Vegetarian is. Myths about vegetarianism. Is vegetarianism good or bad? Why am I not a vegetarian

Vegetarianism is a way of life, the number of adherents of which is increasing every day. However, many people are afraid of it, as there are now a lot of myths and misconceptions about vegetarianism. Let's try to deal with the most common illusions.

Myth 1. Man is a predator by nature

Our ancestors ate meat and we will

Many believe that since people have been eating meat for centuries, it is not worth destroying these natural laws. However, scientists have proven that ancient people ate only vegetables, fruits, nuts. This proves the anatomical structure of man, which was compared with the structure of other animals.
Even if we do not talk about people of antiquity, this myth can be destroyed only on the basis of knowledge about the nutrition of our grandparents. Not all of them had the opportunity to eat meat every day. The most common dishes of those times were cereals, soups, bread.

The daily diet of our ancestors could consist of the following products:
- wholemeal bread;
- whole grain cereals;
- mushrooms;
- berries;
- dairy;
- legumes;
- kissel.
It was affordable food, about which the peasants composed proverbs and sayings. Meat in those days was extremely rare, especially since Christian fasts, the total number of which was 220 days a year, did not allow eating animal products.

Man is a predator

There are also people who claim that man is by nature a predator. In this case, to confirm the theory, try to catch a bull with your bare hands, tear it apart, eat it raw. After all, that's how predators eat.

Man is also an animal, but according to the theory of evolution, our modern bodies were formed according to the primate body system. Among them are chimpanzees, orangutans, monkeys. All these animals are exclusively herbivorous way of feeding. Some primates can eat bird eggs, but these species are exceptions.
Gorillas, chimpanzees are not weak animals, they are always full of strength and energy. And they find all this in sufficient quantities in products of plant origin, eating roots, leaves, fruits. Strong primates are able to kill another animal, but they will not eat it, as they kill only for protection.

If a person were a predator by nature, he would have the characteristic features of these animals: fangs, claws, a different structure of the digestive system.

But only in the case of mental deviations can a modern person become a predator.

Myth 2. Vegetarian food does not contain substances necessary for the body.

A man can't be strong without meat

It is a misconception that only meat makes a person strong. In fact, multiple studies confirm that vegetarians have always had better stamina and energy than meat eaters. The fact is that their bodies do not spend a lot of energy on the assimilation of meat.

Medical scientist David Reid is a vegetarian and active lifestyle, so his research is always based on personal experience. He confirms that vegetarian food gives a person everything necessary for the proper functioning of the body.

Popular bodybuilder Bill Pearl, in turn, declares that he does not eat meat or fish to build muscle. Many people are surprised by this, but he eats only vegetarian products. That is, information about a man must eat meat to be strong, is another myth.

Among the world-famous strong people, we can also find vegetarians. Bruce Lee, Scott Yurek, Serena Williams, Stan Price, Carl Lewis and many others.

Details on how to combine vegetarianism and muscle gain,

Vegetarians don't get enough protein

There is a misconception that a vegetarian diet lacks protein. Plant products really do not have a protein chain in their composition. However, with the right combination of legumes and grains, a complete set of amino acids is compiled, which form the protein. Vegetarians get protein by combining lentils, beans, peas, soy with wheat, rice, buckwheat. You can use different combinations to diversify your diet.

Scientists confirm that with a properly composed diet, vegetarians get more protein from nuts, legumes, dairy products and cereals than ordinary people from meat.

How to properly replace meat in your diet,

Vegetarianism leads to anemia

Anemia is a disease that develops due to iron deficiency in human blood. Meat does contain a lot of this substance, but it can also be found in peanuts, corn, asparagus, almonds, apples, onions, various cereals, beans, dates, rose hips, dried apricots, tomatoes, hazelnuts, sweet peppers, seaweed, lentils, carrots , raspberries, cucumbers, walnuts and olives.

However plant foods contain only non-heme iron. It is not able to be absorbed in the human body on its own, so vegetarians always make sure that there is no lack of vitamin C. To eliminate this problem, along with foods rich in iron, greens, lemon juice, and vegetables must be eaten. Rosehip infusion has always been considered a good remedy. It not only supplies the body with vitamin C, but is also a remedy for the prevention of colds and flu.

In addition, do not forget that 85 percent of diseases are caused by certain psychological causes.

As a rule, these include: lack of joy, constant pessimism, depression, insecurity. For the same reasons anemia may develop. If a person is an optimist, the composition of his blood, as a rule, is normal. The feeling of joy causes an increased production of red blood cells in the body.

On the role of a vegetarian diet in the fight against diabetes,

Vegetarian food is not enough for beneficial mental activity

Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Leo Tostoy, Horace, Schopenhauer, Isaac Newton, Voltaire, Pythagoras, Byron, Hippocrates, Ovid, Socrates, Francis Bacon and Confucius are famous all over the world. The work of these people is an excellent refutation of the myth that vegetarian food lacks nutrients for mental activity. These people are inventors, speakers, physicists, biologists, writers, and they are the best of their kind.

Brain cells are formed thanks to phosphorus. Meat-eaters will immediately say: "Phosphorus is found in fish, so it must be eaten." However, fish is not its only source. Phosphorus is higher in parsley, nuts, whole wheat grains, radishes, carrots, celery, pumpkin, cauliflower, lentils, and beans. Soaking legumes or whole grains before cooking will improve phosphorus absorption.

In addition, the level of mental activity depends not only on the amount of phosphorus that a person consumes. In fact, the ability to think is at the core of the human mind. The better developed a person is spiritually, the better he is developed mentally.

An article about how Leo Tolstoy came to vegetarianism,

Children cannot be vegetarians

The early years of life are the most productive in terms of physical growth. For the first couple of years, the child increases its weight several times. This period is characterized only by breastfeeding, so information that d children and pregnant women need to eat meat is a myth.

Herbert Shelton devoted his entire life to the study of nutrition and the characteristics of the human digestive system. The doctor claims that until the age of 7, a child should not eat eggs, meat, or even broth. During these years, the body is still not strong enough to remove toxins.

