What is the reaoning behind being Vegan or Vegetarian?

Question

I am in no way at all trying to be rude. I honestly would like to know. I am wanting to lose some weight and I have no particular fondness for meat, I just eat it because I always have. I am wondering if there are any other benefits to becoming vegetarian or vegan besides drastically lowering your exposure to "bad" fats?

Answer 1

If a vegan diet is very carefully planned, and that requires either fortified foods or supplements, it can be AS healthy as a good meat eating diet. I think there are a couple of benefits, but they come from eating a wide range of fruit and veg and being health conscious as vegans have to be, not omitting meat, and thus those benefits can be go without actually going veggie. Needless to say a uncarefully planned vegetarian, or especially vegan, diet can lack many essential nutrients and be very bad for your health.

It is well established that eating meat improves the quality of nutrition, strengthens the immune system, promotes normal growth and development, is beneficial for day-to-day health, energy and well-being, and helps ensure optimal learning and academic performance.
A long term study found that children who eat more meat are less likely to have deficiencies than those who eat little or no meat. Kids who don’t eat meat — and especially if they restrict other foods, as many girls are doing — are more likely to feel tired, apathetic, unable to concentrate, are sick more often, more frequently depressed, and are the most likely to be malnourished and have stunted growth. Meat and other animal-source foods are the building blocks of healthy growth that have made America’s and Europe's youngsters among the tallest, strongest and healthiest in the world.
Meat is an important source of quality nutrients, heme iron, protein, zinc and B-complex vitamins. It provides high-quality protein important for kids’ healthy growth and development.
The iron in meat (heme iron) is of high quality and well absorbed by the body, unlike nonheme iron from plants which is not well absorbed. More than 90 percent of iron consumed may be wasted when taken without some heme iron from animal sources. Substances found to inhibit nonheme iron absorption include phytates in cereals, nuts and legumes, and polyphenolics in vegetables. Symptoms of iron deficiency include fatigue, headache, irritability and decreased work performance. For young children, it can lead to impairment in general intelligence, language, motor performance and school readiness. Girls especially need iron after puberty due to blood losses, or if pregnant. Yet studies show 75 percent of teenage girls get less iron than recommended.
Meat, poultry and eggs are also good sources of absorbable zinc, a trace mineral vital for strengthening the immune system and normal growth. Deficiencies link to decreased attention, poorer problem solving and short-term memory, weakened immune system, and the inability to fight infection. While nuts and legumes contain zinc, plant fibre contains phytates that bind it into a nonabsorbable compound.
Found almost exclusively in animal products, Vitamin B12 is necessary for forming new cells. A deficiency can cause anaemia and permanent nerve damage and paralysis. The Vitamin B12 in plants isn't even bioavailable, meaning our body can't use it.
Why not buy food supplements to replace missing vitamins and minerals? Some people believe they can fill those gaps with pills, but they may be fooling themselves. Research consistently shows that real foods in a balanced diet are far superior to trying to make up deficiencies with supplements.

That eating meat raises cholesterol, or leads to heart disease, is also fallacy. Your body on average creates four to five times more cholesterol than the average person consumes, and compensates by creating more when less is consumed. Cholesterol isn't evil, it is essential; it makes up the waterproof linings of all our cells and without it we would die. Too much can be bad, but as with saturated fats there are more healthy ways of disposing of it, like regular exercise. Anyway, it isn't so much how much cholesterol you eat, but how well your body handles it. A person who eats loads of dietary cholesterol and leads an unhealthy lifestyle can still have low cholesterol, and vice versa. Most people's bodies are able to take a large amount of cholesterol without getting atherosclerosis. There is no direct link between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol, and for this reason that eating meat gives you heart disease is very misleading, and for the most part untrue. Of course, if you do have a problem with how your body handles cholesterol eating loads isn't a good idea, but for most people there is nothing at all to worry about.

It definately isn't any healthier to avoid meat. You can be healthy without meat, but likely not as healthy as if you did, assuming you kept things like the wide range of fruit and veg that a veggie diet usually entails. Too much meat can be bad, but normal amounts are no problem at all. Any health benefits that come from a veggie diet come from a wide range of fruit and veg, and being health conscious, as veggies often are; that doesn't require you to not eat meat.
I don't think a vegan diet benefits anyone in any way better than a better meat eating diet could at all. If you have no ethical qualms, it's quite pointless. PETA will tell you otherwise, but they have very strong ethical opinions, and mould their 'evidence' around it. There is, for example, some 'evidence' that vegans live longer and are at less risk from cancer and heart disease, etc; however those studies show only a very marginal and insignificant difference and none of those studies have yet managed to identify meat as the only variable. Veggies are less likely to smoke, drink or eat junk food, and eat a wider range of fruit and veg, making the test results inaccurate and unreliable.

Meat eating does not contribute to world hunger, that meat uses up more resources is irrelevant, as there is already enough food in the world to feed everyone well, and huge amounts go to waste every day. The problem is economic, the starving people of the world can't afford to import food.
Also while it takes more land to produce x pounds of meat than x pounds of grain, pastoral farming (animals) is much less intensive than arable (crop) farming. A field of crops is generally packed full, and leaves no room for wildlife. Also any poisonous herb/pest/fungicides used can kill even quite large animals, like hawks.
On the other hand animal farming, while it takes up more room, leaves plenty of room for wildlife and doesn't pollute the environment with poisonous substances.

