Vegetarianism is a much more popular dietary choice today than it ever has been. Merely 20 years ago, you'd get funny looks from people if you said you were a vegetarian. But today, if you're a vegetarian and you go for a meal at someone's house, you can feel pretty safe that the host will understand how to prepare something for a vegetarian. It seems that only the really old generations still struggle with it.
I don't really want to discuss whether vegetarianism is right or wrong, or whether it's the correct christian thing to do, or the correct humanist thing to do. That's for another article altogether. I just want to discuss the health aspects.
When I was in the sixth form, I had a friend who did some temping work in an abattoir. It was only for a couple of days and they had a terrible experience. I don't think it was a particularly reputable place because he was tricked into working in an area that he didn't really want to work in.
I won't go into details, but the whole experience for him was quite traumatic and after two days, he quit. It affected him so much that when he was served dinner at home, he couldn't bring himself to eat the meat. It wasn't a conscious decision of thinking it was wrong, he just couldn't bring himself to do it. The thought of everything that he had seen made him sick at the thought of eating meat.
But this gave him a very big problem. Because he was a very picky eater, and before this experience, all he would eat was meat. Oh and potatoes. That was it. Every meal consisted of potatoes and meat. Lunch would be a packet of crisps or two.
Now all he had was potatoes. Needless to say, his health suffered considerably.
After the sixth form, we lost touch. But I am aware that he is still alive, so I don't know whether he learnt to like vegetables or whether he overcame his psychosis about eating meat. I'm pretty sure he'd be dead if he was still just eating potatoes.
Restricting your diet artificially is going to have effects on your health, either positive or negative.
Humans are omnivores. which means that our bodies require amino acids that typically come from vegetables, and amino acids that typically come from meat. Other species of animal are herbivores, so they just need the amino acids from vegetables in order to be healthy. Most of them can still eat meat, but they don't need to for health reasons. Other species are carnivores, so they can survive quite healthily on just eating meat. Again, some of them will be fine if they eat vegetables, they just don't need them for health.
On the other hand, there are some species of herbivore and carnivore who can become quite unhealthy if they eat the opposite type of food. It all depends on how their bodies work.
But humans are omnivores. We've been omnivores through millions of years of evolution and we will continue to be omnivores for the foreseeable future (barring some kind of artificial gene replacement therapy). It is natural for humans to eat both vegetables and meat.
But I said I didn't want to get into a discussion of the rights and wrongs, and I'm not. So far, this is just science. It's natural, you can make you're own choice whether that makes it "right".
So, if you effectively become a carnivore, is your health going to suffer?
Yes.
There are numerous vitamins, minerals and amino acids that we can't get from eating meat (or can't get in high enough quantities from eating meat). Don't get me wrong, there are dietary supplements today that can overcome most of the deficiencies, but I'm discussing being purely carnivorous.
OK, so what about vegetarianism?
Same thing I'm afraid. We need the stuff that's in meat too in order to live a healthy life. Being vegan is even worse. Some of the stuff that we need from meat, we can get in adequate quantities from dairy products.
But there are plenty of vegetarians that live perfectly healthy lives for years. So surely this can't be true.
Well yes, there are plenty of vegetarians with the sense to control what they eat, ensure that they are eating enough of the correct foods to get a satisfactory balance of what they need in order to lead a normal healthy life.
But if they ate a little bit of meat, would they be healthier? Usually yes.
I once read a statistic that most vegetarians only last 4 years as a vegetarian. After 4 years, their health has deteriorated to the point where their body craves the essentials from meat so much that their mind can no longer control and they just snap and give it up. Their body retakes control and forces them to start eating meat again.
I knew a vegetarian couple who had both been vegetarians for years. He was a chef so he was very good at cooking vegetarian (and non-vegetarian) meals. They ate everything that they should be eating as vegetarians. And yet his health started deteriorating. They went to their GP who told them in no uncertain terms, that if they didn't start eating a little bit of meat, he would be dead within 5 years.
On that advice, they became vegequarians instead and started eating fish occasionally. Only 2 or 3 times a year, but that was enough for their health to recover so that they can live a healthy life again.
Now they were an extreme case, not everybody is going to affected as severely as he was. People's bodies are different.
But you hear scare stories in the press all the time about the dangers of eating meat. So how can it be healthy, or even essential?
Well, if you read those scare stories, the truth is just that eating too much meat gives you whatever they are claiming it gives you this week.
We need meat, but we don't need it with every meal. We don't even need it every day, or every week.
I am a dedicated omnivore, and yet I have sometimes gone for a few weeks without eating any meat at all. And those have generally been my healthiest times. I feel lighter and more active. I feel happier and more responsive.
I would encourage a "near vegetarian" diet. That is the perfect balance.
You don't need that 16 ounce steak with your chips. Your body will be just as satisfied with a small 4 ounce steak cooked to perfection, with a large portion of salad on the side. Not just a garnish, eat it :-)
Do you really need a large wedge of meat in your sandwich for lunch then meat and two veg for dinner in the evening? No, you don't. Once a day is fine. Any more than that, and you might be encouraging some of those press scare stories to come true.
The key to a healthy diet is variation, not avoidance. If you make a chilli, bolognese or lasagne, try swapping half of the meat for mushrooms, or some vegetables. Or have a completely vegetarian meal. It's so easy these days.
Going out for a curry? Try the vegetable balti. Indian food is famous for it's fantastic vegetarian options. As is italian food.
Not only does reducing your meat intake improve your health, happiness and wellbeing, it improves your bank balance too. Meat is the most expensive thing on your plate. And the only reason it's as cheap as it is is because of government (and EU) subsidies. Without that, it would be several times more expensive than it already is. Those subsidies might not last forever, so get in the practice now :-)
We are now advised to eat 5 portions of fruit and veg per day. I would encourage more than this. In some countries they advise 10 portions per day! By swapping some of your meaty meals for vegetarian meals, getting your 5 a day becomes quite easy.
Even though humans are omnivorous, our meat requirements are actually very small. A better way to describe our requirements would be "herbivorous with occasional meat". The perfect human diet should only contain the occasional meat intake. But that is really difficult, because it tastes so nice. So try just cutting out on the meat that you don't really notice very much. When you do have meat, make it the centre piece of the meal so that you can really appreciate it.
