Explain Why Vegetarians Are Not Barbarians

Non-Vegetarians aren’t barbarians

Why vegan and vegetarian diets aren’t better

than normal ones

375 million people across the world are vegetarian, but vegetarian and vegan diets aren’t as great as you think they might be. Vegetarians are people that do not eat meat. Vegans do not eat any animal products. Vegetarian diets have many down sides and are harming more than they are helping. They rely a lot on soy which can be harmful, vegetables do not have the same health benefits that meat and animal products do, and vegetable and fruit farming can be harmful for the environment.

Too Much Soy Especially For Boys

One reason how becoming vegan or vegetarian can be negative because of how much soy is in vegan and vegetarian diets. Soy is protein

that comes from soybeans that is used in vegan and vegetarian diets to replace the protein that comes from meat and animal products. 90% of soybeans are genetically modified. This can have many negative effects on humans. Soybean crops are also heavily sprayed with chemical herbicides, such glyphosate, which a French team of researchers have found to be carcinogenic. Another effect of soy is that it lowers testosterone. Soy contains compounds that are similar to the ones in estrogen which is a female hormone. Enough of this can lower your testosterone levels and 41% of vegetarians are male. This shows how vegan and vegetarian diets are not better than regular ones because of the big reliance on soy and soy beans even when they have been found to have many negative effects like low testosterone levels and a potential risk to cancer.

Vegetarian and Vegan Diets Can Lead to Vitamin Deficiency
Cutting out meat and animal products from your meals have many negative effects on your health specifically getting different vitamins. Vegan and Vegetarian diets are low in vitamin D, specifically vitamin D3. Vitamin D3 is found in meat and animal based food like eggs, fish, and cheese. It helps with bone growth and vitamin D3 is not found in many vegan foods and in the ones where vitamin D3 is present, It is very low. Vitamin D3 deficiency can lead to bone softening and low calcium.

Researchers have linked Vitamin D deficiency to high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer. This is an example of how turning vegetarian or vegan is not better than a regular diet because you get less Vitamin D which can lead to many health problems that you would not get with meat and animal products in your diet.

Another way in which Vegan and Vegetarian diets have negative effects on health is that fruits and vegetables have low vitamin B12.

Vitamin B12 is found in meat and other animal products like eggs and milk. Vitamin B12 is not found in vegetables and fruits however. Not getting enough vitamin B12 results in vitamin B12 deficiency also known as cobalamin deficiency. This leads to a reduction in healthy red blood cells. A benefit of vitamin B12 is that it helps prevent anemia which causes reduced flow of oxygen into the body organs. A study showed that nearly a quarter of the vegans tested were B12 deficient but only 9% of non vegetarians were B12 deficient. This is a great example of how Vegan and Vegetarian diets are not better than regular ones because you have low B12 levels which lead to many health problems that could be avoided by eating meats and animals

products.

Vegan/Vegetarian Diets are Bad For the Environment
The last reason why vegan and vegetarian diets are not better than regular diets is that they are harmful to the environment. In a Scientific American story it was found out that “lettuce produces 3 times more greenhouse gases than bacon.” Greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere is a contributor to global warming. This is an example of how vegan and vegetarian diets are not superior to regular ones because if a large amount of humans are eating only vegetables like lettuce, then the demand for lettuce will go up and that will lead to more and more lettuce being produced ending in large amounts of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere.

This could be avoided if vegans and vegetarians added more diversity into their diet and ate meat so that there would be less greenhouse gases being released and less harm to the environment.

Another way in how vegetarianism is harmful to the environment is the amount of pesticides used in planting fruits and vegetables.

Pesticides are substances that are used for killing insects or other organisms that are harmful to plants or animals. The US Environmental Protection Agency reported that 1 billion tons of pesticides are used in the United States each year. 80% of these pesticides are used for growing crops. Even though pesticides are sprayed on fruits, vegetables, and plants they can make their way into water sources like rivers, oceans, or ponds. If the water gets contaminated and animals drink from it and die, a whole ecosystem could be thrown off. Pesticides also affect groundwater. This is called leaching. Many people rely on groundwater for drinking so the pesticides that make their way in the groundwater can be harmful to people and potentially

animals.

Is Not Eating Meat Actually Saving Animals?

Some may argue that going vegan or vegetarian. PETA said that one of the upsides of going vegan or vegetarian is saving animals. Contrary to what people believe, vegetarian and vegan diets are not stopping animals from getting killed. There has been a 500% increase in United States citizens becoming vegans from 2014 to 2017. Despite this large increase in veganism the amount of cows being slaughtered has not seen a drastic drop. The following are statistics from the usda’s website. In 2014, 32.5 million cows were slaughtered. 28.6 million cows were slaughtered in 2015 30.6 million cows were slaughtered in 2016. In 2017, 32.2 million cows were slaughtered. As shown in the statistics, even with the large increase in veganism, becoming a vegan is not stopping animals from getting slaughtered since the number of animals slaughtered is staying the same at about 30 million each year.

The same thing can be shown in the number of pigs being slaughtered each year. 112.1 million pigs were slaughtered in 2013. 107 million were slaughtered in 2014. 115.4 million were slaughtered in 2015. In 2016, 118.2 million pigs were slaughtered. In 2017, 121.3 million were slaughtered. These numbers counter the argument that vegans and vegetarians make of how they are saving animals. If they were saving animals by boycotting meat the increase in vegetarians and vegans would show a decrease in animals being slaughtered but that is not the case.

After reading this do you still want to eat only fruits and vegetables. If you are a vegetarian or vegan you should go to the store, buy some meat and eat it. It will be better for your health and the environment. Vegetarian diets have many down sides and are harming more than they are helping. They use a ton of soy which can lead to health problems, vegetables do not have the same health benefits that meat and animal products do, and vegetable and fruit farming can be harmful for the environment.