Are you a health seeker considering whether a vegetarian diet will make any difference to your weight and overall health and well being? Well in this article I will look at the evidence about how a vegetarian diet may support your aim to get healthy or just to maintain good health with a change in your diet.
There are a variety of vegetarian diets/lifestyle options for people who decide to cut down on or cut out animal sourced food in their diet. See below for a list of the different types of vegetarians or approaches to vegetarianism;
Vegans – vegans do not take any meats or animal souced foods and niether do they wear animal source clothes and accessories. Historically of veganism has been linked to animal rights. But recently it has also been incorporated in the list of healthy lifestyle diets.
Vegetarians: Vegetarians are less resticted and may not mind having animal skin for clothes and accessories and usually eliminate most animal products but still consume some form of animal sourced food.
Lacto-Vegetarians: Lacto vegetarians do not include animal flesh/meat in their diet, but accept milk and milk source foods like cheese, cream and butter in their diet.
Ovo-vegetarians: The Ovo-vegetarians exclude animal flesh and milk source foods, but will have eggs in their diet.
Lacto-ovo-vegetarians: The Lacto-ovo-vegetarians take a combination of the last two diets listed, incorporating both eggs and milk based foods in their diet.
Pescatarians: Pescatarians will only have plant sourced and fish sourced foods in their diet to the exclusion of all other animal source foods.
Fruitarians: Fruitarians incorporate mostly fruits and some other plant source foods in their diet and take no animal sourced foods. So essentially a modified vegan diet, mainly based on fruits and vegetables that fall under the category of fruits (plus seeds and nuts).
Here is a list of 12 benefits associated with a vegetarian diet
1. Less cholesterol intake – the main source of cholesterol in the diet is from animal source foods. And considering that the human body also makes cholesterol it is no wonder that meat eaters are more prone to high cholesterol levels in the blood. This increases the risk for many chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease.
2. Supports weight loss/control – Research has shown that people who exclude meat and animal products from their foods tend to have a better outcome with weight control and weight loss diets and lifestyle interventions.
3. Reduces the risk of certain cancers – there is also scientific evidence that eating red meat, processed meats and other animal products is linked to bowel cancer. Even though vegetarians seem tend to incorporate more healthy lifestyle choices into their daily routine, these do not negate the fact that red meat and processed meat are associated with certain types of cancer.
4. Reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases – Studies show that animal source foods increased inflammation in the body, and increased cholesterol in the blood; both of which are shown to be factors that increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases, stroke and cardiac arrest and other life threatening health problems.
5. Supports environmental care – the rearing of animals for meat, poultry and dairy products impacts the environment negatively. In fact the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation stated that rearing animals for meat and dairy results in the release of greenhouse gases that account for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emission.
6. Reduces the risk of recurrence of gout arthritis – According to the Mayo Clinic the intake of certain fishes, red meats such as beef, pork and lamb, organ meats such as liver and kidney increases the levels of purine in the body that triggers the inflammatory process of gout. Apparently the purines from vegetables do not have this kind of effect.
7. Reduce the risk of certain acute infections such as salmonella and e-coli infections – According to the Mayo Clinic, E.coli bacteria (Escherichia Coli) lives in the intestines of many healthy animals. However during the slaughtering process the meats often get contaminated with the faecal waste along with the bacteria. Often the infection or food poisoning occurs due to uncooked or undercooked meats or cross contamination when the surfaces and cooking utensils are exposed to the raw meat and then comes in contact with other foods like fruits and vegetables that are eaten uncooked. This risk of contamination is even greater with ground beef as this is done with the meet from several cows during the process.
Salmonella outbreaks are listed on the CDC website and most of them were linked to poultry such as chickens turkeys and ducks and interestingly to seafoods, shrimps and turtles. With a much small number incidents linked to plant source foods.
Salmonella and some strains of E. Coli can cause fatal, bloody diarrhoea and vomiting especially among children, the elderly and the immunocompromised.
8. Reduces the risk of parasites infestation with Trichuris suis – or whipworms from pork.
9. Reduce the risk of fatal prions spongiform brain diseases – such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
10. Reduces the risk of heart attacks and heart failure – with a high fibre vegetarian diet the risks for chronic inflammation, high cholesterol and metabolic syndrome is reduced. Data shows that many chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, arthritis and atherosclerosis is associated with the western diet of red meat, fried foods and over processed, refined carbohydrates that lack the recommended daily amount of fibre require for health maintenance.
11. Reduces the risk of leptospirosis infection. This infection is spread in the urine of rodents and other animals. People working in meat production from the animal husbandry worker to the butcher and shop meat handlers are at a high risk of this infection the can result in liver and kidney failure.
12. Supports longevity – the statistics shows that vegetarians who eat a balance diet have higher life expectancy that carnivores. And this all adds up as chronic diseases that are linked to meat eating tend to adversely affect morbidity and mortality.
Summary and discussion:
Overall vegetarians have been shown to have better health and longer life span that people who consume animal source foods. Did you know that human babies have to acquire the taste for meat as they were not born with the desire or taste for meat.
Global Threat of Antibiotic resistance risk in animals and humans
And these days animals are becoming plagued with all kinds of diseases that can affect humans. They are treated with antibiotics and hormones to prevent infections and are to increase the yield of meat and milk supplies for the sake of monetary gain. The World Health Organisation (2017) issued guidance on reducing/stopping the use of prophylactic antibiotics in meat-producing animals. This was based on research findings that antibiotics resistance among these animals was reduced by 39% when preventative antibiotics was not used.
Risk of nutritional deficiencies
Reducing the use of meat and dairy products can have many positive effects on a personal level and from a community health perspective. But some of the drawbacks for this type of diet needs to be taken into consideration. Mainly the risk of B12 deficiency and anaemia are link to vegan and vegetarian diets, requiring the use of supplements to provide this lack to prevent serious deficiencies over time. So there are pros and cons to consider and the need for education around the decision to adopt a vegetarian diet.