A Psychology Today article points out that a many vegetarians eventually go back to eating meat. The most common reason for the switch is that they just didn't thrive on the veggie diet.
As an ex-vegetarian, I can say that this was my exact reason. I feel much stronger and healthier now. Also, I happened to switch back to meat at the end of nutrition school. Once I learned how the human body works, I realized that quality protein is essential to manufacturing brain chemicals, and for growth and repair. Now, some vegetarians will argue that they do get protein, maybe, but often it's from processed foods such as fake meats and soy. Even if they are a whole foods vegetarian, some people simply cannot thrive on this diet.
In the survey the average time for going back to meat eating was nine years. This makes sense as our B12 stores diminish without animal protein. Contrary to what many veggies believe, the plant sources of B12 are not the same as what the human body needs.
Largely, ex-vegetarians who become omnivores choose quality and ethically raised animals. This is also true in my case. My nutrition teachers had been veggie for over 20 years, and they mentioned that in the 70's there jut weren't local and grass-fed sources of meat available. Many people switched back once better choices became available.
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Comments
July 9, 2011
Thanks for the link, Katherine!
Medical research is teaming with examples just like that of how a plant based diet is perhaps healthier than a meat based one. I would never advocate that everyone in the world went vegetarian, let alone vegan, but I do believe that it is a great option for a lot of people to at least consider and I don't tolerate people blatantly mistreating facts and statistics to try to make my lifestyle sound unhealthy.
July 8, 2011
Wanda and Abbie you might be intersted in this article
http://houston.culturemap.com/newsdetail/07-08-11-needless-heart-surgery-houston-cardiologist-argues-that-a-plant-based-diet-works-better-than-a/
from the article:
At the Houston Cardiac Association, Dr. Baxter Montgomery is going back to basics to help his patients avoid, when possible, many of these procedures while reversing chronic illnesses that plague those on the Standard American Diet....
..."My thinking on nutrition has evolved during medical practice," he explains. "I have a firm believe that the nature of the majority of chronic illnesses are related to bad, poisonous food. We can talk about lack of exercise, genetics, stress, but I would argue that 90 percent of conditions like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, depression, insomnia, even lupus, are a direct result of nutritional imbalances in our bodies."
His journey to minimally-processed whole foods plant-based diet advocacy was gradual, triggered by first looking at his own declining health in his 30s, (he suffered from high LDL cholesterol), then seeing his mother suffer from benign brain tumors, liver failure and a series of long hospitalizations.
"When an 86-year-old woman suffering from congestive heart failure — her heart pumping at 15 to 25 percent, bed-ridden and on 15 medications — improves dramatically over three weeks, you can't ignore the results minimally-processed plant-based nutrition therapies achieve," Montgomery says. "Her heart improved, pumping normally at 50 to 60 percent, she was able to walk and talk and reduced her medications down to three.""
Pretty compelling justification for a plant based diet
July 7, 2011
I suspect that those people that go back to an omnivorous diet do so because it's super hard to live a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle in our meat-obsessed, diabetes-riddled, artery-clogged American society and they use the 'I can't thrive' excuse to feel less guilty about caving to the pressure of society telling them they're wasting their time and being too self-righteous and they're missing out on delicious salty fattening animal carcasses and byproducts. The truth of the matter is, I don't know ANY omnivores who eat as many fruits, veggies, and whole grains as I do, or exercise as often as I do, or feel as good about their bodies, or get as many adrenaline highs from their workout as I do, or even know as much about fine cuisine as I do. I 'thrive,' thank you very much, and for the vegans/vegetarians who don't....I suggest they cut out processed vegan-friendly crap (coconut milk ice cream and beer and fruit loops with vanilla soy milk) and focus on whole foods. I would also like to ask the author to back her article's statements up with references and explanations. What is 'quality protein'? I get 10 grams of protein from just 125 calories of fresh broccoli...I would like to know why this isn't as good for me as carcass-protein is...other than 'I heard in this one-quarter nutrition class I took as an elective three years ago'. How does b-12 from animals differ from that of plants, and why does it matter? I take a multivitamin every day and feel fine. My doctor has never said I am b-12 deficient when I get bloodwork done. Will 9 years from now, my b-12 vitamin supplement magically stop working? This article offends me with its bold statements backed up by nothing other than observations on a Psychology Today article and some random nutrition class the author took. If we're going to talk nutrition and animal rights and health, we're gonna need some real arguments. t
July 8, 2011
Wow, take it down a notch "thriving" Abbie. If you are sticking with a healthy vegan diet, congratulations! Your response seems a little hysterical, self-righteous and over the top.
