muso wrote on Aug 24
th, 2013 at 8:56am:
... wrote on Aug 23
rd, 2013 at 10:00pm:
[quote]
It’s worth noting that although a vegetarian diet can provide all essential nutrients to support intense daily training and competition, there are several dietary challenges faced by athletes following a vegetarian diet.
Yes. There are challenges for athletes. They are by no means insurmountable and not even very difficult as shown by the increased popularilty of vegetarianism among athletes.
So you're saying that it's therefore "very difficult" for the rest of us who are not athletes? I don't follow your logic.
Many people who eat meat find it
difficult to have a balanced diet and a large number end up with cardiovascular disease as a result.
Tell me this. Does it increase or decrease that risk if you go on a vegetarian diet?
The information I have is that it reduces the risk by 30%.
OK, I'ma lay out my assertions for you.
1. An optimal diet for humans includes
some meat. A vegetarian diet is better than an "anything goes" diet, but because it almost eliminates processed/takeaway food, not meat on the whole.
2. Those foregoing this food group will find it difficult to consistently have a healthy (see point 3) diet.
3. Health consists of more than just a reduced risk of certain ailments - to be healthy, you also need to meet a minimum standard of performance in strength and endurance.
4. What is lost from meat
can be made up from other sources, but these each carry their own problems. Interestingly, I see far more propaganda regarding grains than I ever have for meat. We've all seen the 'healthy food pyramid' and even been taught it in school. What is less widely known is that it was devised by kelloggs. Nup, no ulterior motive there. The 'meat propaganda' greggery continually bangs on about is limited to tongue-in-cheek TV ads, taken seriously by noone.