<i>"put me in my place .. refute me"</i>
OK... but only because you asked so nicely. That's easy enough to do.
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All living things have one primary objective on earth: survival and propogation.
Plants do this by absorbing carbon dioxide and various minerals from water and soil, synthesizing those components with sunlight energy to create sugars (carbohydrates), proteins and fats. Pretty much the same thing we do, except we use oxygen instead of CO2.
Generally speaking, plants have three main parts: roots = tubers for absorption of nutrients and water, stem - leaves network for absorption of water, CO2 and sunlight, and sexual organs (flowers) that produce fertilized ovum (aka nuts, beans, seeds, etc)
The roots = tubers network is where most sugars are stored in the form of simple or complex starches. Sugars feed the plant thru its lifetime of seed production, and/or the next generation of growth to come.
The stems - stalks - leaves network is primarily a nutrient transport system where cell walls are made of wax layers for supple rigidity. They don't store much besides minerals and nutrients.
The flower = sexual organs portion that ends up being some form of ovum / seed is where proteins and fats are stored. Like any other egg, the building blocks for next generation to come are stored in that seed = nut.
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<b>saint</b>, you are welcome to eat the roots & tubers of most plants (potato, carrots, beets, parsnips, onions) and the leaves = stalks (celery, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, swiss chard) around the clock. You can eat your body weight in any combination of that stuff... and your muscle mass will waste away to nothing.
The roots & tubers are mostly sugar to us... simple or complex carbs. The leaves & stalks are mostly fiber to us, because our digestive tracts cannot break down the wax of those cellular walls.
That leaves the flowers & ovum... seeds, nuts and beans. Stuff like peas, corn, beans of all type, tree nuts, peanuts... that's the only place where vegetable proteins and oils/fats are available to us.
Pure vegans need to eat one helluva lotta beans, seeds and nuts to meet their protein (and beneficial fat) requirements. By the same token, honeybees get all of their proteins and fat from flower pollen... which eventually becomes the pollinated seed product. Honey is their form of carbohydrates, same as starch from tubers for us.
A honeybee will starve to death and the colony will collapse on a diet of honey (carbs) alone. They are 100% vegan for the past 30 million years, longer than you by a little bit. Even honeybees cannot live on all vegetable parts alone.
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The vast majority of vegetive material, aka vegetables have nil protein (amino acids) available to human digestive tracts. Unless you have evolved into a multi-chambered stomach complete with bacteria to ferment & breakdown those wax walls of grass & stalks, you need nuts - seeds - beans to survive.
Period, end of story. Glad to be of service in setting the record straight.
I've been gardening since 4yrs old, raising animals of all sort since 5yrs old, studying fitness and nutrition for humans and animals more than half my life. The only part of me that's an idiot is tapping into this website expecting to enjoy an intelligent, civil conversation without it being trashed by the ignorant and uninformed.
atticus, as always it's a pleasure visiting with you
