Will eating vegetarian food lead to nutritional deficiencies?

Everyone should know that in daily life, we should eat a combination of meat and vegetables, so that we can better supplement the nutrients needed by the human body. However, many people choose to eat vegetarian food for a long time due to physical reasons or religious reasons, while some people believe that eating vegetarian food will not provide sufficient nutrition for the body, thus leading to malnutrition. So will long-term vegetarianism lead to malnutrition?

Long-term vegetarianism is more likely to cause nutritional deficiencies, as follows:

1. Zinc deficiency: Vegetarians have lower zinc intake than non-vegetarians. Zinc deficiency can affect children's development, immune function and sexual desire. Because plant-based zinc has low bioavailability, vegetarians should strive to meet or exceed the recommended dietary allowance for zinc.

2. Vitamin B12 deficiency: Vitamin B12 is necessary for the hematopoietic process and the nervous system. Vitamin B12 is almost only found in animal foods. The vitamin B12 provided by spirulina, marine plants, and fermented soy foods is inactive. People who eat a vegan diet for a long time will suffer from severe vitamin B12 deficiency, which will lead to special visual hallucinations.

3. Iron deficiency: Plant foods only contain non-heme iron, which is not as easily absorbed as the heme iron in meat. The human body absorbs iron from plant foods poorly, so although the iron content in vegetarian food is higher than that in meat-based foods, the iron stores in vegetarians are lower. A vegetarian diet may also lead to anemia. This happens mostly in children and women.

4. Calcium deficiency: Calcium deficiency is very common among vegetarians who abstain from dairy products. Vegans have lower calcium intakes than lacto-ovo vegetarians and omnivores. Lack of calcium, especially in women, makes people more likely to suffer from osteoporosis in middle age and old age.

5. Lack of vitamin D: If there is not enough vitamin D, it will lead to a large loss of calcium, causing osteoporosis, rickets, weak bone structure and other diseases.

6. Iodine deficiency: Fish is the main food for the human body to obtain iodine, but not eating fish for a long time can easily cause "iodine deficiency".

7. Low quality of protein: The quality of protein consumed by vegetarians is relatively low. Although vegetarians can obtain the same amount of protein as non-vegetarians through plants, the quality of plant protein is worse than that of animal protein, and it contains less essential amino acids such as lysine.

8. Low calories: Long-term vegetarian diet can easily lead to malnutrition due to severe lack of protein and fat. Children born to women who have been vegetarians for a long time often have growth and development disorders. Protein is the main raw material for building and repairing human tissues. Long-term deficiency will have a great impact on the body's disease resistance. Fat produces high calories, and unsaturated fatty acids are "food for the human brain", which is extremely important for promoting brain intelligence development. Therefore, long-term vegetarianism is more harmful to adolescents who are growing and developing rapidly.

9. Memory loss: Many older people are afraid of suffering from chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes, so they switch to a vegetarian diet. However, according to the latest medical research in the United States, long-term vegetarianism can lead to symptoms such as memory loss, mental depression, slow reaction, and fatigue due to a lack of nutrients such as protein and vitamin B12.

10. Induce cardiovascular disease: A recent study in Germany shows that if too much emphasis is placed on vegetarianism, the risk of cardiovascular disease will increase due to unbalanced nutrition. Although these vegetarians had lower cholesterol levels, most showed symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency, which increased a component in the blood called homocysteine. This substance increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. The survey also found that not eating meat may lead to lower levels of high-density lipoprotein in the blood, which is not good for cardiovascular health.