Why is meat and dairy ect....bad for you?!
Why is meat and dairy ect....bad for you?
ok heres the deal i eat right and excercise daily but i came across this vegitarian cookbook and at the beginning it has all this info about chemicals in food and meat is bad for you and eggs are bad and don't eat dairy i am confused i thought well maybe this would be the way to go but no one else in my family would ever do this so it is practically impossible for me to do it because i can't by two sets of groceries every week and i don't know that i believe every single peice of meat is bad or every dairy product...someone please give me some insight on this issue
Answers:
it is bad for you, i'm a vegg, so keep in mind my answer is bias
but try it for yourself, go eat vegetarian meal for just one day, or one week, and you'll notice you're eating healither, and more picky, more picky because you realise the food you're eating if no good for you, read the back lable of any food you find in the gerocy store, the food is loaded with additives, chemicals, and other junk, trans fat, and sodium up the wa zoo, go vegg you'll like it. if not, I can't think of a healthy meat for you, maybe if you farm chicken yourself or something.
Our body needs protein. Animal protein. I believe in balance. U can't go wrong. 100% veggies? NO. 100% carny? NO. Balance. A bit of everything. Moderation. U get benefits from meat that u don't get anywhere else.
Foods in the meat, poultry and fish group are diverse, but they have something important in common -- protein. The amount and quality of the protein in these foods varies. Animal foods contain high-quality, or complete, protein, which means they supply all the amino acids your body needs to build the protein used to support body functions.
Besides protein, foods from this group supply varying amounts of other key nutrients, including iron, zinc, magnesium, vitamin E, and B vitamins (thiamin, niacin, and vitamins B6 and B12). On the downside, some of the foods in this group contain higher amounts of fat, saturated fat, and some cholesterol.
BALANCE.
Beacuse they contain fat! Fats have a terrible reputation. In this era of low-fat foods and fat-free diets, the crusade against fats has almost gone mad. The most zealous campaigners even condemn oil-rich nutritious foods like nuts, seeds and avocados, but no one can ever blame heart disease on avocados!
I generally advocate good fat foods such as nuts, seeds and avocados. These oil-rich foods contain healthy fats which are necessary for aiding weight reduction, lowering cholesterol, enhancing immunity and nourishing the reproductive organs, skin, hair and bone tissue, effectively lubricating our bodies. These are the good fats, vitally important and necessary for life itself. And these fats help you to metabolize fat. They are so important that they are called essential fatty acids (EFAs).
Your body cannot make EFAs, so you must get them through the foods you eat. I think they really should be called essential thinny acids. Flax seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sea vegetables, fish and avocados are good examples of these essential, thinny fats.
I am not sure they are so bad. Meat and dairy are more difficult to digest and as with any food- in moderation or balanced diet should be ok. My advice would be to talk to a nutritionist they are better equipt with knowledge to help you understand a healthy way to eat. If you are still in question about meat there is always peanut butter or beans such as pinto beans that are a good replacement. Good luck.
Yes, meat is bad for you. It's linked to numerous diseases and health problems including various cancers, strokes, diabetes, etc. And yes, it's all meat, no matter how organic or free range it is.
Dairy is often loaded with chemicals, including hormones and antibiotics. Organic dairy that is labeled as being free of these things may be safer.
Eggs are loaded with fats and cholesterol. They also may suffer some dairy issues with the chemicals that are pumped into the hens transferring to the eggs. This on top of the fact that many many chicken farmers also grind up dead & diseased chickens and then feed them to the chickens also brings about problems.
If you are the female head of household that does all the cooking and you want to change your family to a healthier diet, then do it. Start by limiting meat consumption to 4 nights a week. From there, you can increase as you see fit. Tell your family that they have to eat what you cook. And if you do it well, they won't even miss the meat. You'd be amazed what a portobello mushroom and Morningstar Farms can do for a meal.
