How Vegetarian Diet Benefits Your Health
You heard what United Nation says? "MEAT INDUSTRY Is The Number One Cause Of GLOBAL WARMING!" The word is finally getting out!
But wait a second, that's not what will drive people to go vegetarian. How many meat-eaters actually care about global warming? How many of them actually concern about what the world will become? Sadly, less than 1% of the world population.
So, a more sustainable fact is that, vegetarian diet benefits your health and helps you live longer. It's REAL! That's what scientists from all over the world say? They're confirming what vegetarians and vegans have always known and tried to tell you. The British Medical Association and the American Dietetic Association are just two medical societies that recommend you to follow a vegetarian diet.
Let me prove to you by comparing plant-based foods against animal-based food products so as to let you instantly see the health benefits of vegetarians diets.
Benefit #1 - Vegetarian Diet Keeps Heart Disease at Bay
Maybe you've heard eating too much red meat can raise cholesterol and cause heart diseases. Most animal food products are high in saturated fat, and they're the main source of cholesterol in your diet if you're not a vegetarian.
Did you know that by contrast, vegetarian foods help prevent heart disease and can actually lower serum cholesterol?
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) or heart disease is still the number one killer in most developed countries, mainly due to the people's high-fat and high-cholesterol diet. Though blood cholesterol level is not the only contributing factor affecting the risk of CVD, eating plant-based foods does help to balance your cholesterol level.
That's because plant foods contain powerful nutrients such as soluble fiber, polyunsaturated fats, plant protein (especially soy protein) and phytochemicals which can dramatically reduce your blood cholesterol. You can't find these nutrients in meat and seafood. That's why meat eaters suffer, especially those hardcore meat-eaters get the strongest impact on their health.
An increase in blood cholesterol would often mean an increase in bad cholesterol, known as low-density lipoprotein or LDL. LDL is detrimental to your blood vessels when it becomes oxidized by free radicals, thereby encouraging plaque formation on the blood vessel walls.
Over time, plaque hardens, clogging your arteries and impeding blood flow to your heart and brain. Also, smaller plaque sometimes develops blood clots on their surface, which can then detach and go on to block arteries downstream.
What will happen when your arteries get clogged? Yes, the more clogged arteries you have, the higher your risk of getting heart disease and stroke.
So you need antioxidants like vitamin C, E, carotenoids, flavonoids and polyphenolic compounds to neutralize free radicals and help to prevent cell (such as LDL) and tissue damage. And these antioxidants are found exclusively in fruits and vegetables.
Consuming too much harmful fats like saturated fat (found in animal foods) and trans-fat (found in processed foods) can also result in more free radicals oxidation, more tissue damage and plaque formation.
Furthermore, there's twice as much calories in 1 gram of fat (9 calories per gram) compared to 1 gram of protein or carbohydrate (4 calories per gram). You'll face obesity problems when your body stores the unused excess calories.
Plant foods contain healthy fats, or essential fatty acids which are vital for the growth of healthy cell membranes and for support of your brain, cardiovascular, reproductive, immune, and nervous system.
Specifically, essential fatty acids produce hormone-like substances called eiconsanoids to help regulate your body functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, blood clotting, fertility, conception and strengthen your immune system by regulating inflammation and encouraging your body to fight infection.
Did you also know that plant foods can lower blood pressure?
Yes, you'll see less vegans and vegetarians suffer from hypertension because we're able to control our weight better and eat much more fruits and vegetables rich in fiber, potassium, magnesium and phytochemicals.
A balanced vegan or vegetarian diet would also mean lower saturated and trans fat consumption and reduced sodium intakes for you.
Benefit #2 - Vegetarian Diet Prevents Cancer
Your diet largely determines your risk of developing cancer, too. Consuming meat raises your risk of colon and other cancers, and eating processed, smoked or salted meat directly exposes your body to cancer-causing agents.
By eating a variety of fruits and vegetables and eating more of them, you lower your risk of developing many types of cancer. Scientists don't know exactly how plant foods reduce cancer risk, but we can reap the benefits just the same!
How much healthier would you be if you weren't exposed to the antibiotics and synthetic hormones animal food products contain? For livestock populations, antibiotics and steroid hormones prevent illness, promote growth and weight gain, and boost production.
But as they travel up the food chain, what do these substances do for us? How much do they compromise our immune systems? How much of a cancer risk are steroid hormones? For vegetarians and vegans, it simply isn't worth it to wait and find out!
Benefit #3 - Vegetarian Diet Helps You Lose Weight
As a vegetarian, you'll enjoy other health benefits, too. Vegetarians tend to be slimmer than meat eaters due to the low-calorie yet fiber-rich plant foods that'll make you feel full easily to prevent you from over-consuming calories you don't need.
However, as more pre-packaged processed foods sprout up to provide convenience for vegetarians, more vegetarians are becoming overweight. Hence, you must learn what kind of vegetarian foods and how to eat them in order to stay slim and healthy, which is the key to leading a healthy vegetarian lifestyle.
