Healthier being a meat-eater or a vegetarian Essay
There are many eating habits all around the world. Most people dont decide what they want for their eating choice until they are the age where they can decide what they want, without causing any health problems. Children are deciding at a younger age that they dont want to eat meat. Why is that? Do they know what eating meat could do to them, or do they do it because they dont want to harm animals? There could be many reasons why children are now avoiding meat and changing their eating habits at a much younger age. More adults are realizing this and thinking- could I be healthier from not eating meat and becoming a vegetarian?
What the American culture is used to is eating three meals with a few snacks in between a day, and two out of the three meals usually involve eating meat.
Most people dont realize the risks of eating meat. Todays medical experts say that avoiding meat helps you avoid saturated fat. They have found out from studies that women who eat meat daily have a fifty percent greater risk of developing heart disease than vegetarian women and a sixty-eight percent greater risk in men (staff writer). People may not know about serious diseases meat can obtain such as, mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease. In the September 1999 issue of the Emerging Infectious Diseases, approximately 76 million food borne illnesses- resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths occur in the United States each year from improperly cooked or diseased meat (Licher). That is a lot! You can also get salmonella poisoning from meat.
People think that the problems come from eating red meat and are opting for fish over steak, but new evidence proves that fish can cause health problems too, risks that cant be cooked away. This is a growing problem called histamine poisoning (Peck). Children are learning at a younger age that they dont like meat, maybe because they dont like the taste, or maybe its because they have a fear of eating their favorite cartoon or movie hero. For example, the pig from the movie babe.
The amount of people becoming vegetarians these days is growing. There are a few different types of vegetarians for example; the lacto-ovo vegetarian doesnt eat any animal products except milk and eggs.
Another type of vegetarian is the vegan, they exclude all animal products. Being a vegetarian has its problems, but they arent as bad as the problems caused by eating meat. The main thing you have to be careful about is the risk of protein deprivation. The lack of meat in the diet needs to be substituted in other ways. Vegetarians need more vitamins and minerals, like calcium, which they can find in soy products, they also need more Iron and Zinc. This is very easy, just talk to your doctor about a vegetarian diet.
Doctors and nutrition specialist should help you plan out meals and tell you what vitamins you need from not eating meat. Children are becoming vegetarians at a much younger age. This might be because of how they feel about meat, or it may be because their parents want whats best for them. When children are vegetarians they do have a greater risk of protein deprivation compared to adults, as long as they are following a doctor approved vegetarian diet, there shouldnt be any problems.
How can you choose the best diet for you? Its not as hard as it seems. Doctors and nutrition experts can help you with a lot of it.
Most people start off small and stop eating red meat. If they feel that it is healthier for them then they will still eat other meat, but maybe not as much or as often. Being a vegetarian is harder for some people. If you are a person that loves meat, then this probably isnt the diet for you, but if you want a diet that could make you live longer and healthier, wouldnt you want to do so?
Everyone has there choice whether they want to eat meat or not. Vegetarians are much healthier when they make sure to substitute .