I'll finish by saying that Cister is 100% wrong. Our bodies do not need animal protein. If we did, then all vegetarians would be dead. Simple logic escapes some. All the nutrients that she lists (zinc, iron, B vits, etc) can ALL be found in vegetarian and vegan sources. Some vegetarian sources, as a matter of fact, are MORE nutrient rich than their meat counterparts. Simple research, really. lol.
Meat and Dairy is not just bad for you, it's bad for everyone. It's bad for the whole planet.
We are herbivores. Our teeth and intestines are those of herbivores. Studies on ancient bones have blown the whole "hunter/gatherer" theory out of the water.
We have learned to eat meat. And as a result, are killing ourselves. Colon cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer - all come from eating meat and dairy.
The UN recently put out a press release saying that factory farms are doing more damage to the planet than cars. Veggies have known that for decades.
It takes 22 pounds of grain and 5000 gallons of water to produce one pound of edible beef. That's enough food and water for a family!
If you're going to remain a meat eater, do it wisely. Only buy local meats. Only family farm raise, organic meats. No factory farmed meats.
Foods from animals (meat, dairy, eggs, etc) all have cholesterol and are all high in fat, including saturated fat. Eggs have the most cholesterol per serving of all foods, even more cholesterol than the drippiest, fattiest pork product per serving. Foods from animals, no matter how you slice it or dice it, it's all high fat and cholesterol laden. There is no animal food that is a diet food, except for maybe skim milk. However, even skim milk has cholesterol in it, this is inescapable.
True, we do get protein in animal foods. We also get minerals in animal foods. However, these nutrients can easily be found in plant foods. As for complete proteins, of the 26 amino acids that make up these proteins, we need the essential 9. Our bodies can and do make the other 17, so we really don't need to eat the animal foods, we can get plenty of protein with plants... legumes, grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts (and nut butters), seeds, soy, etc. All foods have protein, you name it, it's in there.
In societies where the diet is meat based, people actually consume too much protein. This puts a strain on the kidneys and digestive tract, which saps the calcium from bones during the digestion of high protein foods, including dairy. Yep, that's right, the dairy industry tells us to "Drink milk, it does a body good," but that's only to fatten up their own pocketbooks. Milk is high in protein, which weakens bones, and this is scientific fact. When high protein foods are digested, they make ammonia in the digestive tract, so the body combines 2 ammonia molecules with 1 Co2 (carbon dioxide) molecule, and this makes urea. In order to buffer the urea, calcium is sapped from the bones. Enough of this and bones lose their density. Voila, OSTEOPOROSIS.
As for what's actually in animal food that we don't want, there is:
saturated fat, cholesterol, hormones, antibiotics, bacteria, blood, pus, poop. Nope, I'm not lying, nor am I exaggerating.
With a meat based diet, people run the risk of: obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, phlebitis (clots), cancer, stroke, osteoporosis (covered above), acne, inpotence, and I can't remember what else, but I'm sure there's more. Oh yeah, you run the risk of contracting salmonella and e-coli as well.
If you eat a variety of plant based foods, you will get enough protein. We need 9% of our caloric intake to come from protein. Trust me, plants are a-plenty.
If you wanna lose weight, or if you wanna stay trim, then lay off animal foods. They are heavily laden with fat and cholesterol, and it's hard to get slim and stay slim while eating such fatty foods. Chicken is not lean, no matter how much people say the breast is lean. It's not lean, not at all. Do youself a favor, make it easy on yourself. Eat lean plant foods, you can fill up much better than eating small portions of animal foods.
Human need for cholesterol intake is 0%. Our bodies create cholesterol in the liver, so we have *zero* need to eat it. Any cholesterol we eat does not get digested, it goes straight to the arterial walls in the exact state it's in. As for saturated fat, the body converts this to cholesterol. (See, told you we make our own cholesterol.) So eating foods low in saturated fat is best, so that we don't create too much cholesterol to plug up the arteries.
I could go on and on, but I believe this is sufficient.
They have A TON of cholesterol and fat. They are also one of the main causes of obesity.
Go here for more info:
~Goveg.com
~Peta2.com
~Peta.com
~DumpDairy.com
Hope that helps!
