Article: Nutrition and Vegetarian Diet Essay example

Submitted By olayinkababs
Words: 938
Pages: 4
Open Document
Why Vegetarianism is Bad for Your Health
Posted on December 31, 2012 by RalphWeber by Lee Kurisko, MD
It is often assumed that vegetarianism and veganism are healthy practices, but this does not hold up to scrutiny. Not eating animal products produces an array of deficiencies of nutrients that are essential to health.
If you look at primitive man as a model of how humans are supposed to eat, meat consumption has been ubiquitous for the 2.6 million year history of human kind. No aboriginal culture on earth has ever voluntarily adopted a vegetarian diet. The human brain likely would never have evolved into its current form without the ingestion of meat. No primate (that includes us) has a purely vegetarian diet.

Cows are vegetarians. They have four stomachs and a long digestive tract designed to extract energy and nutrition from a plant based diet to a degree that is not possible for humans. They have the enzyme systems necessary to break down cellulose (fiber) and use it for energy. Humans cannot do this.
According to Mark Houston MD of Vanderbilt University, vegetarianism produces a deficiency of zinc in just one week! Zinc is essential to hormone production, reproductive health, and immunity.
Vitamin B12 is necessary for health. The fact that it is classified as a vitamin by definition means that it is “vital” or “essential” for survival. Vitamin B12 can only be obtained in sufficient amounts from animal sources. Low B12 levels can lead to pernicious anemia, dementia, and subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord.
Homocysteine is likely a major factor in the development of cardiovascular disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. Vitamin B12 is instrumental in lowering homocysteine to healthy levels. Vegetarians have higher levels of homocysteine, potentially raising their risk for these diseases.
Although it is true that the careful combining of plant sources of protein can provide all essential amino acids (the building blocks of protein), the quantity of protein is likely marginal and not necessarily sufficient to thrive on a vegetarian diet.
Vegetarians have a hard time getting adequate omega-three fatty acids. Although ALA can be obtained from sources such as flax oil, it is difficult for the body to then synthesize them into the other necessary forms such as DHA and EPA.
One of the most serious problems with vegetarian diets is that they tend to be high carbohydrate and low fat diets. This raises blood sugar and drives up insulin, two key factors that are now accepted as accelerating the aging of the body.
The carb based, low fat nature of such diets will tend to make people fat further increasing the risk of heart disease. I remember being shocked years ago when I met a doctor that was an avowed vegetarian supposedly to protect himself from heart disease and he was fat! The high glycemic load from the grains and sugars he was eating to replace the fats and protein that he was missing was making him fat and likely diabetic, thereby raising his risk of heart disease.
“But don’t vegetarians live longer?” you may ask. No they don’t. When health conscious Seventh Day Adventist and Mormons are compared, the Mormons win in the longevity contest. Seventh Day Adventists are vegetarians. Mormons eat meat.
“What about the dangers of red meat?” you may object. Critiques of the evidence for cancer risk from red meat actually attributes that risk to processed meats like cold cuts, bacon, and hot dogs because of preservatives like nitrites. There is no evidence specifically against non-processed meats like sirloin steak.
The ethical/moral question about eating meat is not the
Show More

Related Documents: Article: Nutrition and Vegetarian Diet Essay example

Meatless Eating: Annotated Bibliography

Diabetes.” Rodale Books, (2007) New York, NY. D’Adams, Peter J. & Whitney, Catherine. “Eat Right for your Body Type.” G.P. Putman’s and Sons, (1996) Eat Right, Academy of Nutrition and Diabetics. “Vegetarianism: The Basic Facts (2016) Web October 2016 http://www.eatright.org/resource/food/nutrition/vegetarian-and-special-diets/vegetarianism-the-basic-facts Food as Medicine | Taking Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/explore...food-medicine (May 2016) Web. 11 October 2016…

Words 244 - Pages 1

Mediterranean Diet

Which is Healthier: Being a Vegetarian or Strictly following a Mediterranean Diet? Jamie Ducharme’s article starts by introducing the Mediterranean diet as the healthiest eating styles. It is heavy on produce, beans, nuts, whole grains, olive oil, fruits, vegetables, legumes and light on red meat, lean protein, processed foods and refined sugars. On the other hand, the lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet includes fruit, vegetables, grains, legumes, dried beans, peas, lentils, nuts, seeds, dairy…

