Is vegitarianisn healthy?!
Is vegitarianisn healthy?
i havent eaten meat (including fish) since i was 12. some ppl tell me its not healthy n others tell me it is. im not planning on eating meat again but just wondering wat do u think?
Answers:
Way to go! I went Vegetarian when I was around 12 too and then vegan about 8 years ago. The vegetarian diet is healthier for you and the planet. You have a greater chance of avoiding certain cancer such as prostate cancer (yuck!) and your cholesterol is probably a lot lower than meat eaters. Just make sure you get enough calcium and protein. The average female adult needs about 50 grams of protein per day, more if your athletic. Get this by eating legumes and soy. I eat a lot of hummus, Luna protein bars, and nuts. I take a multivitamin and a calcium supplement too. I think www.vegsource.com has a vegetarian food pyramid that you can download. check it out.
well, it's not exactly healthy, you have to eat from all of the food groups, but it is healtyier than junk food diets and all of that junk
It is very healthy, dont listen to everyone else they just dont want to feel bad about eating meat. You dont consume as much saturated fats, and eat more natural plant foods. But I would have to say you are really missing out on the fish.
As long as you are getting enough protein (tofu, nuts, peanut butter) in your diet as well as other important nutrients, it shouldn't be a problem. A lot of vegetarians don't get enough protein as most of it comes from meat, eggs and cheese which are all animal products.
Yes! It is healthy. Just make sure you eat all of your fruits and veggies and that you get your protein from nuts and yogurt and soy etc. Vegetarians have a lower risk of certain diseases, so it's very good for you.
Yes very.
As much as I eat a vegetarian diet I consider myself an opportunivore.
Once a week I take the opportunity to eat some sort of seared animal flesh. Yum.
i guess it is but it is true that you have to eat from all the food groups but personaly i cant be a vegitarian
Yes it is very healthy if you plan it well.
A North American diet (meat, potatoes and a salad) is unhealthy when you omit the meat because it is the only source of protein.
So you should start eating ethnic food. Eat vegetarian versions of Mexican, Indian, Asian and Mediterranean food since they all feature beans. Beans are very important in vegetarian food, along with nuts and whole grains.
Your friends are probably thinking it's unhealthy because they imagine a vegetarian diet to consist of mashed potatoes and salad. This is not so. Prove them to be wrong.
Plant foods provide enough protein. Just eat the right kind. Don't eat too much bread or pasta.
It is healthy because you are getting the vegetable and fruits and everything, but I think you do need protein also so make sure you eat plenty of nuts, soy, yogurt, those things.
Absolutely. As long as you find another source of protein.
its deffinatly healthy, actualy more healthy than a meat eating diet as long as you get all the vitamins/nutrients you need.
If you make sure to get enough protein it is VERY healthy. There are studies that show vegetarians live longer too!
I cannot understand why there is this concern at all. My entire family is vegetarian for generations and most of them lived well into their 70s-80s. Certainly no one died or had any discomfort because of some food deficiency. I myself am vegetarian from the day I was born. Till date I have not had any meat or fish and I lead a full life, go to gym, travel the world (US, Russia, France, Germany, Swiss, India, Singapore, Malaysia you name it) and do all the activities I take fancy to. Protein sources include Beans, Dahls and Lentils. You can search the net on how best to prepare them or just visit the nearest Indian restaurant and ask if they have some Dal so you can check it out. For some examples of fit vegetarians try Martina Navratilova and Carl Lewis. You won't have a worry again and you don't miss anything :-)
It can be. Though I know plenty of vegetarians who subsist on nothing but junk food. I come from family with health problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, none of which I have. I'm sure that's in part due to my healthy vegetarian diet and of course, exercise. It took me a while to get here, but it's been worth it.
Just make sure that you eat a varied diet with lots of whole grains, fresh fruit, vegetables and lean proteins like beans, tofu, tempeh, and seitan. There are a lot of books out there on how to be a healthy vegetarian. You can try your local library and see what they have to offer.
Good luck!
If you get the proper nutrients, yes. Same as carnivores.
Carnivores common problem is getting too much of something, ours is too little.
There's really not that much to it.
Of course there are going to be people to hate. I think the real question should be, is eatting flesh of a murdered animal healthy?
If a vegetarian diet is very carefully planned, and in the case of vegans that requires either fortified foods or supplements, it can be AS healthy as a good meat eating diet. I think there are a couple of benefits, but they come from eating a wide range of fruit and veg and being health conscious as vegans have to be, not omitting meat, and thus those benefits can be go without actually going veggie. Needless to say a uncarefully planned vegetarian, or especially vegan, diet can lack many essential nutrients and be very bad for your health.
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.
Yes, there are things in meat that there is some evidence can cause cancer in some people, but there are as many in plants too. Soy especially has some very potent carcinogens. Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.
Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women. Also they are potent antithyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.
Soy is bad for numerous other reasons, but that isn't the point, I'm just using it as a quick example relating to cancer not being exclusive to some animal products. The evidence that claims meat does cause cancer is patchy anyway.
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.
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 vegan 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.