I'm surprised at the amount of misguided dogma here, both in the for- and against-meat camps.
If you want REAL answers, do your research. There is nothing wrong with eating the _right kind_ of animal products, in moderation. Just like there is nothing wrong with avoiding animal products entirely, provided you eat the _right kind_ of plant foods, in the correct balance, to give you the amino acids you need.
However, badly planned vegetarianism has the potential to be just as dangerous to the human body as a diet high in animal products but low in plant products.
The major concern for vegetarians is NOT protein. Vegetarians, and even vegans, can get all the amino acids they need if they eat the right kind of plant foods in the right combinations.
However, minerals are the bigger concern. Particularly Iron and Calcium. Absorbable Iron is difficult to get from plant foods, mostly because there are two types of iron, and plants have the 'wrong' kind. Calcium on the other hand, forms insoluble compounds when exposed to the salts of certain acids, which are present in some foods. Below is an excerpt from an essay I wrote on the subject.
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While both of these minerals are available to some extent from several plant sources, there are other important concerns for those who wish to eliminate animal products from their diet. The primary factor is the comparatively low abundance of these minerals in plant foods. However, the form in which the mineral exists in the food is also significant.
In the case of Iron, the reason for concern lies in the fact that there are two major forms of dietary iron: Heme Iron and Nonheme Iron. According to respected nutrition and diet therapist Carol Lutz, the human body can absorb heme iron more easily than it can absorb nonheme iron. Lutz states that “Heme iron is bound to the hemoglobin and myoglobin in meat, fish, and poultry.” (Lutz, 1997) She continues with “The absorption of nonheme iron is slow because it is closely bound to organic molecules in foods.” Lutz also points out that the human body is able to convert nonheme iron into heme iron, however this process requires a larger energy investment from the body, and therefore results in a comparatively lower absorption rate of nonheme iron.
The mineral Calcium has received attention for a different reason. The primary source of dietary calcium in the western diet is cow’s milk. Other sources include fish, shellfish, and some leafy vegetables such as spinach. However, while the body absorbs approximately one quarter to one third of the calcium in dairy milk, the calcium absorbed from spinach is much lower; merely five percent of the total calcium contained within the vegetable.
Compounding this issue is the fact that cereals contain phytic acid, which chemically bonds with calcium in the digestive tract, forming an insoluble calcium compound. In addition, several leafy vegetables such as spinach and rhubarb, as well as certain berry fruits including cranberries and gooseberries, contain by-products of oxalic acid. These by-products are collectively referred to as Oxalates and, similar to phytic acid, they also chemically bond with calcium to form other insoluble calcium compounds. (Lutz, 1997) The human digestive system is unable to metabolise these insoluble compounds, and eventually they are evacuated from the body along with other waste.
In a traditional diet that includes meat, eggs and dairy products, the cumulative effect of these losses of calcium is negligible, due in part to the tendency to consume larger amounts of calcium-rich foods, and in part to the tendency to eat smaller quantities of plant foods that contain calcium-reactive substances. However, for those who prefer a diet free of animal products, healthy meal planning involves not only choosing foods rich in these nutrients, but also applying particular consideration towards avoiding certain specific combinations of plant foods in any single meal.
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When you get right down to it, the human body has evolved in a way which allowed it to survive most effectively. Part of that evolution was the introduction of meat into the diet. Thankfully, we have a choice on whether or not we wish to eat animal products. But don't let this choice be misinterpereted.
Humans are not Herbivores. We're Omnivores.
And if you don't want to take my word for it, study up on the digestive systems of carnivores and herbivores, and you'll see that the human digestive system is smack bang in the middle of the two. :-)
I hope this sheds some light on the topic. :-)
There are many benefits to a diet containing meat. Many vegetarians claim that meat is unhealthy. This is a blatant fallacy.
It is well established that eating meat improves the quality of nutrition, strengthens the immune system, promotes normal growth and development, is beneficial for day-to-day health, energy and well-being, and helps ensure optimal learning and academic performance.
