I am vegetarian. I’m not any kind of authority or expert, but I havent eaten any meat for almost 30 years.
I wanted to give a different perspective on your question. There is plenty of time, imho you dont have to go to any great effort or make a lifestyle change. Just do what you feel like, in increments.
For example, in the beginning I just felt drawn to cut down on red meat. I went along like that for maybe a year or 2. Then I reduced and then eliminated other kinds of meat. I was still eating plenty of fish, shrimp, etc. Then after maybe a year of that, I felt drawn to eliminating that too. There was never any great effort, it was just a natural process.
I have gone through periods where I wanted to cut out eggs, and did that. Also I’ve been strictly vegan (no diary or eggs) for periods of about a year. However these days I Really like my cheese, and ice cream (in small doses)
So my advice would be to not rush into anything, make gradual changes and you will find your own level. And I think the changes are more lasting that way.
I’d like to nominate the above as the new replacement for “Beef: It’s what’s for dinner.”
I think meat consumption is to health as aspirin is to headaches. The right amount is good for you (better than none), but too much can be unhealthy. People should eat meat for a healthy balance, but they can (and often do) eat too much. Vegetarians rarely suffer from the complications of eating too much meat (duh), so you can see how the results can be twisted. People who don’t eat carrots also never die from carrot-related injuries or poisoned carrots, does that mean anti-carrot protestors are healthy?
Also be advised that the OP seemed to want an unbiased source of information. I don’t think links to vegetarian sites fall under that category. From what I’ve seen, the OP’s unsupported claim sounds remarkably similar to something I heard from PETA, and we all know how reliable of a source they are. :rolleyes:
Eliminating meat will not garauntee health unless you eat a healthy, balanced vegetarian diet. Nor will meat elimination help if you continue to eat more calories than you expend in a day. You can get high blood pressure, or aggravate it, by eating too much salt in your meatless diet.
There is no link between meat consumption osteoporosis, only between osteoporosis and any of the following: calcium deficiency, vitamin D deficiency, lack of weight-bearing exercise.
The biggest risk factor for osteoarthritis is joint damage - a sprained ankle in grade school leaves you at a higher risk of arthritis when you’re 50. Frequent and excessive use of a joint can also up your risk factor, possibly due to accumulation of minor damage over decades. I’ve never heard of link between arthritis and meat.
All you need to do to get food poisoning is to defecate and fail to wash your hands properly prior to food preparation or eating by hand.
In the Chicago area we’ve had problems with E. Coli contaminated strawberries, lettuce, and other produce.
Although meat is, in some ways, more conducive to baterial reproduction by no means are plants immune to contamination.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Gaspode *
Yes, my little voguevixen, CJD predates mad cow by many many decades. Even today, even in Britain, most cases are NOT from infected cow consumption. In fact, mad cow is not CJD, it’s variantCJD.
Then why do dedicated vegetarians get cancer? And vegetarians also get heart disease, diabetes, and kidney problems. And there are meat-eaters who suffer from none of the above.
Chinese peasents with a vegetarian or near-vegetarian (meat only 2-3 times a year) have the highest rate of esophageal and stomach cancers in the world.
Inuit on a traditional diet of nearly 100% animal source have a very low rate of heart disease and diabetes (probably related to a very active lifestyle in artic conditions)
Yes, diet is a very important component of health, but certainly not the ONLY component.
Tell me which issue of NEJM had this article and I’ll look it up at work. This sounds more like someone picking an isolated phrase out of context than a valid conclusion. If cancer could be avoided by simply changing one’s diet in a “modest” manner that would be a noble-prize level discovery.
Ah, but you are obviously under the mistaken notion that all food-poisoning is of animal product origin. In addition to the contaminated produce mentioned above, and the perennial problem of cooks not washing their hands thoroughly, water itself can be a carrier of a wide variety of nasty microbes.
Voguevixen, I don’t mind vegetarians waxing enthusiastic about their food - vegetarian cooking is a wonderful addition to the world’s menu. However, I DO object to wild claims with no evidence to back them up.
