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What are the strength and weaknesses of vegetarian diets
What are the strength and weaknesses of vegetarian diets
What are the strength and weaknesses of vegetarian diets
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Vegetarianism and Cancer
Being a vegetarian is becoming more and more popular in today’s society with the need to be politically correct. As doctors look further in to this lifestyle they are finding more and more benefits to a person being a vegetarian. In an article entitled “Vegetarian Diets During Cancer Treatment” written by Donna Paglia, M.S., R.D. discuss the benefits to being a vegetarian as far as cancer goes.
Within the article she discuss the research that shows that by having a vegetarian diet you can reduce your cancer rates. Researchers are currently looking at the multitude of antioxidants and phytochemicals in fruits, vegetables, and legumes, as a result of some promising studies showing these foods' anti-cancer properties. This research is leading us to believe that a vegetarian diet may be one of the best preventive measures against certain cancers. Though there has not been any consensus on the type diet that should be used vegetarian is seen to be one of the best ways to go.
She also discuss the different foods that should be eaten during the treatment for cancer. She shows several charts with different foods and the amounts that should be consumed. She suggest a diet that is high in protein as well as high in calories. This is to meet the body’s demands, as well as to maximize the value of a reduced volume of food. Small, frequent, high calorie snacks may be helpful.
She also discuss the different type of vegetarianism such as veganism and how they can adjust there diets to obtain these benefits. She gives a several examples of the type of the food that can eat and the measurement. She clarifies the different types of vegetarianism and some of their benefits. This gives a well rounded point view.
She gives a lot of great information that would help people to make decision on whether or not to become a vegetarian during cancer treatment.
The argumentative article “More Pros than Cons in a Meat-Free Life” authored by Marjorie Lee Garretson was published in the student newspaper of the University of Mississippi in April 2010. In Garretson’s article, she said that a vegetarian lifestyle is the healthy life choice and how many people don’t know how the environment is affected by their eating habits. She argues how the animal factory farms mistreat the animals in an inhumane way in order to be sources of food. Although, she did not really achieve the aim she wants it for this article, she did not do a good job in trying to convince most of the readers to become vegetarian because of her writing style and the lack of information of vegetarian
...evidence and statistics. A vegetarian diet is becoming more and more popular. Scientific data suggest a relation between vegetarian diet and reduced risk for several chronic diseases including obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and some type of cancer. All this research should make us think and confirm that God knew what He was talking about when He told us in the Bible what to eat and what no to eat.
A recurring theme in professional health literature for many years, the role of red meat in a healthy diet continues to be at the forefront, due in part because of the scientific debate: Is red meat necessary in a balanced diet or is it detrimental to good health? In a Nursing Standard article, “The Role of Red Meat in a Balanced Diet,” Carrie Ruxton claims that a balanced diet that includes small amounts of lean red meat contributes to good health. Ruxton, a free-lance dietician, states that “lean red meat is unlikely to increase the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, obesity and colorectal cancer” and that those diseases are due to eating processed meats that are salted or smoked, overeating and lack of exercise. While Ruxton covers the nutritional composition of raw lean meat and aims to offer insight on why red meat consumption is not contributing to obesity and disease, she falls short of being convincing for several reasons: she discounts a mountain of scientific studies that show a connection between red meat consumption and cardiovascular disease, obesity and cancer due to what she states are “methodological limitations of observational studies (that) make it impossible to establish cause and effect,” she does not account for economic limitations that preclude most consumers from being able to buy leaner cuts of red meat, and she barely mentions what makes a balanced diet, or that a combination of vegetables, fruits and whole grains, supplemented by vitamins and possibly eggs and milk products will provide an equally nutritious diet at a reduced cost, perhaps because the article was supported by a grant from the UK Meat Advisory Panel.
They've studied about 53.000 participants. Among these participants were about 17.000 vegetarians. They've studied the data of all these participants and something interesting became clear: People that were not consuming meat during their lifetime had fewer cancers on average than people who were consuming meat. There was also a remarkable result. Colon cancer is a type of cancer associated with consuming of red meat. However it became clear from the study that vegetarians had more colon cancer than other participants. Although the results are interesting, it's not completely new. It is already well known that people can reduce the cancer if they regularly eat fruit and vegetables. If you stick to this then it is said that you can decrease the risk of getting cancer. The new element of this study however is the fact that it concentrates on full vegetarians. The study doesn't only focus on meat eaters that eat fruit and vegetables occasionally. This gives a better view on the effect of meat by itself on the development of cancer. The researchers studied the participants from the age of 20 to 89. These people were organized into 4 groups. There were of course the meat-eaters. Also people who ate fish got their own group. The remaining groups were the vegetarians and the extreme vegetarians. Extreme vegetarians are also called vegans. What the difference is between vegetarians and vegans is that vegans are very strict. Vegetarians just avoid meat and such things. Vegans avoid every ingredient that is related to animals. Vegans don't even want to wear clothes that were made of animals. So vegans go much further than a 'normal vegetarian' The group of people who ate fish and the vegetarians showed fewer cancers than meat eaters. So it's not only vegetarians that show better results. The people who eat fish also
Realizing the necessity of refraining from meat is especially difficult because people consume it for a long time, and in addition, there is a certain attitude to the meat as to the product that is useful, nourishing and even prestigious. On the other hand, the constant consumption of meat has made the vast majority of people completely emotionless towards it. However, there must be some real and strong reasons for refusal to consume meat and as I noticed they were always completely different. So, even though vegetarianism has evolved drastically over time, some of its current forms have come back full circle to resemble that of its roots, when vegetarianism was an ethical-philosophical choice, not merely a matter of personal health. As believed, vegetarianism was originally founded in ancient India and was generally formed on ethical and moral issues.
