I would encourage both Emily and Gary to research why most younger vegans made the switch versus why some older people decide to stop eating animal products, oil, and processed food. They did touch on it, but I think they should act more on the conviction that "at the end of the day it doesn't matter why" and work to address different population groups by their specific needs and interests. Many young vegans don't give a crap about the food/health connection unless they're trying to lose weight. I think by and large these are the "health vegans" being stereotyped in this video, the ones who tend to give it up. Young vegans who make themselves sick by subsisting on Doritos and Diet Coke are way too often the ones who say "the vegan lifestyle nearly killed me." That can't be helping the image of veganism as a healthy lifestyle.
I know that when I was young I felt basically the same and my weight was stable, no matter what I ate. Nowadays, what I eat affects how I feel both during and after a meal, and this reinforces how I eat. People in their fifties and older who have developed adult onset diabetes and/or cardiac issues, or who are trying to improve their odds against a family tendency to get cancer, these people are motivated to keep living, keep all their limbs and digits, and avoid brain-impairing drugs and drastic surgeries. To be blunt, it's dumb to say these people are not likely to stay with their dietary changes.The "selfish" charge seems pretty tone-deaf, but people who are trying to heal their bodies by changing what they eat, they're not so influenced by what AR terrorists say about them. If Gary Yourofsky values altruism, he should adopt it by using whatever influence he has to persuade people to improve their health by changing their diets, and he should express appropriate concern about whether someone is a junk-food vegan or a wholesome-foods vegan. Otherwise, communicating the message that he reveres animals but doesn't care about the health of human vegans, he squanders an opportunity to help both.
Do Emily and Cary understand that if significant numbers of people change their diets to "usually vegan" even if they eat animal products on weekends or whenever, that translates into massive numbers of animals spared the livestock industry life cycle? Is it even possible to care about animals and not care about that? Whenever promoting your own viewpoint takes priority over keeping your eye on the long ball, you lose, and so do the animals.