A long term study found that children who eat more meat are less likely to have deficiencies than those who eat little or no meat. Kids who don’t eat meat ― and especially if they restrict other foods, as many girls are doing ― are more likely to feel tired, apathetic, unable to concentrate, are sick more often, more frequently depressed, and are the most likely to be malnourished and have stunted growth. Meat and other animal-source foods are the building blocks of healthy growth that have made America’s and Europe's youngsters the tallest, strongest and healthiest in the world.
Meat is an important source of quality nutrients, heme iron, protein, zinc and B-complex vitamins. It provides high-quality protein important for kids’ healthy growth and development.
The iron in meat (heme iron) is of high quality and well absorbed by the body, unlike nonheme iron from plants which is not well absorbed. More than 90 percent of iron consumed may be wasted when taken without some heme iron from animal sources. Substances found to inhibit nonheme iron absorption include phytates in cereals, nuts and legumes, and polyphenolics in vegetables. Symptoms of iron deficiency include fatigue, headache, irritability and decreased work performance. For young children, it can lead to impairment in general intelligence, language, motor performance and school readiness. Girls especially need iron after puberty due to blood losses, or if pregnant. Yet studies show 75 percent of teenage girls get less iron than recommended.
Meat, poultry and eggs are also good sources of absorbable zinc, a trace mineral vital for strengthening the immune system and normal growth. Deficiencies link to decreased attention, poorer problem solving and short-term memory, weakened immune system, and the inability to fight infection. While nuts and legumes contain zinc, plant fibre contains phytates that bind it into a nonabsorbable compound.
Found almost exclusively in animal products, Vitamin B12 is necessary for forming new cells. A deficiency can cause anaemia and permanent nerve damage and paralysis. The Vitimin B12 in plants isn't even bioavailable, meaning our body can't use it.
Why not buy food supplements to replace missing vitamins and minerals? Some people believe they can fill those gaps with pills, but they may be fooling themselves. Research consistently shows that real foods in a balanced diet are far superior to trying to make up deficiencies with supplements.
Lets not forget either that protein, while it is found in plants, is better quality in animal products.
Some people claim that meat is unhealthy because it contains saturated fat. So does margarine and olive oil, and they're vegan suitable (in fact the hydrogenated fats in Marge can be very bad, but that's another story). Besides, any excess calories in your diet, any excess sugar, starch or carbohydrates are stored in your body for later use. This is done by turning them into saturated fats.
Cholesterol too. Your body on average creates four to five times more cholesterol than the average person consumes, and compensates by creating more when less is consumed. Cholesterol isn't evil, it is essential; it makes up the waterproof linings of all our cells and without it we would die. Too much can be bad, but as with saturated fats there are more healthy ways of disposing of it, like regular exercise. Anyway, it isn't so much how much cholesterol you eat, but how well yur body handles it. A person who eats loads of dietary cholesterol and leads an unhealthy lifestyle can still have low cholesterol, and vice versa. Most people's bodies are able to take a large amount of cholesterol without getting atherosclerosis. For this reason that eating meat gives you heart disease is very misleading, and for the most part untrue. Of course, if you do have a problem eating loads isn't a good idea, but for most people there is nothing at all to worry about.
Why do you think 80% of people with coronary diseases are over 65? It's because as you get older your ability to cope with cholesterol deteriorates, as does your skin, hair, muscular stregnth and bladder control. Young people never have problems because they are able to cope fine with large amounts of cholesterol.
Also bear in mind that veggies are on average younger than the rest of the population, and for the reason older people are more likley to get coronary diseases this is also a reason veggies are less likely to get them.
Some people also claim that we aren't designed by evolution, to eat meat. They claim that our digestive system is quite long and that we produce amylase, a starch splitting catabolic enzyme, akin to herbivores and unlike carnivores. Apparently this clearly shows that we were designed to eat plants. Such people should go and look up 'omnivore' in a dictionary. They have also been known to cite other reasons we are like herbivores and unlike carnivores: that we suck water instead of lapping it, and that we perspire through our skin, such things have nothing at all to do with whether or not we were designed to eat meat, and nothing to do with how our body handles food. I might as well say that because we, like most carnivores and unlike most herbivores, have eyes that face forwards, we must be carnivorous. Of course, that's not true for precisely the same reason.
