Is a vegetarian diet healthy enough to stick to for life?

Question

I am seriously thinking about becoming vegetarian for life because although I feel strongly about animal cruelty issue, my reasons for considering this are more to do with the fact that I don't particularly like meat anyway and I much prefer the taste of Quorn and soya substitute products. In a restaurant, I nearly always go for the vegetarian option and my mum even calls me a closet vegetarian!

The only thing that worries me though, is whether I am still going to get all the nutrients and health benefits that meat supposedly gives as such a staple of a normal diet. Is it safe to cut it out completely forever?

Answer 1

Absolutely. Just make sure it a balanced diet, but sounds like you do that by eating meat substitutes. My 4 kids were raised from birth as vegetarians, and are all fit and healthy. All above average height, and intelligence. Go for it.

Answer 2

Hello. I have been a vegetarian for 2 years now, and am feeling no ill effects. My son is a vegan, one step further again! He recently had a check up , as he is a heart patient. His doctor advised a blood test to check that he was doing well on the vegan diet. He had no deficiencies whatsoever. If he is that healthy with no aniomal products whatsoever, then I'm sure it will be healthy if you are just cutting out meat.

It may be advisable to take a vitamin b complex supplement. I do , as this seems to be the one group of vitamins less easy to get from veggie food.

Check out the vegetarian society website for loads of good advice.

Hope this helps a bit. All the best.

cj

Answer 3

All the nutrients found in meat can be found in other sources. So, yes, a vegetarian diet is healthy and it can be something you do for life. I'm 13 weeks pregnant and I went back on meat because the craving was too much and I'm limited on food choices because of where I live. But even pregnant women can have a healthy vegetarian diet and get all the nutrients they need.

Answer 4

A *balanced* vegetarian diet is healthy for all life stages and, statistically anyway, offers protection from such killers as heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure and certain kinds of cancer. A vegetarian diet is not *always* healthy, though. It's entirely possible to consume a lot of junk food and very little good food and still technically call yourself vegetarian. French fries are vegetarian, after all.

Answer 5

eg traditional Japanese diet is probaly the healthyest around, though that may include small amounts of fish.

meat is not a "staple"
it is an unaffordable luxury for most people; which is why it is has become an aspirational status symbol; to the extent that people eat unhealthy amounts. so traditional vegitarian cultures like china & india are creating all sorts of problems through the demand for meat.

Meat is expensive because the conversion of food to meat is about 10:1, ie 10 people could live healthily on the vegtables needed to feed one person on a meat diet. Traditional meat diets as in Mongolia and zulu have specialised climates & lifestyles that support this and totally respect their animals.

Answer 6

I do not beleive we should muck about with our diets, humans are omnivore, we eat a mixture of meat and veg matter, and thats the way we have developed for a healthy body, moderation in all things. With regards to the animal side of thinsg, there are such stringent laws in place, that the animals do not suffer cruelty that they did years ago, they are bred for us to eat, thats the way it is, whether you decide to be a veggie won;t make any difference to the industry will it? I do sometimes have the veggie option in a restuarant, but only because thats what I fancy at the time, I think veg pizza's for example, are far better tasting than meat ones. For veggie to make a difference, we'd all ahve to turn veggie and that will never happen. As for the health aspect, I have rarely seen a healthy looking veggie, we need the proteins and fats that meat provides us with, many end up having to take supplements, thats not normal at all, where do the vitamin tablets come from, a factory, nothing natural about that. Why not just eat the organic meat, then you know its been out in the feilds etc before being used for what it was grown for

Answer 7

Um YES! I'm a vegetarian and its easy to get what I need. Drink your 8 glasses of water everyday or 16 oz., eat some fruit, and also search the health benefits of a vegetarian in google.com , if you want to you could always take a small vitamin everyday which what you need and then your like more than halfway through with your nutrient intakes and stuff.

Answer 8

No fears. If you take care to have a square diet you need not worry. See the strongest beasts in the animal world is an elephant who is stricted vegetarian. The dinasaurs of old(many among them) were also vegetarians.In fact, they say that one of the reasons for their disapearance from the surface of the earth was their overgrazing.They liberallay starved to death.Later some omnivorous cultures did develop.Many an Indian wrestlers of world repute were strictly vegetarians.

Answer 9

You need to learn about nutrition, nutrients, their sources, and how much of each you need to eat each day.
As long as you do that then yes, you'll be eating healthily! There are some nutrients that it is more difficult to get from vegetarian sources unless you still eat dairy. Iron and vitamin B12 are the two you really need to keep an eye on.
Until you feel that you've got the hang of it, eat red meat and oily fish occasionally.
Google for 'nutrition' and start learning!

Answer 10

Yesss! A website I found really helpful when I became vegetarian is http://www.GoVeg.com
Vegetarian diets are very healthy, as long as you make sure you get all of the vitamins/minerals/nutrients that you need.
And they're a great way to do your part in reducing the cruelty that goes on in the meat industry.
Best of luck!!