Why not promote vegetarianism based upon the tremendous variety of plant foods available, the beauty of their colors, textures, and tastes? Why promote it as a “health food” barely removed from a pharmaceutical for better health? When I cook vegetarian food and feed it to carnivore humans 9 times out of 10 they don’t notice the absence of meat. Why? Because it tastes good. And that’s what people REALLY want - they want food that tastes good.
I’ll concede on the food poisoning. :blushing: (oh man, that hurts.)
For the record I never claimed vegetarianism will cure or eliminate other diseases, I said that it would lower your risks and my sources show that in countries where meat is seldom eaten rates of these diseases are much lower; and that according to Dr. McDougall, Dr. Ornish, etc. often if you happen to have a specific malady/disease, eliminating animal products from your diet alleviates the symptoms and sometimes reverses the some of the damage.
The only reason I responded was in response to the OP who was wondering why vegetarians lived longer, and my theory (because of the things I’d read) was that they have less incidence of things that might cut short the lives of those with a meat-based diet. I’ve only started researching this myself and thought the OP might be interested in similar writings. I apologise if I processed the information wrong and tried to give the sources themselves where possible.
Reducing animal products also invariably has the same effect, and numerous diseases can be cured by adding animal products to the diet, while removal of animal products has health risks all its own. So that can’t be the reason for the lifespan difference.
Salmonella can be contracted from fruit and fruit juices.
2.Red meat takes longer to digest than most white meat and fish, and the correlation between “meat fermenting in your colon” time and colon cancer is, I believe, a principal angle of the “less red meat” school of diet.
[/my complete expertise on the subject]
Let’s all remember Manhattan’s warning about GDing in the GQ. Keep it light or Dad’s gonna take away our arcade tokens.
I’d have to see a cite before I’d buy white meat being digested faster than red.
I also seriously doubt any meat ferments in your colon. Contrary to the ‘ten pounds of undigested meat in the average person/John Wayne’s colon at death’ stories meat is pretty well completely digested by the time it leaves the small intestine. Most colonic fermentaion is of starch and cellulose. Both vegetable products.
Consumption of lean, red meat without enough fiber can lead to constipation. I’m not sure about the “fermentation” angle, but having your waste disposal system slow down is, at the very least, uncomfortable, and can, if extreme, lead to health problems.
Which means you need to eat fiber along with that red meat in order to keep the system running. So, look at the traditional meal - soup (often with vegetables, but even just broth or cream base provides fluid which is also necessary to moving things along), salad (fiber), baked potato (more fiber), another vegetable (more fiber), bread (fiber), and, oh yeah, that steak. So, if you actually eat all those vegees and bread you should have enough fiber to keep the steak from lingering. But I’m sure we all know folks who just eat the steak and leave the rest. Well, that’s not the cook’s fault, is it?
The problem isn’t red meat, it’s the quantity of red meat. A dietary portion is 4 ounces. The smallest restaurant steak I’ve seen is 8, with 12 and 16 fairly common. A 16 ounce steak is 4 days worth of protein, consuming that every day would qualify as excess.
An occassional “feast” where you consume a 16 ounce steak, mounds of bread and vegees, a high-calorie desert, and a couple of beers is not going to hurt you (well, maybe indigestion) if you only indulge a couple times a year. But I’ve seen folks eat like that every day, then wonder why they have weight and health problems.
It’s harder to consume to this level of excess if you’re a vegetarian because plant foods tend to have more bulk, but if you consume refined foods, foods with tropical oils, and certain items like avocado which are naturally high in fats to excess you will get fat and you will be at risk of various illnesses. Also, some plants and mushrooms naturally contain toxins that, in moderation, your body can handle without trouble but in excess can cause illness.
So, no matter what you eat, you need variety and moderation. I think that, because vegetarians in the western world tend to be more educated about balancing their diet, they tend to make better choices about eating overall. It’s not just the vegees are good for you (they are) but a cultural/educational factor as well.
Just because I’m a helpful kinda guy, here’s a site with scientific findings on better health [sub]provided by the beef industry[/sub]. Have fun! http://www.beefnutrition.org/research/
