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Meat lovers and vegetarians, which is healthier?

How to control the ratio of meat to vegetables

By La VignauPublished 2 years ago 8 min read
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Vegetarian food with "healthy and delicious"

Vegetarian food is fast gaining popularity

But while vegetarianism has become a healthy trend

has also been controversial

Eating meat is healthier, less prone to disease, vegetarianism is healthier, and can control the three highs

Which is healthier, vegetarian or meat?

How should we eat?

Eating meat is healthier?

Meat is rich in protein, fat, iron, vitamin B12, etc., and appropriate consumption has a positive effect on human health, such as.

Promote brain development, and improve memory aquatic products, especially deep-sea fish, rich in DHA, can promote brain development, and improve memory; enhance immunity, muscle-building protein is an important part of the immune system, and muscle is an essential element of the human body. The high protein content in meat helps to strengthen the body's immunity and increase muscle; prevent anemia red meat is rich in heme iron, and vitamin B12 are essential elements for the body to produce blood, supplement the skin, and body nutrition.

Eating too much meat can be very harmful!

Although there are many benefits to eating meat, if you eat too much meat will face many health risks of disease. A study by Oxford University researchers published in BMC Medicine found that eating too much meat every day increases the risk of 25 diseases, including circulatory diseases, respiratory diseases, and digestive diseases, in addition to cancer.

Increase the risk of cardiovascular disease

Excessive meat consumption tends to lead to excessive calorie and fat intake in the body, which induces obesity, and lipid deposition increases the risk of diabetes, hyperlipidemia, fatty liver, and cardiovascular diseases.

The results of the aforementioned study found that eating an additional 20g of processed meat products per day increased the risk of diabetes by 21% and the risk of ischemic stroke by 17%.

Increased cancer risk Red meat has a relatively high-fat content, which can induce inflammation and stimulate intestinal lesions when consumed in excess over a long period. In addition, processed meat products contain nitrite, which may produce carcinogens and nitrosamines in the body, increasing the risk of stomach and intestinal cancers.

Related research analysis found that an increase of 100g of animal meat intake per day increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 36%.

Increased digestive system diseases

Although meat is rich in protein, it is relatively slow to digest, and the digestion of fat requires the participation of the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas. Therefore, consuming too much meat will increase the burden on the stomach, liver, gallbladder, and pancreas, which will easily increase the risk of related diseases in the long run.

The above-mentioned study showed that eating 30 grams of poultry meat a day increased the risk of GERD, gastritis and duodenitis, and gallbladder disease by 17%, 12%, and 11%, respectively.

Gout and kidney stones may come to the door

Some meat has high purine content, such as sardines, goose, duck intestines, etc. And animal purines have a greater impact on the human body than plant purines, and a large amount of consumption is likely to increase the level of uric acid in the body, increasing the risk of gout and kidney stones.

Easy osteoporosis

The Department of Nutrition at Harvard University has experiments to confirm that the more animal protein you consume, the easier it is to excrete calcium from your body.

The experiment found that the daily intake of 80g of animal protein will cause 37mg of calcium loss; when the intake of 240g/day of protein, even if it is then supplemented with 1400mg of calcium, the final total calcium loss reaches more than 100mg. In other words, eating too much meat for a long time may increase the risk of osteoporosis.

Eating vegetarian is healthier? Eating too much meat is not good, and many people have started to turn to vegetarianism. Indeed, vegetarian food has many benefits for the body, such as

Weight loss and control of three high vegetarian food low calorie, low cholesterol, for weight loss, control of blood lipids, blood sugar, and blood pressure, etc. are good; protection of the intestinal tract vegetarian food contains more dietary fiber, can promote intestinal peristalsis, reduce harmful substances in the intestinal tract stay, care for intestinal health; beauty and beauty vegetables and fruits are rich in vitamin C, often eat well for the skin.

