How You and the Environment Can Benefit from Veggie Diet
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Human are omnivores and it is completely normal to eat meat. However, more and more people are giving up meat and animal-based foods and switching to a veggie diet. Whether a vegetarian diet is a healthier choice or not remains a matter of debate but many health experts think that a veggie diet is slightly healthier. What is more, veggie diet is thought to help reduce the impact of food production on the environment. |
The greatest concern of most people who switch to a vegetarian diet is a potential nutrient deficiency. But if you do not plan to give up all animal-based foods including diary products, fish, eggs, etc., you do not have to worry about nutrient deficiency as a diverse diet which includes everything but meat provides you just the right amount of all essential nutrients. The main benefit of a veggie diet is the fact that it is typically lower in fat and calorie content which helps you lose excess weight as well as to reduce the risk of overweight-related health problems including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and even some types of cancer. However, it is important to keep in mind that vegetarian diet is not automatically healthier. If you really want to benefit from a veggie diet, you should also avoid French fries, chips, sweets and other unhealthy foods that do not contain meat but are not any more healthy.
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As already mentioned earlier, exclusion of all animal-based products from your diet does pose a risk of nutrient deficiency because exclusively plant-based diet does not enable you to obtain adequate amounts of vitamin B12. This type of vegetarian diet is not necessarily an unhealthy choice. On the contrary, it is even lower in unhealthy fats and calories than a vegetarian diet which only foresees avoidance of meat. But if you decide to eat exclusively plant-based foods, you are highly recommended to take B12 supplements. |
Whichever type of veggie diet you decide to follow, you should not only avoid meat and animal-based products if you want to improve your health and reduce your impact on the environment. Meat industry is pointed at as the greatest pollutant in the food industry, however, the conventional crop production is just as problematic when it comes to both the environment and human health. Most of fruits and vegetables you can find at your supermarket are grown with the use of tonnes of artificial fertilizers which are by the way made with fossil fuels as well as tonnes of pesticides which are severely toxic to both the environment and human health.
If you really want to benefit from eating a veggie diet and help reduce the harmful effects of food production on the environment, you should choose locally produced organic fruits and vegetables. Firstly, less fossil fuel is used for their transport and secondly, they are grown without the use of chemical substances which means that they are more environmentally-friendly than conventionally grown fruits and vegetables. In the end, organic crops pose no risk of pesticide residues like this is the case with the conventionally produced crops. These pesticide residues are said not to threaten human health, however, their true effects in long term remain unknown.