Vegetarian Alicia Silverstone confirms with her life that pregnant women can also be vegetarians. During pregnancy, she did not consume animal products, while she felt great and gave birth to a healthy baby. About how to combine vegetarianism and pregnancy,

India is a country with a high birth rate. Here, legumes, grains and dairy products are used as a source of complete protein, but not meat and eggs. The number of children in Indian families always surprises Europeans.

More about children's vegetarianism

Vegetarianism leads to vitamin B12 deficiency

B12 is a vital vitamin and many people mistakenly believe that vitamin B12 is only found in meat. Vegetarians do not suffer from B12 deficiency, as this vitamin is found in chlorella, spirulina and seaweed. Besides, if a person is healthy, B12 is synthesized in the intestines on its own.

Myth 3. Vegetarian food is not safe.

Vegetarianism is a way to spoil your health, at least, so many people think. This misconception is based on the fact that vegetables contain more "chemistry" than meat. Indeed, vegetables and fruits are often chemically treated to improve their appearance.

However, in fact, The concentration of harmful substances in meat is always greater than in plant foods.

Scientists have calculated that the level of pesticides in vegetables and fruits is 12 times less than in meat products. It is meat that is the main source of pesticides that poison the body. The exact effect of these substances on the body is still established, but about 20,000 people die every year as a result of pesticide poisoning.

Myth 4. Vegetarianism is not for everyone.

There is an opinion that vegetarianism is not suitable for people living in cold climates. A clear refutation of this is a settlement of vegetarians in Siberia that has existed for 17 years. A team of doctors carefully studied the health status of each member of the community. They noted the positive impact of a vegetarian lifestyle on the condition cardiovascular body systems. Iron and vitamin B12 were in normal amounts in the blood.

Researchers have carefully studied the diet of this group. Basically, they do not eat white bread and pastries, instead they use their own black bread. Among the cereals, millet, buckwheat and rice are the priority, less often oatmeal, barley or pearl barley porridge are eaten.

Most of the members of the settlement do not eat pasta, vegetable oil. If oil is used, it is either olive or sunflower. All respondents consume lentils, soybeans, peas and beans.

The consumption of vegetables and fruits in this group depends on the season. Carrots, cabbage, garlic, onions, potatoes, pumpkin, turnips are always present in the usual diet. During the season, dill, celery, green onions, mint, cilantro, wild garlic, nettle, blueberries, strawberries, pears, plums, dandelion are added. The diet is also rich in dried fruits.

It is believed that such vegetarians will have to eat all day to replenish their strength. However, even in cold regions, this is not necessary. The fact is that products of plant origin in small portions give the body all the necessary substances to ensure proper metabolism.

Since vegetables and fruits are digested better, the body spends less energy on the digestion process.

So, vegetarianism is useful not only for those living in warm regions. With proper nutrition, it will be useful in northern latitudes.

Myth 5. Doctors do not support veganism.

Bernard Shaw, a well-known raw foodist and vegetarian, at the age of 70 answered journalists' questions that he was doing well, only doctors say that if he does not eat meat, he will die. When asked the same question 20 years later, Shaw said that all those doctors had long since died.

The United States became the first country in which doctors began to massively prescribe patients to refuse meat. And all because in this country they eat the most meat, and then the highest level of diseases cardiovascular systems. Since such diseases have become a real epidemic, doctors advise to give up meat food and switch to a vegetarian lifestyle.

Modern doctors confirm that a vegetarian diet can be an excellent treatment for many diseases. Therefore, not all doctors are against vegetarianism. And those who are convinced of its harm, probably have not studied the features of vegetarianism enough and believe all the myths.

Details on the attitude of the World Health Organization towards vegetarianism

Myth 6. Vegetarianism is difficult.

It is widely believed that vegetarianism is difficult, since a person needs to spend a lot of energy looking for a replacement for meat. This myth was invented by those people who are simply too lazy to lead such a lifestyle. It just seems like a real problem. In fact, if it is difficult for a person to switch from meat-eating to vegetarianism, it is enough to study its types.

So, lacto-ovo vegetarianism excludes only fish and meat. In this case, a person can eat all plant products, as well as eggs and dairy products. This diet is affordable and safe.

Lacto vegetarianism based on avoiding fish, meat and eggs. You can eat dairy and vegetable products. With such a diet, it is important to maintain the balance on which the science of Ayurveda is based. More details about lacto vegetarianism

Veganism is the most restrictive diet. With her, all dairy products, meat, fish and eggs are excluded from the diet. However, this way of eating can be complete with the right balance of grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, herbs and nuts. Learn more about the vegan diet

Myth 7. Vegetarianism is expensive.

According to myths, vegetarianism is expensive. In fact, everyone can afford it. What's more, it's estimated that a vegetarian diet saves about $4,000 annually. It was for the sake of economy that Benjamin Franklin became an adherent of vegetarianism.

Cheese, eggs, sour cream, cereal products have always been cheaper than meat. At the moment, these are the most affordable products that can be found in any region.

To confirm this information, it is enough to remember that soy is often added to sausages to save money, and not meat, since it is cheaper.

Myth 8. Vegetarianism is against religion.

Many argue that, from the point of view of religion, God created animals to feed man. However, one of the 10 main commandments of the Bible says: "Thou shalt not kill."

This is confirmed by the following passages:

Genesis 9:
"one. And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.
2. let all the beasts of the earth fear and tremble at you, and all the birds of the air, everything that moves on the earth, and all the fish of the sea: they are given into your hands;
3. everything moving that lives will be your food; like green grass I give you everything;
4. Only flesh with her soul, with her blood, do not eat.

Quran, sura 5.4:
“Forbidden to you are carrion, and blood, and the meat of a pig, and that which is slaughtered with the invocation of any name other than the name of Allah.”

Genesis 9.4-5:
“Only flesh with its life, with its blood, do not eat. I will also demand your blood, in which is your life, I will demand from the hand of every beast.

Vegetarianism not only does not contradict world religions, but also confirms their foundations. Both Christianity and Islam prohibit murder. And if we apply this to humans, why should we make animals an exception?

So, we got acquainted with the main myths about vegetarianism and dispelled them. This does not mean that vegetarianism is the ideal way of life. No, and it has pitfalls.

But the benefits of vegetarianism far outweigh the harm it can cause. So, vegetarianism is worth practicing in your life.

