All throughout high school, I was best friends with two vegetarians who always tried to convince me that meat was bad for you. I would think to myself “how is that possible, if you get lean meat it is a great source of protein”. Now, at Penn State, my roommate has recently become a vegetarian, and not only is she not gaining the freshman 15, but she’s getting skinnier! So… is being a vegetarian really healthier for you?
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Being a vegetarian can go either way: It can either be really healthy or bad for you. When eating proportional meals along with balanced nutrition, you put yourself at a lower risk for developing Heart disease, colorectal, ovarian, and breast cancers, diabetes, obesity and hypertension (high blood pressure). This is particularly important for women because heart disease is the number one leading killer of women all over the world. It is harder to get a balanced diet with all the protein, vitamins, minerals, calcium and iron for a vegetarian, but it is possible to do so when you set your mind to it. As for athletes, it is very hard to consume the amount of calories they need in order to preform well and have energy. Being a vegetarian for intense athletes is not ideal, and can be harmful to your body.
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“Heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are chemicals formed when muscle meat, including beef, pork, fish, or poultry”. When these chemicals are placed over heat at a high temperature, experiments have been conducted which show this can cause a change in DNA. This change may increase your chance of cancer. The studies of whether cooked meat and cancer has any correlation are not definitive, but studies have found this to be true through experiments with rodents. When these rodents were fed high doses of HCAs developed tumors of the breast, colon, liver, skin, lung, prostate, and other organs while rodents fed PAHs developed tumors, leukemia, and other sorts of cancer.
Although eating meat is a great source of protein and other necessary ingredients in your diet, being a vegetarian (except for athletes) is a healthier lifestyle when done the right way by receiving proper nutrition. Cancer and heart disease are very prominent in today’s society, so next time we eat meat we should take a second thought, and say to ourselves, “is it really worth it”?
I’m an avid meat eater, not in an addicted way, but I make sure I have some sort of meat with my dinners each night following the idea that vegetables should be the largest portion on your plate not meat. I know a lot people who are vegetarians not for health benefits, but either because they believe killing animals is wrong or one of my friends in particular just doesn’t react well to meat and never has. That being said I definitely have learn through them about sources of vitamins and protein which isn’t as difficult I think as people believe, green veggies and nuts help with iron and protein. Calcium is usual pretty easy for vegetarians because most still eat animal products, if they didn’t they’d technically be vegan. But I think your scientific research was solid and the pictures helped express what you were trying to convey a lot, but I don’t think getting rid of all meat is worth it unless someone really wants to.