Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Is it healthier to be a Vegetarian or Omnivore? - WAC

By Joshua Santos, 2026-7B

     It is much healthier to be an Omnivore, or someone that eats both vegetables and meat. Omnivores eat meat which provide healthy vitamins that improve system. Humans were also designed to eat meat and do not have the same stomachs as herbivores and cannot get the most out of vegetables and plants. Also, myths regarding meat eaters to live shorter lives or have cardiovascular diseases were in the past proven false thoroughly and many times. Omnivores are not excluded to eating vegetables and plants, so Omnivores eat both meat and plants which both in total provide vitamins and fats that improve the health and performance of the body and healthy and many minerals such as iron.

     Omnivores eat meat which provide healthy vitamins to improve body systems. According to the article ¨Is It Healthier To Be A Vegetarian Or Omnivore?" by ProCon.org, it states that meat provides vitamin B12, which makes the digestive and nervous system more healthier. This agrees with Kris Gunnars in the article ¨7 reasons not to avoid meat (unless you want to)¨, which says that meat provides protein and according to this article, it says: ¨Another thing protein is important for is bone health.¨ These two articles show that meat is necessary for skeletal, digestive, and nervous system health. Also, an article called ¨Is It Healthier To Be A Vegetarian Or Omnivore?¨ by the Science Education for New Civic Engagement and Responsibilities or SENCER says that ¨And yet, meat products contain creatine and carnosine, which are beneficial to the brain and muscles¨"and shows that meat is also healthy for the brain and muscles.

     Humans were not designed to live off of only vegetables. In the article by Kris Gunnars titled ¨7 reasons you should not avoid meat (unless you want to)¨, it clearly says ¨Our digestive systems are well equipped to make full use of the fats, proteins and nutrients from animal foods¨ and ¨Humans have much shorter digestive systems than herbivores and don´t have specialized organs to digest cellulose, the main fiber in plants.¨ By reading these two quotes, I learned that humans were specifically built to benefit from meat and cannot live off of plants and vegetables because they cannot digest cellulose, so humans cannot get the most out of eating plants. Kris Gunnars also illustrated the idea of meat benefiting humans by saying ¨Humans also have canines, with big brains, opposing thumbs and the ability to make tools to hunt. Meat was one of the reasons humans were able to evolve such large, elaborate brains." This information clearly shows that humans were able to evolve from meat which shows meat's usefulness to humans.

     There are many things that are beneficial to being omnivorous. One of them is the ability to eat both meat and vegetables/fruits. That means that omnivores can benefit from vegetables and meat. ProCon.org states in the article "Should people become vegetarian?" that "A vegetarian diet provides a more healthful source of iron than a meat-based diet." and "Eating meat provides a better source of iron than a vegetarian diet." From these two quotes alone, I learned that  a vegetarian diet provides healthier iron while meat provides more iron. If you eat both vegetables and meat, you get more iron and healthy iron as well, which is good for your body. Meat also provides vitamins that are necessary to make your nervous, muscular, digestive and skeletal system healthier as said in "7 reasons not to avoid meat" by Kris Gunnars and "Is it healthier to be a vegetarian or omnivore?" by SENCER. Also, ProCon.org shows in the article "Should people become vegetarian?" that "A vegetarian diet delivers complete nutrition and can provide health benefits." If you combine the complete nutrition, health benefits and healthy iron with the helpful vitamins, proteins, fats, and nutrients which make many of your systems such as the nervous, muscular, skeletal, and digestive system healthy from meat, you can with no doubt see that being an omnivore is much healthier than being vegetarian.

     There are some things people think are beneficial to being vegetarian. Some of these things are 'if you are vegetarian you live longer' and 'eating meat can cause cardiovascular diseases.' Both of these facts were proven false many times. According to the article "Should people become vegetarian?" by ProCon.org, they show that this fact is indeed false saying "Vegetarians do not live longer. This myth stems from the fact that vegetarians tend to be more health conscious overall..." Kris Gunnars also says in the article "7 reasons not to avoid meat" that meat does not cause cardiovascular disease saying "The main reason for these claims is that meat is high in saturated fat." and "Studies now show that saturated fat in the diet is not linked to heart disease." This shows that meat does not cause cardiovascular disease so you should not worry about this disease when eating meat. This article also claims that there are no health benefits to avoiding meat. "Despite the claims, there is no strong evidence that avoiding meat leads to health benefits. True... there are observational studies showing that vegetarians have a lower risk of several diseases. However, these results are largely explained by the fact that vegetarians are more health conscious overall and are more likely to exercise, less likely to smoke, etc."

     In conclusion, being omnivorous is more beneficial than being vegetarian for various reasons. These reasons include the fact that eating meat provides proteins, nutrients vitamins (especially vitamin B12), fat, etc. that make your body more healthier and stronger. Omnivores also don't only eat meat, they also eat vegetables which means that they can benefit from plants that provide healthy iron, a diet filled with iron, nutrients, and carbohydrates. Being vegetarian isn't healthier than being omnivorous as said by "7 reasons you should not avoid meat" by Kris Gunnars. In fact, being vegetarian is worse than being omnivorous due to the fact that you´re only limited to vegetables, you have to find another source of protein, and you do not have vitamin B12 which makes your bones, digestive system, brain and central nervous system and muscles not as healthy and strong in comparison to an omnivore.





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