At the end of April, a scandal erupted among vegetarians: the largest American magazine and website vegnews.com used photographs of meat dishes to illustrate vegetarian recipes. Read about what the supporters of kill-free nutrition whisper about, about deception in the vegan environment and “vegetarian extremism” in our material.

Alexander Tushkin / Health Info

Moreover, the magazine was caught publishing absurd recipes: vegan ribs, vegan hot dog and vegan burger. The blogger found the originals on commercial photo stocks. For publication, the images were processed in image editors: the bones disappeared from the mouth-watering pork ribs, and the burger cutlet lost its predatory appearance.

Veganism is a strict form of vegetarianism. Vegans do not eat or use any animal products. If the cookies contain eggs or gelatin, which is made from bone meal, then a vegan will not eat such cookies. Vegans do not wear genuine leather clothing or shoes.

In response to criticism, the moderators of the resource began to delete comments. However, outraged readers managed to achieve publicity for the scandal - the original blog post received more than 5 thousand "likes" on Facebook and more than a thousand retweets. As a result, vegnews.com issued its official apology and promised to never again use images of meat dishes to illustrate vegetarian recipes.

I have come across deception in a vegetarian environment several times when I kept on a plant-based diet for more than 2 years.

Mama, throw away the meat

Once I, a first-year student of journalism, came home and announced to my mother at dinner that I would no longer eat meat. Mom laughed at first, then got angry. The cutlets had to be given to my brother. Then a few more times it came to quarrels, although in general she calmly perceived my whims while I ate dairy products and eggs.

I became a vegetarian for ethical reasons and under the influence of fashion. I liked that the honest and open guys from the hardcore party (an offshoot of punk - ed.) are capable of sincere sympathy. They were concerned with everything - the monstrous experiments on animals to determine the average lethal dose, when corrosive substances were instilled into the eyes of rabbits, the inhuman fur industry, when an electrode was inserted into the anus and current was passed to chinchillas to kill, environmental pollution with animal waste.

I started going to hardcore gigs regularly, wearing the Meat is Murder badge. and eat pasta with soy meat. Close meat-eaters, whom we contemptuously called corpse-eaters, got stupid questions: “Why don’t you eat meat? A man must eat meat!” Vegetarianism gave me a sense of superiority, even chosenness - because I managed to realize some truth and follow it. I thought that for most people it was inaccessible and incomprehensible due to their limitations.

However, in my case, it never came to outright sectarianism. I tolerated the fact that people around me could eat sausages. My friend, a zookeeper from Krasnodar, forcibly put my mother on a kill-free diet: at first he forced her to throw away the meat that was bought in the store, if she refused, then he did it himself. Several times she tried to swindle him by secretly making "vegetarian" soups in meat broth. But now the whole family is eating vegetables and soy meat.

Sometimes it came to outright stupidity. For example, going to grocery stores with vegans turned into a real torment. They could spend several minutes studying the composition of products, so that, God forbid, some animal product was caught there. And my vegan friend from Moscow never even sat on the seats in minibuses and the subway, since their upholstery was made of leatherette, and it reminded him of leather.

What Vegans Are Hiding

If vegetarians often look down on meat-eaters, then vegans can do this in relation to vegetarians, as they consider themselves a more perfect step in the development of the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bkillless nutrition (according to this logic, fruitarians are generally a branch of the heavenly office). In their opinion, vegetarianism is a pop, lightweight version of veganism.

The intrusive propaganda of vegans annoyed me even more than the stupid questions of meat eaters (“Son, why don’t you eat chicken broth? Chicken is not meat! Then try sausages”). At some point, I began to feel disgust for everything vegan: an ostentatious love for animals, an arrogant and aggressive position towards the surrounding "corpse eaters", isolation in my own party, consumption of "environmental goods": the market reacted to the vegan wave in its own, perverted form . There was a line of sex toys that did not use animal products, vegetarian pornography (disgusting sight), vegan condoms, expensive vegan shoes. A whole new sector of the economy appeared, which was responsible for the production and consumption of "environmental products".

In a large company, vegans boasted of their excellent health, sometimes even success in bed. However, in private conversations, it turned out that a vegan diet contributes to the destruction of hair and nails, deterioration of skin elasticity, exacerbation of chronic diseases, and weight loss. Perhaps more serious ailments were overlooked, because it is easier to follow the health of your own nails. Moreover, almost all my vegan girls I knew complained about hair and nails. Many of them were subsequently forced to include dairy products and eggs in their diets to make up for their vitamin B 12 deficiency. For some reason, vegans do not like to talk about this.

So why do vegans lie? The answer to this question was found by Canadian scientists from the University of Toronto. In April 2010, they conducted a study and came to an unexpected conclusion: consumers of "green products" not only lie more often, but also steal more often! They justify their behavior with love for nature. Allegedly, they are such good defenders of nature that you can pocket some money. During the experiment, volunteers had to determine the number of dots on a computer screen. For each correct answer, they received 5 Canadian cents if the dots were on the right side, and 0.5 cents if they were on the left. In total, they could earn 2.07 dollars (60 rubles), and then pick up the reward from the box on their own. It turned out that green consumers lied with 8.9% more dots on the right side and stole 0.36 cents out of the box on average.

For the love of nature, some vegans go beyond lying and stealing. There have been several high-profile trials in the United States (I know of 5 cases) when kill-free eating couples fed applesauce to newborn children to death. The parents were sentenced to life terms. As Dr. William Jarvis points out in his eponymous article Why I'm Not a Vegetarian Anymore, rickets, stunting and mental retardation are common among vegetarian children. That is why the British Ministry of Health does not recommend a vegetarian diet for baby food. You can deceive yourself, but why deceive children?

Often the level of self-deception develops into "ideological vegetarian extremism", which denies not only the way of life of a society that mainly consists of meat-eaters, but also the achievements of science and medicine. Vegetarians become vegans, vegans become raw foodists, raw foodists become fruitarians, fruitarians become liquidarians (sit on juices), liquidarians become breatharians (eat air), and the latter just successfully die.

Moreover, such violence against the body rises to the level of religious consciousness. Restriction in nutrition - "purification of the body, self-improvement on the way to a clearer future." Although there is no scientific basis for this, most of the arguments of "vegetarian extremists" are pseudo-medical research based on thinking about "energy channels" and other metaphysical nonsense.

