Vegetarian Diet and Proper Amount of Vitamins Issue Research Paper

Thesis Statement

This paper would discuss and analyse the thesis that vegetarians do not get the proper amounts of vitamins, minerals and amino acids in their diets to sustain a healthy lifestyle. It would also cover the relevant issues.

Introduction

Most vegetarian diets contain fewer calories than diets that include meat. As a result, vegetarians tend to be thinner than meat-eaters. Most vegetarians also consume less saturated fat and smaller amounts of a fatty substance called cholesterol than most meat-eaters do. Lower dietary levels of saturated fat and cholesterol result in lower levels of cholesterol in the blood. Medical research indicates that a high level of cholesterol in the blood is associated with heart disease. Some studies have shown that vegetarians in the United States are healthier and live longer than other Americans. Some Americans practice vegetarianism because they believe that consumption of meat, especially beef, reduces the world food supply. They feel that grain used to fatten cattle would nourish more people if the grain were eaten directly by people. Some people also believe the land on which livestock graze should be used to grow grain. But many agricultural experts disagree. They argue that most grazing land is not suitable for farming.

Vitamins Deficiency and Vegetarian Diet

Large doses of vitamins A and C have been proved to prevent some cancers in animals. Many scientists believe that certain foods contain substances that may help prevent some cancers in people. Such foods include broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, fruits, spinach, whole-grain breads and cereals, and some seafood. Lessening intake of fats and increasing the intake of fibre may also help prevent some cancers from forming. (Tunick, p.33) Just being a vegetarian doesn’t mean one can be healthy, but a full balanced vegetarian diet can keep a person healthy and away from diseases.

The life style that comes with being vegetarian is one of awareness to food and what should and should not go into the body, what is harmful and what quality is. It is more likely for vegetarians to cut out junk food, such as chips and sodas because of their awareness. Awareness is the key to changing any poor lifestyle habits that one might have; it is the fist step.

If people are vegetarians, it can result in eating problems. The vegetarians may not have enough nutrition because of the exclusion of some food groups from their diets. Vegetarians may have deficiencies in iron, zinc, vitamin B12 and calcium (Inge, p.517). For example, all animal foods contain vitamin B12. However, vitamin B12 is not found in most plant foods (Inge, p.517). Moreover, vegetarians easily get eating disorders. “The scores on an Eating Attitudes Test showed 37 percent of the vegetarians at risk for disordered eating compared with eight per cent of non-vegetarians” (Dedyna, p.D5). Eating disorder includes anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and compulsive overeating. If people get anorexia, compulsive eating and bulimia, it will be dangerous (Dedyna, p. D5). If eating disorders can’t be controlled, they will contribute to further fatal results.

If vegetarians get eating disorders, these serious problems can cause life-threatening consequences. Eating disorders are a killer for somebody, especially for women. “Some studies have shown women with eating disorders may have severe vomiting during pregnancy, gain less weight during pregnancy, have smaller babies and have babies with more medical complications” (Gearey, p.12). The scientists also emphasize that eating disorders can increase the risk for neural tube defects during the first three months of pregnancy (Health and medicine week, 2004). Furthermore, eating disorders lead to the highest mortality rate for mental diseases in Canada (Gearey, p.12). Vegetarians may not be satisfied with their bodies and worry about their weight control (Dedyna, p. D5). After eating, they may feel guilty. Some vegetarians might tell doctors sometimes they tried to commit suicide. A physician states that people who have eating disorders are probable to have tried suicide (Dedyna, p. D5). Therefore, vegetarianism can bring about bad results.

“A group of 21 healthy women consumed a controlled, lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet for four weeks, and then crossed over to eat a controlled omnivorous diet for four more radio labelled zinc diets to determine zinc absorption and excretion. The vegetarian diet contained a higher level of fibre, vitamin C, copper, magnesium, manganese, and phosphorus than the omnivorous diet. The two diets contained comparable calcium and zinc levels. It was determined in the radioisotope study that after consuming the vegetarian diet, the subjects absorbed only 35% less zinc compared to the omnivorous diet — a significant difference. This difference was accounted for by 14% lower zinc levels in the vegetarian diet and 21% less efficient absorption of zinc while eating it. Neither diet provided the US RDA of zinc (12 mg). Mean serum zinc levels were 5% lower after consumption of the vegetarian compared to the omnivorous diet.

No zinc level was outside the reference range. Serum copper and ceruloplasmin levels were also significantly lower after subjects consumed the vegetarian diet, though again none of the values were outside the reference range. Zinc, calcium and phosphorus excretion were moderately decreased while eating the vegetarian diet — to apparently compensate for decreased mineral absorption. Total, low-density and high-density lipoprotein levels were all significantly lower after the vegetarian diet; the low-density high-density and total high-density ratios were not different between the two diet periods. The authors conclude vegetarians seemed to be at risk of inadequate zinc nurture though they were able to maintain zinc balance, and although the omnivorous diet still did not provide minimal adequate levels of zinc.” (Yarnell, 22)

The non-vegetarian food just seems healthy but it just means to poison one with fats, cholesterol and the nutrients required by the body aren’t fulfilled. However, these needs can be fulfilled for the body by eating vegetarian food. One should know how to survive without meat, in case he has to depend on the vegetables and fruits. The non-vegetarian food leads to many health problems, like high cholesterol, Ulcer problem, cancer and diabetes, and the most common is obesity.

