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Christia Ambroise
English 101
Dr. Milton
December 5, 2016

Vegetarian Lifestyle Being the Healthiest

There was a time not long ago when some people would say being a vegetarian was not
cool. As a result, many vegetarians kept their eating habits to themselves, says Judy
Klemesrud author of a New York Times article called Vegetarianism: Growing Way of Life,
Especially Among the Young. Over the years the vegetarian diet became more popular, being
that its an ethical decision, with health benefits. Since food is mainly related to our health,
people have been paying close attention to what they put into their bodies. As for the people who
enjoy eating meat and arent aware of how their meat is raised and produced, knowing
background information on why eating meat is morally wrong, and linked to diseases such as
obesity, hypertension and heart diseases can change a persons way of thinking when it comes to
their choice of food. With that being said, a vegetarian diet is an overall safe and ethical way of
eating because it provides many long-lasting health benefits such as losing weight as well as
maintaining a healthy weight, and the ability to fight diseases.
Vegetarianism is a term used to describe a whole range of restricted diets that comes in
two main varieties, lacto-ovo vegetarians and vegans. Lacto-ovo vegetarians are people who eat
cheese, eggs, and drink milk, while vegans eliminate eating all animal products in their diet. In
order to be safe and healthy while practicing a vegetarian diet making sure that the body
consumes all the nutrients needed on a daily basis as required. It is important to know that

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vegetarians especially vegans lack vitamin B-12, vitamin D, calcium, iron, and zinc. Though this
is a concern, incorporating supplements is a way to avoid nutritional problems.
Veganism, which is one of the main variety of a vegetarian diet has proven to help with
loosing and maintaining weight. The vegan diet is usually low in fat and consists of eating only
plant based foods. Going vegan means not having to keep track of calorie intake and helps with
the shedding of the weight, as opposed to a diet including meat which is mainly protein. A
study shows that the health difference among non-vegetarians, vegetarians, and vegans was that
vegans weighed about 20 pounds less on the average than the other two groups, whose members
were mostly 10 to 15 pounds about desirable weight. (Klemesrud) Not only does a vegetarian
diet help with losing weight but, Judy Klemesrud provided responses from interviews with
people around the country on how they feel as a vegetarian in the New York Times article named
Vegetarianism: Growing Way of Life, Especially Among the Young. As a result, they use
phrases like more vigorous, more energetic, less aggressive. lighter, healthier,
mellower, and less stuffed, to describe the way they feel when they dont eat meat. People
who eat meat tend to experience more bloat, and discomfort because meat is high in fat. Cutting
down or completely eliminating meat out of your food choice makes it easier to lose weight and
maintain a healthy weight.
The first step to ending obesity is to acknowledge the main problem which is meat being
linked to obesity. When it comes to the topic of obesity skyrocketing, leading people to suffer
from diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, most of us will readily agree that the causes to
those issues are from ones overly intake in junk and processed food. Where this agreement
usually ends, however is on the question of whether or not its the government's issue. Some are
convinced that its an individual responsibility to limit our intake in such foods, whereas others

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maintain that the popular diet such as being a vegetarian could improve ones health. Today,
one in three is considered clinically obese, along with one in five kids, and 24 million Americans
are afflicted by type 2 diabetes, often caused by poor diet, with another 79 million people having
pre-diabetes. (Moss, pg. 477) Whether we are considered in shape or not, we all face the same
danger that come from processed foods, especially within meat. Contaminants such as poison
toxic chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, and cholesterol that are usually injected and found in
meat is often hard to digest properly and harmful to the body which causes diseases, and cancer.
Studies have proven that a vegetarian diet, specifically a vegan diet, is best for type2 diabetes
than a standard diet. An article called Glycemic Control with a Vegan Diet in T2D by Yu-Mi
Lee states that a vegan diet lowers the levels of glycosylated hemoglobin which is a substance
found in the red blood cells that carries oxygen to the cells. Glucose is a type of sugar in the
blood that gets stuck to the hemoglobin. This proves how a vegan diet is best for someone with
type 2 diabetes and how it can prevent people from getting type 2 diabetes.
Eating a vegetarian diet has also been proven to be healthier for humans in others ways.
There are several signs indicating this to us, the first of which is body mass index (BMI).
According to the Harvard Health Letter vegetarians have the lowest BMI, and meat eaters have
the highest. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , a high BMI can be
an indicator of high body fatness and is strongly correlated with various metabolic and disease
outcomes.. (cdc.gov) Secondly, eating a vegetarian diet reduces the overall risk of all cancers
compared with eating a non-vegetarian diet, according to the Harvard Health Letter. Thirdly the
Harvard Health Letter states that vegetarian diets were associated with a 12% lower risk of
death from all causes - not just cancer. Apparently, eating a vegetarian diet is a healthier option
for people than meat eating diets. Our bodies should not be treated as a graveyard, hence the