Meat, hello again

An opportunity presented itself to complete my vegetarian practice. I went in for sports, and I needed to consume a large amount of complete protein. Plant foods no longer satisfied me, so I switched to meat.

I can't say that my health somehow changed after I stopped eating meat, as I consumed a sufficient amount of dairy products and eggs. However, I am grateful for the experience, because it allowed me to look at many things with fresh eyes.

Vegetarianism currently has no medical arguments (other than hypercholesterolemia and obesity) for most of the Earth to switch to plant-based food. And you can't live on faith alone.

With this text, I did not want to offend vegetarians, many of whom are my close friends. I still consider them to be among the most sensitive people who are capable of sincere compassion. It's just that sometimes this compassion takes ugly forms.

Animal husbandry is an efficient use of land
The population of this planet is now approaching six billion and, even if all countries on earth today implement strict and effective birth control policies, it is estimated that the total population will increase to fifteen billion before growth stabilizes. The total land area of ​​the planet is 179,941,270 square kilometers (69,479,518 square miles). Some simple math tells us that at present, on average, one square kilometer should support just over thirty-three people. If the entire area were cultivated, this would certainly be possible.

Note: As of February 2015, the world's population was 7,274,586,680 people according to http://countrymeters.info/ru/World/. In 2015, the population of the Earth will continue to increase and at the end of the year will be 7,345,951,495 people. Natural population growth will be positive and will amount to 83,020,532 people. The world population growth rate in 2015 will be 226,334 people per day.

The argument, however, fails because not all land is available for arable cultivation. The main environmental factors that determine the development and distribution of plants are soil type and climate. We can subtract the entire unproductive continent of Antarctica, so that the total immediately drops by 13,335,740 square kilometers. We may also subtract, at least in the interest of agriculture, all other ice-covered regions, tundra, mountains, deserts, heaths and moors, river-occupied regions, salt marshes and lakes, cities, roads, and railroads; and to a large extent semi-desert, savannah, tropical forests, low-lying valleys and lands subject to regular flooding. We have now subtracted most of the Earth's surface. In fact, only eleven percent of the Earth's surface can be cultivated.

Almost all of the land we have just subtracted actually supports grass or other plant life that we cannot use directly. We need a system that converts this grass into a form of food that we can eat. And we have one: most of the land that we subtracted from arable use can and is used to grow food for animals. Take, for example, New Zealand. It is a country of 269,000 square kilometers - larger than Great Britain - with a human population of 3 million, a sheep population of 42 million, and plenty of cattle. When I was in New Zealand for three months in the spring of 1999, I didn't see a single grain field. This is not surprising: since the landscape is rarely flat, and the volcanic rock on which New Zealand stands is very close to the surface, this country is very inconvenient for growing grain. And the same applies to many other parts of the world.

Currently, one third of the world's population is starving. If we all became vegetarians, then we would recognize as useless and stop cultivating all the land that feeds only food animals. But excluding from production all land that supports livestock but cannot support farming is unlikely to alleviate the problem. In many areas where animals are raised, they are the only thing that can be grown. In these areas, therefore, pastoralism is the most efficient use of the land.

A vegetarian may argue that uncultivable land can now be made habitable, but this is an argument that has already been shown to be false. The land use situation is not static. As the population has increased this century, the amount of land available for cultivation has decreased. Where deforestation has taken place to pave the way for cultivation, soils are more exposed to rainfall and temperature. These processes deplete the organic material of the soil, soils harden and turn into deserts. In 1882, desert or wasteland covered about 9.4 percent of the Earth's surface. By 1952 their zone had increased to nearly twenty-five percent. This is a growing trend and what happens once it happens is very difficult, if not impossible, to change completely.

In many areas with naturally low productive capacity, irrigation is being used to increase agricultural productivity. But irrigation carries with it the seeds of its own destruction. Semi-arid soils are characteristically saline. Irrigation water from essentially the same locality is also usually saline. Without adequate drainage, irrigation water seeps into the soil and raises the water table. This brings the water level closer to the surface, where it evaporates more freely, leaving salt chemicals behind. Over time, sodium, magnesium and calcium salts clog pores in the soil and leave a whitish coating on the surface. This process not only breaks down the soil structure so that yields drop, it eventually leads to a level of salinity where no plant can grow. Kovda estimates that sixty to eighty percent of all irrigated land, millions of acres, is being converted to desert in this way.

Most of the world is covered not by land, but by oceans and seas. Currently, millions of tons of fish are caught and processed every year. Just like meat, many vegetarians don't eat fish. If vegetarianism really caught on and people on the planet stopped eating fish, then the two-thirds of the population who are not currently starving would soon join the third who are.

The situation in Britain

Prosperous, well-fed Britain has a total land area of ​​approximately 88,736 square miles (229,827 sq km) and a population of 57,537,000 (1991 census). Arable land and horticulture cover thirty percent, while permanent meadows and pastures cover fifty percent of the total area. But all this is woefully insufficient - we still have to import one-third of the food we need.

The main animal husbandry of Great Britain is sheep, which are raised in almost every part of the kingdom. If we all became vegetarians, then the mountains of Wales and Scotland would become largely unproductive, like the moorlands of central and northern England. We wouldn't eat 720,000 tons of fish every year - 12.7 kg (28 pounds) per head. If we were all vegetarians, how much more food would we have to import? And where would she come from? The US and Canada, who are net grain exporters, would seem to be the answer to the latter question, although our food import bill - already 6 billion pounds a year - will increase alarmingly. If they also became vegetarians, however, they would also have to import. No: if we all became vegetarians, make no mistake, we would starve.

Fishing problem

For many lacto-ovo vegetarians, killing animals is a problem. On moral grounds, some tend to switch to fish-eating - although the logic by which the killing of fish is considered acceptable, but land animals is not, I do not understand. In this shift of faith, they are encouraged that eating fish allows the Japanese to live longer and that it is good for health. Wanting to be healthy themselves, they buy sea fish like cod, sea bass, red snapper and haddock. But this fish does not contain the "healthy" omega-3 fatty acids that doctors advise us to eat.