Vitamin B12 in the Vegetarian Diet

It has been suggested that some plant foods, such as mushrooms, spirulina and fermented soy products, including tempeh and miso, are dietary sources of vitamin B12 for vegetarians. A number of studies have now shown, however, that these foods are not reliable sources of Bi2. Any B12 detected in plant foods is likely to be the inactive analogue, which is of no use to the body, and can actually interfere with the absorption of the active form of this vitamin. (Fetto, p.13)

Although plant foods may contain vitamin B12 on their surfaces from soil residue or contamination, this is not a reliable source of vitamin B-12 for humans. Messina & Messina (1996), in their book, The Dieticians Guide to Vegetarian Diets, provide a comprehensive review

of vitamin B12 and vegetarian diets, concluding that there is no reliable plant sources of vitamin B12. (Messina, 449-51) They suggest that it is likely that all vegetarians whose diets are unsupplemented will eventually develop B12 deficiency, and they recommend that vegans consume foods fortified with vitamin BT2 such as soy milks, meat analogues and nutritional yeast, or that they take a vitamin B12 supplement.

Modern textbook description of nutritional theory is headed by the proteins we need which firstly come mainly from meat, fish, cheese, milk and eggs, having opened with a historical review. Nutrition in under-privileged countries is which blames ignorance and ‘taboos’ for preventing the best use from being made of available food—especially for pregnant women who are said to have the highest protein requirements of the community and need all the animal protein foods to meet their increased needs. The primacy of animal protein has been an established tenet of nutritional wisdom for many years amongst experts as well as amongst much of the public.

Even when the form of meat is entirely foregone, a substitute, such as cheese or eggs, is almost always of animal origin—possibly due to lingering belief in the need for large amounts of protein in a healthy diet. Meat and animal products are pre-eminent in our food system and, even allowing for the fact that the majority of ethnographies are written by western anthropologists with western interests, it is clear that this is also true of the food systems of many other cultures.

But meat is not only the most privileged nourishment; it is also the most feared and abhorred. The likeliest potential foods to nauseate us today are those recognisably animal—the gristle, the blood vessels, the organs, the eyes—unlike vegetable foods whose identity we rarely dread. When nutritionists or policy-makers discuss the energy, fat, or protein contents of foods, for example, and expect a willing public dutifully to adapt their habits, they are deceiving themselves in failing to accommodate the numerous other roles that foods play in people’s lives.

The primacy of animal protein as a source of human food was scientific orthodoxy until well into the twentieth century, and the idea of nourishment remains the most heavily promoted explicit value used by meat suppliers. Much effort goes into informing the public that meat is an indispensable part of a healthy diet, and throughout modern society belief in the essential vitality of high protein intake—usually meaning meat—remains widespread. Animal food is not after all an absolute prerequisite to a healthy diet. The breast milk of women on lacto-vegetarian diets contained the lowest levels of DDT compounds, PCBs, and other environmental contaminants (Margetts, 1468-71). Animal foods are regularly shown to contain higher residues of toxins, which may be particularly concentrated by being passed up the food chain. Those on vegetarian diets suffer less from rising blood pressure with age than the general population that adoption of such a diet could result in a fall in systolic blood pressure. (Rouse, 10) It is significant that each of these studies specifically deals with various vegetarian diets rather than, say, high-fibre or low saturated fat diets.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the negative effects of vegetarianism can’t be ignored. The reasons why people become vegetarians also need to be looked at. Society and families should have the responsibility to help individuals to set up a reasonable diet. If people don’t overcome these problems, this negative cycle will continue. Without responsibility in selectively choosing the correct vegetables, there is a greater susceptibility to diseases and lethargy. And because people are bought into the rhetoric that a vegetarian lifestyle is healthier, ailing people do not believe that their diet is the cause of their sickness. Although the doctrine of vegetarianism is based on moral standards, the death of humans and animals alike are an inevitable event in life, even in aided death. The absence of meat in a diet makes it difficult for the person to stay healthy.

Works Cited

Dedyna, K (2004). Vegetarian diet may mask eating disorder: [Final Edition]. Star – Phoenix. Saskatoon, Sask. p. D.5.

Fetto, J. (2000). It Ain’t Easy Eating Green. American Demographics, 22(5), 13

Gearey, J. (2004). Eating disorders raise pregnancy risks: [Final Edition]. Calgary Herald. p.12.

Inge, K. (1996). Vegetarianism. Nutridate, 7(2), 1, Obstetrics; Maternal diet restriction raises the risk for neural tube defects. (2004). Health & Medicine Week. p. 517.

Margetts, B.M., Beilin, L.J., Vandongen, R., and Armstrong, B.K. (1986) ‘Vegetarian Diet in Mild Hypertension: A Randomised Controlled Trial’, British Medical Journal 293, 6560:1468-1471.

Messina, Mark Virginia Kisch Messina: Dietitian’s Guide to Vegetarian Diets: Issues and Applications: Aspen Publishers; 1st edition (1996). 449-51

Rouse, I.L., Beilin, L.J., Armstrong, B.K, and Vandongen, R. (1983b) ‘Blood Pressure Lowering Effect of a Vegetarian Diet: Controlled Trial in Normotensive Subjects’, Lancet 1:3-10.

Tunick, B. (2002). Why Go Vegetarian? Vegetarian Times; p.33.

Yarnell, E., Zinc and Vegetarian Diets, Quarterly Review of Natural Medicine, 1082541X. p.22