why is meat and dairy ect....bad for you?

Question

ok heres the deal i eat right and excercise daily but i came across this vegitarian cookbook and at the beginning it has all this info about chemicals in food and meat is bad for you and eggs are bad and don't eat dairy i am confused i thought well maybe this would be the way to go but no one else in my family would ever do this so it is practically impossible for me to do it because i can't by two sets of groceries every week and i don't know that i believe every single peice of meat is bad or every dairy product...someone please give me some insight on this issue

Answer 1

it is bad for you, i'm a vegg, so keep in mind my answer is bias
but try it for yourself, go eat vegetarian meal for just one day, or one week, and you'll notice you're eating healither, and more picky, more picky because you realise the food you're eating if no good for you, read the back lable of any food you find in the gerocy store, the food is loaded with additives, chemicals, and other junk, trans fat, and sodium up the wa zoo, go vegg you'll like it. if not, I can't think of a healthy meat for you, maybe if you farm chicken yourself or something.

Answer 2

There is no medical evidence that people need any type of animal product to survive. Even according the the conservative American Dietetic Association, "strict vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of development".

Meat eaters, it's ok if you chose to eat meat just don't claim that people "need" it. People can be healthy on a wide variety of diets. According to scientific research such as the Harvard Nurses Study, The FARM, and The Adventist Health study vegetarians had equal and in many cases better outcomes than the meat eaters. In addition, animal products are hard on the environment and on the animals in factory farms. There are lots of good reasons to eat fewer or no animal products.

I have been a vegan (no dairy,eggs, meat) for 10 years , am in great health and have an extremely demanding job. I haven't needed animal products to thrive.

By the way, the "father" of the vegan movement, Donald Watson, died last year at the age of 95. He had been vegan since the 1940's.

I advise you to do some research independently so you can get a good idea of both sides.

Good luck.

Answer 3

I am not sure they are so bad. Meat and dairy are more difficult to digest and as with any food- in moderation or balanced diet should be ok. My advice would be to talk to a nutritionist they are better equipt with knowledge to help you understand a healthy way to eat. If you are still in question about meat there is always peanut butter or beans such as pinto beans that are a good replacement. Good luck.

Answer 4

Yes, meat is bad for you. It's linked to numerous diseases and health problems including various cancers, strokes, diabetes, etc. And yes, it's all meat, no matter how organic or free range it is.

Dairy is often loaded with chemicals, including hormones and antibiotics. Organic dairy that is labeled as being free of these things may be safer.

Eggs are loaded with fats and cholesterol. They also may suffer some dairy issues with the chemicals that are pumped into the hens transferring to the eggs. This on top of the fact that many many chicken farmers also grind up dead & diseased chickens and then feed them to the chickens also brings about problems.

If you are the female head of household that does all the cooking and you want to change your family to a healthier diet, then do it. Start by limiting meat consumption to 4 nights a week. From there, you can increase as you see fit. Tell your family that they have to eat what you cook. And if you do it well, they won't even miss the meat. You'd be amazed what a portobello mushroom and Morningstar Farms can do for a meal.



I'll finish by saying that Cister is 100% wrong. Our bodies do not need animal protein. If we did, then all vegetarians would be dead. Simple logic escapes some. All the nutrients that she lists (zinc, iron, B vits, etc) can ALL be found in vegetarian and vegan sources. Some vegetarian sources, as a matter of fact, are MORE nutrient rich than their meat counterparts. Simple research, really. lol.

Answer 5

Beacuse they contain fat! Fats have a terrible reputation. In this era of low-fat foods and fat-free diets, the crusade against fats has almost gone mad. The most zealous campaigners even condemn oil-rich nutritious foods like nuts, seeds and avocados, but no one can ever blame heart disease on avocados!
I generally advocate good fat foods such as nuts, seeds and avocados. These oil-rich foods contain healthy fats which are necessary for aiding weight reduction, lowering cholesterol, enhancing immunity and nourishing the reproductive organs, skin, hair and bone tissue, effectively lubricating our bodies. These are the good fats, vitally important and necessary for life itself. And these fats help you to metabolize fat. They are so important that they are called essential fatty acids (EFAs).
Your body cannot make EFAs, so you must get them through the foods you eat. I think they really should be called essential thinny acids. Flax seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sea vegetables, fish and avocados are good examples of these essential, thinny fats.

