Vegetarianism is a controversial topic. Perhaps it is difficult to find a question that would cause more controversy for many centuries.
Supporters of plant nutrition believe that eating meat of animals is the most immoral thing, and the process is described exclusively in terms of “eating corpses”. In addition to the need to be humane to all living things, vegetarians believe the consumption of animal products is deadly to humans.
Their opponents believe food meat is the most natural thing, arguing that in nature some animals eat other. It has always been so, and the person is not to blame for being the main link in the food chain.
These disputes have reached a new level in the XX century, when scientists have at their disposal the latest scientific methods of research, the achievements of biochemistry, genetics and dietetics. What are the main arguments of followers of vegetarian food and their opponents?
Vegetable food: pros arguments
Vegetarians, first and foremost, consider your diet more healthy for humans. In our time, a piece of meat on the table – this is not the piece that was put on the table our ancestors: the meat of wild deer, fed herbs and pure spring water, killed by a sudden arrow of a hunter.
Today, when animal husbandry has become an industry, animals intended for meat, before their death experience long hours of suffering and fear that saturates their blood with adrenaline and other “hormones of horror”, and eventually gets into the human body.
In addition, there are more than 20 000 all kinds of drugs (including steroids, growth hormones, antibiotics and other veterinary products) intended for livestock. These drugs are eventually consumed by humans along with meat products. And violations of health at the person as a result of “secondary” use of these preparations do not raise doubts and are well documented.
There are many dangerous worms, bacteria and viruses common to humans and animals. When the meat is eaten, this pathogenic microflora in the meat is eaten too. Microorganisms are also found in products of plant origin, but their number is much less, and the danger to humans is not comparable to that contained in meat.
Eating meat increases the risk of heart disease – the “number one killer” of modern men and women. Many observations show that lifelong vegetarians by 24 %, and lifelong vegans – 57 % less suffer from coronary heart disease compared to meat eaters.
In addition, plant-based diets can help protect people from diabetes and stroke. Non-vegetarians have a 20-30 % higher risk of stroke than vegetarians.
Processed meat products contain benzene and other carcinogens. And all natural substances that counteract cancer (vitamins C, b-17, hydroquinone, beta-carotene, protease inhibitor, and NDGA) – nothing that has animal origin. Doctors say that nutrition based on plants, which has a lot of fruits and vegetables, can reduce the risk of cancer (data from the world cancer research Fund, USA).
It is established that there is a connection between meat eating and some diseases (osteoporosis, gallstones, arthritis, kidney stones, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and others).
According to experts, vegetarians often have a lower weight than meat eaters, so vegetarian or vegan lifestyle significantly reduces the problem of obesity – the most “growing” health problem of modern civilized man. Here it should be said that in the US, for example, 33.8 % of the population (a shocking figure!) are obese (data from the Center for disease control and prevention, USA). Other countries are also catching up with the United States. Russia, for example, “broke out” on the 4th place in the world in this sad competition – after the USA, China and India.
The balance of the intracellular flora is critical to overall human health, and animal and meat products are retained in the gut and can provoke the proliferation of pathogens. Healthy plant food travels faster through the gastrointestinal tract than animal meat. Vegetable fibers absorb excess fat, clean the intestines and stimulate peristalsis (the ability to push food through the digestive tract). Vegetable products are rich in fiber, and meat and dairy do not contain it at all.
The meat contains animal waste – adrenaline, uric acid and lactic acid. A significant contribution to the aroma of roast meat, not counting seasonings, are the remains of the blood and urine of the animal.
Today’s citizen, who eats in a traditional way, consumes four times the recommended daily amount of protein. This leads to an excess of nitrogen in the blood, as well as numerous long-term health problems.
In addition to the danger of meat food for health, vegetarians are concerned about the rights of animals. They believe that all life on earth has equal rights to exist. Raising animals for meat is associated with the inhumanity and suffering of living beings. Vegetarians believe that sooner or later humanity should give up eating meat animals, as once refused to cannibalism.