Vegetarian Diets...pros and cons

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   SparklingJewelposted 14 years ago

   Here is a link to The Weston Price Foundation's newest press release relaying some vegetarian diet concerns.
   
   http://lafayettewapf.wordpress.com/

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      tobey100posted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Thought I'd already settled this issue in one of my hubs stating why we should eat meat?  Evidently there was no consensus. 

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      Mikel G Robertsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Vegetarians are poor defenseless plant murders!!!
      
      At least a carnivore kills something that can fight back.....
      
      
      lol

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   Sufidreamerposted 14 years ago

   Not sure what you are trying to say, SparklingJewel.
   
   Weston Price has its own agenda, too - that press release is nothing more than marketing-speak to promote the group's own sponsors.
   
   Maybe Whole Foods does give bad advice - I have never heard of them, but stretching that into an attack on vegetarians, in general (I think that they mean vegans - most veggies eat dairy products ), is a little disingenious.
   
   I am very happy with my vegetarian, Mediterranean diet

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      SparklingJewelposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      guess i haven't been in the forums enough...i attack no one or anything, sufi dear...i just put stuff out there...
      
      there are many people who need their proteins from animal sources...just as there are those that are fine with their vegetarianism...
      
      i guess i continue to think that there are people out there that could make use of information that might give them what they need.
      that's all   

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         SparklingJewelposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         besides that...I could have sworn i posted this thread under the health forum...??? i know i did, how did it get here???

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            Sufidreamerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            
            
            Maybe one of the mods is a veggie!
            
            Sure - I have no problem with people eating what they want, although I share Mike and Izzy's sentiments about intensive farming.
            
            It was more that it says Vegetarian in the title when the article is questioning vegan diets - it was all a little confusing to my Ouzo-pickled brain

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               SparklingJewelposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               i probably don't have understanding of  the differences between vegetarians, vegans, veggie, etc...?
               
               i'm having one of those days, mind blips...been snowed in for two days...but i guess at least it wasn't' has bad as at christmas time when it was four days...go the winter stir crazies, i guess

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   prettydarkhorseposted 14 years ago

   I usually eat veggies and I love it, But I also love beef and pork, I cooked it the Chinese way--with Hoisin sauce and beeff with the same sauce too
   
   I also like fishes--seafoods, balanced diet is good, but I mostly cooked it Asian way and with rice plus fruits

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      tobey100posted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Girl, you are making me hungry!!!!

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   MikeNVposted 14 years ago

   Is this a social issue or a food issue?
   
   It was a sad day when Whole Foods acquired Wild Oats.  Prices went up and quality went down.
   
   I would encourage anyone who eats meat (And I do) to watch the movie Food Inc.
   
   http://www.foodincmovie.com/
   
   Meat is a healthy food choice and contains vitamins like B12 that do not come from plant sources.
   
   The problem with today's Corporate Food Culture is the meat we are being sold is junk.  Cows are fed Corn, when in the "wild"... using that term loosely as Cows are domesticated they would not eat corn they would eat grass.  This results in bacterial growth in the cows rumen that fosters disease like e-coli.  Cows stand in feedlots ankle deep in their own feces. The cows get sick so they require anti biotics.  The ratio of healthy omega 3 fats to unhealthy (Unless in great moderation) omega 6 fats is skewed.
   
   Grass Fed beef has health benefits, corn fed beef not nearly so much.
   
   Chickens are raised by Corporate Farms for 6 weeks in dark pens again in their own feces.
   
   It's just sick they way that our meat sources are obtained.  In the film you will be made very sick when you see the part about Beef being dipped in an Ammonia based solution to kill bacteria.
   
   Nothing wrong with naturally raised meat in moderation, but there is nothing natural about the way meat is raised by Corporate Farmers.
   
   The excuse of course is without these methods they could not raise enough to feed the people.
   
   Better a small portion of healthy animal protein, than a large portion o tainted unhealthy protein.
   
   Rant over.

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      kerrygposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Hear, hear!

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   Sufidreamerposted 14 years ago

   Great post - rant away, Mike

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   kerrygposted 14 years ago

   Hmm, I agree with the WAPF that the current obsession with low fat diets needs to be looked into more carefully, but targeting Whole Foods doesn't really seem like the most productive use of their time and effort. Whole Foods does at least make the effort to educate people about nutrition, and in many areas is the only (or at least the most visible) source of the very organic and grassfed animal products that Weston Price says we should be eating more of. In my town, for example, the farmer's market runs only May-Sept., and the rest of the time, Whole Foods is the only local option for those of us who care about ethically raised, nutritious animal products.
   
   Anyway, claims like the doctor's that "low-fat patients are my most unhealthy patients" are disingenuous. It is perfectly possible to eat a healthy low fat diet, but very few Americans actually do. Coca Cola is "low fat," after all. Too many of us have simplistic views of nutrition based on what to avoid, not what to seek out, so we go crazy for "low fat," "low calorie," "sugar free" or whatever, without considering whether the food has any actual nutritional value other than those (mostly bogus) health claims, let alone whether the substitute might be worse than the original, as with Aspertame for sugar or margarine for butter.

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   IzzyMposted 14 years ago

   When I was a trainee nurse in the early 70s, weight loss diets primarily composed of low-fat, low-carbohydrate options.
   Somehwhere during my life the low-fat, high carbohydrate ideal has taken over, which doesn't work for me, but that's another story.
   But when you think about it, why do you reckon carbohydrates have made such a change in the health slant?
   Could it bebecause the processed food industry, which is massive of course, has had their say? Could we be getting told that processed white bread (that has had its flour stripped of all its natural goodness then added back chemically so that it lasts for a week or more, while still staying soft) is good for us, because it PAYS the industry to tell us that so we will continue to buy more?
   What has happened to the farmed animal industry is a disgrace, but at least now we are learning of it.
   As a child, I lived in the countryside with cows chewing their cud in the grassy field beside me. I thought ALL cows had this lazy, healthy lifestyle.  But no along came some university high-flier who calculated that the farmer could quadruple his income if he housed them all together in a large shed and fed them whatever cheap crap the animal food industry could think up, loaded with antibiotics and God knows what all.
   People are dying now with Mad Cow Disease thanks to these idiots.
   /Rant over.

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   IzzyMposted 14 years ago

   I wanted to be a vegetarian, but I didn;t like vegetables enough

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