Are there some good medical/scientific reasons for not eating eggs and meat?

Question

I don't eat meat and eggs because I don't like them. Are there any medical/scientific reasons for being vegetarian. I need to know them so that I can convince people who keep insisting that I am depriving myself of many essential nutrients by not taking eggs/meat. Surely there must be some cogent reasons why millions of people are strict vegetarians. I am particularly interested in knoing harmful effects of eating eggs. But details of bad effects of meat eating are also welcome.
Perhaps someone can also suggest a good diet for a friend who has low haemoglobin.

Answer 1

Googling "why meat is bad for you" brings up a pile of pages on why meat is bad for you.

Problem: none of them explain how it could be when eaten strictly in moderation.

Googling "why eggs are bad for you" brings up a pile of pages on why eggs are good for you, and not just from egg marketing boards.

If you don't eat them because you don't like them, just say as much and stick to your guns. Making a decision to do something that harms nobody, especially one that goes against convention, and sticking to it, is a highly respectable thing, but a search for "preachy vegetarian" will bring up all the problems with trying to convince people that their diet is unhealthy -- even if it is.

Just tell people that you have adequate alternative sources for the nutrients found in meat and eggs, and leave it at that. Don't encourage them to keep on about it.

Answer 2

I don't know about eggs... but there are plenty of medical reasons to not eat meat. Red meat consumption has been repeatedly linked to colon cancer, as well as some other cancers, and also to coronary heart disease and other cardiovascular conditions. I believe it's also linked to high blood pressure and cholesterol.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/
http://health.yahoo.com/news/169242health/4088824.stm
those were just from a quick browser search for "health and red meat". I'm sure there's a LOT more info out there on why meat isn't as healthy as most people think.

Then there's also the possibility that the mean contains a bacteria (e.coli., mad cow, etc)... or even a parasite. According to various animal planet shows... tapeworms (and other types of worms) are quite commonly acquired by humans who eat red meat.

Answer 3

There are many people who are allergic to eggs, next time you are asked why, you can say you are allergic. Peta has some pretty graphic pictures of the goings on at slaughter houses so you could get one and the next time you are asked why you don't eat meat you can pull it out and show the person and tell them, because I don't want to be a part of this.

Answer 4

Read the China Study By: Dr. Colin T. Campbell. You'll find all the answers to your questions and more there. Oh, and for a preview of what the book will say: yes their are plenty of reasons a diet excluding animal products is better for you.

P.S. Thanks for that addition fyvel, good info.

Answer 5

In addition to the China Study (which I highly recommend), you can read a much shorter summary here: http://www.eatright.org/ada/files/veg.pdf (The ADA position on vegetarian diet). The very first page lists the benefits of a vegetarian diet.

(Side note: Two people have borrowed my copy of the China Study - they both went vegetarian after reading it).

Answer 6

Eggs are actually good for your health. There is no truth that eggs are a contributor to high cholesterol and eggs contain all the essential amino acids and vitamins with exception to vitamin c.

Answer 7

Fat and cholesterol come to mind

Answer 8

I think you should try to eat them because they are so good!!
Ehm...I thik that now you hate me, but I'm just joking. ;-)

Answer 9

An animal-based diet is invariably high in cholesterol, animal protein and saturated fat, which combine to raise the level of cholesterol in the blood--the warning signal for heart disease and stroke. Due mainly to the meat-centered diet of most Americans, these two diseases account for nearly 50% of all deaths in the US.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a group of 3,000 physicians, estimated the annual health care costs directly resulting from the nation's meat-centered diet to be between $23.6 billion and $61.4 billion--comparable to similar health cost estimates associated with cigarette smoking.

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), dubbed Mad Cow Disease because of the apparent mental torture cows display before death, is an always-fatal neuro-degenerative cattle disease caused by incredibly virulent and mysterious infectious proteins called prions. An outbreak in Great Britain had by early 1996 stricken around 160,000 cows. Circumstantial evidence pointed to the British practice of mixing the remains of sheep, including brains and bones, into cows' feed as the cause of the outbreak. This apparent species-to-species inoculation is what makes all forms of spongiform encephalopathy (known to affect other mammals as well) so alarming. Are cow-eating humans the next victims? At press-time, evidence pointed to a certain strain of Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (CJD) as being the human variant of spongiform encephalopathy. Grim predictions tell of up to 500,000 Britons a year falling to this disease due to their past consumption of BSE-infected cows. Prion-based diseases often have incubation periods in terms of decades, so the saga is sure to continue. In the meantime, since using the remains of dead animals in feed has been integral to agricultural operations in the US for years, BSE, or the chance of some future American version of it, is one more reason to think twice before biting into that char-broiled burger.

Meat-centered diets are linked to many types of cancer, most notably cancer of the colon, breast, cervix, uterus, ovary, prostate, and lung.

According to the Family Food Protection Act of 1995 (S.515), Section 2: "meat and meat food products, and poultry and poultry products, contaminated with pathogenic bacteria are a leading cause of foodborne illness." The bill also states that foodborne illnesses take approximately 9,000 lives, and cause between 6.5 and 80 million illnesses, each year. According to USDA Secretary Dan Glickman, 500 deaths a year are attributable to E.coli contamination in beef.

The National Cancer Research Institute found that women who eat meat on a daily basis are almost 4 times more likely to get breast cancer than those women who eat little or no meat.

Fish are living magnets for toxic chemicals. According to Consumer Reports (Feb., '92), a notable incidence of unacceptable levels of PCBs and mercury were found in certain species of fish that were tested (see #85). Ingesting PCBs is considered a chief cause of reduced sperm count among American men--70% of what it was 30 years ago.

