10 Anti-Vegetarian Myths

There are meat eaters, vegetarians, and vegans. Vegetarians drink milk and eat dairy products.

Vegans eat no animal products. By eating animal flesh or drinking their body fluids, one ingests

their hormones. Vegetarians often drink more milk and eat more dairy than meat eaters. Vegans

eat no animal hormones.

There are two reasons not to eat animals. Many people become vegetarians out of compassion to

animals who do not deserve to die in pain by a human knife.

The second reason, human health, far outweighs the first. By eating animal products, one shows

no compassion to the human body. By eating dirty fuel consisting of cholesterol, saturated animal

fat, and relatively large amounts of sulfur-based amino acids (methionine, homocysteine), one places

considerable stress upon the body’s cardiovascular and immune systems.

ONE BY ONE, LET'S DISPEL THOSE MYTHS

1) Meat eaters have lower rates of heart disease than do vegetarians.

"Significant atherosclerosis is rare in peoples whose diet over the life span is predominantly vegetarian and low in calories, total lipids, saturated lipids and cholesterol."

*Nutrition and Athersclerosis by Louis Katz. 1958

2) Meat eating men make for better lovers because they have higher rates of the male sex hormone.

"The study measured testosterone levels in 696 Oxford University men. Of the study participants, 233 were vegan (ate no animal products) and 237 were vegetarian (ate milk and dairy products). The remaining 237 subjects were men who ate meat on most days of the week...vegans had higher testosterone levels than vegetarians and meat eaters."

*British Journal of Cancer, 83(1), July 2000

3) Meat eaters have lower rates of all of mankind's major diseases than do vegetarians.

"Scientific data suggest positive relationships between a vegetarian diet and reduced risk for several chronic degenerative diseases and conditions, including obesity, coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and some types of cancer."

*Journal of American Dietetic Association, 11/97, 97(1)

4) Vegetarians have higher mortality rates than meat eaters.

"Vegetarians often have lower mortality rates from several chronic degenerative diseases than do non vegetarians."

*British Medical Journal,  1996; 313

5) A vegetarian diet is not appropriate for a pregnant woman or nursing mother.

"Vegan diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy and lactation."

*Am J Clin Nutr. 1994;59(suppl):1176S-1181S.

6) Children born to vegetarians are smaller than children born to meat eaters.

"Vegan diets can meet the nutrient and energy needs of pregnant women. Birth weights of infants born to well nourished vegetarian women have been shown to be similar to birth-weight norms and to birth weights of infants of non vegetarians."

*Pediatrics. 1989;84

7) Meat eaters obtain more vitamins and nutrients than vegetarians, because the animals they eat also consume vegetables.

"Vegetarian diets offer disease protection benefits because higher concentration of antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, carotenoids, and phytochemicals."

*Am J Clin Nutr. 1996;63(suppl)

8) It is a proven fact that vegetarians have higher rates of heart disease than meat eaters.

"Mortality from coronary artery disease is lower in vegetarians than in non vegetarians."

*British Medical Journal, 1994; 308

9) Meat eaters have lower rates of diabetes than do vegetarians.

"Type 2 diabetes mellitus is less likely to be a cause of death in vegetarians than non vegetarians."

*Am J Clin Nutr. 1988;48(suppl)

10) Meat eaters have lower rates of breast cancer than do vegetarians.

"Breast cancer rates are lower in populations that consume plant based diets."

*American Cancer Society Cancer Facts and Figures, 1994

*note: i apologize the article copied within text boxes; i tried to make it as easy to read as possible.