A recent study by American Dietetic Association (ADA) reveals that a vegetarian has 70% chances of leading a healthy and better life. As said our chances of living longer are high compared to the ones consuming meat and other dairy products. Health is of utmost importance to each and every human being. Yes, because health care costs. Being healthier on a vegetarian diet means, we are spending less on being healthy which ultimately means we are already healthy enough to survive long. To share with you all, I being a vegetarian have experienced a lot more benefits. However, there is no guarantee that a vegetarian diet will result in better health improvements. It all depends on the individual choosing specific food cutting out most or all animal and dairy products.
Vegetarians are of three types: Ovo-lacto, Pescetarian and Vegan.
- Ovo-lacto : They eat everything including dairy products expect fish and red meat.
- Pescetarian: They eat everything including fish, egg and dairy products except red meat.
- Vegan : They only eat plant foods. No fish, no eggs, no meat.
Here are some of the reasons why vegetarians may outlive meat-lovers.
- Controls weight:
Oxford university dietician Katherine Zeratsky points out, vegans tend to weigh less and consume fewer calories and less fat than meat-eaters. That is because the foundation of vegan diet is whole grains, vegetables, fruits and plant based proteins which are almost always lower in calories than dairy and meat products. Also the research shows that vegetarians tend to be lean than their meat eating counterparts and they also tend to grow less weight with low cholesterol. So being a vegetarian helps reduce your weight, as there would be no meat in your consumption list, which is one of the main reasons for which our body places fat.
- Low cholesterol: A vegetarian diet includes plant foods which in no way contain cholesterol. That is the best reason our body produces some amounts of cholesterol only when we intake chicken or red meat. Many of us believe in a myth that cholesterol is completely unnecessary for our bodies. But no, our body needs some healthy cholesterol levels to function properly. So high cholesterol is the reason for people suffering with ubiquitous diseases. It could even cause plaque. But you aren’t supposed to worry because vegetarians have the low cholesterol levels compared to non-vegans.
- Less chances of hypertension:
Doctors say that our lifestyle decides our chances of being affected by hypertension. Our body shouldn’t rest blood pressure > 140/90 mmHg. So following a vegetarian diet provides you with less chances of being effected from such serious diseases.
- Control diabetes:
Many clinical trials have shown that diabetes is normally caused by high content of blood glucose levels in our body. Same as cholesterol, our body needs blood glucose or blood sugar to a certain extent. But overtime when it stays in blood instead of reaching blood cells, the levels of glucose increase and cause diabetes. This happens when there is high consumption of dairy products.
- Low risk of heart diseases:
According to the Academy of nutrition and dietetics, an evidence based review showed that a vegetarian is associated with a lower risk of death from an ischemic heart disease and the association between risk of heart disease and diet found that vegetarians had 24% lower risk of developing heart disease. The risk was lowest in lacto-ovo vegans with 34%. Also animal products are rich sources of saturated fats which make them closely associated with coronary heart disease (CHD). All the possible diseases listed above are among those which affect our heart. So consuming herbs on your diet is worth a lot.
- High life expectancy:
A recent study by ADA (American Dietetic Association) reveals that people following a vegetarian diet are more likely to live longer and healthy than those who intake red meat and other dairy products. So being a vegetarian helps increase your life span.
- Less chances of developing kidney stones:
A recent medical report from the New York University states that eliminating animal protein consumption in favor of vegetables will result in a higher urine pH, whereas low urine pH is associated with stone formation in kidneys. So you are on right track.
- Less chances of being effected from cancer:
A research on food habits and lifestyle reveals that a vegetarian diet helps and increases our resistance power in protecting against cancer, be it colon, breast, prostate, stomach, lung and esophageal. Accordingly, the researchers also found a higher rate of colorectal cancer (A disease often linked with eating red meat) among non-vegetarians. So being a vegetarian is utmost good for our health.
- May improve mood and have better sexual life:
A 2012 study randomly split 3000 participants into all-meat, fish-only, vegetarians consuming no meat. The researchers found out after three weeks that, people on vegetarian diet reported better mood improvements than those with other two diets.
Researchers also reveal that, people on vegetarian diet have the higher chances of giving birth to healthy babies with a better sexual life.
- No guilt over climate change:
Yes, vegetarians have less guilt over the environmental issues because they don’t contribute much for it. The meat industry requires massive amounts of oil as the process requires more than eight times as much fossil-fuel energy than production of plant protein.
- Only few commercials can please you:
Advertisements are the reasons for most of us to buy food stuff. So the hot, crispy and spicy non-veg ads cannot make us hungry. We would be in control of our minds.
- You could be a better cook in the process:
In the process of being a vegetarian you could also be a better cook in cooking what you love. Anyway, plant foods are easy to cook using fresh ingredients and trying your own recipes.
- No reason to hunt:
We are in no need to hunt any. There would not be anything in store for us to poach and hunt. Yes, we have no business with it.
Finally, being a vegetarian I would say we all vegans might not feel any hesitations, guilt, spoilers from now on, when hanging out with friends. Because, now we are aware of the exclusive benefits of being a vegetarian.
