Fat free, Weight Watchers, pills, detoxes, and all for what? To look good, feel good, lose weight etc., but what is the best option? Thousands of studies have been done on what is our most ideal diet, while this question challenges many barriers, I want to look into one specific controversial diet called the vegan, or plant-based, diet. A vegan diet is one that disregards all animal-based products. While a majority of the population may deem it as unobtainable, ill advised, and excessive others see it as a lifestyle, an opportunity, or even a chance for social change. In the fall of 2016, I watched the Netflix documentary Forks Over Knives, which took a look at many people on a plant-based diet who have had various amounts of success in …show more content…
For thousands of years people have been consuming meat. A big part of people’s culture is focused around food and family, and disrupting that can be insensitive. Humans have evolved to a population by manipulating the environment, that being the use technology. Animal byproducts are what humans live on and contain essential nutrients on which humans thrive on. It provides a dense amount of calories, protein, and minerals in which is essential to survive. Animal agriculture was the driving force of human development, because there was an ability to constantly provide adequate food to the population. This allowed free time, innovations, explorations, and eventually the world in which we live. Meat also provides economic stimulus with in our world, but that has some drawbacks. As a country’s wealth develops, so does its consumption of animals, and studies have shown that this has a direct impact on the environment. Factory farming can have a substantial effect on the environment, by gas emissions, carbon use, and water pollution -just to name a few. The pros and cons can be pretty equal or out of proportion depending on one’s predisposition on the topic. Equally, there is pros and cons to a plant based lifestyle. Previously hinted is a few of them, but there are essentially three big pros. Health is a big driving force that gets a person to change their lifestyle. People want to look good and feel good for all different reasons and it is
As argued by Wrangham (as cited in Christopher Joyce, 2010), “It is because of an animal based diet that allows the development of human’s brain and keeps life healthy, thus human can reproduce strong offspring, plus it creates the social interaction amongst mankind, since meat requires cooperating with the cooking process. Therefore, the consumption of meat is
When animals are raised in these dreadful conditions, there meat easily grows disease, tastes worse, and is worse for you. Humane meat helps to reduce pollution. “Industrial farms produce so much manure that it is a human health risk. On small farms, manure is used to naturally fertilize soil (10 Reasons to Eat Grass-Fed & Cage-Free Meat).” Raising humane meat uses less energy and less resources. It saves energy by food not having to travel far and wide to get to local grocery store but only at most a few hours to farmers markets. It also reduces waste because cows raised in pastures produce
Meat is part of a balanced diet. If humans stopped breeding animals for meat, then we would have to hunt all the wild animals for food. The wild animals will be hunted into extinction because of gluttonous meat-eaters. Because of factory farming, meat is now available at all time at the super market. This makes meat convenient to obtain and eat nutritionally. Meat contains all the essential amino acids that we need every day to remain as healthy individuals. Minerals and vitamins that are also beneficial to the growth and development of the human body are found in meat too. Eating specific types of meat such as fish provides healthy natural oils that cannot be found anywhere else. Abandoning meat as a source of nutrition means we will need to compensate with another source of sustenance.
More and more, researchers are showing that plant-based diets, along with changes in our lifestyles will mean longer, healthier lives and in yet another summation, a researcher shows this to be true.
A. Main point- According to, Plant-Based Diet for Heart Health, found on WebMD.com last accessed March 5, 2015, the people who choose a plant-based diet have a 20% less chance of getting some form of heart disease, and more importantly
The demand for meat in America is on the rise while the number of family owned farms is declining. The farming industry has had to change century old practices like free-range grazing to keep up with the mass amounts of meat that Americans and other cultures have become accustomed to. A process known as factory farming is controlling the farming industry worldwide. Factory farming is an unnatural and inhuman way to raise mass amounts of livestock. Unfortunately to keep up with demand, small farmers around the world are struggling to survive and are being pressured to work for large corporations raising animals using theses factory farming strategies rather than the natural alternative. As described by Wenonah
According to vegansociety.com, “ Veganism represents a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, other animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, other animals and the environment.“ People that follow this way of living are called vegans. The vegan diet is more a lifestyle choice and a philosophy than just a diet. The vegan life is the best way to live because it’s healthier, helps the environment, and is kinder to animals.
