Is vegetarianism healthy? That’s the one question, I am gonna be asking myself as I tear into my all-natural turkey during November. I’ve been wanting to write about this subject matter for a while but I just wasn’t as interested as much as I thought I might be. I am interested in it at this present moment and insight has kicked in so its time to start writing! Over the past few weeks this subject has weighed on me heavily and I really think its because it keeps approaching from all sides .
I just recently had a friend of mine who I didn’t know was vegan until she disclosed it in a conversation between us. After her telling me that I promptly asked her if she ate soy products and she said sure I began to make an assumption about somerecent health problems she had been suffering from and sure enough I was right!
Now…I am not a vegetarian basher and I don’t like to tell people how to eat meals or what meals to eat, but I am a big advocate of eating for health opposed to screeching recklessly into the arms of of death. Actually, I attempted being a vegetarian myself but I was living on a recent college graduate’s stipend which almost always narrows your choices to taco stands. At that time my brunch choices were always determined by my finances and I did not know anything about eating to avoid physical degeneration and deterioration.
I’m delighted I finally enlightened myself and now my objective is to clear the veil over people’s eyes. My very first venture into non-meat eating was very easy. I went to a sandwich shop for about seven days and instead of getting animal meat on my sub sandwich, I opted to purchase green vegetables with vinegar and oil. I told myself I was a vegetarian but what I really was, was an idiot for believing I could become non-meat eater by just opting to hold the meat on my sub. I’ll admit I did not know one thing about being vegetarian and within 7 days and several starvation pangs later, I went back to meat with a vengeance. I decided to give it another try when I relocated to Dekalb Georgia. I started hanging out with a lady who was just starting to discover the vegetarian way of eating. She believed in eating no meat and so she would always cook plant based dinners.
The stuff she made was tasty and a far cry from the sub sandwiches with veggies I ate years ago when I called myself a vegetarian. I was astonished at how she made things without using flesh but they tasted just like she used animal flesh. Although they were some scrumptious food items, I was never really sure that I should eliminate meat. My rationale was this,”my granddaddy ate animal flesh, my grandma ate flesh from animals, and my mommy ate meat so guess what I’m gonna do? Yup…eat meat and that is precisely what I did every chance I got. My choice to continue consuming meat was a fantastic one because if I had stuck with it, I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy my organic free range poultry I’m having for my evening meal. I just enjoy a large juicy turkey leg what about you?
I’ve never been a person to push my beliefs on anyone so I will not do that here. If you have been a follower of my website by now you know I like to deal in factual information. Its easier to make a final decision when you deal with facts vs. hearsay, wouldn’t you concur? By the way, even though I never really made it completely vegan I leaned heavily towards it because I thought it was a much better way to eat. I also thought it was a more conscious and humane thing to not eat meat. In order to be as neutral as I possibly can about this topic of is vegetarianism healthy, let’s talk about some of the reasons why vegans actually become vegetarians and then state the real specifics.
1. Risk of Cancer - I just recently saw a tv documentary called, Fork over Knives which was Pro -Vegan and one of the main points was it lowered cancer risk. This wasn’t necessarily true as a study was done in 1994 which showed vegans had a reduce risk for breast cancers and lung cancers but their risks for these cancers were considerably higher: brain, skin, cervical, ovarian, prostate, and uterine. Research indicates carbohydrate based diets are prime causes of cancer. Yes..veggies are considered to be carbohydrates. As a side note, meat consumption was never associated with elevated cancer risk.
2. Heart Disease - The country of India has one of the biggest populations of vegans and one of the greatest occurrences of heart disease. On another note female vegetarians have a greater incidence of heart disease than femalenon-vegans.
3. Arteriosclerosis - Vegetarians seem to think plaque will not occur in the body’s arteries as a result of consuming plant based foods…not so. Vegetarians have just as many occurrences of plaque in their arteries as those who eat meat.
4. Life Span - Some vegetarians say consuming only vegan foods will lengthen their life. Hindus who are mostly vegan have the shortest life spans in the entire world.
5. Osteoporosis - Consuming the flesh of animals was considered to make the entire body acidic but consuming plants makes it alkaline therefore meat for animals was considered a contributor to Osteoporosis. The rationale is if the human body is acidic through meat eating, calcium in the bones is used as a buffer to make the whole body alkaline. The studies used to prove this were done with only protein powders and not real flesh from animals. How can you make a statement like this if you do not use genuine meat?
6. Energy and Growth - Vegetarians will usually claim they have more energy when following a plant based eating plan but in actuality most vegetarians will complain of shortage of energy because animal flesh supplies some vitamins and minerals plants cannot give. On the flip side, children who follow a vegan diet can have growth and development issues. I have heard more than one story where women have challenges conceiving as a result of following a strict vegetarian diet. They also have issues with their teeth and emotional problems.
7. Saturated Fat - Vegetarians tend to believe eating a vegetarian diet will help them reduce cholesterol by reducing saturated fat. Well…our bodies need saturated fat and cholesterol is not necessarily the bad thing its made out to be. It has been verified that cholesterol is needed for brain and hormone performance thus the body needs the saturated fat animal meats provide to function properly.
8. Morality Issues- We shouldn’t eat farm animals is what some vegetarians list as a reason for not eating flesh from animals. Well, if we didn’t consume them, they would overpopulate the earth, right? Think about it this way if you were put in the jungle or forest and a lion or bear was hungry would they have a problem eating you? We are all part of a large food chain and its just by luck that humans are on top of this food chain.
Just be sure if you are going to continue to consume meat that it’s all-natural. It’s the antibiotic drugs and hormones in commercially raised animals that is making individuals ill.
Ok…as I stated earlier I don’t push my individual beliefs on anyone and I will stick to that. I believe we get into challenges when we try to take things to the extreme. Like it or not,going vegan is an extreme way of eating which does not have any important health rewards over those who choose to consume flesh. So what is the conclusion? All things in moderation. Excessive meat can be unhealthy, just as too many veggies can be bad but if there is balance which is what the body wants you can get the best of both worlds and there will be no desire to ask the question, “is getting rid of meat healthy?.
Disclaimer: The preceding post is for informational purposes only. Consult a doctor before taking any medical advice.