Is vegetarianism healthy? That’s the question, I am going to be asking myself as I tear into my all-natural turkey during November. I have been wanting to write about this topic for a while but I just was not interested as much as I thought I might be. I am interested in it at this present moment and motivation has kicked in so its time to start writing! Over the past number of weeks this subject matter has weighed on me heavily and I believe its because it keeps approaching from all angles .
I recently had a good friend of mine who I did not know was a non-meat eater until she disclosed it in a chat. Upon her telling me this I immediately asked her if she consumed soy milk and she said yup I started to connect the dots about somerecent health troubles she had been encountering and sure enough I was right!
Now…I am not a vegetarian basher and I don’t like to tell men and women how to eat or what meals to eat, but I am a massive advocate of eating to live versus screeching recklessly into the pit stop of death. As a matter of fact, I tried being a non meat eater myself but I was living on a recent university student’s stipend which almost always narrows your choices to pizza parlors. At that time my food selections were always dictated by the money I made and I did not know anything at all about eating to avoid physical degeneration and deterioration.
I am glad I finally awoke and now my objective is to rub the veil over people’s eyes.
My very first experience into veganism was very basic. I went to a sandwich shop for about 7 days and instead of getting meat from animals on my hoagie, I chose to purchase vegetables with vinegar and oil. I told myself I was a vegetarian but what I really was, was an dunce for assuming I could become vegan by just choosing to eliminate the lean meat on my sandwich. I’ll admit I did not know anything about being vegetarian and within 7 days and quite a few starvation pangs later, I went back to meat with a vengeance. I decided to give it another try when I moved to Atlanta, Georgia. I started hanging out with a woman who was starting to explore the vegan lifestyle. She believed in eating no meat and so she would always make vegetarian snacks.
The food she cooked was yummy and a far cry from the sandwiches with veggies I devoured years ago when I called myself a vegan. I was astonished at how she prepared things without using meat from animals but they really tasted just like she used meat from animals. Now these were some tasty dinners, I was never really convinced that I should eliminate meat. My rationale was this,”my granddad ate animal flesh, my grandmother ate animal flesh, and my mommy ate flesh from animals so guess what I’m going to do? Yup…eat animal products and that is exactly what I did every chance I got. My choice to continue consuming meat was a fantastic one because if I had stuck with my decision, I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy my natural free range beef I am having for supper. I just love a large juicy turkey leg what about you?
I’ve never been a person to force my beliefs on anyone so I will not do that in this article. If you’ve been a reader of my blog page by now you know I like to deal in facts. Its a lot easier to make a final decision when you deal with specifics vs. hearsay, wouldn’t you concur? By the way, even though I never really made it completely vegan I leaned heavily towards it because I thought it was a better way to eat. I also thought it was a more conscious and humane thing to not consume meat from animals. In order to be as neutral as I possibly can about this subject of is vegan healthy, let’s start to talk about some of the reasons why vegans actually become vegetarians and then state the real specifics.
1. Risk of Cancer – I just recently viewed a documentary named, Fork over Knives which was Pro -Vegan and one of the major points was it reduced cancer risk. This isn’t necessarily true as a research study was done in 1994 which demonstrated vegans had a lower risk for breast and lung cancers but their risks for the following cancers were considerably increased: brain, skin, cervical, ovarian, prostate, and uterine. Research indicates carb based diets are main instigators of cancer. Yes..vegetables are considered to be carbs. On a side note, meat eating was never affiliated with higher cancer risk.
2. Heart Disease – India has one of the greatest populations of vegetarians and one of the greatest occurrences of heart illness. On a different note female vegans have a larger incidence of heart illness than femalenon-vegans.
3. Arteriosclerosis - Vegetarians seem to think plaque will not occur in the arteries as a result of ingesting plant based foods…not so. Vegetarians have just as much recorded instances of arterial plaque in their arteries as those who eat meat.
4. Longevity – Some vegetarians insist eating only plant based foods will prolong their life. Hindus who are mostly vegan have the shortest life spans in the world.
5. Osteoporosis - Eating the flesh of animals was considered to make the body acidic but eating plants makes it alkaline therefore animal flesh was considered a contributor to Osteoporosis. The rationale is if the human body is acidic through consuming meat, calcium from the bones is used as a buffer to make the body alkaline. The studies used to prove this were done with protein powders and not real flesh from animals. How can you make a statement like this if you don’t use actual meat?
6. Energy and Growth – Vegans will usually state they have more energy when following a plant based diet regime but in actuality most vegans will complain of lack of energy because meat provides some nutrition plants cannot provide. On the flip side, youngsters who follow a vegetarian diet program can have growth and development issues. I’ve heard more than one story where some women have difficultiescomplications conceiving as a result of following a strict plant-eating diet. They also have troubles with their teeth and emotional issues.
7. Saturated Fat - Vegetarians tend to believe eating a vegetarian diet will help them lower cholesterol by reducing saturated fat. Well…our bodies need saturated fat and cholesterol is not necessarily the bad thing its made out to be. It has been confirmed that cholesterol is needed for brain and hormone function thus the body needs the saturated fat meats give to function properly.
8. Morality Issues- We shouldn’t eat animals is what some non meat eaters say as a rationalzation for not consuming animal flesh. Well, if we didn’t consume them, they would overpopulate the earth, right? Think about it this way if you were tossed in the jungle or forest and a lion or bear was hungry would they have a dilemma eating you? We are all part of a huge food chain and its just by luck that human beings are on top of this food chain.
Just make sure if you are continuing to take in meat that it’s all-natural. It’s the antibiotics and hormones in commercially raised livestock that is making men and women unhealthy.
Now…as I talked about a little earlier I don’t force my beliefs on anybody and I will stick to this. I believe we get into challenges when we try to take things to the extreme. Like it or not,veganism is an extreme way of eating which does not have any important health advantages over those who choose to eat meat from animals. So what’s the conclusion? All things in moderation. Excessive meat can be unhealthy, just as too many veggies can be unhealthy but if there is balance which is what our body wants you can get the best of both worlds and there will be no desire to ask the question, “is vegetarianism beneficial?.
Disclaimer: The preceding post is for informational purposes only. Consult a doctor before taking any medical advice.
January 26th, 2012 
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