Perhaps a little meat would make it better... (That's mean-but your response was really the over the top. Why?)
July 11, 2011
The reason why I react so strongly to arguments like this is that I truly believe that veganism is the right choice for MOST people and that articles like this unjustly make veganism look impossible, potentially unhealthy, too idealist, and self-righteous. I also don't appreciate the eating meat comment. That was uncalled for. I didn't call anyone names, I simply pointed out that this article doesn't have much of a backbone. My use of the word 'carcass' and my statements on the common American diet are meant to point out flaws in the system we live in, and I don't regret using them and I don't think they should be seen as hysterical. They are true. Meat is a carcass, and the American diet in general promotes diabetes, heart disease, and generally poor health. These are commonly known facts.
July 8, 2011
@Abbie (Thriving...,
Yes real arguments like; "I don't know ANY omnivores who eat as many fruits, veggies, and whole grains as I do, or exercise as often as I do, or feel as good about their bodies, or get as many adrenaline highs from their workout as I do, or even know as much about fine cuisine as I do"
I'm sure your research into that argument was exhaustive. It certainly exhausted me just reading how much you think of yourself.
You said "I" so many times I thought you were a f**king pirate. I, I, I, cap'n!
July 11, 2011
Hahahaha, I did talk about myself a lot. Mostly because I like to use myself as an example of a healthy vegan. :) I also apologize for using a very un-researched statement about my omnivore friends' whole food intake; I do find it annoying, however, that you criticize my lack of research when (as my previous points stated) this article doesn't refer to any actual scientific resources when making a bold statement about quality b-12 and quality protein. Would you agree with me that this article needs some sort of reliable reference to back up it's statements?
July 7, 2011
If we are to look at nature to serve as an example of how to go about obtaining our "quality protein" perhaps we ought to stalk, hunt down and kill our own meat, without the use of tools, then eat it raw, given that we manage to break through the tough skin with our two lousy canines.
Many vegetarian/vegans spend decades, or the course of their lives, without animal products and do just fine, despite apparently eating more processed foods than the general population. It is a personal decision that ought to be based on one's own body. I would hope that a holistic nutritionist would be a little more sympathetic to a diet that is getting more popular all the time and the benefits of which are touted by more scholarly groups and organizations than "Psychology Today."
July 7, 2011
If we are to look at nature to serve as an example of how to go about obtaining our "quality protein" perhaps we ought to stalk, hunt down and kill our own meat, without the use of tools, then eat it raw, given that we manage to break through the tough skin with our two lousy canines.
Many vegetarian/vegans spend decades, or the course of their lives, without animal products and do just fine, despite apparently eating more processed foods than the general population. It is a personal decision that ought to be based on one's own body. I would hope that a holistic nutritionist would be a little more sympathetic to a diet that is getting more popular all the time and the benefits of which are touted by more scholarly groups and organizations than "Psychology Today."
July 7, 2011
If we are to look at nature to serve as an example of how to go about obtaining our "quality protein" perhaps we ought to stalk, hunt down and kill our own meat, without the use of tools, then eat it raw, given that we manage to break through the tough skin with our two lousy canines.
Many vegetarian/vegans spend decades, or the course of their lives, without animal products and do just fine, despite apparently eating more processed foods than the general population. It is a personal decision that ought to be based on one's own body. I would hope that a holistic nutritionist would be a little more sympathetic to a diet that is getting more popular all the time and the benefits of which are touted by more scholarly groups and organizations than "Psychology Today."
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