Answer 6

We do not mix meat and dairy because it is prohibited for Jews to do so; it is in the Jewish Bible.

Answer 7

Meat and Dairy is not just bad for you, it's bad for everyone. It's bad for the whole planet.

We are herbivores. Our teeth and intestines are those of herbivores. Studies on ancient bones have blown the whole "hunter/gatherer" theory out of the water.

We have learned to eat meat. And as a result, are killing ourselves. Colon cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer - all come from eating meat and dairy.

The UN recently put out a press release saying that factory farms are doing more damage to the planet than cars. Veggies have known that for decades.

It takes 22 pounds of grain and 5000 gallons of water to produce one pound of edible beef. That's enough food and water for a family!

If you're going to remain a meat eater, do it wisely. Only buy local meats. Only family farm raise, organic meats. No factory farmed meats.

Answer 8

Foods from animals (meat, dairy, eggs, etc) all have cholesterol and are all high in fat, including saturated fat. Eggs have the most cholesterol per serving of all foods, even more cholesterol than the drippiest, fattiest pork product per serving. Foods from animals, no matter how you slice it or dice it, it's all high fat and cholesterol laden. There is no animal food that is a diet food, except for maybe skim milk. However, even skim milk has cholesterol in it, this is inescapable.

True, we do get protein in animal foods. We also get minerals in animal foods. However, these nutrients can easily be found in plant foods. As for complete proteins, of the 26 amino acids that make up these proteins, we need the essential 9. Our bodies can and do make the other 17, so we really don't need to eat the animal foods, we can get plenty of protein with plants... legumes, grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts (and nut butters), seeds, soy, etc. All foods have protein, you name it, it's in there.

In societies where the diet is meat based, people actually consume too much protein. This puts a strain on the kidneys and digestive tract, which saps the calcium from bones during the digestion of high protein foods, including dairy. Yep, that's right, the dairy industry tells us to "Drink milk, it does a body good," but that's only to fatten up their own pocketbooks. Milk is high in protein, which weakens bones, and this is scientific fact. When high protein foods are digested, they make ammonia in the digestive tract, so the body combines 2 ammonia molecules with 1 Co2 (carbon dioxide) molecule, and this makes urea. In order to buffer the urea, calcium is sapped from the bones. Enough of this and bones lose their density. Voila, OSTEOPOROSIS.

As for what's actually in animal food that we don't want, there is:
saturated fat, cholesterol, hormones, antibiotics, bacteria, blood, pus, poop. Nope, I'm not lying, nor am I exaggerating.

With a meat based diet, people run the risk of: obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, phlebitis (clots), cancer, stroke, osteoporosis (covered above), acne, inpotence, and I can't remember what else, but I'm sure there's more. Oh yeah, you run the risk of contracting salmonella and e-coli as well.

If you eat a variety of plant based foods, you will get enough protein. We need 9% of our caloric intake to come from protein. Trust me, plants are a-plenty.

If you wanna lose weight, or if you wanna stay trim, then lay off animal foods. They are heavily laden with fat and cholesterol, and it's hard to get slim and stay slim while eating such fatty foods. Chicken is not lean, no matter how much people say the breast is lean. It's not lean, not at all. Do youself a favor, make it easy on yourself. Eat lean plant foods, you can fill up much better than eating small portions of animal foods.

Human need for cholesterol intake is 0%. Our bodies create cholesterol in the liver, so we have *zero* need to eat it. Any cholesterol we eat does not get digested, it goes straight to the arterial walls in the exact state it's in. As for saturated fat, the body converts this to cholesterol. (See, told you we make our own cholesterol.) So eating foods low in saturated fat is best, so that we don't create too much cholesterol to plug up the arteries.