Fish resources are declining. Cod was usually a cheap fish. It now costs £7.70 a kilo, £2 more than cooked salmon. Since prices reflect the laws of supply and demand, this can only mean one thing: there is a shortage of cod. Cod isn't the only fish that's in short supply around the UK, so are fish, wild salmon and angelfish. Same story all over the world. One fish that is now in abundance is the North Sea herring. It does contain omega-3 fats and, along with mackerel, are good for us. It is also the cheapest fish on the market and yet the British have almost stopped eating it.

The fish for which we refuse herring are tuna from the Pacific Ocean and other exotic species: tiger prawns from India and sailfish from the Caribbean. This change reflects a growing and worrying trend. With the North Sea nearly depleted and now heavily guarded, Third World fishermen, hungry for foreign exchange, are plundering their own dwindling supplies in other unguarded oceans.

With the fact that it is more and more difficult to catch a lot of fish, modern fishermen and their equipment are becoming more and more sophisticated. Cornish fishermen use four mile long drift nets to fish for tuna in the North Atlantic. The nets are called "walls of death" because of the number of dolphins and other unwanted fish that get caught in them. Japanese tuna tackle is a sixty-five mile long cable with thousands of baited hooks. In the North Sea, trawling does more harm than pollution.

The fish are very good at restoring their numbers - if they are allowed to do so. But not many will. Despite international agreements and quotas, in the northern seas, no one, with the possible exception of Iceland, manages their fish resources properly, and the problem of overfishing is growing out of control.

The fishermen's methods were similar to farming. But they are centuries behind: the farmer grows and collects, the fisherman, like a primitive hunter-gatherer, only collects. He does not use his resources as efficiently as a land farmer. Without fish, we would have a hard time on this island in terms of food of sufficient quality. We need fish, but we will only exacerbate the problem of depletion of fish stocks if we switch from meat to fish - from efficient animal husbandry to inefficient and wasteful fishing.

Killing animals for food is an immoral evil

A question often posed by vegetarians is: how can you justify killing innocent animals for food? This question seems difficult to answer, but in reality it is not. Would it be reasonable to ask a lion to justify his killing of an innocent gazelle? Of course not: it is natural for a lion to kill gazelles, and that is justification enough. And what about the gazelle's right not to be eaten? Putting them this way, you can see that such questions are really meaningless. The same is true for us as we are not a vegetarian species.

But, if the reluctance to kill animals is the reason for the vegetarian's position, then he should know that, when cultivating the land for food crops, a person kills more animals. The following email I received illustrates this well:

Dear Dr. Groves,

I agree with most of your arguments about the poor judgment of most vegetarians. As a fairly observant zoologist, pathologist, and occasional farmer, I can add even more.

As you and I know, most vegetarians are motivated, at least in part, by their view of animal consumption as immoral. Most of them, of course, are urban dwellers who have never had the opportunity to cultivate agricultural fields.

Grain agriculture, even excluding invertebrates, is destructive to small amphibians, reptiles, nesting birds and mammals. Even the occasional large mammal is harmed in the process of farming. Inevitably, the plow destroys burrows and young growth. Harvesters and combines kill some animals, and expose others to the gentle mercy of predators. Many times I've watched coyotes and hawks follow my tractor, feasting on plow and reaper victims. [hey, but that's good for those predators].

Indeed, how could it be otherwise? Vegetables and grains are the food of many animals. For rodents, crops are a real bonanza in terms of food and shelter. They multiply rapidly, which only increases their numbers during field preparation and harvest.

In my reflection, there is little point that raising animals for meat, especially if they are not fed with agricultural products, is much less destructive to animal life than agriculture. If one acre of land allows one sheep per year to be slaughtered, one life is taken. If one acre of land is turned over to grain production, the cost in mammalian lives alone can be measured in dozens or more.

Of course, the death of animals during agricultural work is “invisible” and therefore it seems to be non-existent. Lamb chops in the market are seen and the vegetarians mourn the victim. I know that these facts do not affect animal rights advocates - they are almost as uninterested in the death and suffering of animals as they are in the death and suffering of animals from deliberate human actions. Their focus, in fact, is not on the protection of animals, but on the control of other people. Ron b.

We are not a vegetarian species

We refer to our ancestors and various modern primitive tribes as "hunter-gatherers".

Vegetarianism is unnatural. This is not a modern find. The Bible gives us evidence of this, and clues that vegetarianism was not regarded as beneficial. In Genesis chapter 4, Eve had Cain and Abel. "And Abel was a shepherd of the sheep, but Cain tilled the ground." That “but” in the middle of a sentence is the first clue to disapproval. This disapproval is confirmed in verses three through five. Abel and Cain bring offerings to God: Abel his sheep, Cain the fruits of the earth. God, we are told, took notice of Abel's offering, but He ignored Cain's vegetarian offering.

The Bible, however, can only give a sense of the time when it was written. This does not provide a conclusive answer to the question of what we really should be eating. Are we a carnivorous, omnivorous or vegetarian species?

The answer to this question lies in our past. But not in the near future. Our way of living is now based on advanced agriculture and the domestication of plants and animals. This is a very recent invention: we haven't been able to adapt to it yet. To determine which foods would make the ideal diet for us as a species, we must look far back into our evolutionary history. The food we are and should eat is not a matter of current dietary fads, it is determined by what we have adapted to over millions of years and what is coded in our genes.

We can trace the development of Man from early hominin remains found in Africa and other parts of the world, dated as early as five and a half million years. We have reports of fossilized bones from both humans and animals. We found stone tools and implements that must have been used to kill and cut flesh or to grind plants. We even found hominid feces. These findings led to a great deal of speculation. Is our species carnivorous, omnivorous, or herbivorous?

We call our ancestors and various modern primitive tribes "hunter-gatherers." Today in the world, some tribes live exclusively on meat and fish. Others live largely on fruits, nuts, and roots, although meat is also highly valued by them. It is obvious, therefore, that we can survive on a wide variety of foods. But what, if any, is really our natural diet as a species?

There are three possible diet combinations we can consider:

that we were completely carnivorous, hunting and killing animals;
or that we were omnivores, feeding on a mixed diet of both vegetable and animal origin;
or that we were herbivores, i.e. vegetarians.

The vegetarian hypothesis is that we were completely dependent on plant foods and that meat never played an important role in our development. This is a hypothesis that has had fervent support in the US.

fossil evidence

The difference between the volume of the digestive system of a gorilla and a human

The first evidence is found at fossil excavation sites. Where hominid remains are found, animal bones are also found, sometimes thousands of them. If we didn't eat meat, why not?

