What are the health risks of being vegetarian?!
If you are an omnivore and eat nothing but garbage, you won't feel so great either.
There are no real risks. I've been a vegetarian since I was 9 (13 years) and have never had health problems and don't usually take vitamins.
The only vitamin not available naturally, to vegans (if you are a vegetarian and eat eggs, you are probably ok) is b-12, because b-12 is a bacteria usually present in feces (human and animal) and the flesh of animals (including humans). Chances are that you eat foods that are fortified with b-12 every day. Most cereals are fortified with b-12. Soymilk is usually fortified with b-12 as well. Anything you eat that has added vitamins most likely has b-12.
Many people are on a protein high and think you need 1-2 grams of protein per pound of body weight. This is totally false. (That would mean that you would have to eat 150-400 grams of protein a day. That would mean that you would have to eat 12-33 hamburgers a day to get your daily protein intake-which doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?)
Here is a sample menu that provides a balanced calorie (2000-2500) and protein intake (50-70 grams):
breakfast: cereal with soymilk and juice or fruit
lunch: vegetable soup and pita bread with hummus
dinner: veggie chili, a green sald with dressing
snack: handful of almonds
I would suggest reading the book "becoming vegetarian" to get you started and clear the rumors that you have probably heard for so long, out of your head. http://www.amazon.com/New-Becoming-Veget...
Answers: Many people will give you anecdotal "evidence" that being a vegetarian will make you very sick becasue they had a cousin/coworker/dog walker who only ate potato chips and pepsi and got "deathly ill."
If you are an omnivore and eat nothing but garbage, you won't feel so great either.
There are no real risks. I've been a vegetarian since I was 9 (13 years) and have never had health problems and don't usually take vitamins.
The only vitamin not available naturally, to vegans (if you are a vegetarian and eat eggs, you are probably ok) is b-12, because b-12 is a bacteria usually present in feces (human and animal) and the flesh of animals (including humans). Chances are that you eat foods that are fortified with b-12 every day. Most cereals are fortified with b-12. Soymilk is usually fortified with b-12 as well. Anything you eat that has added vitamins most likely has b-12.
Many people are on a protein high and think you need 1-2 grams of protein per pound of body weight. This is totally false. (That would mean that you would have to eat 150-400 grams of protein a day. That would mean that you would have to eat 12-33 hamburgers a day to get your daily protein intake-which doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?)
Here is a sample menu that provides a balanced calorie (2000-2500) and protein intake (50-70 grams):
breakfast: cereal with soymilk and juice or fruit
lunch: vegetable soup and pita bread with hummus
dinner: veggie chili, a green sald with dressing
snack: handful of almonds
I would suggest reading the book "becoming vegetarian" to get you started and clear the rumors that you have probably heard for so long, out of your head. http://www.amazon.com/New-Becoming-Veget...
if u eat too many potatoes it is bad
rice should not be consumed in excess
oil fried food should not be taken
If you eat a well balanced vegetarian diet, there aren't health risks. If you sit around eating oriental flavored ramen and chips all day, you run the same risks as you run when you are a meat eater with an unbalanced diet.
Not having a good working knowledge of NUTRITION. Most vegans don't know crap about nutrition so they don't know how to put complete proteins together and they end up in a severe state of malnutrition.
They think they can take massive amounts of vitamines and minerals because they don't understand how those work at the metabolic level...
Most Vegans really don't know anything about Nutrition... but they are so arrogant, you can't explain anything to them or how they are destroying their own health from a lack of basic knowledge.
If you are willing to do the proper research to ensure that you get correct nutrition there is no risk. However, I must add that most people who eat meat have not done the research needed to make sure they are eating a balanced diet. A common misconception that you will see assumed by meaties is that they don't have to watch what they eat. As you can see by another answerer here there is much about vegans not possessing the proper knowledge to be healthy in nutrition. I must disagree based on two things. (1) That vegans and vegetarians alike get to a point of having to examine everything that they eat for ingredients, be it that this is not all they are looking for, this practice becomes an everyday habbit and is something that is done second nature after a while. This makes them much more aware of the content of their diet than the "average bear." (2) If you were to take nutritional stats from a group of vegetarians and vegans and weigh it against a group of everyday omnivores you would find that the percentage of v&v suffering from nutritional deficits would be much less than the other group. While I am making this claim based soley on my knowledge of how closely I watch what I eat as a vegetarian as opposed to the amount I watched before becomming vegetarian, the amount that I have learned and researched since becomming a vegetarian makes me look back at the time when I wasn't and realize just how much attention I WASN'T paying to what I ate and how arrogant I was then by just foolishly rolling the dice while saying things like "I get everything I need from my diet" without realizing how blind I really was.
well as some one above says, if you eat a balnced diet, and try lots of different alternatives to meat, there shouldnt be any. but alot of vegetarians suffer eith aneamia through lack of iron found in red meat.
Not doing your homework, as long as you do your research and learn about nutrition you will do just fine.
Here are some of the things that you will need to learn about
-protein
-vitamine B 12 and B 6 supplements (these you will need to supplement)
-iron and anemia
-calcium (not such an issue for lacto-ovo vegetarians)
No different to any other diet, really.
If you eat a balanced diet, there is no risk. If you don't pay attention to eating nutritious things, then you will get ill.
No difference, specifically!
I recently got a blood test and Im perfectly fine. Im still trying new foods to supplement protein. Being a vegeterian was the best decision I ever made because eating meat is gross to me and I stand up for what I believe in. Also eating meat increasesthe rate for heart disease and other illnesses.
Vegetarians, like me, have a limited choice of proteins. As long as you get food from each of your food groups, there is not much of a risk. Since most of your proteins come from meat, and vegetarians do not eat meat, they need to find where they can get their proteins from. I am a vegetarian, and i mainly get my proteins from lentils and beans.. As i said, you need to get food from all the food groups, and as long as you do, there is not thet much of a risks.
There is nothing you can get from meat that you can't get from a plant source. Besides cholesterol, of course.
If done right NOTHING. You will be healthier than a person on S.A.D. (Standard American Diet).
http://www.drmcdougall.com/
Here is a great & informative site from Dr. John McDougall.
Educate yourself. Do not fall for all the Myths & slanted PR from the Meat, Dairy, Poultry & Egg industies. They have been very active & spent lots of money for the past 50 years so many people really do not know better. Sad to say even many healthcare professionals.
Slainté(to your health)
Well being the only vegetarian in my family, my dad always yells at me for not eating enough protein whichh, as you probably know is found in meat. I don't really like tofu very much, which has protein in it, so instead I have to eat lots of beans and nuts. Plus I have to take vitamins to get other things that you get in meat.
Vegetarians are far healthier than omnivores