Anatomical vegetarian ad

Look at this kick-ass anatomical ad for the International Vegetarian Union.

Vegetables are all your body needs (via Street Anatomy)

Previously:

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Doomstalk

Needs more Sea Kittens.
Brainspore

Maroon two vegetarians on a desert island and after a couple of weeks this is what they’ll start seeing when they look at each other.
Blue

“I was told I needed more iron. Does this mean I should eat more “kick ass” broccoli?”, cwclifford.

Try peas instead – they have more iron than broccoli. Who knew!
Andrew Katz

Looks like this person has been figging a tad too much. Ouch!
Euryale

As a content meat-eater (not that I could be anything else, as I find most of the vegetarian & vegan protein sources disgusting), I think this poster is pretty damn awesome.
Anonymous

I’ve been a increasingly strict vegetarian (I’d say most of the time I’m vegan, but my first priority is always my health) and I feel great.

I work out typically for 30min to an hour each day, mostly all cardio. I trained with my high school’s cross country team (outdoor distance running) and could run 8 miles while on a vegetarian diet.

While I agree their are so many ways to have an unhealthy diet, most of the people I know that are vegan spend a considerable amount of time analyzing their diet. I consider this constant revision of ones diet to be productive.

Being vegan requires a considerable time investment, and not everyone has that luxury. I understand that. Being healthy of course comes first.

I recently got my blood tested and everything is in completely normal ranges. I haven’t eaten meat in at least a decade, and grow as much of my own food as possible.

Athen Ananda
Anandamide Logistics
Anonymous

Finally, definitive proof that if you eat too many veggies, you’ll shit an eggplant.
toxonix

Man, you don’t want to eat that much ginger. Burn a hole right through you.
Klaus Ã†. Mogensen

A few years ago, the image linked to below was used to promote eating more vegetables and fruit in Denmark, specifically ’6 a day’. It may be NSFW in prudish countries, but was posted in public places in DK.
http://oturai.eu/images/ugensbillede/seks_om_dagen.jpg
Anonymous

Pretty accurate, though perhaps the ginger should be replaced with cookies.
boo

I’m a little concerned that this person doesn’t have a stomach. (That is assuming that the pear is a pancreas.) And a lower gut full of ginger would be a bit uncomfortable, but they could have used Jerusalem artichokes for the illo which would be far less pleasant!

Just remember that this is only a picture: I congratulate the illustrator. It is far less creepy than Archimboldo’s paintings and might actually encourage someone to think about eating more veggies.
- Anonymous
  
  I’m in an anatomy class right now and this is picture is actually fairly anatomically correct (though the lungs should be a bit bigger, and the heart a tad more to the left). The stomach isn’t visible because it is being covered up by the lungs. Overall though, if you were to look at a similar cross section of the human body, you’d would find the the vegetables and the organs that are visible look oddly alike. Then again…that was what the artist was going for.
Moriarty

You know what would make it a lot more life like? Animal parts.
- The Life Of Bryan
  
  That’s kind of what I was thinking, that there’s a certain irony to vegetarians substituting plants for things normally made of meat.
  - Anonymous
    
    irony? vegetarians typically substitute vegetables for things usually made of meat: breakfast, lunch, dinner.
essjay intrigues

wow~ I can’t believe all the negativity regarding this great piece of art! It really speaks to me in a positive way. Good food equals healthy innards. Simple as that!

Amen to the person who wrote that it takes education to understand that veganism can offer all the protein you need, and I don’t mean isolated soy protein junk like that. Just simple foods, not cooked to death, that have living energy. Mixing them in your body creates complete proteins….proteins are amino acids….all foods have them, and they mix together in your body. Read up and learn.

By the way, meat production far supersedes responsibility for greenhouse emissions than all the transportation in the world combined. Believe it or not, it’s true. Again, read up and learn. Even Al Gore agrees, though he likes his meat and doesn’t want to discuss it. Are we going to be the change this planet needs? Walk the talk?

Thanks again for the great food-art!
The Chemist

Wow people- saying whether a particular design element of idea is pretty nifty doesn’t serve as a referendum on dietary choices.
Trent Hawkins

It looks more like a cross section from the back, what with the trachea in front of the heart and the pancreas visible(though no kidneys?).

So if I learned anything, it’s that Vegetarians don’t know their anatomy and from the looks of it, don’t have any balls. :-)
jeraliey

As a data point: The answer to any medical school exam question that starts with “A 32 year old female vegan…” or anything similar to that is ALWAYS “Vitamin B12 deficiency”.

(B12 is only found in animal products.)

Dear vegan buddies, please PLEASE make sure you keep up on your B12 intake. Peripheral neuropathy sucks.
Anonymous

That is a stunning piece of art! Yummy.
Exploto

Sometimes I can’t wait for the aliens to come and eat us all because they are smarter, stronger, and have better technology than us. (Yeah, I’m talking to YOU meat eaters.)
Anonymous

Mmmmm…

ginger guts
Anonymous

I will never understand the intolerance people have for vegetarians. This is art, not a textbook for a medical doctor. Take it easy.
Anonymous

First thing I thought of…

“It’s people. Vegetables are made out of people. They’re making our food out of people. Next thing they’ll be breeding us like cattle for food. You’ve gotta tell them. You’ve gotta tell them!”

Gotta wonder about the cannibalistic leanings of the artist as well.
Zadaz

No matter how many veggies I eat I’m still made of meat.