Secondly, while modern hunting tribes do eat plants, they do have fire. Without fire, we could digest very few plant foods with sufficient calories. There were fruits, of course, but there is not a single prehistoric site in all of Africa that indicates forests vast enough to supply enough fruit to meet the needs of its inhabitants. Indeed, there is agreement that our ancestors did not live in forests at all, but in savannahs, where there were vast grassy plains. However, the herb has no value for our digestive system. Even living on fleshier leaves would require the much more specialized digestive systems of other primates. Compare the shape of a gorilla with that of a human. The area between the chest and legs of a gorilla is much larger than the same part of a human. This is why the gorilla, a herbivore, needs a much larger digestive system. Plant cell walls are made of cellulose, a form of dietary fiber. There is no enzyme in the human digestive system that breaks it down. And if the cell walls are not destroyed, the nutrients of the cells cannot be digested. Passing unaffected right through the intestines, all plant nutrients are removed as waste.

Research done on monkeys led to the suggestion that grass seeds may have supplied us with the energy we needed. However, if this was the case, why can't we eat them now without being cooked? Basic seeds such as rice, wheat, corn and beans play an important role in our lives today. All of them, however, must be cooked before we can eat any of them. Seeds and berries are the reproductive system of plants. Many are designed to attract animals to eat them, but there is little point in doing so if the seeds are digested. No, they are difficult to digest - deliberately, their purpose is to pass through the animal, purified, and take root elsewhere. Only two means are available to make them digestible: cooking and grinding.

Prior to the use of fire, the only way to make seeds digestible was to crush them, breaking down the cell walls of the plants, but no archaeologist has ever found a Stone Age tool for this work. If only chewing is used, a lot of seeds will remain intact, and, having passed through the body undigested, will be passed out with feces. Hominid faeces, or coprolites as they are called, have been found and studied in detail. Older coprolites from Africa do not contain any plant material. Relatively recent ones from North America have included just about anything remotely edible, from eggshells and feathers to seeds and plant fibers. But these remnants appear only after the Paleo-Indians began to use fire, and even then the seeds pass undigested and whole. Thus, there is no doubt that the seeds could not have been a natural part of their diet.

Homo erectus appreciated the benefits of fire about 350,000 years ago. It is true that if our ancestors started cooking grain then, we might have evolved and adapted to it by now. However, grain cooking is not as simple as meat cooking. You cannot hang a piece of grain over a fire or put it in hot coals. To cook grain and other seeds, you need a container of some sort. The oldest known pot is only 6,800 years old. In terms of evolution, it was only yesterday.

In order to have any reliance on cooking, you also need to be able to wield fire. Although 100,000 year old pockets have been found, they are relatively rare. European Neanderthal coprolites, approximately 50,000 years old, do not contain any plant material at all prior to the use of fire. Only in the Cro-Magnon colonizations of Europe, about 35,000 years ago, does the focus appear everywhere. However, even then they were used simply for heating, not for cooking plants. At that time, Europe was dominated by a succession of ice ages. For about 70,000 years, there was a long cold winter and a short cold summer. The Cro-Magnon and his Eurasian ancestors couldn't eat plants - most of the year there were none! He ate meat or died. And he ate this meat raw.

Fats and brain size

There was already overwhelming evidence that we could not be a vegetarian species. However, in 1972 the publication of two independent studies did nail the coffin of the vegetarian hypothesis. The first was about fats.

Approximately half of our brains and nervous systems are made up of complex, long-chain fatty acid molecules. The walls of our blood vessels also need them. Without them, we cannot develop normally. These fatty acids are not produced in plants. Fatty acids in their simpler form are produced, but they must be converted into long-chain molecules by animals, a slow, time-consuming process. This is where herbivores come into play. Over the course of a year, they convert the simple fatty acids found in herbs and seeds into intermediate, more complex forms that we can convert into the ones we need.

Our brain is considerably larger than that of any monkey. Looking back at fossil evidence from early hominids to modern humans, we see a very marked increase in brain size. This expansion needed large amounts of the right fatty acids before it could have happened. This might never have happened if our ancestors hadn't eaten meat. Women's milk contains fatty acids necessary for the development of a large brain - cow's milk does not. It's no coincidence that, in relative terms, our brains are about fifty times the size of a cow's.

A vegetarian might be dismayed to know that while soybeans are rich in complete protein, grains and nuts can also be combined to provide complete proteins, none of which contain the fats that are essential for proper brain development.

Although eating fat today is believed by some to be the cause of heart disease, we know that our ancestors ate large amounts of fat. Animal skulls are opened and brains are selected; long bones are likewise smashed to expose the marrow. Both brain and bone marrow are very rich in fat.

Toxicity of raw vegetables

The second study dealt with the inedibility of many of today's plant foods in their raw state, which contain many antinutrients that harm many human physiological systems. These antinutrients include alkylresorcinols, alpha-amylase inhibitors, protease inhibitors, etc. They must be destroyed by cooking over time before they can be eaten without harm. Beans and other legumes, although rich in both carbohydrate and protein, also contain protease inhibitors. The starchy roots - yams and cassava - are common staples today, but if not well cooked, are very poisonous indeed. Cassava even contains cyanide, which must be oxidized at high temperatures to make it safe for the body. And besides the antinutrients above, the starch in cereals—wheat, rice, barley, oats, and rye—is also inedible in bulk unless first cooked. Cooking causes the starch granules in flour to swell and break down in a process called gelatinization. Without this, starch is much less susceptible to the digestive action of pancreatic amylase. Unlike meat, which can be easily digested when raw, vegetables should never be eaten completely raw, and cereals must be fermented and then cooked for a very long time before being eaten to neutralize phytic acid and other toxic antinutrients. The fact that we don't do this is the reason for so many cases of atopic diseases - asthma, eczema, and so on - around today.

There is no doubt that no matter what, we cannot be a vegetarian species. At least since Homo erectus appeared on the cold Eurasian continent, some 500,000 years ago, we have had to live and adapt to a diet almost exclusively of meat.

