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The Advantages of Not Eating Meat

Aug 2, 2011 | By Carly Schuna
The Advantages of Not Eating Meat
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Although you may not be able to imagine giving up bacon or cheeseburgers, switching over to a plant-based diet can have health and nutritional advantages. In many cases, you can improve your risk factors for a variety of diseases and health problems by simply reducing the amount of meat that you eat, even if you don't give it up entirely.

Weight Control

MayoClinic.com registered dietitian Katherine Zeratsky states that there is a correlation between vegetarian and vegan diets, lower body weight and reduced calorie and fat consumption. That is likely because vegetarians eat more plant-based foods, which tend to be lower in calories and fat than meat and meat products.

Disease Prevention

According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, giving up meat can reduce your risks of cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney stones, gallstones and osteoporosis. Further, ChooseMyPlate.gov from the USDA notes that eating more fruits and vegetables can cut risks of high cholesterol, heart attack and stroke. The drop in such risk factors is partly due to lower cholesterol intake, since plant-based food items are cholesterol-free and dairy products tend to be lower in cholesterol than meat.

Nutrition Offerings

Although a vegetarian diet isn't an automatic ticket to better nutrition, balanced vegetarian eating can deliver more vitamins and minerals than a typical eating plan that includes meat. Specifically, fruits and vegetables are packed with essential nutrients that meats lack, including dietary fiber and vitamins A, C and E.

Economic Benefits

"The reasons for choosing a vegetarian diet often go beyond health and well-being and include economical, ecological and social concerns," note researchers at the Institute of Nutritional Sciences in Giessen, Germany, who wrote a 2005 paper that appeared in the journal "Forum of Nutrition." Indeed, cutting meat products out of your diet in favor of plant-based substitutes can save you anywhere from a few cents per meal to hundreds of dollars a month.

Ecological Advantages

Plant-based diets also offer greater benefits for the environment than diets that include meat. "The New York Times" reported in 2007 that Gidon Eshel, a researcher at Bard College, found vegetarian diets use approximately a ton and a half less carbon dioxide per year than typical meat diets. Meats and meat products, as well as the methods used to process them, create more pollution and require more resources than the production methods for plant-based products. So, vegetarianism can be an environmentally conscious, economical and health-conscious choice.

Considerations

A vegetarian diet is healthiest when it's balanced and includes daily servings of all major food groups, including fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, grains and dairy products. Before you make the switch to a meatless diet, talk with your physician or a registered dietitian about how to meet all of your nutritional needs, especially if you deal with a chronic health condition or have other dietary restrictions.

References

Article reviewed by GlennK Last updated on: Aug 2, 2011

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