Is it good for your health to be a vegetarian all the time?

Vegetarian dishes are mainly composed of vegetables, but because vegetables have nutritional value that most meats cannot match, more and more people are beginning to love vegetarianism and gradually reduce their dependence on meat. Many people even refuse to eat meat and only eat vegetarian food. A pure vegetarian diet for a short period of time can indeed bring great benefits to the body, but is it good for the body to be a vegetarian all the time? Let’s take a look at the explanation below.

Although vegetarianism can be roughly divided into veganism, lacto-vegetarianism, ovo-vegetarianism, lacto-ovo-vegetarianism, etc., in principle, vegetarianism refers to not eating animal protein. By not eating meat, you can lower and regulate cholesterol in the body, and you won’t produce too much uric acid due to eating meat, which will not increase the incidence of kidney stones. In addition, the human body is alkaline in nature. Eating too much meat can easily make the body acidic, thereby increasing the chance of illness. Eating vegetarian food can help neutralize the acidity and alkalinity of the body.

What are the dangers of eating vegetarian food regularly?

Susceptibility to gallstones

Vegetarian diet contains more plant fiber, which can reduce the reabsorption of bile acid and lower the concentration of bile salt. In addition, vegetarians do not consume enough vitamins A and E, which causes the gallbladder epithelial cells to fall off easily, leading to cholesterol deposition and the formation of gallstones.

It can be seen that residents should choose a diet that combines meat and vegetables. People with obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases can eat more vegetarian food. Children in their growth and development period and those who are malnourished or lacking in trace elements may wish to increase their meat intake. In short, a scientific diet should be a combination of meat and vegetables in appropriate proportions.

Malnutrition

Lack of minerals. Studies have confirmed that insufficient intake of manganese not only affects bone development and fails to meet the body's metabolic needs, but also causes bone pain, fatigue, hunchback and other diseases. The human body finds it difficult to absorb the manganese contained in plant foods, and only the manganese contained in meat foods is easily absorbed by the human body. Zinc, calcium, iron, etc. essential to the human body mainly come from meat. Zinc mainly comes from animal foods, 80% of calcium comes from milk, and 80% of iron comes from meat and eggs. However, the content of these nutrients in vegetarian food is very low, and it also contains a lot of phytic acid and oxalic acid, which can hinder the absorption of these nutrients.

Therefore, long-term vegetarians are prone to some diseases caused by mineral deficiency, such as anorexia, pica, decreased sexual function, infertility, rickets, bone hyperplasia, osteoporosis, anemia, etc.