How healthy is vegetarianism?

With meatless Mondays becoming so popular, more people are choosing a vegetarian way of life, even if it's one meal a week that is meat free.

More establishments offer healthy and vegetarian options and many people unknowingly eat a meat free dish. Soups for example are often vegetarian as long as a vegetable stock is used and pasta dishes can be made vegetarian easily.

I think it makes people more aware of their diet and they learn to balance the food groups and it can also be cheaper. Also a vegetarian diet is often lower in salt and sugar which is good to prevent other issues like diabetes.

If you are not a vegetarian, would you try it for a week and see if you felt healthier?

 

I'm not a vegetarian, but I am concerned about nutrition and try to eat good balanced meals. I wouldn't mind trying a vegetarian diet, but I would have to research it more to make sure that I'm getting the same nutrition that I get with animal proteins.

 

I may be speaking from a biased point of view, but I don't approve of vegetarianism, because I have iron deficiency anemia. Thus, I really need to get as much iron as possible from food, and cutting on meat is a risk I don't want to take again.
I tried to eat less meat some years ago, but that only led to more problems with my iron. Not even eating more vegetables than usual managed my iron levels, so I returned to eating meat. Moreover, I love meat; can't lie.

 

Brizeida, what types of vegetables did you incorporate into your diet? Beans, whole grains, and dark leafy green vegetables are high in iron as are other vegetables. Combinations of food is also a factor. As you may well know, Vitamin C facilitates the absorption of iron. Incidentally, vegetarian diets tend to be higher in vitamin C or even have combinations of iron and vitamin C together in the same food. Consumption of B12 is also a factor, as I am sure you are well acquainted with as well. According to The Vegetarian Resource Group, vegetarians do not have lower occurrences of anemia than the general population. It does state that their stores are lower. From what I understand, however, it is possible to accumulate a toxic level of stored iron from certain sources, which of course is not good either. Overall, I believe the benefits of vegetarianism especially when weighed against the SAD (standard American diet) outweigh any detractors. If needed one could take an iron supplement, and still enjoy all the benefits of vegetarianism and avoid the detrimental aspects of heavy meat consumption. http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/iron.php

 

It is my understanding that plant protein is a much gentler source of protein for humans than animal protein meaning that it produces less toxic waste when digested. Check out the videos "Forks Over Knives" and "A Diet for All Reasons". There is a lot I learned from them. I probably need to go and watch them again myself.

 

I am into healthy eating. The more you read up on it, nutritionists and doctors will say that with the best intentions, you don't get the nutrients out of food than you used to decades ago. That therefore gives a problem in my view, and it leads onto deficiencies and a need for supplements. Then if you remove a staple like meat from the diet, then that concerns me. I had an idealistic phase when I was 14-15. I wanted to be vegetarian and my Mum found the cooking very labour intensive. I remember my periods stopping, then once I started eating meat again, my periods came back. To this day, that must have been no coincidence. Despite my Mum cooking all the lentils and nuts, I must have been lacking something. So I do wonder what nutrients people lack, both in general and in vegetarianism too.

 

I am not vegetarian at the moment, but I have been contemplating going raw vegan. I don't really have the money right now to be able to buy all the different kinds and amounts of food that I would need for it. Which is fine I guess, it may just be part of the journey. Eating meat may be best for my body right now.

 

You can't go wrong with a vegetarian diet. It is proven by far healthier than being a consistent meat eater. A vegetarian diet is less taxing on your digestive system and for sure does not cause the health issues that meat causes (high blood pressure, etc.). I am not a vegetarian but I have moments when I will go for a period of time with out eating meat. When I do this I for sure feel the difference in my body. I am not as sluggish, I have more energy, and I feel better overall. Truth be told, unlike a cow that has THREE digestive systems a lot of people don't even realize our one digestive system is not even designed to completely break down meat. It has been proven that long term consumption of meat, especially pork, has health ramifications.

 

More and more people in today's society are becoming vegetarians and vegans as well as raw vegans. I believe there are many healthy alternatives to everything that the standard diet consists of. You can get all of your vitamins and nutrients from other plant based sources as opposed to eating meat and drinking milk. No I am not a vegetarian or a vegan, but have done an extensive amount of research on both vegetarianism and veganism, as I would like to slowly start my conversion to a vegetarian and then possibly over to vegan.

 

Actually, the iron you get from vegetables is not the same kind you get from meat. It is still a healthy addition to your diet, but I am yet to read a convincing study telling me iron deficiency can be battled only with vegetables and other nutritional sources besides meat, poultry and eggs. It's just a different kind of iron, so you can't substitute it with pumpkin seeds, for example. I love all those sources, don't get me wrong, but my anemia only got worse when I stopped my meat intake. Didn't matter how sophisticated and creative my vegetarian food choices were. Maybe there are other reasons at stake here, but I can't just ignore that The organisms are all individual - maybe what doesn't work for me works for somebody else, and vice versa. Who knows how my body absorbs iron. Vitamin C is very important for that, true that!