Farm animals in our factory sheds today are supposed to have their drug intakes stopped at proscribed intervals prior to slaughter to avoid residues ending up in the final consumer product. Withdrawal schedules, however, are not always properly followed. With so many different drugs, the regimens can be complex, with written instructions often not very coherent. Due to the mechanized nature of today's conveyer belt feeding systems, troughs of old, drug-laden feed may not get cleaned away when withdrawal should begin. In addition, since farm animals are often fed animal waste as well as animal flesh, drug and pesticide residues continue to be recycled

Nearly half the fish tested in a 6-month investigation by Consumers Union were found to be contaminated by bacteria from human or animal feces, suspected to be the result of poor sanitation practices at one or more points along the fish handling process

Of all the antibiotics administered in the US to people or farm animals, farm animals receive over 95% of them--not so much to treat infection, but to make the animals grow faster on less feed

A US Congressional committee report, published in 1985, charged that there were 20-30 thousand animal drugs in use at the time, and that as many as 90% had not been approved by the FDA.

At least 95% of all toxic chemical residues in the American diet come from meat, fish, dairy products and eggs. This is because such residues are stored in fat. Each step up the food chain serves to amplify the consumption of toxins. Fish, especially, have very long food chains. Avoiding fish to avoid toxic residue may not be a sufficient preventative measure, however, as one third of the world's fish catch is fed to livestock. Due to the excessive use of pesticides, insecticides and petrochemical fertilizers on cropland, the injection of hormones and antibiotics into farm animals, and the abundance of PCBs and mercury in our oceans, there is toxicity in the flesh of all animals people eat. More than ever, it is wise to eat "low on the food chain," with plant food being the lowest and safest.

Research by best-selling author Dr. Dean Ornish found that a vegetarian diet, when combined with certain other lifestyle changes, can cause heart disease to be halted and even reversed. A diet without meat can also help prevent diabetes, relieve the symptoms of diabetes and can even end the need for insulin treatments.

Food originating from animal sources, including milk, unlike most foods derived from plants, makes the blood acidic. When this happens, the body withdraws calcium from the bones to make the blood more alkaline. This process balances the pH of the blood, but consequently becomes one of the factors which leads to osteoporosis.

Bacteria in meat and poultry processing is a constant concern, and a very big business. The proliferation of antibacterial rinses (chlorine and saline) and sprays (for cow udders), as well as steam pasteurization (beef), ammonia neutralizers (poultry litter) and contaminant vacuums--just to name a few, all serve to allow the meat and poultry industries the luxury of cheap and filthy operations. A USDA-approved pilot test of a chemical de-hairing process went into effect in early 1996. The procedure--which will give stunned cattle a burning, bacteria-eliminating shave before slaughter--will probably prove effective in the pilot test. In practice, however, the chance for a percentage of still-sentient animals being chemically burned will most certainly exist.

Late in 1995, the FDA put into place new rules pertaining to the regulation of fish processing. The rules require the FDA to inspect each of the nation's 6,000 processing plants, at most once per year and as little as once every three years, at which time a few samples may be taken for later evaluation. Individual fish will continue to not be inspected by any US agency. Though every fish processor will be required to keep ongoing records of safety procedures peculiar to its operation, no regulations whatsoever will pertain to the 100,000 fishing vessels that bring seafood to market. The new system is considered an improvement--from the standpoint of the consumer--over the previous one

The USDA does not inspect for trichinosis in pork. It is widely known that pork must be thoroughly cooked before eating. Still, about 4% of Americans have trichinella worms in their muscles which can periodically cause flu-like symptoms and even death.

Trade in animal food puts needless pressure on world governments straining to get along. For instance, the US allows the implantation of hormones into beef cattle. For this reason, since the late 1980s, the European Union has banned all imports of US beef. With the advent of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the USDA has vowed to step up pressure on the EU to force it to accept US beef. The controversy could possibly even have to be settled by the Geneva-based World Trade Organization's dispute settlement body. A similar scenario between the US and Russia with respect to poultry was being played out at press-time. Intense pressure from the poultry industry was put on the USDA and even Vice President Gore to intervene when all poultry imports were rejected outright by Russia due to safety concerns.

More than a third of the veal calves tested in a 1995 undercover investigation done by the Humane Farming Association came up positive for clenbuterol--an acutely toxic and illegal animal drug. Subsequently it was found that many veal producers in the US had knowingly purchased and used the drug for their herds over a five-year period. This in itself is frightening; but worse is the revelation that the FDA and the USDA worked to protect the veal industry from scandal by maintaining a coverup about the clenbuterol use of which it became aware.

Poultry processors are not required by the USDA to check for salmonella bacteria in poultry. A 1978 USDA rule still in effect accepts a "chill tank" bath for bird carcasses as a sufficient counter-measure. Dunking a chicken carcass through this bath, now known as the "fecal soup," has been likened to a rinse in your toilet. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, 25% of all chicken sold in the US carry the salmonella bacteria--a conservative estimate. The USDA says that salmonella poisoning may be responsible for as many as 4 million illnesses and 3 thousand deaths per year.

According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, cardiovascular diseases caused 954,000 deaths (42% of all deaths) in 1993. Total direct cost to sufferers added up to $126.4 billion. Seventy-two percent of the deaths were due to atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), a disease strongly linked to a meat-based diet

The treatment of human disease with antibiotics is showing signs of being hampered by the flagrant overuse of antibiotics fed and injected into the animals people eat. Meat-eaters are exacerbating the trend toward human immunity to medicinal drugs just by eating cow's milk, hamburgers and chicken. This ultimately affects everyone, vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike.