Pros And Cons Of Vegetarian Lifestyle

What is vegetarianism?

Vegetarianism is becoming more and more popular kind of lifestyle among people. For some people it is just eating of plant foods, for others it is really style of life. The word itself has two kinds of origin: one is formed from English “vegetable”, another one is from Latin word “vegetus” that means “fresh, vigorous”. In this vegetarian lifestyle essay we will discuss pros and cons of becoming vegetarian.

The vegetarianism itself is based on the idea of nonviolence towards animals and was promoted by religious groups and spiritual practices. That is why among the vegetarians there are many people who keep such a style of life for religious reasons. It is believed that meat is heavy food for spiritually developing people. It means that meat has rough energy while plant food has a subtle energy that contributes to the purification of all body systems.

Reasons to become vegetarian

There are several reasons why people start leading such a style of life.

The main reason is a sentiment of pity and compassion for animals. People, realizing that thousands of innocent animals are being killed, not only quit eating meat, but also call other to save lives of animals.

The second and more common reason of starting the plant foods consumption is religious, esoteric beliefs. Vegetarianism supporters switch to this type of food because their religion does not allow them eating meat. Mainly, these are the countries where most people confess Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

Another reason is a desire to have good health, and plant natural food gives man great health, cheerfulness and body youth.

As we have already mentioned, personal beliefs, religion, style of life or health issues are the most widespread reasons of choosing vegetarian lifestyle. Some people choose such a diet because they are concerned about animal rights and environment. For many people in the world vegetarianism is mainly associated with savings, because meat costs more than, for example, rise or beans.

Types of vegetarianism

There are vegetarians who excluded from their diet only meat. Other type excludes any animal food, including eggs and fish. And the third type is so-called vegans, who do not even eat such foods as milk and honey.

There are different forms of vegetarianism:

1. Lacto-ovo vegetarians eat dairy and eggs, but exclude meat, fish and poultry.

2. Lacto vegetarians eat dairy, but do not eat eggs.

3. Ovo vegetarians eat eggs, but do not eat dairy.

4. Pesco vegetarians eat fish, but exclude poultry.

5. Veganism is the most strict form of vegetarianism. It excludes not only eggs and dairy, but also animal products, such as honey and gelatin, as well as refined and processed foods, products containing preservatives, caffeine and other stimulants.

World Vegan Day

World Vegan Day is a holiday appeared November 1, 1994, when Vegan community celebrated its 50th anniversary. The word “vegan” is created by Donald Watson and is formed from first three and last two letters of the English word “vegetarian”.

There are many different opinions on the benefits and harm of vegetarianism for human health. So what are the advantages and disadvantages of vegetarianism? Let’s see.

Of course, vegetarianism has some disadvantages, but vegetable food has many benefits. This is natural food that is quickly and easily absorbed by the body, and also it does not form toxins in the alimentary canal. The lack of some vitamins and microelements can be supplemented by taking extra vitamin in tablets or supplements. Or you should have more varied diet and compose your daily diet properly.

Although you can talk endlessly about pros and cons of vegetarianism, but let’s try to figure out what they are. Remember that we do not agitate opponents or discourage supporters of vegetarianism; we are just trying to understand the essence of vegetarian lifestyle.

Cons

1. The first obvious disadvantage of vegetarianism is that gut flora is killed by various products and drugs: garlic, onion, antibiotics, sulfonamides and other drugs. That is why vegetarian will have to refuse these products and drugs. Of course, gut flora of healthy people is killed by these products, but for vegetarians gut flora is extremely important. Vegetarian little by little adapts to the vegetarian diet, saprophytes bacteria appear in the gut that process incoming with food cellular tissue and give the body the same animal irreplaceable amino acids. So if a carnivore depends on meat, then vegetarian depends on the gut flora condition.

2. If all products of animal origin are excluded from the ration, as vegans do, then no vegetable protein can not replace animal neither in amino acid composition, nor in digestibility. Of course, you can try to combine two or three vegetable products with different types of defective proteins to get eventually protein of full value. But just imagine, what amount of “grass” should be eaten? Here you remind immediately constantly chewing herbivores – that is the reason they constantly chew.

3. There are forms of protein deficiency, which develop when a person eats the monotonous food products of plant origin with a low protein content.

When a person suffers from the protein starvation, even if he gets enough fats, carbohydrates, minerals, water and vitamins, he keeps on losing weight, because tissue proteins spending is not compensated by the intake of proteins with food. Such a protein starvation, as well as common starvation, inevitably leads to death. It is especially hard to tolerate protein starvation for growing organism.

