Vegetarian Misconceptions

It is amazing to me the way vegetarianism is such an "all or nothing" endeavor for many. I don't know what it is, but when people become vegetarians it turns into a near religious crusade for them. Not one scrap of meat at all! Some even avoid honey, since it is the byproduct of insects. Honey, imagine that!

I can sort of understand if someone chooses this lifestyle because they are against the exploitation of animals. However, that is only one of a number of reasons why people opt for a vegetarian diet. Many are vegetarians for environmental reasons or for their own health. Yet, many of these folks often fall into the same fervor about avoiding meat. It almost doesn't seem to matter to them that they are chowing down on bananas and coffee shipped from several thousands miles away from farms where humans and the environment are exploited. Nope, they still are against my grass fed beef grown right down the road by a reputable farmer with well-raised animals.

I think the vegetarian movement has done a lot to devalue the health benefits of meat. When someone becomes a vegetarian, the first thing people ask is, "Where are you going to get your protein?" That very question itself communicates misinformation. It makes people think that meat is nothing more than a lump of protein. And we know we can get protein from all sorts of sources. In fact, getting enough protein is quite easy for a vegetarian--even a vegan--just by eating a balanced diet that includes some whole grains, beans and nuts.

The real question for a vegetarian should be this: "Where are you going to get your B-12, calcium, iron, beta-carotene and omega fatty acids?" B-12 is the most significant issue, because it is not to be found in a vegetarian diet at all. Milk and eggs have some B-12, but what they have is often not absorbed well enough by people to be useful. B-12 deficiencies can be quite serious. Supplements are not always effective (B-12 is destroyed by exposure to the sunlight). Certain individuals are not good at extracting beta-carotene and omega fatty acids from plant sources. A lot of it is probably based on genetics.

The only meat out there that actually is nothing but a lump of protein would be your lean muscle meats, like a chicken breast. While that is a prized item on today's menu, it is the least nutritious. You have no doubt heard stories of our hunter & gatherer ancestors who were able to utilize every last item from an animal without wasting any, right? Well, truth be told is that if they were ever to leave some of the meat behind, it would have been the lean meat. Lean meat is devoid of the essential oils and other nutrients, and if you ate nothing but lean meat you might actually die. Lean meat must be accompanied by starches or fats or else the body can go into something called rabbit starvation (usually that requires living in extremely cold temperatures, though). People who tried to survive a tough winter by hunting rabbits found out that the lack of fats made the meat actually useless.

So meat has been devalued, but that's nothing compared to the misconceptions about fat. People think of fat as nothing but empty calories. Not true. Fats and oils are every bit as critical to good health as vitamins and minerals. They are nutrients! Yes, there are such things as "bad fats", such as hydrogenated oils or the weird masses of fat that develop on feedlot animals (which you won't find on animals fed a natural diet, such as grass fed cattle). Those fats are unbalanced and can cause health problems for humans who eat them in excess. But eating a diet that is too lean can throw yourself out of whack, too.

Fruits and vegetables are not always so friendly, either. Yes, we need to eat a lot of them, but any single one of them eaten in excess can be harmful. Most plants have defenses to keep predators away and digestive inhibitors to keep themselves from sprouting. Raw items are good, because you have access to all the microbes, but they can be bad in excess because of all these chemicals that are often broken down in cooking. Yet, the current assumptions that people have would idolize fruits and vegetables.

I say this not to arouse suspicion about fruits and vegetables--just eat a wide variety of them, cooked and uncooked. I say this only to point out that for all the so-called negative effects of meats and fats, you can find negatives about fruits and vegetables, too. This all-or-nothing attitude that is promoted by many vegetarians is misleading and promotes an unwise diet. Most of the negative impact of meats is limited only to those raised in factory feedlot conditions, which, admittedly, is most of the meat consumed in the America. But sustainably raised meats can be a great option for the environment as well as your health.