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Eating for Your Health

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With each passing year, more Americans suffer from obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke, and high blood pressure. Choosing vegetarian options over meat, eggs, and dairy products not only helps animals and the environment—it helps our health, too.

 

Nutrition Experts on Vegetarian Diets

 
How Healthy Is Fish?
While the fishing and aquaculture industries tout the health benefits of fish consumption, what they don’t tell us is that many fish carry high levels of mercury from industrial pollution that pose serious risks.(a)

The American Dietetic Association, the leading nutrition authority in the United States, states that "appropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence....Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than nonvegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; vegetarians also show lower blood cholesterol levels; lower blood pressure; and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer."(1).

Basic Vegetarian Nutrition

While studies have shown the many health benefits of vegetarian eating, merely removing animal products from your diet doesn’t automatically ensure good health.

As with any eating plan, it’s important to know some basic nutrition information.

Staying physically active, avoiding foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol, and eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables is good advice for anyone. Fortunately, this isn’t hard for most vegetarians. However, there are some key nutrients to look out for:

 
Isn't Chicken Good for You?

Chicken meat is high in fat and cholesterol and can contain high levels of arsenic, which the poultry industry feeds to the birds to make them grow faster.

Cholesterol and Fat. Chicken meat has more cholesterol per calorie than beef and virtually the same amount of fat. Even when the chicken’s skin is removed, the dark meat is thrown away, and a nonfat cooking method is used, chicken still derives 23 percent of its calories from fat.

Arsenic. After examining 5,000 samples of chicken meat, researchers from the National Institutes of Health and the USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service reported alarmingly high levels of arsenic contamination in the flesh of broiler chickens.(b) In fact, the amount of arsenic found in chicken was six to nine times that allowed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for drinking water. A bucket of chicken from a typical fast food restaurant would be expected to have as much as almost 50 times the amount of arsenic allowed in a glass of water.(c)

Essential Omega-3 Fatty Acids. These fatty acids are important for a variety of reasons—including maintaining good heart and cardiovascular health—and it's important to have a reliable source, such as walnuts, ground flax seeds, flax oil, hempseed oil, canola oil, and supplements.

Vitamin B12. When nonvegetarians consume animal products, they also ingest this vitamin that is made by bacteria in some animals' bodies. Vegetarians can take a common multiple vitamin or B12 supplement, or enjoy fortified cereals or soy milk to get a reliable source of B12.

Vitamin D. This vitamin is important for good bone health. Our bodies make vitamin D when we’re exposed to sunlight. Spending some time outdoors every day without sunscreen and, during the winter months, eating vitamin D-fortified foods or taking a supplement is a good idea for anyone, vegetarian or not.

Protein. A common misperception about vegetarian diets is that they don’t provide enough protein. Numerous studies have shown that this simply isn’t the case. Eating an adequate number of calories derived from any normal variety of plant foods generally gives us all the protein our bodies need.

Iron. Our bodies need iron to keep oxygen circulating throughout the bloodstream. In extreme cases, an iron deficiency can lead to fatigue and other disorders. Fortunately, iron is plentiful in animal-free sources. (For even greater iron absorption, eat foods high in vitamin C, like citrus fruits and bell peppers.)

Calcium. Everyone knows we need calcium for strong bones, but what most people don’t know is that our risk of osteoporosis can be lowered by reducing sodium intake, eating more fruits and vegetables, exercising, and getting enough vitamin D from sunlight or fortified food sources.

Protein-Rich and Vegetarian

Almonds, black beans, brown rice, cashews, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), kidney beans, lentils, lima beans, peanut butter, pinto beans, quinoa, seitan (a wheat-based mock meat), soybeans, soy milk, sunflower seeds, textured vegetable protein (TVP), tofu, vegetarian hot dogs and burgers

Iron-Rich and Vegetarian

Black beans, bran flakes, cashews, Cream of Wheat®, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), Grape-Nuts®, kidney beans, lentils, navy beans, oatmeal, pumpkin seeds, raisins, soybeans, soy milk, spinach, sunflower seeds, tofu, tomato juice, whole wheat bread

Calcium-Rich and Vegetarian

Almonds, black beans, broccoli, calcium-fortified orange juice, collard greens, great northern beans, kale, kidney beans, mustard greens, navy beans, pinto beans, sesame seeds, soybeans, soy milk, textured vegetable protein (TVP), tofu

A diet high in cholesterol and saturated fat can increase the risk of stroke, heart disease, and certain forms of cancer. Conversely, diets containing large amounts of vegetables and fruits offer protection against stroke, heart attack, diabetes, and various cancers, including colon, prostate, and likely breast, lung, and pancreas cancers.

The foods highest in cholesterol and saturated fats are meats, dairy products, and eggs, so vegetarians enjoy a significant health advantage when it comes to protecting themselves from the leading killers and disablers of Americans. Non-animal-based diets are also far healthier for our planet and the rest of its inhabitants.

—David O. Wiebers, M.D., and Jennifer Leaning, M.D., serve on the board of directors of The HSUS. Dr. Wiebers is chair of the board, and Dr. Leaning is chair of the board's International Committee.


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1. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 103(6), June 2003: 748–65.

a. Mahaffey KR, Clickner RP, and Bodurow CC, "Blood Organic Mercury and Dietary Mercury Intake: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999 and 2000," Environmental Health Perspectives 112(5), Apr. 2004: 562 (www.ephonline.org/members/2003/6587/6587.pdf).

b. Lasky T, Sun W, Kadry A, and Hoffman MK, "Mean Total Arsenic Concentrations in Chicken 1989–2000 and Estimated Exposures for Consumers of Chicken," USDA, Food Safety and Inspection Service, Office of Public Health and Science, Environmental Health Perspectives 112(1), Jan. 2004, http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2003/6407/6407.html.

c. One bucket of chicken from KFC contains three legs, three breasts, three wings, and three thighs (http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/letter_to_ftc.pdf), weighing a total of 1,176 grams (www.yum.com/nutrition/documents/kfc_nutrition.pdf) and containing up to 108.5 micrograms of inorganic arsenic [Lasky T, Sun W, Kadry A, and Hoffman MK, "Mean Total Arsenic Concentrations," op. cit.]. This exceeds the U.S. EPA limit on an eight-ounce glass of water by a factor of 48.4 (www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-WATER/2001/October/Day-05/w25047.htm).