Appropriately planned vegetarian diets can be essential to any one, in any stage of their life. Vegetarian diets are associated with lower risks of cancer, death from ischemic heart disease or any cardiovascular disease. Also lower body mass index (BMI), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, low blood pressure and lower rates of hypertension than those of which are non-vegetarians.
Society has recently become increasingly obsessed with health and nutrition, as more and more individuals realize that they can dramatically change their quality of life by adjusting their diet and lifestyle. One way that people have tried to pursue a healthier lifestyle, is by removing meat and other animal products from their diets, whether they become a strict vegetarian who eats no animal byproducts, or a lacto-ovo vegetarian who still eats eggs and dairy. As with any other lifestyle, research is always being done to see if the benefits outweigh the disadvantages, and so far, the results of vegetarian diets have been encouraging. Vegetarian diets have proven to decrease the risk of heart disease, cancer, obesity, and many other health problems. With a little planning and dedication, a vegetarian diet will be healthier and more beneficial than a traditional diet
Primarily, the opponents of vegetarianism disagree with it's strictures on scientific grounds. “But of course,” answer the vegetarians “their own muse, science, silences those claims without effort.” No, in fact; studies indicate vegetarians are much more at risk for deficiencies in calcium, iron, zinc, and B-vitamins. Although many devoted vegetarians take supplements to counteract these deficiencies, the eventual lethality of an iron deficiency-related anemia, for example, completely debunks many vegetarian's claims that no meat is somehow “more natural”—if normal humans can't survive unaided after eliminating part of their diet, it can only be concluded that part of their diet was essential.
In this paper I will look at the argument made by James Rachels in his paper, The Moral Argument for Vegetarianism supporting the view that humans should be vegetarians on moral grounds. I will first outline the basis of Rachels’ argument supporting vegetarianism and his moral objection to using animals as a food source and critique whether it is a good argument. Secondly, I will look at some critiques of this kind of moral argument presented by R. G. Frey in his article, Moral Vegetarianism and the Argument from Pain and Suffering. Finally, I will show why I support the argument made by Frey and why I feel it is the stronger of the two arguments and why I support it.
The health benefits of a vegetarian diet are hard to ignore. Vegetarians have a lower chance of developing many diseases, such as cancer and diabetes. Women who eat meat daily are more likely to develop breast cancer. According to an article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, “consumption of well-done meats and, thus, exposures to heterocyclic amines (or other compounds) formed during high-temperature cooking may play an important role in the risk of breast cancer.” Men are also more than almost more likely to develop prostate cancer than those who do not include meat in their everyday diets. “Up to 80 percent of prostate cancer is attributed to dietary practices, and international comparisons show strong positive associations with meat consumption” (Alexander, 2010). Vegetarians have also shown to have lower blood pressure, better digestion, and more energy than humans with a meat based diet. The effects of a vegetarian life style ...
Vegetarians tend to be healthier than those who consume meat. This is due to the prevalent unnatural chemicals used in the processing of meats, and eating these are unsuitable for the body. Meats already contain harmful amounts of cholesterol, and over-consumption of red meat can lead to early heart disease. Animals that are raised on farms for their meat are not treated well, and this mistreatment can lead to harm in the meat they are producing. Although one life choice cannot change one’s environmental
For several years the issue of eating meat has been a great concern to all types of people all over the world. In many different societies controversy has began to arise over the morality of eating meat from animals. A lot of the reasons for not eating meat have to deal with religious affiliations, personal health, animal rights, and concern about the environment. Vegetarians have a greater way of expressing meats negative effects on the human body whereas meat eaters have close to no evidence of meat eating being a positive effect on the human body. Being a vegetarian is more beneficial for human beings because of health reasons, environmental issues, and animal rights.
As we can now observe, vegetarianism has become something fashionable, and the number of people who reject eating meat is constantly increasing. In Britain, for instance, over 5 million people have done it so far. It is obviously connected with the recent animal diseases, but this tendency is likely to spread on the other regions of the world. However, it is not only a fashion or fear of illnesses. I myself became a vegetarian about 2 years ago, and I can see a number of reasons why people should stop eating meat. They are mainly of ethic, economic and health type. Those who think in an ecological way should also be aware of how this meat consumption ruins our environment. I don’t have an intention to force anybody to become a vegetarian, but I hope that my argumentation would be strong enough to make some people think about it, at least. In this essay I will try to present this point of view, expressing my personal feelings and showing scientific facts about the problem.
The Advantages of a Vegetarian Diet Having a healthy dietary method can reduce the chances of receiving many health diseases. These health diseases include obesity, heart disease, and cancer. By consuming certain foods and nutrients in one’s diet, the risk factors for these health diseases can be reduced. A healthy dietary method that is beneficial to reducing and/or improving these health diseases is the vegetarian diet. The vegetarian diet follows a dietary pattern that is characterized by the consumption of plant-like foods and the avoidance of flesh foods (meat, poultry, and fish).
However, many people still refuse to be a vegetarian for different reasons. Some people prefer the taste of meat, and some people believe that they are born to eat meat. Despite that about 2 billion people in the world live basically on the meat diet, around 4 billion people live mainly on a plant-based diet because of food shortage(Pimentel ＆ Pimentel, 2003, pp660S). As everyone knows, the number of population is growing. For example, the total U.S. population doubled in the previous 60 years, and it may double again in the next 70 years (Pimentel ＆ Pimentel, 2003, pp660S). People won’t have enough meat to eat in the future. On the other hand, a well-planned vegetarian diet offers many health benefits. Therefore, people should become vegetarian because it benefits to huma...