The claim that meat rots in your stomach, while true, is irrelevant, as all food rots in your stomach. Rotting, or food being broken down by acids, enzymes or acids, is how the human digestive system works.

It does take more water to produce a pound of meat than, for instance, wheat. On the other hand it takes several more times as much water to grow a pound of rice than meat. Does that make a valid reason to not eat rice? No, and the same logic aplies to that it doesn't make a valid argument to not eat meat.

Answer 2

My reason for being a strict vegan is because I can not tolerate the cruelty to animals that goes on at meat farms. It's beyond what any living thing should endure. Also, if only one half of the world were vegan, there would be a decline in the need to produce meat, more land would be available for planting vegetables and more people would get fed. Livestock use up 3/4 of the earth's land just to plant the food that the animals eat! If we had 1/2 of that planted for vegetables, there would be enough food to fed the entire world a hundred times over. That is why I'm a vegan.
When I made the decision to become vegan I lost 24 pounds and have kept it off for the last 6 years. I found also that I no longer crave carbs, feel so much more energetic, my skin is much better and the health problems I had disappeared. I do not consume any products that come from animals. Milk, eggs, cheese, any dairy at all...and think of what would be included in that..chocolate etc.., I don't eat meat of course and I do not wear wool, cashmere, leather etc. It's a choice I made, but the best choice I've made in my life. People say that vegans get sick easy..not true. Just make sure to eat some nuts that contain protein, lots of veggies and fruit. That is all I eat.

Answer 3

Plants don't have a central nervous system, or any kind of nervous system. They have zero consciousness, so they have zero capacity to feel anything, including joy and pain. They don't hurt when you eat them, there is no suffering involved. Animals, on the other hand, do have a central nervous system. They have brains as well. They are sentient beings, meaning that if you cut them, they bleed and feel it and it hurts. If you kill them, they suffer. Even if you keep them for milk and eggs, they suffer. Why? Because dairy and eggs come from factory farms, which treat the animals with absolutely no compassion whatsoever. To the farmers, they are not fellow creatures, but commidoties, and nothing more. There is no veterinary care, they live in their own shitt, they're overcrowded - so much so that chickens can't even spread one wing, they get infections due to farm living and not present in feral (free) animals, soooo many cruelties these poor creatures endure, and for what? For profit, pure and simple. Sure, we have dominion over animals, but that doesn't mean we have to treat them so cruelly. Instead, that means that since we're the most powerful creatures, we have the obligation to and to all the other creatures, big and small. So, killing a plant to eat is fine, not at all cruel. Killing an animal is not fine, and very cruel.

Answer 4

u will have to replace your protein if u stop eating meat with ligumes, beans, nuts....etc. u will notice a difference. there are many benefits to it. many vegans don't eat animal products for a few reasons. they r huge animal lovers.....they r freaked out about all the mad cow disease, salmanella, and all the other diseases people can get from animals.....they were raised that way.....they have studied it and know the benefits.....and animals are being given anti biotics and other crap like steroids to enhance the meat bad bad bad for humans. why do u think so many antibiotics are not working on human illness because their systems are use to the anti biotics from eating it in meats

Answer 5

It takes a long time for meat to digest. Some people are probably walking
around with a steak still rotting in their intestines that they ate last month.
Meat contains hormones and antibiotics that they are fed on a regular basis.
Animals killed violently have a different enzyme in their meat than animals
killed humanely. It takes more land to raise cattle than it does to raise
grains. The world is over populated and we need to feed everyone. There
are so many reasons to go veggie it is impossible to list them all here. I'm
glad you are thinking about it. Peace.

Answer 6

I actually gained weight when I first became vegetarian. I wasn't careful about my protein, I ate a lot of bad carbs and A LOT of cheese. I lost a ton of weight when I became vegan.

Some of the health benefits-
lower cholesterol- number one killer of women+ heart disease
Cancer- women who eat meat, dairy and eggs are 3.8 more times likely to develop breast cancer
Antibiotics given to livestock creates a tolerance leaving people more susceptible.
Contamination of breast milk by hydrocarbon pesticides- 35 times higher in women who consume meat products.

Other reasons-
Environment
3X more fossil fuels are neede to produce a meat centerd diet
260 million acres cleared to raise cattle
% of corn grown in the U.S.consumed by people= 20
% of corn consumed by livestock= 80
Gallons of water to produce a pound of wheat= 25
Gallons to produce a pound of meat= 2,500

Ethical
Number of animals killed every hour in the U.S.= 660,000

Hope that helps a bit- the tidbits are from EarthSave

Answer 7

different strokes, different folks.. different reasons also.

mine is that meat and i don't get along... for years it gave me such a hard time that i finally found out it was meat.. and meat proteins so i stopped.

now i'm much happier.

for others it's about the animals... some to lose weight (not! there are fat vegetarians and vegans sorry!) so on.

the reason is whatever one has to their preference.

:D

Answer 8

your not being rude thank you for asking.yes you can lose weight as long as you dont go to a vegan dietyou will lose muscle content if you do that.now vegetarian diet is good for you just as long as you find a new sorce of protein.me trying to have a vegetarian diet i have lost weight.and needed it to.

Answer 9

Different people have different reasons:

-Health benefits

-Ethical consideration of animals. Why kill a consious being when you dont have to?

-Environmental consideration. It takes far more water, energy, land, and other resources to produce meat than to produce vegetables.

Answer 10

www.viva.org.uk
going veggie has all the reasons

there lots of them