Eat vegetarian faces health threats

Eating vegetarian should also be scientific, otherwise, it will face a variety of health threats, such as

Anemia

Plant foods not only have less iron, but the body's digestion and absorption rate are also low, and plant foods usually contain high levels of phytic acid and oxalic acid, which can further hinder the absorption of iron. Therefore, a long-term vegetarian diet can easily lead to iron deficiency and trigger iron deficiency anemia.

Fatty liver

A vegetarian diet can also get fatty liver! Long-term vegetarianism will reduce the synthesis of lipoproteins that transport triglycerides, phospholipids, and fatty acids, resulting in insufficient metabolism of triglycerides, which will accumulate in the body and form a fatty liver.

Moreover, vegetarians are likely to consume more refined rice and white flour, when excessive carbohydrates will also be converted into fat in the body.

Decreased resistance

As an important component of the immune system, healthy people should consume 1.0 to 1.2g/kg body weight of protein per day, of which high-quality protein is the best.

While high-quality protein is widely found in animal foods, only legumes among plant foods contain high-quality protein. Therefore, a long-term vegetarian diet is relatively more likely to lack protein, and then the body's immunity decreases, increasing the risk of various diseases and even cancer.

Gallstones

People who eat only vegetarian food for a long time will, on the one hand, affect bile secretion, causing bile concentration, cholesterol, and other crystals to precipitate and form stones. On the other hand, there may be a problem of insufficient fat intake, which leads to a decrease in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins A and E and accelerates the formation of stones due to cholesterol deposition.

Meat and vegetables are the only way to be healthy

As mentioned above, both long-term meat-only and long-term vegetarian diets will hurt human health. Daily diet, should combine the advantages of both, to do meat and vegetarian mix, to balanced nutrition. Specific references can be made to these three points.

1 Control ► Control the ratio of meat and vegetables

According to the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)", it is recommended that healthy adults should consume 120~200g of animal-based foods per day, including at least 2 times a week of aquatic products, 1 egg per day, 300~500g of vegetables, 200~350g of fruits, 250g~300g of cereals, and 50~100g of potatoes. It is best to eat 12 kinds of food per day, more than 25 kinds per week.

2 Select ► Choose high-quality and diversified ingredients

Vegetarian 1 vegetables: choose darker, but rich in color dark vegetables tend to be more nutritious and rich in vitamin C, carotene, iron, calcium, folic acid, vitamin B2, etc. Other vegetables should also be chosen in moderation, the richer the color the better, but mainly dark-colored vegetables.2 Staple foods: more coarse grains and refined rice and white flour compared to coarse grains are richer in B vitamins and dietary fiber, which help maintain the body's energy metabolism and keep the intestines, blood vessels, and others healthy. For people with good gastrointestinal function, coarse grains can account for 1/3 to 1/2 of the main food, for the elderly with poor digestive function, it is necessary to properly reduce the proportion. 3 fruit: preferred low-sugar fruit with high fructose content, which not only affects blood sugar, uric acid, and blood lipids but also promotes fat accumulation. Therefore, try to choose low-sugar fruits, such as strawberries, cherries, etc., to control the intake of high-sugar fruits. Meat 1 red meat + white meat, but more white meat than red meat white meat has the characteristics of low fat, high protein, fish and shrimp and other aquatic products are also rich in EPA and DHA; red meat is rich in iron, but the saturated fat content is high. So the two can be eaten with both advantages, white meat is more than red meat and can reduce the burden of red meat on the body. 2 less skin, offal, processed meat products pork skin, chicken skin, duck skin, and other high fat content, should not eat more. Offal cholesterol content is high, but iron, trace elements, and other rich can occasionally eat once or twice. Processed meat products with high nitrite content, may also add preservatives, color enhancers, etc., too much to eat, the stomach, liver, kidneys, etc. are not good, try to eat less or not.

3 Low ► Try to choose more low-temperature cooking

Steam, boiling, stewing, frying, stewing and other low-temperature cooking methods can reduce the production of harmful substances in the meat at high temperatures, but also reduce the loss of vitamin C, folic acid, and other nutrients in vegetables, more recommended.

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La Vignau

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