About Vegetarianism and a Vegetarian Diet - Some Health Aspects and Benefits

One is a vegetarian if one eats vegetables, fruits and milk and milk products or eggs but no meat and fish.

There are different types of vegetarians within this broad term.

Lacto-Vegetarians are those whose diet includes milk and milk products but no eggs, meat or fish.

Ovo-Vegetarians are those whose diet includes eggs, vegetables and fruit but no milk or milk products.

Lacto-Ovo-Vegetarians are those whose diet includes both eggs and milk including milk products in addition to vegetables and fruit.

Vegans are those who avoid milk, milk products, eggs and honey eating just vegetables and fruit. In fact, Vegans avoid using products which are associated with animals in any form like soaps containing animal fats, wool, leather etc and even products tested on animals.

We eat food primarily to sustain our body and then to remain healthy and to be able to do our daily chores. The food that we eat has various functions to perform viz

• Build body tissues, contribute to growth and maintenance of the body and make up the energy loss.
• Give heat and energy to the body.
• Help us perform our daily work.
• Build immunity to disease and keep us healthy and disease-free.

1. Protein.

2. Carbohydrates.

3. Fat.

4. Minerals.

5. Vitamins.

6.Micronutrients.

7.Water.

These nutrients are available in vegetables, fruits, lentils, milk and grains.

In a non-vegetarian diet some of these are totally missing, some are in trace quantities and some in excessive quantities which affect the digestion.

1. Vegetarian diet as compared to a non-vegetarian diet is more nutritious and beneficial for health. These views are also endorsed by scientists, philosophers and therapists belonging to developed nations.

2. A vegetarian diet causes lower stress on the digestive system, to digest food and takes less time to digest too.

3. It is a myth that meat-eaters have a healthier body. The strongest animals like elephants, horses, bulls are purely vegetarian.

4. What we eat definitely affects our thoughts and actions.

5. Our internal body structure and constitution is more suited to a vegetarian diet.

6. A vegetarian diet is less expensive than a non-vegetarian diet.

7. Many famous personalities like Leonardo Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Leo Tolstoy, George Bernard Shaw and Mahatma Gandhi were amongst those who were vegetarians or adopted a vegetarian diet.

In current times, the late Michael Jackson, swimmers Murray and Johny Weissmuller, Australian weightlifter A. Anderson and basketball player Bill Walton, are some of the well-known personalities who are vegetarians.

8. The anatomies of carnivores (flesh-eaters), herbivores (vegetation eaters) and humans show that by the internal and external body structure man ought to be a vegetarian.

Humans and herbivores have no claws, no sharp front teeth for tearing meat, their stomach has weak acid and they perspire through their skin, while the carnivores have claws, sharp front teeth and their stomach acid is much stronger.

1. It makes one more aggressive and violent than a vegetarian diet.

2. It leads to obesity, high blood pressure, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, heart disease etc.

3. It leads to disturbances in digestion, makes sweat offensive smell.

4. Meat has a high concentration of saturated fat. Also, meat, egg and milk-producing animals are fed hormones, antibiotics etc which remain in their tissues, if proper withdrawal period of the drugs is not adhered to, can reach the consumer causing health problems.

Eggs are rich in cholesterol. Both meat and eggs can cause a higher incidence of heart disease and brain stroke.

6. The urine of meat-eaters is more acidic. Due to disturbances in the acid and alkaline ratio of the blood, bones become weak.

7. Due to the high levels of cholesterol in meat and eggs, incidences of heart diseases, high blood pressure, kidney diseases and stones in the kidney, gall bladder etc are higher.

8. The fat and germs present in meat decrease the body's immunity.

1. A vegetarian diet gives longer and healthier life.

2. The principle of a vegetarian diet is one of Ahimsa (non-violence).

3. Vegetarian diet saves one from the ill effects of eating a diseased animal or consuming medicinal, pesticidal, hormonal residues which are found in the tissues and organs of animals.

4. Mustard oil, green vegetable, lentils etc reduce cholesterol.

5. From a spiritual point of view, a vegetarian diet is more suited as the senses are more in control.

6. It is cheaper than a non-vegetarian diet.

7. Consuming fruits is good prevention against any possible deficiency of vitamins and minerals.

8. Consumption of a handful of roasted gram every morning is insurance against pleurisy or wasting diseases.

9. A patient is always advised a fruit juice or vegetable juice diet by the doctor as it is easier on the digestive system.

“As long as Man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings, he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.”
― Pythagoras

“People often say that humans have always eaten animals as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“One farmer says to me, 'You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with;' and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supply his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plough along in spite of every obstacle.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

“We all love animals. Why do we call some "pets" and others "dinner?”
― k.d. lang

Disclaimer

The information provided in this hub is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult your physician, or health care provider before taking any home remedies or supplements or embarking on a new health regime.