I would like to start off by saying I respect all food choices. I know people who are vegetarians, vegans, meat lovers, and everything else. Personally, I eat meat, but I have always had a love for my fruits and veggies. Note: Vegans rock too, but for this blog post I am focusing on vegetarians versus meat eaters, but if you want to know the difference between a vegan and vegetarian check it out here. I know people become vegetarians for the saving of animals, but I was wondering from a science point of view: which one is healthier (or are they equivalent)?
To start off I realized I needed a baseline so I checked out this article. One measurement of health is BMI, also known as Body Mass Index (For fun: If you’re interested in calculating your BMI you can here). In the June 2003 “International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders”, a University of Oxford EPIC study reported that after dividing 37,875 subjects into dietary categories, all three of the vegetarian groups had a lower BMI than the meat eater groups. They also found that high protein and low fiber intake correlated with the highest BMI (and high protein clearly comes from meat eaters).
There are other ways to measure health. One way is by having lower cholesterol. Harvard Health published a list of 11 foods to help lower cholesterol, with 10 of the 11 foods being vegetarian foods (with the last one being fish, which is included in a pescatarian diet).
Another measure of a healthy person is low saturated fats. The Harvard School of Health claims that we can’t eliminate saturated fats from our diets completely, because food with healthy fats (olive oil and peanuts are good examples) also contain a little bit of saturated fats. The top sources of saturated fats are found in red meat and full-fat dairy products. By eliminating red meat (i.e. with a vegetarian diet) one would be eliminating the majority of unnecessary saturated fats, leading to better health over a period of time.
People who consume plants over meat may worry about protein, but plant protein can actually exceed recommended requirements when a variety of plants are consumed. Whole grains create complete proteins, as well as beans, peas, lentils, nuts, seeds, and grains (check out these, they have recipes too!). As long as a vegetarian is consuming plant protein to make up for their lack of meat protein, their diet is healthy, and possibly even healthier than a meat eater.
Fresh baby greens salad and tomatoes close up
From a cancer standpoint, The British Medical Journal found a possible link between breast cancer and meat intake. According to the BMJ: “Based on diet in 1991, substituting one serving/day of legumes for one serving/day of total red meat was associated with a lower risk of breast cancer among all women” showing that reducing meat from a diet can lead to lower risk of breast cancer. The National Institutes of Health also did a study and found “Higher levels of meat, especially red meat (beef, pork, lamb) and processed meat (bacon, hotdogs, luncheon meat, chicken nuggets, and other salted or cured meats) have been linked to a variety of cancers in a number of studies.” Both of these studies support that red meat can cause different types of cancer, but not specifically all types of meat.
While I remain a non-vegetarian, researching the different food benefits did open my eyes to conclude that it can be healthier, as long as one is not abstaining from protein (found in nuts and eggs). I do not plan for a blog post to cause anyone to stop eating meat and switch to an all plant diet, but hopefully it shows that people could always use some more fruits and veggies, and be more conscientious when eating a lot of meat.
This blog gave me a lot of insight to other options for vegetarians. Although, I’m not a full-time vegetarian, I am part-time, if that is a thing. I definitely think for myself personally that sometimes the texture is too much and I think about the animal I’m eating. Stating that all health foods are healthy is somewhat true because if you look at the box, you’ll see that there is a lot of saturated fat. So if a person wants to become a vegetarian they should look at the labels and eat organic foods. For anyone that is considering to become a vegetarian or wants to really hate meat, watch Food inc. http://www.takepart.com/foodinc, or read “The Jungle”, by Upton Sinclair.
For a meat lover like me, becoming a vegetarian sounds like the script of an award winning horror movie. Yet I understand that people become vegetarians for many reasons, including religion, health, or even concerns about animal welfare. Either way it seems logical that limiting red meats and adding more vegetables and fruit can improve one’s overall health. The health department at Brown University states that according to The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics vegetarians are at lower risk for developing heart disease, breast cancer, diabetes, obesity, and hypertension. But at the same time finding that many vegetarians can be deficient in calcium, iron, vitamin B-12, vitamin D, and zinc. These nutrients are highly found in meats, and fish. I believe that a vegetarian can be as unhealthy if not more unhealthy than a non vegetarian. It all depends on their diets. For example, if you’re a vegetarian who’s diet consists of mainly cheese pizza, Cheetos, ice cream, and soda, you will not receive the nutrients your body needs. Avoiding meat is only one part of the picture. In order to benefit from being a vegetarian, one must have a balanced and healthy diet.
Hey Samantha,
While I agree with you that vegetables and other plants can be healthier and more beneficial than meat which seems to be causing a lot of health problems. there are just something meat provides that plants do not. Here are some things I found that cannot be found in plants
1.)Vitamin B12
2.) creatine
3.)Vitamin D3
4.) Carnosine
5.) Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA)
While most vegetarians get these nutrients in the form of supplements, they have to be very cautious of their diets to avoid getting sick.
(I do not mean to judge or offend any vegetarians)