Reality
#1 All
vegetarians are animal-rights activists.
Research shows that most people adopt
a vegetarian diet for the health benefits. The second most cited
reason is animal rights. Even the people who mentioned animal
rights say that health is the number one reason they follow
a vegetarian diet.
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#2: Vegetarians just do not get enough protein.
Well there was a time when nutritionists
and dietitians even said this, but no longer. Now, we
know that vegetarians get plenty of protein. What they don't
get is the excessive amount of protein found in the typical
modern diet. If you eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains,
and legumes, then getting enough protein is not an issue.
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#3: Vegetarians just do not get enough calcium.
This myth has been applied, in particular,
to vegetarians- vegans who have eliminated meat and milk products
from their diets. Somehow, the notion got started that the
only good source of calcium is milk and cheese. Granted, milk
does have a good supply of calcium, but so do many vegetables
_ especially green, leafy veggies. The truth is, vegetarians
suffer less from osteoporosis (a deficiency of calcium that
leads to weak bones) because the body assimilates the calcium
they eat more easily during digestion.
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#4: Vegetarian diets aren't balanced, so they are risking
their health for their principles.
First of all, a vegetarian diet
isn't out of balance. It has a good proportion of all the
complex carbohydrates, protein, and fat the three macro nutrients
that are the cornerstone of any diet. Plus, vegetarian food
sources (plants) tend to be higher sources of most of micro
nutrients. Another way to look at it is this: The average
meat eater consumes one or fewer servings of vegetables a
day and no servings of fruit. If a meat eater does eat a vegetable,
chances are it's a fried potato. "Out of balance"
depends on your perspective.
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#5: A vegetarian diet is all right for an adult, but kids
need meat to develop properly.
This statement makes the assumption
that protein from plants isn't as good as protein from meat.
The truth is, protein is protein. It is all made from amino
acids. Children need 10 essential amino acids to grow and
develop properly. These amino acids are as readily available
in plants as they are in meat.
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Reality
#6: Humans were designed to eat meat.
Although humans are capable of digesting meat,
human anatomy clearly favors a diet of plant foods. Our digestive
systems are similar to those of the other plant-eaters and
totally unlike those of carnivores. The argument that humans
are carnivores because we possess "canine" teeth
ignores the fact that other plant-eaters have "canine"
teeth, and that ONLY plant-eaters have molar teeth. Finally,
if humans were designed to eat meat, we wouldn't suffer from
heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and osteoporosis from doing
so.
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