Is vegetarianism healthy? That’s the question, I am gonna be asking myself as I bite into my all-natural turkey during November. I have been wanting to write about this particular subject matter for a while but I just wasn’t as interested as much as I thought I was. I am interested in it right now and enthusiasm has kicked in so its time to begin my blog post! Over the past number of weeks this topic has concerned me to a great degree and I think that its because it keeps coming at me from all angles .
I just recently had a an associate of mine who I did not know was vegan until she introduced it in a conversation. After her telling me that I quickly asked her if she ingested unfermented soy and she said oh yes I began to make an assumption about some of thepresent-day health troubles she had been having and sure enough I was correct!
Now…I am not a vegetarian basher and I do not like to tell people how to eat meals or what meals to eat, but I am a huge proponent of eating for health opposed to screeching recklessly into the pit stop of death. Actually, I experimented with being a non meat eater myself but I was living on a recent college graduate’s stipend which almost always narrows your choices to taco stands. Back then my meal selections were always driven by the money I would make and I did not know anything about eating food to stop physical degeneration.
I am happy I finally awoke and now my mission in life is to clear the veil on people’s eyes.
My very first venture into vegetarianism was very simple. I went to a soup and sandwich shop for about 7 days and instead of getting animal flesh on my sub, I chose to purchase fresh vegetables with just vinegar and oil. I told myself I was vegetarian but what I really was, was an idiot for believing I could become vegan by just choosing to get rid of the meat on my sub sandwich. I will admit I didn’t know one thing about being vegan and within seven days and quite a few hunger pangs later, I went back to animal flesh with a vengeance. I made a decision to give it another try when I relocated to Atlanta, GA. I started hanging out with a female who was starting to discover the vegan lifestyle. She believed in eating no animal products and so she would frequently cook vegan snacks.
The stuff she prepared was appetizing and a far cry from the sub sandwiches with vegetables I devoured years ago when I called myself a non meat eater. I was amazed at how she prepared things without using flesh but they tasted just like she used meat. Although they were some tasty dinners, I was never really convinced that I should get rid of meat. My rationale was this,”my grandfather ate meat, my grandma ate meat, and my mommy ate meat so guess what I’m going to do? Yep…eat meat and that is exactly what I did every chance I got. My decision to continue consuming meat was a great one because if I had stuck with my decision, I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy my natural free range beef I’m having for dinner. I just love a huge juicy turkey leg what about you?
I have never been one to force my beliefs on anyone so I will not do that at this point. If you’ve been a reader of my blog by now you know I like to deal in factual information. Its a lot easier to make a final decision when you deal with facts versus hearsay, wouldn’t you agree? 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 unbiased as I possibly can about this topic of is vegan healthy, let’s talk about some of the reasons why vegetarians actually become non meat eaters and then state the real facts.
1. Cancer Risk – I just recently saw a tv documentary named, Fork over Knives which was in support of vegetarianism and one of the chief points was it lowered cancer risk. This wasn’t necessarily true as a study was done in 1994 which showed vegans had a decrease risk for breast and lung cancers but their risks for these cancers were considerably higher: brain, skin, cervical, ovarian, prostate, and uterine. Research indicates carbohydrate based diet regimes are major causes of cancer. Oh Yes..veggies are considered to be carbs. As a side note, meat eating was never associated with higher cancer risk.
2. Heart Disease – The country of India has one of the largest populations of vegetarians and one of the highest occurrences of heart ailments. On another note female vegans have a greater incidence of heart ailments than womennon-vegans.
3. Arteriosclerosis - Vegans think plaque will not occur in the body’s arteries as a result of ingesting plant based foods…not so. Vegans have just as much recorded instances of arterial plaque in their arteries as those who eat meat.
4. Longevity – Some vegans insist consuming only vegan foods will lengthen your life. Hindus who are mostly vegetarian have the shortest life spans in the entire world.
5. Osteoporosis - Consuming the flesh of animals was considered to make the human body acidic but eating plants makes it alkaline therefore meat for animals was considered a contributor to Osteoporosis. The rationale is if the body is acidic through meat eating, calcium from the bones is used as a buffer to make the body alkaline. The research used to prove this were done with protein powders and not real animal flesh. How can you make a generalization like this if you do not use real meat?
6. Energy and Growth – Vegans will usually state they have more energy when following a plant based eating plan but in actuality most vegans will complain of lack of energy because animal flesh delivers some nutrition plants can’t give you. On a different note, young children who follow a vegan diet program can have growth and development issues. I’ve heard more than one story where women have challenges having a baby as a result of following a strict plant-eating diet. They also have troubles with their teeth and emotional issues.
7. Saturated Fat - Vegans tend to believe eating a plant based diet will help them lower cholesterol by lowering saturated fat. Well…our bodies need saturated fat and cholesterol isn’t necessarily the bad thing its made out to be. It has been verified that cholesterol is needed for brain and hormone function thus the body needs the saturated fat meats deliver to function properly.
8. Morality Issues- We should not eat farm animals is what some vegetarians list as a reason for not consuming animal flesh. Well, if we did not 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 the food chain.
Just make sure if you are continuing to take in animal meat that it’s all natural. It’s the anti-biotics and hormones in commercially raised animals that is making men and women ill.
Now…as I stated earlier I do not push my individual beliefs on anybody and I’ll stick to this. 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 significant health benefits over those who choose to eat meat from animals. So what is the conclusion? All things in moderation. Excessive meat can be bad for you, just as too many vegetables can be bad but if there is balance which is what our body desires you can get the very best of both worlds and there will be no desire to ask the question, “is vegetarianism healthy?.
Disclaimer: The preceding post is for informational purposes only. Consult a doctor before taking any medical advice.