The fact is Humans are omnivores, with the ability to eat nearly everything. By preference, prehistoric people ate a high-protein, high-mineral diet based on meat and animal sources, whenever available. Their foods came mainly from three of the five food groups: meat, vegetables and fruits. As a result, big game mammoth hunters were tall and strong with massive bones. They grew six inches taller than their farming descendants in Europe, who ate mostly plant foods, and only in recent times regained most of this height upon again eating more meat, eggs and dairy foods. We are adapted to eat meat, and it is just as natural as eating plants.
Some also claim that the digestion of meat releases harmful byproducts into our system. This is true, however such are our adaptations to eating meat that our bodies are quite able to dispose of said products without any adverse effects.
Also, meat doesn't contain toxins. Well, in all fairness there are some byproducts of it's digection which would be harmfull if they got into the bloodstream, but it is a tribute to just how well our bodies are designed to cope with meat that we can dispose of them easily without any negative effects.
So, in summary: it isn't healthier to avoid meat. You can be healthy without meat, but likely not as healthy as if you did, assuming you kept things like the wide range of fruit and veg that a veggie diet usually entails. Too much meat can be bad, but normal amounts are no problem at all. Any health benefits that come from a veggie diet come from a wide range of fruit and veg, and being health conscious, as veggies often are; that doesn't require you to not eat meat.
I don't think a vegeterian diet benefits anyone in any way better than a better meat eating diet could at all. If you have no ethical qualms, it's quite pointless. PETA will tell you otherwise, but they have very strong ethical opinions, and mould their 'evidence' around it. There is, for example, some evidence that vegans live longer and are at less risk from cancer and heart disease; however those studies show only a very marginal and insignificant difference and none of those studies have yet managed to identify meat as the only variable. Veggies are less likely to smoke, drink or eat junk food, and eat a wider range of fruit and veg, making the test results inaccurate and unreliable.
Virtually every disease veggies are supposed to be at less risk of can be explained in that way, people who become veggies are normally young, health conscious people who take care of themselves and thus on average vegetarians are healthier BUT they are no healthier than meat eaters with lifestyles which are just as good.
As for Milk!
Now, why do you think human's naturally produce milk for youngsters? They produce it because it is so nutritious and their youngsters can live off it for the first period of their life. Why would they purposely make a food that was unhealthy?
Yes, I know cow's milk is different, but it isn't very. It has all the same nutrients, vitamins and minerals as human's, just different proportions, and thus it isn't inherently any unhealthier than human's. The anti-milk brigade really contradict themselves on this when claiming cow's milk is bad because it is so similar to human's, and if they tried to denounce breast milk they really wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
Soy milk is not designed for babies to drink by nature, whereas whole milk is (albeit calves). It is also useful throughout childhood because, while it isn't needed per se beyond infancy, people still need the nutrients it contains throughout life, and it is an excellent source.
To quote wikipedia
"Milk began containing differing amounts of fat during the 1950s. A serving (1 cup or 250 ml) of 2%-fat milk contains 285 mg of calcium, which represents 22% to 29% of the daily recommended intake (DRI) of calcium for an adult. Depending on the age, 8 grams of protein, and a number of other nutrients (either naturally or through fortification):
Vitamins D and K are essential for bone health.
Iodine is a mineral essential for thyroid function.
Vitamin B12 and riboflavin are necessary for cardiovascular health and energy production.
Biotin and pantothenic acid are B vitamins important for energy production.
Vitamin A is critical for immune function.
Potassium and magnesium are for cardiovascular health.
Selenium is a cancer-preventive trace mineral.
Thiamine is a B-vitamin important for cognitive function, especially memory
Conjugated linoleic acid is a beneficial fatty acid that inhibits several types of cancer in mice, it has been shown to kill human skin cancer, colorectal cancer and breast cancer cells in vitro studies, and may help lower cholesterol and prevent atherosclerosis; only available in milk from grass-fed cows.
