do we need..?

Question

are vegetarians healthier than meat eaters? school debate and i am on the meat eaters side. i need scientic info to back me up, but anything helps. so my overall qusetions are, are vegetarians healthier than meat eaters?, do children need meat to grow up healthy?, were we made to eat meat?, any scientific reasearch that meat is essential to our health?

Answer 1

You are asking for proof meat is healthy in a vegetarian forum.

Meat consumption raises your risk of several cancers and heart disease. Meat eaters have a 50% higher risk of heart disease. Children need proper nutrition to grow up healthy and that can be done without meat. Proper nutrition is essential to health, not meat.

Answer 2

I think its not something anyone can prove either way. You can be an unhealthful vegetarian (eating only tortilla chips and cheese lets say) or an unhealthful meat eater. However I would guess that most vegetarians by nature are more health conscious (since they made the decision to be veggie anyway, usually at least partly a health decision, or it at least requires them to think about their diet in a really positive way)

Children do not need to eat meat to grow up healthy, but many people are afraid of letting meat leave their diets because it means they will have to try new things and change. And that's scary. I know lots of adults who were veggie as children. They are healthy!

Answer 3

Here is my story. I was crippled, in a wheelchair, and very ill when I ate meat. When I gave it and other unhealthy foods up, I healed completely, and am now active and healthy. My weight is great, my hair is shiny, thick and full, my skin glows, and I feel wonderful. My 12 year old daughter is a veggie, and she is clearly healthier, stronger, and has more endurance than all of her meat eating friends. She is a brown belt in karate, and can take down an adult with no problem. She was thin and sickly when she ate meat. Her hair, skin, nails, body weight, etc. are all perfect. As for the theory that we are "made" to eat meat, here is the thing. Despite what many people say, we do NOT have canine teeth-look in any dog or cats mouth and you will see we clearly do not. We have TWO tiny, pointed teeth, and the rest are flat like ALL other vegetarian creatures. If we were "meant" to eat meat, we would have the ability to hunt it, catch it, kill it, and consume it, with just the tools of our bodies. We are more "designed" for gardening, with an imposable thumb, suitable for picking fruits and vegetables. You can get all of the protein, vitamins, and nutrients you need from a plant a grain based diet. You won't find many long term vegetarians sitting in the heart doctors waiting room. Cholesteral ONLY comes from animal sources, and is one of the biggest epidemics going-affecting nearly all omnivores. We cannot consume meat raw...it contains bacteria and parasites which must be killed of at high temperatures to be safe to consume. A veggie or fruit needs nothing more than a quick rinse to be edible, raw or cooked. Common sense should say that, no, we do not "need" meat.
Hope that helps. Good luck on your debate, I hope you will give this some thought. Email if you need more details

Answer 4

SORRY THIS IS LONG-BUT IT IS USEFUL!!!

This is a question that nobody knows the answer to, but i dont think it has an exact answer...vegys can be extremely unhealthy, they can eat junk and get no protein...on the other hand they can eat enough protein and live an extremely healthy lifestyle.
Same for meat eaters- some pig out on too much meat, which turns to fat, and they get heart diseases form it...some eat a healthy amount of meat and eat sensibly.
I am a pescetarian (i eat fish but not meat)

I think children do NOT need meat to grow healthily, but i am going to bring my child (if i have one) up on small amounts of meat aswell as other protein sources, so then it is up to them-they can easily cut it, or they can increase their meat intake.

We werent made to eat meat-we can live without it. Just beacuse we can digest it doesnt mean we should eat it, after all our bodies can digest cardboard!!!
Our teeth are not designed for meat eating...

meat is in no way essential to our health, as long as we ensure that we have enough proetin and iron in our diets.

Im sorry i have contradicted your idea, and so given no proof for your arguement, but this is all true. Go to www.viva.com and go to the question and answer pages for more info.

Good luck on your school report!!!

Answer 5

Check out this biased website.
You will get information about why and how veganism is a healthier lifestyle.
There are plenty of sites out there arguing for meat based diet, just look for them.

the biggest and most well known argument about a need for meat is a deficiency in vitamin b12 - but the body can store this vitamin for many years, our needs are minimal, and we can acquire it from yeast or fermented soy. So it really isn't an issue.

http://www.goveg.com/veganism_health.asp

Good luck in the debate - it is a debate I have been involved in for many years.

Answer 6

its in religeous doctrine to eat meat (but in moderation) so i think dissing God will be the worst thing you can do. but anyways for science....if the debate is are vegetarians healthier than meat eaters, i would say yes, because they do not overindulge themselves in fatty meats. however in moderation eating meat will not make you LESS HEALTHY than a vegetarian, but it will not make you healthiER than a veggie man.

Answer 7

Ask yourself a tricky question : WHAT DOES LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?(health that is)

follow the link to the blog I recently posted or go to my blog thru myprofile

www.link.20fr.com

Answer 8

http://www.pcrm.org has lots of scientific studies that will help prove your opponent's case.

TO directly answer your questions:

Yes
No
No
See link above.