All these moments are evidence that we were purely carnivorous animals, like tigers. However, we are a remarkably successful species. It is unlikely that we would be so successful if we were forced to rely on only one source of food. It is evident from the archaeological remains that we tended to be more omnivorous. We hunted and ate meat first and foremost, but if meat was scarce, we could eat almost anything that didn't require cooking. This still rules out some root vegetables and most of the legumes and cereals we eat today. When there was not enough meat, we got proteins from nuts and ate fruits and berries. During our development, therefore, when we lived well, our diet was high in protein and fat: in fasting times, it included more carbohydrates.

Thus, our ideal diet, to which we are adapted and developed, should be high in protein and fat, and low in carbohydrates.

There is another piece of evidence that actually confirms this. This is the structure of our digestive organs and digestive enzymes, which are exactly comparable to those of large carnivores and have nothing to do with herbivores.

On average, a kilogram of potato chips costs two hundred times more than a kilogram of potatoes.

Myth 9. Avoiding meat and milk will protect your body from carcinogens.

Vegetarians claim that meat, fish and milk are extremely high in carcinogens, heavy metals, steroids and hormones.

But the reason for the entry of harmful substances into these products is the use of plant foods containing these chemical compounds. When organic fertilization of pastures, as well as when catching wild fish, such compounds are not found in meat, milk and fish.

In addition, a nutritious diet that includes animal products rich in vitamins A and B12 helps the body better cope with the negative effects of the environment. Including - and with the influence of heavy metals and carcinogens, which can be contained not only in products, but also in polluted air.

MYTH 10. Vegetarian diet helps to normalize hormonal levels

Some argue that foods classified as phytoestrogens help normalize the hormonal levels of women during menopause.

Studies show that the effect on the body of phytoestrogens, found mainly in soy, is very controversial. They can disrupt the functioning of the thyroid gland, cause degenerative processes in the brain, and cause infertility in people of childbearing age.

In addition, for the normal production of hormones, the human body needs vitamins A, D and cholesterol, which are present in animal products. Deficiency of these elements leads to frequent mood swings and depression.

MYTH 11. Vegetarian children will live longer and healthier lives.

Vegetarians believe that setting an example for their children guarantees them a long, healthy life. But, firstly, adherence to a strict vegetarian diet jeopardizes the very fact of having children.

Secondly, the deficiency of vital elements (B12, B2, etc.) in the child's body is fraught with violations of not only physical, but also mental development.

Even adhering to lacto-ovo vegetarianism, you doom your body to a lack of these substances. And during pregnancy, such severe dietary restrictions are completely contraindicated.

MYTH 12. Becoming a vegetarian is easy.

People who consider humans to be members of the herbivore family claim that switching to a vegetarian diet is easy, and preparing vegetarian dishes is very simple.

If we can agree with the last part, then the fact of the ease of such a radical change in the power system raises vague doubts. The transition to vegetarianism is accompanied by malaise, depression and irritability, because the body does not receive the substances necessary for full-fledged work.

In the United States, the promotion of vegetarianism began with the founding of the American Vegetarian Society in 1850.

Its founder, Sylvester Graham, not only invented whole-grain Graham Bread, but also recommended a fiber-rich diet as a cure for lust and alcoholism. Graham claimed that malnutrition (which he considered the consumption of meat and white flour products) was the root cause of excessive sexual desire, which irritated the body and caused diseases.

One of Graham's followers, John Harvey Kellogg, invented peanut butter and corn flakes. Kellogg, who advocated the benefits of abstinence even in marriage, also recommended a vegetarian diet as a remedy for sexual desire and constipation.

Vegetarianism is the partial or complete rejection of products that are of animal origin.

This principle of nutrition is becoming more and more popular and already very common in the world, and in our country in particular.

But is there any truth in these principles, and moreover, is there any benefit? What is the harm of vegetarianism, what are the pros and cons of vegetarianism.

Vegetarian nutrition

With vegetarianism, a person uses about 300 types of vegetables, root crops, about 600 types of fruits and about 200 types of nuts. Protein sources include nuts, legumes (especially soybeans, lentils, beans, peas), as well as spinach, cauliflower, kohlrabi, and wheat. Sources of fat are vegetable oils - olive, sunflower, linseed, hemp, mustard, coconut, bean, corn, walnut, poppy, almond, cotton, etc.

• 25% - raw leafy and root vegetables according to the season in the form of salads;
• 25% - raw fresh fruits or well-soaked dried;
• 25% - green and root vegetables cooked on fire;
• 10% - proteins (nuts, cottage cheese, dairy products);
• 10% - carbohydrates (all types of cereals and bread products, sugar);
• 5% - fats (butter, margarine, vegetable fats).
• The use of seasonings and vinegar is excluded.

To more fully meet the need for proteins, a combination of the following products is recommended:

• rice with beans or sesame;
• wheat with legumes, peanuts, sesame and soy;
• legumes with corn or wheat;
• soy with rice and wheat, with wheat and sesame, or with peanuts and sesame;
• sesame with legumes, with peanuts and soybeans, with soybeans and wheat;
• peanuts with sunflower seeds.

Types of Vegetarianism

There are several gradations of vegetarianism, but the main ones are four:

1. Classical vegetarianism - a type of food in which only fish and meat are prohibited. But milk, eggs, honey are allowed. Sometimes the reasons for the transition to classical vegetarianism are not caused by ideology, but by the body's rejection of the taste of any meat products - a kind of allergy.

2. Lacto-vegetarianism - a type of food in which honey and milk are allowed. Eggs are prohibited, along with meat and fish.

3. Ovo-vegetarianism - a type of diet in which milk is prohibited, and honey and eggs, on the contrary, are allowed.

4. Veganism - with such a diet, only foods of plant origin are allowed. Mushrooms are allowed for consumption, although they have nothing to do with plants. There are separate subclasses of vegans, for example, raw foodists, who eat exclusively unprocessed food, that is, raw. Or fruitarians, who oppose, in principle, any "killing", that is, not only animals, waterfowl, etc., but also plants. Fruitarians eat only fruits of plants: vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds.

In fact, there is no clear division in the literature, therefore, the subspecies of vegetarianism are very conditional, and the advantages of vegetarianism are often unscientific. Some vegetarian schools allow fish to be eaten, but meat is forbidden. And in some cases, the situation is generally absurd - for example, only red meat is prohibited, but white meat can be eaten.