Research shows that in countries where people eat a pound or more of fruit and vegetables a day , the rate of cancer is half what it is in the United States. Pollan argues that vegetarians are less susceptible to most of the western diseases, and as a consequence live longer than the rest of us(164). Apparently, we can’t live without plants, but we don’t need to eat meat in order to obtain the nutrients we need for growth because they can be found elsewhere (Pollan 165). Since plants are less energy dense than other foods, by eating a plant-based diet one will likely consume fewer calories which is itself protective against many chronic disease (Pollan 165).I agree with Pollan that a plant-based diet can help reduce the risk of obesity, Diabetes, and Heart Disease.
Living in a melting pot, different foods and spices come from all over the world. You have your salty foods, sweets, and of course the greens. It’s always fun having a variety of food to choose from so your food life can always be different. Even though trying different things can be tasteful, it does not make it healthy or good for your health all the time. Following a plant based diet is good for a lot of reasons, it promotes heart health, prevents diabetes, and it helps shed weight (in a good way). Now doing a western diet might cause negative things to your body since the foods are high in fat and sugar, leading to obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Eating clean entails having all your fruits and vegetables so you can get all the nutrients and vitamins your body needs from fresh foods. That being said I will explain my position on clean eating, otherwise known as a plant based diet.
In 2011, American filmmaker, Marisa Miller Wolfson, made a 76-minute documentary titled, ‘Vegucated.’ Wolfson, a practicing vegan, cites her research on foods and especially animal-based foods as her rationale for opting to go vegan. Notably, upon going vegan, she became healthier, lost weight, and even felt happier because she was no longer contributing to the inhuman treatment of animals. In her quest to become a vegan, Wolfson made the film after moving to New York City. Her concurrent idea in the film is the effects of animal diets versus the effects of vegan diets. Evidently, through its participants, the film illustrates that avoidance of animal products results to weight loss and
The Go Vegan Campaign advocates for people to stop consuming animals by all means. This includes not eating meat, taking medications derived from animals, and not consuming products that have animal byproducts in them. For a very long time vegetarianism has been looked at as a fad diet that just didn’t seem to die down, but there is a deep truth behind this. Vegan practices advocate that animal meat is most people’s only source of cholesterol and therefore it is unhealthy to begin with. They argue there are other ways to get protein than protein, milk, and eggs, such as chia seeds and soy beans which are plant based, rich in protein, and vegan friendly. Plant based diets
The raising of cattle, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and more are the reason for most of the destruction of the environment on the planet. Over all farm land covers about 38% of the worlds land area. So humans can continue to eat meat millions of animals and insects are losing their homes and even going extinct so more farm
The cattle industry produces vast amounts of strain in the environment. It is energy inefficient, pollutes water, occupies many acres of land, and deteriorates the health of the people who abuse its consumption. The government subsidizes this industry. Therefore, the price paid for meat doesn’t reflect the environmental hazards involved in the process. In order to protect our health and the health of the environment we should pay close attention to our food choices and make sure we don’t support industries that degrade it.
It also needs to be pointed out that meat production industry is highly unfriendly to the environment. It has been proved that the results of this mindless actions are extremely harmful to the whole planet: trees are lost in creating farms for animal food, land is taken away from wildlife, additional erosion is caused, topsoil is lost, groundwater is wasted, and pesticide is excessively used. In fact, one chicken farm uses as much water as a little city. Few may know that this industry, compared to others, causes the biggest pollution at all.
Meat production is just more than animal cruelty and health risk, it is an environment issue also. Over producing livestock unbalance the ecosystem. The manure produced by the animal pollutes bodies of water from runoff (Motavalli). Meat production does not only affect humans, fresh water for other inhabitants are also at risk of disease and illnesses from drinking feces contaminated water. This can potentially kill off species. Not only are bodies of water are threatened, the land is also. Over grazing of lands causes erosion (Motavalli). Over grazing can kill off plants, which again, ruins the ecosystem. Other wildlife need the plants there to live, not just livestock. Most people would’ve never thought of the meat they eat is damaging the environment.