 

Let me tell you a little of my life, yes I can say I exaggerate when we eat meat. But a year so to speak because my husband I decided to try about two weeks to become vegetarian basically I refused to eat meat, and I think that when you eat something healthy to be something else and not meat. That I did, I must admit that I felt much better, my body was extremely pleased because he had different food diet and therefore recommend the soul to eat as many vegetables and be something healthy for you.

 

A co worker of mines advised me to watch the documentary "Forks over Knives" a little over a year ago. After he watched this movie he became a vegan. I LOVE meat, and refused to watch this in fear that I would become disgusted by meat. A few weeks ago I was bored and surfing through Netflix and saw it. So I decided to watch it. After watching it surprisingly I am not disgusted by meat I am just more aware of what it may be doing to my body. For a week .. Actually more like half a week I tried the vegan diet. It wasn't so bad. I figured as long as my food was seasoned well I could do it. But then I started craving a steak! Lol moral of the story I really recommend everyone to watch this documentary. It's very informative. He basically talks about how it's been beaten in our heads that we have to to eat from the 5 main food groups in order to live a healthy and balanced lifestyle. That we can only get calcium from milk and protein from meat. But this is not the case. In fact living this way maybe the reason why we are plagued with so many diseases today. So again I advise you to open your eyes and read/watch up on the vegetarian lifestyle. I don't plan to completely cut meat out of my diet but I am definitely going to cut back. I think the vegan Monday's is a great ideal.

 

vziglar, I think your way of doing it is actually what I do. I don't eat meat every day by no means , I have a day or two, even more sometimes, in the week that I eat only vegetarian proteins, and I am sure it helps my organism cleanse from the toxins!

 

I've been vegan for a while now and several days a week I eat completely raw. I cant imagine going back to the way I ate before.
I had cauda equina syndrome and lost sensation from the waist down. Doctors thought I'd never walk again. I was seeing no progress at first, but since I switched to a vegan lifestyle I've gained back sensation and can walk. I'm in much better health than I've even been.

 

I do think vegetarianism is very healthy. I've known some Seventh Day Adventists members abstaining to eat meat and meat-related products and I tell you, they didn't suffer from any diseases nor have gone to a physician in the past 6 months. Vegetables are like the complete food in terms of nutritional contents.

 

Well, I'm not a vegetarian, but, I rarely eat meat. Now, I don't judge people who eat, or, don't eat meat. It's their choice. But, I guess, red meat gives some healthy problems to body. No matter how meat is cooked, some bacteria survive. On the other hand, eating only vegetarian food, is, probably good thing, for body. But as I say earlier, it's a matter of choice. So, if you like to be healthy, I guess it's good not to eat meat.

 

I’m semi-vegetarian, though I prefer to eat vegetarian as often as possible. I’ve been close to a number of vegetarians who didn’t exactly fit a healthy image because they ate diets with significant amounts of refined carbs, processed drinks, and dairy (they were usually lacto-ovo vegetarians). Some days were more balanced than others, but I could feel my own digestive system starting to go haywire after spending enough time eating a similar diet. Granted, I have difficulty digesting lactose, so I’m sure that was a factor.

Of course, if a medical condition precludes vegetarianism, then giving up meat would be unhealthy. But barring that, it is indeed a matter of balancing the diet and knowing which foods contain which nutrients, as well as knowing what your own body can and can't handle. I personally seem to do best on a mix of legumes, beans, nuts/seeds, healthy fats (olive oil, unsweetened coconut, avocado, etc.), whole grains, and plenty of fruits and vegetables.

 

This thread is making me remember about my teacher that became paralyzed. She didn't eat vegetable nor attaining exercise. That was an outcome. Paralysis is a condition wherein the motor function of the body is lost. Paralysis may be localized or generalized. It is localized when one part of the body is paralyzed; it is generalized when paralysis affects the entire body. The patterns of paralysis depend on the area of damage in the brain. There are several causes of paralysis. Some of these are the stroke, spinal cord injury, Guillain-Barre's syndrome, Bell's Palsy, poliomyelitis, and trauma. My teacher was enduring stroke.

 

Well, vegetarianism is almost a 100% healthy. It is about 98% healthy which is fine for me. I am not a vegetarian or at least, not a full vegetarian. But the vegetarian diet helps you eat healthy and you don't get to complain about one heart failure or something.