Words 460 - Pages 2

Vegetarian Controversy Analysis

writing piece “Vegetarian Diets Are Not Healthy”. He begins his questionable argument with the statement, “Here are 5 reasons why I think vegan (as in no animal foods at all) diets are a bad idea” (Gunnars 2015). He automatically focuses on vegan diets which do not describe all vegetarian diets. Additionally, He argues that B12 is an important nutrient that vegans usually lack, and can’t usually be found in plants (Gunnars 2015).While this is true, vegans can use supplements. Vegetarians can find B12…

Words 283 - Pages 2

Vegan Diet Benefits

the risk of cancer can be slowed down or diminished respectively, with a wholesome plant-based diet. The possible benefits and risks, and the effects on overall health with following a vegan diet will be further examined. Keywords: SAD - Standard American Diet, GIH - Gastrointestinal hormone, BMD – Bone mineral density Does a Vegan Diet Improve Overall Health? As people age, maintaining a healthy diet should become a priority for Americans in order to reduce the risk…

Words 1382 - Pages 6

Veganism Research Paper

that goes about excluding all things from one’s diet that causes harm to sentient beings such as dairy, eggs, and meat. There are many more benefits to being vegan other than being a “tree hugger”. Some of these are that it is much healthier to be vegan, the environment is being completely destroyed for animal agriculture, and vegans do not contribute to the suffering of sweet, adorable creatures. People who changed their diets to a plant based diet are more likely to experience drastic improvement…

Words 670 - Pages 3

Sarah Breslaw's Go Vegan Or Go Home

group of patients on a vegan diet “[experience] a 91% drop in angina attacks… and an average [weight loss] of 24 pounds” in comparison to another group that followed diet guidelines from the American Heart Association (Breslaw 105). The essay fails to mention the comparison group and that only 28 people were in the patient study, resulting in an unrepresentative sample in order to prove a…

Words 1202 - Pages 5

Shattering The Meat Myth

Myth” also addresses moral principles, an issue that is the deciding factor for some vegetarians. Using honorable practices in the consumption of animal protein is, indeed, tremendously significant, for most agree they should not be unethically treated. However, Kathy Freston subjectively infers that because the majority of humans would not hunt, harvest, and consume RAW flesh our species is naturally vegetarian (Freston). The error of this statement is assuming that all hunting and harvest leads…

Words 1093 - Pages 5

Meat and Meat Consumption Essay example

Amen-Ra points out, nearly all of the 233 primates alive today are frugivores (p. VII). Exceptions to this are chimps, eating animals for about 3% of their diet, and gorillas, whom are folivores; these two species are also the most genetically similar to modern humans (Amen-Ra, 2003, p. 17). Important to note here is E.S. Vrba’s emphasis in her article “Paleoclimate and Evolution with Emphasis on Human Origins” that “speciation does not occur unless forced by changes in the physical environment… Forcing…

Words 4248 - Pages 17

Essay on Healthy Lifestyle

Living a Healthy Life Style Good nutrition and physical exercise is important and is a must in a healthy life style. Living a healthy life style includes eating very nutritious and being super cautious of what you put in your body. It is estimated that 55 billion animals are killed each year for food worldwide. Why is it okay to kill 55 billion innocent animals a year and inject them with harmful chemicals that harm people’s health after consuming it? This number is massive, I believe the world…

Words 688 - Pages 3

Veganism Research Paper

benefits of a vegan diet. States that consumption of meat and dairy products is a grand old American tradition. Displays that studies have proven that a vegan diet can have beneficial effects of weight loss, elimination of diabetics, increase in brain function and higher death rates. Studies have showed that consumption of fruits, grains, vegetables, nuts, and other plant bashed foods reduce the risk of chronic illness and diseases. Lastly, it discusses the various types of vegetarians/ vegans identification…

Words 569 - Pages 3