It is up to you to make a choice in favor of vegetarianism or not, and we will only tell you the objective disadvantages of vegetarianism and the advantages of vegetarianism, about the harm that vegetarianism brings, and how it really helps the body. So, vegetarianism - pros and cons.

History of Vegetarianism

What is a vegetarian diet? Vegetarianism is not a newfangled diet that promotes weight loss and health improvement, but a thousands of years old system that implies a complete or partial refusal to eat animal products.

The term "vegetarianism" was introduced into use by the British, some scientists believe that this word is derived from the Latin "vegetus" - peppy, strong, full of strength. Members of the British Vegetarian Society in 1842 became convinced that in India a plant-based diet brings undoubted benefits and, promoting it at home, introduced the term Homo Vegetus, which means a harmoniously developed personality. At first, the word "vegetarian" was more philosophical in nature, only over time it began to refer to a person adhering to a plant-based diet.

Vegetarianism implies not just a certain set of nutritional rules, but rather a person's life position. Many people who adhere to a vegetarian diet have advocated for animals, feeling their own involvement in the world of wildlife. Vegetarianism is adhered to by Buddhists who try not to harm even insects, believing that killing it will negatively affect the karma of the "killer". The Vedic culture, which calls for a plant-based diet, stands for life in harmony with nature and in peace with animals (they are against their destruction). Priests in ancient Egypt did not eat animal meat, so as not to interfere with their "magical" abilities. The ancient Greeks also practiced vegetarianism.

The sacred books of many peoples contain indications of the preference for eating plant foods. So, in the Bible, in the book of Genesis, it is said that initially people had to eat food of plant origin. The Qur'an mentions that stomachs should not be made graves for animals.

Myth: Vegetarianism is not for everyone.

There is an opinion that vegetarianism is not suitable for people living in cold climates. A clear refutation of this is the settlement of vegetarians in Siberia, which has existed for 17 years. A team of doctors carefully studied the health status of each member of the community. They noted the positive impact of a vegetarian lifestyle on the state of the cardiovascular system of the body. Iron and vitamin B 12 were in normal amounts in the blood.

Researchers have carefully studied the diet of this group. Basically, they do not eat white bread and pastries, instead they use their own black bread. Among the cereals, millet, buckwheat and rice are the priority, less often oatmeal, barley or pearl barley porridge are eaten.

Most of the members of the settlement do not eat pasta, vegetable oil. If oil is used, it is either olive or sunflower. All respondents consume lentils, soybeans, peas and beans.

The consumption of vegetables and fruits in this group depends on the season. Carrots, cabbage, garlic, onions, potatoes, pumpkin, turnips are always present in the usual diet. During the season, dill, celery, green onions, mint, cilantro, wild garlic, nettle, blueberries, strawberries, pears, plums, dandelion are added. The diet is also rich in dried fruits.

It is believed that such vegetarians will have to eat all day to replenish their strength. However, even in cold regions, this is not necessary. The fact is that products of plant origin in small portions give the body all the necessary substances to ensure proper metabolism.

Since vegetables and fruits are digested better, the body spends less energy on the digestion process.

So, vegetarianism is useful not only for those living in warm regions. With proper nutrition, it will be useful in northern latitudes.

Cons of Vegetarianism

According to some estimates, eight hundred million vegetarians live on our planet. There is a lot of talk about how useful vegetarianism is. However, this way of eating also has its downsides. The main drawback of the vegetarian menu is its imbalance in essential nutrients. The diet of adherents of this diet is dominated by carbohydrates, but it contains very little protein and fat, which the body also needs.

Many vegetarians say that they successfully replace animal protein with plant protein. But this is not entirely true. First of all, vegetable protein is absorbed much worse than animal protein. So, no more than thirty percent of the protein is absorbed from leguminous plants. In addition, vegetable protein does not contain all the beneficial amino acids that the body needs and that we get from meat.

In addition to protein, meat also contains other essential substances, such as iron. Eating tons of apples and pomegranates will not make up for the lack of iron in the body the way meat does. Therefore, vegetarians often suffer from anemia. In addition, vitamin B12 is deficient in the diet of vegetarians. This vitamin is not produced in the tissues of the human body, but if it is not enough in the diet, nerve endings begin to break down, cells are poorly restored. This vitamin is found in seafood, meat, offal, cheeses and dairy products.

In addition, a vegetarian diet does not include foods containing vitamin D at all. A lack of this vitamin in children leads to rickets, and in adults to osteoporosis, tooth decay and other unpleasant phenomena. And another vitamin, which is almost absent in plant foods, is B2 or riboflavin. This important vitamin is present in eggs, offal and dairy products. If it is not enough, a person suffers from dizziness, he has wounds on the mucous membranes, he is lethargic and cannot work fruitfully. In small quantities, this vitamin is produced by microbes living in the intestines.

And that is why doctors categorically do not recommend this way of eating for children and adolescents. A vegetarian diet leads to a weakening of the body's defenses, since plant foods do not contain many of the vitamins, minerals and other substances necessary for the life of the body. In this regard, the most acceptable for human health is vegetarianism, in which it is allowed to eat eggs, dairy products and fish.

For those who have consciously chosen a vegetarian diet for themselves, it is advisable to adhere to the following recommendations:

☀ Remember that vegetarianism prescribes not only to exclude certain foods from the diet, but also to lead a healthy lifestyle - give up smoking and alcohol, do not use drugs.

☀ Do not close the meat "gap" formed in the menu with high-calorie plant foods (legumes, nuts, honey) in large quantities, otherwise weight gain cannot be avoided.

☀ Regularly take multivitamin preparations with a high content of vitamins B 12 and D.

☀ To compensate for calcium and iron deficiency, include legumes, nuts, mushrooms, green vegetables, buckwheat, drink fresh orange juice and soy milk in the diet. These products, rich in protein, vitamins and minerals, will to a certain extent replace meat, fish, and dairy products.

☀ Since plant foods (with the exception of legumes) are digested faster, eat a little, but more often.

☀ Prepare vegetable and fruit salads immediately before use - this way vitamins are better preserved in them.

☀ Diversify the menu: reducing the diet to one or two (even very healthy) products will definitely lead to health problems.