A Vegan Diet Is Not What You Think

I do not usually pay much attention to school newspaper’s, but for some reason I picked up a recent edition and found a few articles quite interesting. First was the article on plant protein cells, and then was the unsurprisingly ignorant editorial on veganism.
I just happen to be writing a paper on the vegan diet and it’s health benefits. The main thing I have been studying are the common myths of a vegan diet. One of course being protein. My primary source of information is a very thick book recently published by the American Dietetic Association. It says that vegetables can provide all of the essential amino acids for optimal health, so consuming meat is not a requirement for getting those. And even though those amino acids can be found in eating animal flesh, it is in a pure protein form that is more difficult for the body to break down. And while the body has a harder time getting the protein from the flesh, it becomes taxing on the body causing premature aging.
Something I found quite compelling in this issue was the funny correlation between the plant protein article and the editorial. While one scientific, informative and credible article gives credit to plant research over animal research because plants produce the same proteins as animals- the other article submitted by an uneducated writer voices criticism to the vegan diet supposedly not getting the adequate protein. But wait, didn’t Leah Clancy say that plants make those same proteins as one would get from meat? So why again would a vegan not get enough protein? How was that information skipped over when the editorial was being written?
Doing this paper I have also learned about the dangerous things you put into your body while consuming animal products that you would not get in a purely vegan diet. The biggest killer in America is heart disease. Heart disease can kill a person in an instant without any warning. 50% of people that experience heart attacks die from it. That’s 1 out of 2 people. And every two minutes, someone has a heart attack. The two biggest causes of heart disease are saturated fats and cholesterol. Both very abundant in food from animals. In fact, a vegan diet is COMPLETELY free of cholesterol. Because the only way you can eat cholesterol is by eating someone else’s. Studies even show that when animal fats are cut out of a diet, the blood veins immediately being to thin out.
Cancer is also heavily linked to the fats and cholesterol in meat, as well as the hormones and other chemical substances pumped into animals. The American Dietetic Association gives specific advice for preventing and fighting cancer. And that is simply, eating your fruits and veggies! Not once do they ever mention eating animal flesh in preventing and fighting these and other fatal diseases.
So when taking into consideration the unbelievably cruel exploitation of innocent animals in the meat industry, and also taking into consideration the health dangers of eating those animals, one becoming vegan or vegetarian is completely understandable and facts like these have even converted me who has grown up centering my diet around meat.

For more information on the animal cruelty, environmental and health issues accompanied with the meat industry, please visit www.goveg.com.