Switching To A Vegetarian And Vegan Diet

The common motivations for switching to a vegetarian or vegan diet are primarily related to health and ethical reasons. A vegetarian diet consists of vegetables and dairy products, but excludes all meat. A vegan diet consists of vegetables, but excludes all animal products.

Almost a year ago I made the switch to a vegetarian diet. I had spent 32 years of my life eating meat and stopped literally overnight. There were a variety of factors that contributed to this decision, but my initial motivation was health driven. I had come to the overwhelming conclusion that eating a plant-based diet was the healthier choice.

I was cautious however, making sure I first understood what I needed to eat to replace those nutrients typically found in meat. Fortunately, I was able to find a lot of information online from reputable dietary websites, which supported vegetarianism as a healthy alternative.

Arming myself with knowledge I gave myself over to vegetarianism. Some people questioned me when I told them about it. Arguments were the typical you'd expect, such as, humans need meat because it is ingrained in our way of life, etc. But these people didn't really have a leg to stand on when I mentioned the scientific literature supporting such a diet. Even less so when months later they saw that I felt better and looked healthier than ever before.

The meat and dairy industry no doubt have their own campaigns to keep people eating animal products. But the true litmus test is how you feel relative to before.

For me personally, one of the first improvements I noticed upon making the change is increased energy level. I immediately felt better, with no withdrawal symptoms.

Furthermore, I stopped feeling tired after meals, as was the case when eating meat or eggs. As well, my blood pressure now stays the same after each meal. When I ate meat, or eggs, my blood pressure would go up, because my body works harder to digest that type of food.

I don't get winded as much, and have greater cardiovascular endurance.

I did lose a few pounds however, but am stronger than ever. I did some construction work this past summer and was carrying 70 lb blocks around without too much difficulty. Also, my recovery time after workouts is faster, with less muscle soreness.

I don't have bad breathe any longer, not even in the morning after waking up. And I hardly ever burp anymore. This makes sense as vegetables don't rot inside you the way meat and dairy products do.

I rarely have stomach cramps anymore.

On those few occasions when I put on my contact lenses they don't irritate my eyes anymore. This seems to suggest that my immune system is stronger.

My teeth feel cleaner.

My skin has less acne than before.

Overall my body just feels cleaner.

And contrary to my earlier beliefs, I realize that pasta does not make you fat. I know this because I eat a lot of it now and am still relatively slim.

You can almost see my six-pack now. It seems that meat and dairy products have been responsible for that annoying torus of fat around my midsection, which stubbornly hid my abs.

On the spiritual side, I feel I am genuinely closer to nature now. I have always loved animals but I no longer live with the doublethink mentality caused by eating meat. Moreover, I never crave meat anymore. It actually repulses me a bit to tell you the truth.

Here are some scientific reasons why we don't need meat and dairy products.

Our long intestines indicate that humans are herbivores by design. Carnivores, on the other hand, have much more powerful digestive acid than humans and their intestines are much shorter - since they have to expel the (partially rotted) meat as quickly as possible. The longer intestines in herbivores are more suitable for digesting plant material, as it takes longer to absorb plant nutrients.

Ingesting meat exposes a herbivore to toxins for a longer period of time than a carnivore who is better equipped to handle them.

Carnivores don't suffer from the accumulation of cholesterol in the arteries, because their bodies break down meat to a great extent. Cooking meat does help break down the meat fibers but there is still cholesterol risk.

Our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, chimps, do in fact eat meat but seldom. When they do eat it, it's part of sport hunting. So maybe 3% (at most) of their diet is actually meat, but only as a delicacy, and only during the times they hunt (which isn't often). And they eat lots of leaves alongside the meat to aid in digesting it. Gorillas however, which are bigger and stronger animals than chimps, don't eat meat at all.

Unlike true carnivores, humans don't have a blood thirst for animal flesh. We don't have an instinct to attack smaller animals. We have no claws to grasp prey and our incisors are primarily for slicing into plant food, not tearing into a carcass.

