I have occasionally considered being a vegetarian after seeing those depressing videos of animal cruelty that circulate on Facebook, or reading a story of the potential illnesses that come from tainted meats, but would it be worth it? I decided to do some research on whether or not switching to a vegetarian diet would be beneficial enough to make me want to give up those bacon cheeseburgers, admit it a good burger sounds great right now. But after you finish reading this post, you might not feel the same way about indulging in some beefy goodness.
Vegetarians can have some potential health problems, but this usually only occurs when they are removing the meats from their diet and replacing them with junk foods and not eating the correct amount of proteins, irons, and healthy fats. However with a properly balanced vegetarian diet one decreases the risk of many diseases, has a lower cholesterol, and lower BMI. Among the diseases are cardiovascular disease, ischemic heart disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, obesity, some cancers, renal disease, hypertension and dementia. Most of the health advantages can be explained by the lower blood sugar, blood lipid content and cholesterol caused when one switches to a vegetarian diet. Cutting meat out of your diet removes most of the bad fat from your diet, and the more animal fat products you take out (eggs, yogurt, milk,) the more bad fats you take out. For example; people who eat all types of meat have the highest blood lipid content, people who only eat fish slightly lower, vegetarians even lower, and vegans with the lowest content. This low fat content of the blood (which reflects through the whole body: obese people have very high levels, while healthier people have low levels) is what decreases the risk for cardiovascular disease, ischemic heart disease, high cholesterol and blood sugar, diabetes, and obesity.
However the research on cancer and vegetarian diets seems only correlational, as the cancers that were less common in vegetarians (colon, heart, and prostate) are most common in obese, or overweight people. As for dementia there are no real studies done observing the effects of vegetarian diets on the risk of getting dementia, and the vegetarian population that they pull their observations from is very small compared to non-vegetarians. So any observation of vegetarians not getting dementia as often could simply be chance, or a false negative.
In my opinion switching to a vegetarian diet does not seem to yield any huge benefits that could sway me from my love of breakfast meats. All of the research shows that the benefits come from being healthier, which could be achieved by cutting meat out of ones diet, but also by eating balanced meals and exercising. I would be interested to see a real randomized experiment with two groups; one to eat meat and the other to not, to see how their health changes short and long term. But for now it seems there may be more benefits to your wallet and the environment than your actual physical health when switching to a vegetarian diet.
Sources
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002822309007007
http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/19562864
Meat definitely has negative effects on the human odd. However, since vegetarians obviously aren’t eating meat, how should they get protein? Quinoa, Spinach, Tofu, Nuts, Hummus, Greek Yogurt, and Eggs are all good choices. These are rich in healthy fats, and have tons of protein which are necessary to live a healthy life. Here’s an article about in which way each of these protein sources are healthy. http://www.care2.com/greenliving/12-best-non-meat-protein-sources.html
I actually learned a lot from your blog. I learned that consuming meat would raise our blood lipid content, which then puts us at risk for cardiovascular disease, ischemic heart disease, high cholesterol and blood sugar, diabetes, and obesity. Even though having a vegetarian diet only correlates with cancer, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still eat a vegetarian diet. From this article, http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/03/07/148148858/the-secret-to-glowing-yellow-skin-eat-your-fruits-and-veggies it demonstrates that eating vegetables can slightly change the color of our skin tone and make our skin look healthier. The reason behind this is because most vegetables contain carotenoids, which neutralizes our skin of free radicals. In general, switching to a vegetarian diet does have some benefits.