What are the health pros and cons of becoming a vegetarian?!

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

The pros and cons of being vegan:

Pros
-more energy
-more "regularity" (poopin')
-never feeling bloated
-quick digestion (less junk in your colon and you don't get super tired after eating a big meal)
-reduction of inflammation and conditions exacerbated by it
-it's way cheaper than being an omnivore (not a health benefit, but nice all the same!)


Cons...wait, how can there be any negatives to eating right, feeling great and having it cost less?

NOTE: the pros are only if you're eating a balanced, well-rounded diet. If you just cut out animal products and replace them with junk food, you won't notice any of the pros. A healthy vegan diet still beats out a healthy omnivorous diet in cost and inflammation reduction, though.

Vegan bodybuilder and personal trainer

I've been vegetarian for most of my life, but there are both pros and cons to being vegetarian.

Pro-list-
You will likely take in less saturated fat, making your diet a bit more heart-healthy.
As a result of restricting your diet to non-meat sources, you will probably meet or even exceed the five-per-day recommendation of fruit/ veg.
Regarding your financial health, it's a little cheaper to be vegetarian (especially in restaurants).

Con-list-
Be careful to take in plenty of vitamin B foods. Dairy products and eggs are good (if you're not planning on becoming vegan), as are yeast products like Marmite/ Vegemite.
Also, iron-deficient anaemia is a problem for some vegetarians. Good sources of iron are beans and nuts and dark leafy vegetables such as kale and spinach.

Health Advantages: Studies have shown that vegetarians have a 50% reduced risk of heart disease and stroke, they also have a reduced risk of hypertension, type II diabetes, infertility, obesity, and certain types of cancers and a significantly reduced risk of colon cancer (168%). Additionally vegetarians are protected against meat-borne illnesses such as listeriosis, camphylobacter, and mad cow disease.

No turkey on Thanksgiving! :p

Factually, there are no scientifically documented health reasons for a healthy, person to go vegetarian. However, some people claim to "feel" better and that's good. If they feel it benefits them, then they should give up meat in their diet. Most vegetarians are lacto-ovo vegetarians, meaning they still consume dairy products and eggs. So they get complete proteins and B12. Vegetarianism is not necessarly an extreme diet.

Cons aren't too bad for a vegetarian. You can't enjoy the turkey at Thanksgiving, as has been said. But you can enjoy most of the side dishes. I don't care much for turkey anyway. These days many major restaurants have vegetarian options so eating out isn't a big deal for a vegetarian.

The problems start when you become a vegan and cut all animal products out of your diet. It's much more difficult to get calcium, protein, iron (to name a few vital nutrients) in your diet without animal products. B12, of course, is not available in any plant food, so you have to supplement for that at the very least. In fact, the more I read, the more I think it's truly impossible to be healthy on a vegan diet. Your body just doesn't use supplements as well as real food. This website is publishing interviews as some of the most vocal vegans go back to eating animal products: http://letthemeatmeat.com/tagged/Ex-Vega…

And this is the story of a young, vocal, strict vegan who got sick from her vegan diet. http://voraciouseats.com/2010/11/19/a-ve…

And, a take on the vegetarian diet that you might want to read: http://weight-loss.fitness.com/weight-lo…

Then there's VeganHealth's warnings about what nutrients that need special attention if you choose to go veg*n: http://www.veganhealth.org/