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reason why we as humans should make it a priority to analyze every aspect of where our food is
coming from. Its easier said than done but we all have reasons for wanting to live a long healthy
life, for an example to be here with our loved ones. In order to do so, making a long lasting
health choice such as becoming a vegetarian is a great way to see improvements, stay healthy
and live long.
I have created a survey about food choices and whether a vegetarian diet is healthier than
eating meat to get into the mind sets of others in order to figure out why people decide to eat
what they eat. Majority of my respondents which
was 67% ate meat because it satisfies their taste
buds and 17.65% had no preference for a
specific diet. When asked the question Are you
satisfied with your food choice? that same 67%
percent who eat meat answered yes. The reason
behind this is because they were either raised on
eating meat or because meat is convenient and
affordable which ties into my pervious statement
in paragraph three on why people adopt an
unhealthy eating habit and can result in
becoming obsessed. Though majority of my
respondents were not vegetarians they were opened-minded and found themselves agreeing with
the facts on a vegetarian diet being healthier for humans consumption.
A lot of people are becoming a vegetarian not only because of proven health benefits but
also because it is ethical. Many vegetarians abhor the thought of killing animals to feed

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themselves and also the methods by which animals are slaughtered. (Klemesrud) It is not
common for people to eat dogs or cats in America. In fact, dogs and cats are great companions to
humans. If its wrong for people to eat dogs or cats then why isnt it wrong to eat pigs, goats, or
chicken? There would be less cases of
diseases if only people were educated daily
on how the meat they purchase and feed not
only themselves but their family members
is produced. An article called The Politics
of Veganism by Emma McGrath stated
that automated slaughter houses process up to twenty-one million chickens per day in the
United States alone, more than six billion in the United States per year. (McGrath) Its not
logical to assume that these animals are raised up in a clean environment, so how can it possibly
be healthy for us humans to consume?
Overall, the pros to a vegetarian diet outweighs the negatives and can be beneficial in the
long run. Although, it is generally considered a more ethical approach to food consumption. It is
a lifestyle choice that has proven to lead to less body fat. Thereby making it a viable choice in
battling Americas obesity epidemic. It is generally a healthier diet choice because it leads to
reduces BMI, cancer risks, and death risks overall. Even though it may be really difficult for
many people, the discontinuation of eating meat will result in a healthier lifestyle. The
substitution of supplements can eliminate the risk of bone fracture due to the lack of nutritions
such as B-12, vitamin D, and calcium that comes from a vegetarian diet. If you enjoy eating meat
but this evidence has done its job and have gotten you to think about your food choice, then a

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great way to go about being a vegetarian is by reducing your meat intake, or entirely replacing
meat with organic plant based foods.

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Work Cited
"Considering A Vegetarian Diet: Is Meat-Free Really Better?." Harvard Health Letter40.9
(2015): 6-7. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Nov. 2016
Craig, Winston J. Health Effects of Vegan diets1,2,3. Health Effects of Vegan Diets, The
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1 May 2009,
ajcn.nutrition.org/content/89/5/1627s.full.
Klemesrud, Judy. Vegetarianism: Growing Way of Life, Especially Among the Young. The
New York Times, The New York Times , 21 Mar. 1975,
www.nytimes.com/1975/03/21/archives/vegetarianism-growing-way-of-life-especially++among-the-young.html.
McGrath, Emma. "The Politics Of Veganism." Social Alternatives 19.4 (2000): 50-59.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Nov. 2016.
Moss, Michael. "The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food." Gerald Graff, Cathy
Birkenstein, Russel Durst. They Say I Say. New York: The New York Times, 2013. 471495