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What Does Vegetarian/Vegan Mean?
The definitions of vegetarian and vegan diets are based on the various animal foods that are not eaten.
Very simply, a vegetarian diet does not include any animal meats, including fish.
Instead, it is full of grains, beans, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, and possibly eggs and/or dairy. There are good ways and bad ways to eat a vegetarian diet.
The best way to go about a vegetarian diet is to get lots of fresh vegetables. It doesn’t always happen, even though the name vegetarian would seem to imply it.
Lots of people just stick to things like white rice, pasta and potatoes without a lot of vegetables. This is sometimes called a starchitarian since it consists of mostly starch.
Fresh fruit is also really important, since both fruits and vegetables have a lot of vitamins, minerals and enzymes that are necessary for a healthy body. Filling your plate with vegetables first will make weight loss easier, and boost your energy.
A vegan diet goes a bit further than a vegetarian one by not including any products that come from animals. That means that eggs, dairy products, honey or bee products are not eaten.
Veganism also extends beyond just what you eat, since animals are killed and exploited to make leather shoes and wool toques.
Why a Plant-Centered Diet?
The benefits of a vegan diet plan go way beyond standing up for animal rights. In fact, a lot of the people who are shifting to veganism and vegetarianism now are doing it for health or environmental reasons.
The majority of your diet should be plant foods. The more research is done, the more scientists find reasons that humans should eat mostly plants. Each person identifies with different benefits of a vegan diet, so I’ll go over all the main ones.
Health
The effects of any specific food on human health is difficult to study and prove any direct correlation, but an excess of animal products has been the common thread in many studies done on the causes of chronic degenerative diseases. Heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes and cancer are all directly related to diet, and have strong links to intake of animal products.
A big part of the unhealthy aspect of animal foods is caused by industrial production. The most blatant problem is the hormones and antibiotics given to the animals. Then there’s also the herbicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers used to grow their food. These toxins accumulate in the fat cells of animals, and is passed on to their milk and eggs.
The bacteria and diseases that infect animals aren’t always controlled, and we’ve seen lots of instances of food contamination and epidemics already.
I’m not saying you have to be a vegan to be healthy. But cutting back on meat leaves more room for vegetables and fruits in your diet, and that’s one of the most important things you can do to improve your health.
Environmental
The current methods for meat, poultry, fish, egg and dairy production use many times more energy than they provide in calories, they use large quantities of the natural resources that are in danger right now, and they produce mass amounts of toxic and unusable waste.
There was a report done back in 2006 by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) of the United Nations that highlighted the environmental impacts of livestock production. They concluded that ‘livestock production is one of the major causes of the world’s most pressing environmental problems, including global warming, land degradation, air and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity.’
Ethical
In most cases, there’s a huge amount of cruelty throughout the life of an animal raised to be food – not just when they’re slaughtered. There’s also cruelty in the production of dairy and eggs, even though these animals aren’t always killed.
This is the strongest reason for strict veganism, and is why veganism carries over from just the food someone eats to their clothes and lip balm. It’s a personal choice, and for me it’s about the respect for life and energy.
Social
Raising animals involves an intense use of land as well as many acres of feed grown for each animal. Since plant foods use only enough land to grow food directly for humans, they require much less space.
Developing (poor) nations produce more animal products than they eat, meaning that these products are being produced for developed (rich) nations, with most of the profits going back to the large multinational corporations that sell those farmers the means of production.
Economical
If none of these reasons grab your attention, think of the financial impact cutting animal products out would have on your grocery bills. Beans are a much cheaper source of protein per gram than meat, along with all their other benefits.