! Drunk or sober! Janitor or banker! lol I'm kidding.
Point well-taken, VTech. Bankers are required to undertake so many unhealthy practices. I'm trying to do my best to off-set those with healthier practices. So far, it seems like "Best Practice" of being vegan/vegetarian isn't possible. If this is the case, I will opt for the "Great Practice" by avoiding meat most of the time and cutting back on unnecessary calories, but this isn't likely. After a while, I'm sure I will be reduced to the practice of eating Chinese food six nights/week instead of seven.
Don't a lot of banks have food catered at night, or are you on your own to order whatever you want? Is lunch catered? If I'm way off base on this, it's because JPM has a food court in the same building as its IBD and equity research department. It may not be owned by JPM, but it sure seems convenient.
At my old bank, it was 2 or 3 days per week that we had lunch provided. At another place I almost got hired onto, they provided something like 8 meals per week. Pretty nice.
while this discussion is amusing, i don't understand why you are tying banking with veganism. life doesnt revolve around work, who cares how many bankers are vegans?
cavemen ate more than fruits nuts and veggies. don't forget about the part where they hunted.
I'm sorry, but that's highly false. Please see the work of Dr. Christina Warinner, an archeologist that specializes in ancient diets using fossils, bone samples, stool and dental samples. Ancient man was almost exclusively a plant-eater. i'm also including a Scientific American article on the same subject. Now, were there ancient people who hunted? Yes, in times of famine, and in certain climatic conditions. So there was hunting in the arctic, and in some of the colder areas of places like Belgium during the ice age. But was hunting a big part of life?
Quite the opposite!
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/early-meat-eating-hum…</a">Scientific American ancient diets
what you want to do is eat a diet full of high fructose corn syrup and sugar. on occasion, eat some fatty foods such as french fries and fat girls.
nice
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"its the running joke now, we now have fair trade with china so they send us poisoned sea food and we send them fraudulent securities."
Try being a pescatarian. instead of a complete vegan, you eat seafood instead of regular meats. My wife has been doing this for the last 2 months, and loves it. Now, I'm not saying it will make you a better banker, but it will make your body feel better.
I was never vegan, but I spent most of my teenage years vegetarian. trust me, you have much more energy with a meat diet and you will feel generally healthier.
You can't conclude that. We don't know your diet. Maybe you're a crappy eater. Maybe you were eating bread and processed foods all day. I can tell you I have FAR MORE energy when vegan than when I ate meat. Some of the world's top athletes went vegan for performance, including: Venus and Serena Williams Carl Lewis - 9 time Olympic medalist Patrick Baboumian - world's strongest man, holding the European powerlifting record Nick Diaz - one of the world's top MMA fighters Scott Jurek and Rich Roll - two of the world's top ultramarathon runners
Smuguy - thanks for the book title. I'll check it out.
EE- does life revolve around work? Ask a banker. If you're asking why I am so concerned with having more energy for the purposes of being more productive (with the relevant end-purpose of being a better banker), then that's a good question. I've been listening to a podcast on productivity. The purpose of being more productive isn't necessarily to take on more work-related projects, but to get your work done as efficiently as possible so you can have more time to do fun things. I know this isn't reasonable in the context of banking: you can be as productive as possible but you'll likely end up waiting on someone else to review your work before you can proceed with the next step of the project. If I can be more productive by changing my diet, then why not.
bmwhype - I'm living on that diet now. It's great. Even the "grape juice" I drink has high-fructose corn syrup listed as the second component right behind water. Yum. Sugar. Water. yuuummm.
theghost - being pescatarian is probably a lot healthier than eating red meats. Sea food contains a lot of the good cholesterol.
Yes certainly, but sadly most seafood carries a lot of pollutants now. I find it easier to just leave them off my plate.
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