I could go on and on, but I believe this is sufficient.

Answer 9

I'm surprised at the amount of misguided dogma here, both in the for- and against-meat camps.

If you want REAL answers, do your research. There is nothing wrong with eating the _right kind_ of animal products, in moderation. Just like there is nothing wrong with avoiding animal products entirely, provided you eat the _right kind_ of plant foods, in the correct balance, to give you the amino acids you need.

However, badly planned vegetarianism has the potential to be just as dangerous to the human body as a diet high in animal products but low in plant products.

The major concern for vegetarians is NOT protein. Vegetarians, and even vegans, can get all the amino acids they need if they eat the right kind of plant foods in the right combinations.

However, minerals are the bigger concern. Particularly Iron and Calcium. Absorbable Iron is difficult to get from plant foods, mostly because there are two types of iron, and plants have the 'wrong' kind. Calcium on the other hand, forms insoluble compounds when exposed to the salts of certain acids, which are present in some foods. Below is an excerpt from an essay I wrote on the subject.

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While both of these minerals are available to some extent from several plant sources, there are other important concerns for those who wish to eliminate animal products from their diet. The primary factor is the comparatively low abundance of these minerals in plant foods. However, the form in which the mineral exists in the food is also significant.

In the case of Iron, the reason for concern lies in the fact that there are two major forms of dietary iron: Heme Iron and Nonheme Iron. According to respected nutrition and diet therapist Carol Lutz, the human body can absorb heme iron more easily than it can absorb nonheme iron. Lutz states that “Heme iron is bound to the hemoglobin and myoglobin in meat, fish, and poultry.” (Lutz, 1997) She continues with “The absorption of nonheme iron is slow because it is closely bound to organic molecules in foods.” Lutz also points out that the human body is able to convert nonheme iron into heme iron, however this process requires a larger energy investment from the body, and therefore results in a comparatively lower absorption rate of nonheme iron.

The mineral Calcium has received attention for a different reason. The primary source of dietary calcium in the western diet is cow’s milk. Other sources include fish, shellfish, and some leafy vegetables such as spinach. However, while the body absorbs approximately one quarter to one third of the calcium in dairy milk, the calcium absorbed from spinach is much lower; merely five percent of the total calcium contained within the vegetable.

Compounding this issue is the fact that cereals contain phytic acid, which chemically bonds with calcium in the digestive tract, forming an insoluble calcium compound. In addition, several leafy vegetables such as spinach and rhubarb, as well as certain berry fruits including cranberries and gooseberries, contain by-products of oxalic acid. These by-products are collectively referred to as Oxalates and, similar to phytic acid, they also chemically bond with calcium to form other insoluble calcium compounds. (Lutz, 1997) The human digestive system is unable to metabolise these insoluble compounds, and eventually they are evacuated from the body along with other waste.

In a traditional diet that includes meat, eggs and dairy products, the cumulative effect of these losses of calcium is negligible, due in part to the tendency to consume larger amounts of calcium-rich foods, and in part to the tendency to eat smaller quantities of plant foods that contain calcium-reactive substances. However, for those who prefer a diet free of animal products, healthy meal planning involves not only choosing foods rich in these nutrients, but also applying particular consideration towards avoiding certain specific combinations of plant foods in any single meal.

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When you get right down to it, the human body has evolved in a way which allowed it to survive most effectively. Part of that evolution was the introduction of meat into the diet. Thankfully, we have a choice on whether or not we wish to eat animal products. But don't let this choice be misinterpereted.

Humans are not Herbivores. We're Omnivores.

And if you don't want to take my word for it, study up on the digestive systems of carnivores and herbivores, and you'll see that the human digestive system is smack bang in the middle of the two. :-)

I hope this sheds some light on the topic. :-)

Answer 10

They have A TON of cholesterol and fat. They are also one of the main causes of obesity.

Go here for more info:

~Goveg.com
~Peta2.com
~Peta.com
~DumpDairy.com

Hope that helps!