Studies show possible links between low-fat milk consumption and reduced risk of arterial hypertension, coronary heart disease, and obesity. Overweight individuals who drink milk may benefit from decreased risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes."
Yes, cows never meat for us to drink their milk, but then again they never meant for us to eat their meat. Humans have drunk milk into adulthood for so long that we have adapted to it. Most mammals become lactose intollerant when they reach adolsence, but most humans no longer do, particularly in areas where dairy products are usually consumed most like Europe and America, and this is a direct result of us evolving over the last few thousand years.
As such, it is pretty natural to us.
@ Max Marie
No sensible vegans can contest that we were deigned to eat meat. Even most vegan scientists agree that human's are designed to eat meat, that is not in question.
That we do not have claws, talons, or incisors to hunt proves nothing. When early hominids ate meat they scavenged it, as vultures do, using their fingers to get the sinews and meat other animals couldn't. It was only after that that they began to hunt the meat themselves, and only much later they began to cook it. It is interesting that even now if someone was brought up eating raw meat he would have no problem with it.
The last few million years of human evolution have revolved completely around tools. We used advanced stone tools long before we began to hunt our own meat, and as such there was no need for evolution to bestow us with large claws or teeth to kill prey.
Simple research into human biology reveals how we are meant to eat meat. For one thing, our body produces hydrochloric acid and meat splitting enzymes that herbivores don't produce and are solely used for the digestion of meat. There are adaptations to our teeth (not incisors, rather the size of the jaw), stomach and intestines which have made a human being very adept at meat digestion. There is nothing wrong with the way our body digests meat, and we are so adept at eating it no scientists are of any doubt we've evolved to eat it.
In contrast, there are many reasons we aren't naturally herbivores. We cannot naturally get all the nutrients we need without animal products naturally. Vitamin B12 cannot be got, even now, without animal products or supplements, and a lack of it can cause anaemia and impending death. 60% of vegans even now have some level of B12 deficiency, as opposed to no meat eaters, which says something about how well adapted we are to a vegan diet.
All other nutriets can be got natually. That owes to that vegtables can now be sold all year round, even out of season, and can be flown into the country from all over the world. In bygone times people could only eat the relatively small range of plants that grew in their ecosytem, and only when they were in season. Thus many more nutrients would have been unavailable and still more unavaillable for most of he year. Until very recently it would have been impossible for a vegan human to live naturally without dying very quickly.
Now, meat makes up for all these lost nutrients very nicely, and it really shows how we aren't naturally vegans, as until very recently it was impossible to live like that.
Our intestines are those of an omnivore. If we were a herbivore we would have a working appendix and would be able to break down cellulose, but as it happens we can't. We don't have a working appendix which can break down plant matter, we don't have multiple stomachs and we don't chew cud, and in pretty much every way we are more like carnivores.
@ Dolores
That excessive protein causes osteoporosis was concluded from a study which used protein powder. Is it any suprise that when taken in such a wholely unnatural form the acidic protein needed alkaline calcium from the bones to neutralise it? When done with normal forms of protein, like meat, which our bodies have volved to cope with there are no problems.
There is no medical evidence that people need any type of animal product to survive. Even according the the conservative American Dietetic Association, "strict vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of development".
Meat eaters, it's ok if you chose to eat meat just don't claim that people "need" it. People can be healthy on a wide variety of diets. According to scientific research such as the Harvard Nurses Study, The FARM, and The Adventist Health study vegetarians had equal and in many cases better outcomes than the meat eaters. In addition, animal products are hard on the environment and on the animals in factory farms. There are lots of good reasons to eat fewer or no animal products.
I have been a vegan (no dairy,eggs, meat) for 10 years , am in great health and have an extremely demanding job. I haven't needed animal products to thrive.
By the way, the "father" of the vegan movement, Donald Watson, died last year at the age of 95. He had been vegan since the 1940's.
I advise you to do some research independently so you can get a good idea of both sides.
Good luck.