The Lie of Vegetarianism
My daughter was in class yesterday and her friend said,
“I’ve been working out and I’m not loosing weight. I think I am going to start eating vegetarian, so I can get healthy.”
My daughter quipped, “Becoming a vegetarian won’t make you healthy.”
[She must have a good mama teaching her about food]
I’m not going to say you CAN’T be a vegetarian and be healthy – but I would argue FOR meat, eggs, dairy, and fish all day long.
Being a vegetarian or vegan absolutely is not going to make you healthy or skinny.
You see, becoming a vegetarian does not mean “only vegetables.”
Becoming a vegetarian simply means, “no meat.”
When is the last time you had a dessert with meat in it?
TOP 11 UNHEALTHEIST FOODS IN AMERICA:
- Pop-Tarts
- Arby’s Curly Fries
- Popeyes Chicken Tenders
- Cinnabon Caramel Pecanbon
- Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha Frappucino
- Outback Steakhouse bloomin’ onion
- Burger King Oreo Shake
- Corn dogs
- Dunkin’ Doughnuts glazed jelly stick
- Dairy Queen Royal Reeses Brownie Blizzard
- Soda
Did you notice that only 2 of these contain meat?
You can be a vegetarian and eat 9 of the 11 unhealthiest foods in America.
Technically speaking.
And think of all of the non-food items or junk food items sold at the store that are also happily vegetarian:
Velveeta, sugary cereals, Twinkies, Ho Ho’s, Ding Dongs, Snow Balls, Little Debbie anything, candy bars, airheads, cookies, cakes, pies, Doritos, Hot fries, Cheetos, Totinos Queso Dip, Pepperidge Farm Cookies, Toaster Strudel, Nilla wafers, Oreos, and Cool Whip just to name a few!
All of these are meat-free, vegetarian, but dangerously bad for you.
I know an adorable highschool girl who chose to become vegetarian when she was a freshman in high school. We are friends with her parents and we got to watch the transformation happen. She replaced meat and eggs with pasta and bread. Her parents were supportive and didn’t think too much about her new eating style. As the months rolled by the pounds continued to be added to her frame. As you can imagine, about a couple of years after becoming meat-free her parents had to invest in a new (larger) wardrobe for her.
Another sweet girl who I know from high school ministry decided to become vegetarian after she graduated. She was 19 at the time. In high school, she was your average fun-loving girl. She loved music, boys, and her social calendar was always packed. If I had to guess the size of her Levis, I’d say she was probably a size 4. After two years of eating vegetarian, she hardly looks like the same person. She has gained so much weight she is almost unrecognizable, and her health is worrisome too. She has fought several illnesses over the past years.
You can be a vegetarian and be VERY unhealthy.
Illness can happen very quickly, becoming well takes quite a while longer. Like, much longer.
I love this excerpt from Licensed nutritionist Nonie De Long (read the entire article HERE)
A vegan diet – which is vegetarian but without dairy and eggs – is one of the most unhealthy diets in my professional opinion. This is not because I have any personal bias against it, but because I have observed over and over again that it makes people ill. Typically the problems start with a lack of appetite, energy, and strength, and escalate over time to chronic fatigue, dental problems, muscle wasting, premature aging, digestive issues, skin conditions, and very often a mental-health issue: anxiety, panic, mood swings, depression, or eating disorders (which are actually a very complex mental-health issue).
This decline in health happens slowly in most people, so it isn’t always clear to them what the root cause is. But when I treat clients in this downward spiral I frequently see the common denominator is a vegan diet.
This is not only because a vegan diet removes some of the foods that are most nutritionally dense – namely meat, dairy, and eggs – but because it usually replaces them with grains and vegetable oils – which provide cheap, nutritionally-empty calories, and invariably create a lot of inflammation and health problems.
DESIGNED TO EAT MEAT
The truth is that meat is very good for humans. It is the easiest on the body to digest and we can absorb nutrients from meat, eggs, dairy, and fish more readily than any other foods.
In fact, our digestive systems are more similar to canines (designed to eat meat) than ruminants (designed to eat plants). We have relatively short digestive systems that contain pepsin (the acid needed to digest protein).
It is fascinating.
MEATS ARE HEALTHY
Bone broth, bone marrow, and collagen are the miracle foods that not only nourish us best, but they can also actually HEAL our bodies. When we suffer from gut problems, these foods are often the medicine we need to get better.
Gut health affects our entire body. When the flora in our gut is in balance (good bacteria) we can fight diseases, viruses, and feel great. When our gut flora is out of whack it can make us REALLY sick. When our guts are off-kilter it can lead to Candida, Crohn’s disease, IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), leaky gut, food intolerances, food allergies, food sensitivities, or other problems.
In a healthy gut, the bad bacteria are controlled by the beneficial flora and everything remains in balance.
Interestingly, vegetables are hard on our bodies and it is difficult for humans to extract all the nutrients IN vegetables and actually put them to use.
The foods that we most easily digest and obtain nutrition from are meat, eggs, dairy, and fish. The foods that HEAL our guts when they are compromised are meat broth, marrow from meat bones, and collagen from connective tissues in meat. To remove these healing and terrifically beneficial foods from our diet permanently is foreign to me.
“a human body has an incredible ability to heal itself, given the right help.”
Why would I want to take out the most nutrient-dense foods that my body can most readily benefit from?
MEATS WILL SATISFY
Meat and meat products (organs, marrow, fat, broth) are also the most satisfying foods we can eat. If I eat a tomato and piece of toast for breakfast I will be hungry in an hour. If I eat scrambled eggs and bacon, I am not hungry until the afternoon.
They satisfy our appetite quicker (so we eat fewer calories). They fill us up. They give us energy. They keep us satisfied for hours.
LISTEN TO THE CRAVE
A podcast I listened to discussed the cycle of vegan (and healthy vegetarian) eating.
In the beginning, there is the ‘high.’ When a person goes from eating a standard American diet to a vegan or healthy vegetarian eating plan they will feel better. They will have energy. They may lose weight or feel lighter.
As the vegetable-focused diet continues the person goes into a state of ‘fasting.’ Whether you call it that or not, vegans are fasting.
After the body has detoxed, it will begin to crave meat, eggs or dairy. See, the Doctor (she was the one delivering the podcast) explained that this is the body letting us know that it is time to stop the fast and begin to eat meat (or cheese or dairy) again.
The danger begins when these cravings are ignored.
When your body wants a piece of cheese, an egg or a steak, there is probably a reason. And a radish isn’t going to satisfy that nutritional need.
This is when we get into trouble.
If the cravings for meat and eggs are ignored and the body is continually starved (fasting) from these foods, health problems arise.
EAT YOUR VEGGIES
Please understand, that no one is suggesting that we stop eating vegetables.
I LOVE VEGETABLES!
Creamed spinach, cooked cabbage, steamed broccoli, roasted Brussels sprouts, baked sweet potatoes, winter root vegetables, mashed potatoes, sauteed asparagus, good grief… I could go on and on and on. Salads, slaws, peas, YUM!
All of these foods are good. They are detoxifying. They provide antioxidants.
Vegetables are great. We should eat them and we can benefit greatly from them.
It just seems to me that removing all meat from our diets for extended periods of time may be doing more harm than good.
XO,
Candi