It would be acceptable to eat meat, but only if you have nothing else to subsist on, like a man vs. wild episode. But in that case the meat would be leaner and healthier than your typical hormone injected farm animal.

Consider how many diseases are placing a burden on health care. All this tax money is pumped into research for drugs and therapy when great savings would be achieved by tackling the real culprit: diet and (lack of) exercise.

Interestingly enough, data collected on groups of vegetarians/vegans shows that they have significantly less incidence of disease than meat eating (western) cultures.

Anytime I see dietary experts advise on foods that can reduce the risk of diseases, I always see vegetables mentioned. Meat or dairy products are rarely mentioned in this context. Fish is an exception however as it contains Omega-3 fatty acid, which helps prevent heart disease.

Admittedly, fish (like tuna, salmon) is one of the healthier meats because of Omega-3. But you still have to be cautious, as mercury accumulates in many fish species. I personally get my Omega-3 from soymilk and walnuts.

Fortified soymilk is in fact a great substitute for cow's milk, providing essential nutrients like Calcium, Vitamin D, Vitamin B-12, Omega-3, and many others. Of further benefit, soymilk doesn't leave an acidic taste in your mouth, as does cow's milk. And in case it spoils, it won't smell nearly as bad as cow's milk.

It's sometimes argued by proponents of meat, that Vitamin B-12 is found in greater concentrations in meat than in plant foods. This is true, but it's not because animals synthesize Vitamin B-12. It accumulates in their system from ingesting bacteria found in the food they eat. Animals don't wash their food like us, so they ingest bacteria which in turn synthesizes Vitamin B-12, and that's how it enters their system. We can get Vitamin B-12 from foods fortified with it, such as soymilk and meat substitutes like veggie burgers.

One final interesting point to make is that there is research that suggests that eating meat actually depletes the calcium from your bones. Apparently, your body uses the calcium to counter the acidity levels of meat as it's being digested. So when you eat more meat you need more calcium. If you eat less meat, you need less calcium.

Making the switch to vegetarian/vegan is fairly easy. The easiest way to go about it is to first make a list of all the vitamins and nutrients that meat and dairy products contain, and then find the equivalent vegetables, or vegetable combinations, that give the same nutrients. I found the following links very helpful as a starting point:

http://www.dietitians.ca/resources/resourcesearch.asp?fn=view&contentid=969

http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/homeec/cbd04s01.html

You may also want to get in touch with several registered dieticians and ask them to refer you to resource material to help you make the switch to vegetarian/vegan. I emailed a dozen or so and asked them for online reference material. Most invited me to come in for an appointment to discuss the diet change (approximately $100 an appointment). But I really didn't feel like paying a lot of money just for getting some basic information (and neither should you). But fortunately I did get some responses in which I was given some online links to websites that have the (free) information I needed.

Currently, I am almost vegan. I still consume cheese such as Parmesan with my pasta, but no eggs or cow's milk. I rarely eat junk food, although I occasionally enjoy a piece of chocolate.

I plan on going vegan shortly, by completely eliminating cheese made with cow's milk. This shouldn't be difficult as there are many tasty cheese substitutes these days in health food stores.

You may find it interesting to know that a growing number of people are going vegetarian/vegan. Numerous celebrities are already vegetarian/vegan. There are also vegetarian bodybuilders. And some of our greatest scientists switched to vegetarian during their careers, such as Albert Einstein and Leonardo DaVinci.

Carl Lewis, the Olympian, said that he never performed better than when he converted to vegan.

There are obvious ethical reasons for switching to a vegetarian/vegan diet. Billions of animals are raised for the sole purpose of providing us food. It's not like in the wild where they are free to roam and have a shot at life. These animals are raised for food and are living out their existence in utter misery for no reason other than human gluttony and misinformation.

My suggestion is to stop buying animal products or make sure that the products you do buy did not involve the suffering of an animal (that's not really possible with farm animals raised for meat, or dairy cows in some instances). If you eat eggs, don't buy them from battery hens (chickens in small cages). Only buy them from free run (or free range) chickens.