Why Not Try The Low Carb Vegetarian Diet For A A While
02.20.10
Not long ago, a well-known star made the headlines when he made an environmental plea for everyone to adopt a vegetarian diet. He was not even advocating a total abstinence from meat - just one day a week. Many of the newspapers that covered the story were unkind. They laughed and called him an old hippy who didn’t know what he was talking about.
With very few exceptions, the media completely failed to take his suggestion seriously and look at the facts. Had they done so, they would have discovered that people give up meat eating for very good reasons. Why not give vegetarians a chance and listen to their point of view for a change?
Americans consume far more beef per capita than any other nation and our environment suffers as a result. We could utilize our precious arable land far better by raising protein rich plant crops than we do by raising cattle. This is an established fact. There is plenty of proof for this that is buried rather than confronted.
People living near beef processing plants and process plant workers report a high incidence of health problems directly related to the processing of beef. There is sound medical evidence to prove this, but one way to find out for yourself would be to visit one of these places. But be prepared - you may get sick from the smell before you even enter the premises.
If you do manage to get inside and see what beef processing involves, you literally may end up having nightmares. There is nothing remotely humane about the mass slaughter of these animals. OK, technically this is not an environmental concern, but it is certainly an ethical one. Those pretty packages of beef you see on the supermarket shelf won’t look the same to you after you have seen how they were made to get that way. You won’t be laughing about a vegetarian diet any more, that’s for sure!
The beef industry goes to great lengths to promote the health benefits of meat eating. Aside from protein, there is very little to substantiate their claim that meat is an essential part of one’s diet. An argument might be made that an occasional small serving of meat may be in order, but so many eat phenomenal amounts of meat and it is a major contributor to numerous serious health problems, including heart disease and cancer.
Those who have given up meat and taken up a vegetarian diet rarely feel the need to go back to eating meat. While some do go back to occasional servings of meat, they almost never go back to consuming it in large quantities. Why should they? They feel healthier and happier than they did before.
Interestingly, even the Catholic Church recommends that and most major religions advocate abstinence from meat from time to time, if not permanently. Hindus and many Buddhists have been vegetarians for millennia and it has worked for them. In fact, it seems like the only ones who advocate a high meat diet are the cattle industry lobbyists!
Don’t be so quick to laugh along with the media the next time a superstar takes a stand for a low carb vegetarian diet. They are doing you a favor at their own expense. All the most recent stars to take a stand was asking for was one day a week. That would be a good start to a vegetarian weight loss diet and would be good for your health and the health of the whole planet.
Tags: high protein vegetarian diet, low carb vegetarian diet, low fat vegetarian diet, vegetarian diet