But I appreciate some clever visual design and this has that in spades.
GasLighter

@24 The intolerant ones are just repressed vegetarians ;)
Anonymous

hey I’m Vegan and think it’s creepy sooooo…..
Phil Hilliker

I’m pretty sure that’s not ginger. It’s a gut full of very tasty sunchokes. Mmmmm.
JoshP

I’m having this strange desire for sausage… with ginger. ginger sausage. hrmm…
MarkM

Great now every time i see ginger i have to stifle a gag reflex. :shakes fist: Damn you, vegetarians!
randomcat

As a seven-year vegetarian (now recovered) I have some experience on this topic. I got into athletics and was frustrated for months with my body’s poor response to exercise, until I tried taking a lot of soy supplements every day. I had no idea how badly protein-starved my body was. In about one week I saw a dramatic increase in my athletic performance, and in the look and feel of my body. When I could no longer stand consuming the amount of soy powder I needed to supplement my normal vegetarian diet with, I started eating meat again and never looked back.
- likescupcakes
  
  Cool photo.
  
  As a 7 year vegan who lifts weights every other day and often goes on 10 mile hikes, I’m not sure you’ve got it right randomcat.
  
  I rarely use soy protein at all. There is plenty of protein in beans, lentils, grains like rice, and even vegetables.
  
  As an example, a hamburger has 20-24 grams of protein. 1 cup of lentils has about 18 and a side of brocolli has 4 grams.
  
  If you manage your diet whether omnivore or herbivore you can be healthy. I’m certainly not trying to change how anyone eats, but misinformation helps no one.
  - randomcat
    
    I was explaining my body’s reaction when, as a vegetarian, I began a strength training program. It’s not misinformaion, it’s what happened to me. Are you calling me a liar?
    
    MY body, when I’m using it to its fullest potential, needs 120+ grams of protein per day to be healthy. I didn’t say anything about your body. So STFU.
Anonymous

I only eat plants. Over 3000 calories worth a day. I lift heavy weights three times a week. I run about 15K a week. I work in a bakery where every loaf of bread is hand kneaded and shaped. I am in better all around shape than any omnivore I know. If you are not getting all of the nutrients you need from a vegetarian diet it is your own fault.
WeightedCompanionCube

“We have some bad news. We accidentally replaced your heart with a baked potato. You have about five seconds to live.”
Anonymous

I will simply enjoy the art and not criticize other people’s eating choices. I prefer my Tri-Tip tho. Great art. Glad I stumbled upon it.
Anonymous

I’m a new vegetarian, with plenty of vegan days, and I loved this image – at first I thought “ginger” too, which would make that dosage lethal, I guess, hehe. Ginger oil has an LD50 on rats @ 5 grams per kilo.
Sunchokes sounds more likely, and honestly a whole lot more tasty.
BTW, my wife was anaemic too, but 6 months of vegetarian diet helped that.
Ian70

I’ve heard the screams of the vegetables..
Watching their skins being peeled..
Grated and steamed with no mercy..
How do you think that feels?

The Arrogant Worms – “Carrot Juice Is Murder”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmK0bZl4ILM
Anonymous

And the inuÃ¯t live without an smidgin’o greens.
adonai

It’s very clever. However, I’ve just finished reading Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, and as everyone knows, cauliflowers are vegetable brains……..not lungs.
Ingmar

Vegetarians are weird.
Anonymous

I can’t look! A helpless cauliflower, cruelly bisected by these evil people! They should be ashamed of themselves.

Vegetarianism is just pure cruelty. Plants can’t fight back.
8bitpixel

Glad to see there aren’t any legumes (soy, peanuts, beans) or grains inside that body! If Paleo peeps and Vegetarians have anything in common, it’s the veggies.
Anonymous

i’m anaemic…so this poster is wrong.
- Anonymous
  
  well actually you don’t need to eat meat to not be anemic. i’m vegan and i get plenty of iron. thanks. you need to know how to do it.
tallpat

Kinda reminds me of this video (food patterns of our body): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=110yQJwa3ZY
cwclifford

I was told I needed more iron. Does this mean I should eat more “kick ass” broccoli?
- Anonymous
  
  No, it means you should cook in a cast iron frying pan.
Daemon

That’s a cool image.

But I’m still am omnivore, and refuse to pretend otherwise.
Anonymous

Thatâ€™s for sure a marketing research stint to craft this segment.
Dear veggie people please â€œlistenâ€ to your sweat! Guess what meat and dairy is important too, to harmonize that balance. Anyway like the graphics very much!
JulianR

Giuseppe Arcimboldo kicked that particular ass much more severly, and has done so already in the 16th century: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Arcimboldo
apoxia

Everyone knows the cauliflower is the brain, not the lungs!
Jonathan Badger

If Arcimboldo’s work wasn’t creepy enough as it is, read Ian Watson’s brilliant short story “The Coming of Vertumnus”…
Nougat

Thinking about having a gut full of ginger makes me feel a little sick.
Science_Boy

Ewww! Gross! This is supposed to make the idea of eating the vegetables MORE appealing? Hey Kids! Don’t like vegetables? Just think of yourself as a cannibal and pretend they’re tasty human organs. Yum! Are we sure this is supposed to be a pro-vegetarian image?
Anonymous

NOTE: Not to be used for transplantation.
Xenu

You are what you eat?
Anonymous

“I’m in an anatomy class right now and this is picture is actually fairly anatomically correct (though the lungs should be a bit bigger, and the heart a tad more to the left). The stomach isn’t visible because it is being covered up by the lungs.”

You are going to fail your anatomy class then. The stomach and lungs are separated by your diaphragm. If the eggplant is supposed to be the liver then I would assume that the pear was actually the inferior portion of the stomach, and the remainder hidden by liver. Not 100% what that cucumber is supposed to be- possibly the transverse section of the large intestine?
Rob Cruickshank

Usually it’s a very bad thing to have a leek in your trachea.
Anonymous

Well, think about having a gut full of feces!