We can be slimmer, healthier and save the planet by doing one simple thing, or rather by NOT doing something. How cool is that? Count me in.
In a recent paper published by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, they state:
It is the position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that appropriately planned vegetarian, including vegan, diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. These diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, older adulthood, and for athletes. Plant-based diets are more environmentally sustainable than diets rich in animal products because they use fewer natural resources and are associated with much less environmental damage.
The Academy’s Position Paper makes for fascinating reading.
Concerned about your health? They go on to state:
Vegetarians and vegans are at reduced risk of certain health conditions, including ischemic heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, certain types of cancer, and obesity
Weight loss:
Research indicates that therapeutic use of a vegetarian diet is effective for treating overweight and may perform better than alternative omnivorous diets for the same purpose. Two metaanalyses of intervention trials showed that adoption of vegetarian diets was associated with greater weight loss compared with control diet groups. A vegan diet with structured group support and behavioral therapy compared with the National Cholesterol Education Program diet, was associated with significantly greater weight loss after 1 and 2 years.
Heart disease:
Vegetarian diets improve several modifiable heart disease risk factors, including abdominal obesity, blood pressure, serum lipid profile, and blood glucose.
Vegan diets seem to be most bene- ficial in improving heart disease risk factors. The EPIC-Oxford study revealed that those who consumed a vegan diet ate the most fiber, the least total fat and saturated fat, and had the healthiest body weights and cholesterol levels compared with omnivores and other vegetarians.
Diabetes:
Compared with meat eaters, lacto-ovovegetarians and vegans have lower risk of type 2 diabetes. The Adventist Health Study-2 reported that meat eaters had more than twice the prevalence of diabetes compared with lactoovo-vegetarians and vegans, even after correcting for BMI.
Cancer:
Results from the Adventist Health Study-2 revealed that vegetarian diets are associated with a lower overall cancer risk, and especially a lower risk of gastrointestinal cancer. Furthermore, a vegan diet appeared to confer a greater protection against overall cancer incidence than any other dietary pattern. Recently, vegan diets were reported to confer about a 35% lower risk of prostate cancer. A meta-analysis of seven studies reported vegetarians having an 18% lower overall cancer incidence than nonvegetarians.
How can becoming vegetarian/vegan help save the planet?
Here are a few facts:
Animal agriculture is responsible for approx 90% of the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest.
The world’s cattle consume an amount of food equivalent to the calorific needs of 8.7 billion people (more than the current population of the world!)
As more and more land is cleared for animals to graze, or for food to be grown for the animals, wildlife suffers. Meat consumption is one of the causes of the extinction of species.
Animal agriculture causes an estimated 18% of all greenhouse gases. This is approx the same amount produced by every car, plane, train and boat in the world.
The world’s fisheries are exploited and depleted. The oceans are emptying. For every 1kg of fish caught, up to 5kg of accidental victims are also caught, then discarded. This includes dolphins, sharks turtles…
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