4. Hormone disruptions. The studies showed that people, who refuse eating animal food, get problems with the endocrine system work. Women-vegetarians showed more frequent menstrual irregularities and they also had malfunction of the thyroid gland. It lead to slowing metabolism, apathy, dry skin, edema, constipation, decreased heartbeat, poor tolerance of cold and so on. All these symptoms and disorders disappeared when the experiment participants started to used animal protein again.

5. Well, and the most important is that it is quite dangerous today to eat fresh meat, milk, fish, eggs, you can never be sure about their bacterial purity. It is also proved that fruits and vegetables that are stored for a long time in warehouses first, and then in the refrigerators, lose a significant amount of nutrients and vitamins. So they do not give the body much use.

6. Vegetarian food does not satisfy the body fully with the necessary quantity of vitamins such as B12, and also protein, iron and zinc. These microelements are contained in big amount in meat food only. For example, lack of vitamin B12 and iron leads to anemia, it means that there is less than normal level of red blood cells in the body. There are also certain amino acids in animal and fish food that are absent in plant food. Animal protein and phosphorus is absorbed by the body much easier than vegetable, not requiring the use of additional vitamins.

Pros

1. Healthy body. Doctors-nutritionists studied the effect of the plant food eating. They discovered that a balanced diet concedes to the usefulness of vegetarianism. People who follow vegetarian life style usually have low percentage of such diseases as high blood pressure, stroke, most heart diseases, diabetes, osteoporosis, kidney diseases and gallstones. Also due to consumption of dietary fiber the work of the digestive system becomes normal. Vegetarians-participants also noticed weight loss, decreased appetite, improved skin color and condition of the face skin and of the body, in general. Ease, cheerfulness and energy in the body throughout the day. And last but not least, the saturation of the body with missing vitamins and microelements that are absent in animal food.

2. According to statistics vegetarians are slimmer and healthier than those who eat meat. In fact, vegetarian diet really contributes to losing weight. However, there is a significant BUT: some vegetarians, quitting to eat meat, start eating sweets, fried potato, scones, bakery products, what leads to extra weight gaining.

3. Since the only additional source of energy for those, who do not eat animal products, is in muscles, so vegans have to make themselves to move a lot, in this case only it becomes possible to refill body energy with lactic acid. During movement vegetarian loses 5% of muscle glycogen and gets 95% of energy in the form of lactic acid. By the way, that is why morning gymnastics is useful – to restore glycogen and fill your organism with energy you have to make your muscles work for a while.

In addition

If vegetarian does not move enough, the organism will react on lack of protein in a different way. Such a person will prone to outbursts of rage and anger that are followed by reflex tension of all body muscles. Nature, one way or another, will make person, who keeps to a vegetarian diet, strain the muscles. If people do not do it themselves by the physical exertion, they will do it in a fit of hysterics or other mentally abnormal excitation.

Here are some examples of famous vegetarians:

- Vegetarian Isaac Newton, as contemporaries claimed, was extremely arrogant and greedy person. Unsatisfied thirst for action pushed him into different strange adventures, and eventually he became commercial speculator.

- Vegetarian Leo Tolstoy, at times when he could not do heavy peasant labor (autumn-winter period), was known for his huge family scandals with his wife and children, because of which he left his home on October 1910 and died soon.

- Vegetarian Adolf Hitler… Well, here we may not continue. However, he managed to infect the whole Germany and a part of Europe with his public hysterical outbursts.

Instead of conclusion

Fresh meat and fish, eggs should be present in your ration, but as we have mentioned, you should be very careful with such products since no one can vouch for their purity and the absence of disease-causing bacteria. Also vegetables, fruits and juices, especially fresh, should be in your daily diet. Fresh vegetables and fruits help in obesity and constipation, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

A couple of dietary days, when you eat fresh vegetables only, will definitely bring you much use. You can get rid of edema and normalize bowel function (if you have observed a tendency to constipation).

At first try to follow the “raw” diet for a day: if you feel well, you can try to keep to a diet for 3 days more. After such a diet, you can not start eating much protein food and fat meat at once. You should return to your ordinary diet bit by bit, in a day or two. It is better to keep to such a diet in summer, when there is a lot of different vegetables and fruits, and human body needs less fats and carbohydrates.

Although vegetarian lifestyle has certain disadvantages, it also has many advantages for human health. Anyway, if you plan your ration correctly, any problem of shortage of nutrients can be solved.

So now, heaving read this essay about vegetarian lifestyle, you have an idea of what vegetarianism is, what its forms are and what pros and cons it has. Or course, it is up to you whether you want to lead such a style of life or not. For more useful essay visit our website. There you will find many original essays on urgent topics and get professional help in essay writing any time.