8 false claims of vegetarians
The philosophical and ethical roots of vegetarianism lie in ancient times. Initially, this food system was promoted as the basis of a lifestyle that excludes violence and murder. The ideas of refusing food of animal origin were at one time shared by Socrates, Pythagoras, Seneca, Leonardo da Vinci, Goethe, Russo, Byron, Voltaire, Shaw, Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy and many other people who left a noticeable mark on history. It should be noted that they came to vegetarianism gradually, in the process of spiritual rethinking of their place in the world. This is why their experience deserves close attention and respect.
Our contemporaries, who refuse animal food, usually do this not because of ethical searches, but taking on faith stories about the dangers of meat products for health. Consider not entirely correct statements that vegetarians often make.
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The human digestive tract is not adapted for the digestion of meat
The digestive organs of carnivorous and herbivorous animals have significant differences. The teeth of herbivores are adapted for crushing hard fiber, the stomach often has several chambers in which sequential cleavage processes take place, and the intestines are very long, which allows them to retain food in the body for a long time and extract the maximum amount of nutrients from it. In predators, chewing teeth are less developed than canines, since they require quick tearing of prey and instant swallowing of pieces of meat. Protein food is digested faster than plant carbohydrates, so the length of the intestine in predators is short.
Human teeth are adapted for both biting and chewing. Its digestive tract is more like that of predators. These features indicate that we are equally capable of eating both animal and plant foods.
Animal protein in the human stomach undergoes rotting
What is the meaning in this case of the word "decay" is not clear. In the conventional sense, putrefaction is the process of slow cell death. Nothing like this happens with meat food entering the human stomach.
Gastric juice contains hydrochloric acid, which helps break down food into tiny pieces, and enzymes that break protein molecules into amino acids, which then enter the small intestine. In a healthy person, the whole process goes on without delay, without causing any harm to health. Rotting animal protein in the stomach is nothing more than a myth.
A vegetarian diet is most beneficial
The benefits of vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts and legumes can hardly be argued. However, only plant foods are unable to provide the human body with a complete set of essential amino acids. If you refuse meat, you still need to include dairy products and eggs in the diet, and ideally also seafood. In this case, you can avoid the problems that are inevitable with a deficiency of a number of substances that are either absent in plant tissues, or are contained in them in very low concentrations.
According to statistics, vegetarians are less likely to suffer from malignant neoplasms of the gastrointestinal tract, kidney and vascular diseases. For meat eaters, the risk of developing cancer of the brain and cervix, diseases of the nervous system, bones and joints is reduced.
In general, we can say the following: a complete rejection of any animal food is harmful, like any extreme, but less radical forms of vegetarianism have a right to exist - with a competent approach to the composition of the diet.
Vegetarians live longer than meat eaters
There is no direct relationship between attitudes towards animal food and longevity. Among the factors contributing to longevity, the most important are living in regions with good ecology (especially clean air and water) and a diet rich in antioxidants.
According to statistics, the largest relative number of centenarians lives in Japan, whose inhabitants are actively eating fish and seafood. In second place are the Scandinavian countries, where fish is also present in the daily diet, namely fish of the northern seas with a high fat content. The third in terms of life expectancy are Italians and French, who consume a solid amount of meat. On the territory of our country, the largest number of centenarians live in Ingushetia and Dagestan, which are traditionally sheep-breeding regions.
A plant-based diet promotes weight loss
Convinced vegetarians are indeed often successful in shedding extra pounds, but this is not so much related to changing the diet, but rather to adhere to the general principles of a healthy lifestyle.
Switching to plant foods does not always mean the complete exclusion of foods that contribute to weight gain. On the contrary, trying to replace animal food with no less tasty and nutritious food, vegetarians are often overly addicted to flour products, sweets, dried fruits, nuts and other foods that are unsafe for the figure.
Plant protein is similar to animal
There are no complete analogues of animal proteins in plants. The proteins that are closest in composition to animals are found in legumes. There are especially many such substances in soy and its processed products (soy milk, tofu cheese, etc.).
Unfortunately, plant proteins are much less digestible. In addition, excessive consumption of soy is fraught with oversaturation of the body with phytoestrogens, which can cause serious hormonal disorders.
Vegetarian diets are cheaper
A delicious and balanced vegetarian menu should include a variety of vegetables, fruits, cereals and vegetable oils, dried fruits, mushrooms, nuts and dietary supplements. Such a set in the climatic zone in which Russia is located is very expensive, especially in winter.
When trying to implement a budget option for a plant-based diet, you will have to do only with potatoes, cereals, flour products, inexpensive seasonal vegetables and vegetable oil, which can have a bad effect on health.
All great apes are herbivorous
This is not true. Chimpanzees, considered the closest modern primates to humans, are omnivores. Even gorillas, which naturally adhere to an exclusively plant-based diet, when kept in captivity, willingly switch to a mixed diet, including fruits, vegetables, eggs, milk and meat. Experts note that this menu not only does not harm the health of animals, but also helps to increase their life expectancy.
The main postulate of vegetarianism is the statement about the immorality of killing living beings for the purpose of eating them. Each person should determine its relevance for himself. It is only worth mentioning that the way of eating has not yet made anyone kind and compassionate.
The moral qualities of a person are manifested, first of all, in his attitude towards other people, and vegetarians can not always serve as an example in this sense. Rather, something else is true: a thinking and finely feeling person can come to an ideological rejection of animal food in the process of spiritual growth, as it may have happened with some of the great thinkers of the past.
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Maria Kulkes Medical journalist About the author
Education: First Moscow State Medical University named after I. M. Sechenov, specialty "General Medicine".
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