5 Things That Would Happen If We All Stopped Eating Meat

[spyguy]

i dont think veg food is so much better for you, rsther it does not cintain the bad stuff in meat - red bllod cells, animal fats.

high fibre with veggie is a significant good factor.

[spyguy]

low fibre diets are very bad for humans in so many different ways.

[winkie]

low fibre diets are very bad for humans in so many different ways.

Yes I think fibre is very important, eating raw fruit and vegetables is very good for your bowels......unhealthy problems can occur over time in intestines from over processed, over cooked and sloppy foods.

Diverticulitis is a very common disease in people, caused probably from years of eating the wrong foods the wrong way and not drinking enough fresh water.

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Diverticular-disease-and-diverticulitis/Pages/Causes.aspx

[StainlessSteelCat]

I have been veggie for over 30 years. The diet I eat nowadays is mostly vegan - but includes half dozen eggs a week, and very small amounts of cheese or yoghurt. There are bad vegetarian diets, and good ones. Ditto omnivorous ones. If you mostly eat massively refined food either way, you are going to eventually suffer - unless you have won the genetics lottery.

I do think some people are better suited to high meat diets than others. It is hard to imagine my missus - practically an obligate carnivore at times, thriving on a plant only diet.

For some reason there seems to be far less animals out to pasture near where I live this year - and you can see the fields already reverting to meadows, and even small trees starting to come through. I can understand why people graze sheep around here, but they have a substantial impact on the landscape.

[spunko2010]

Indeed - the idea that people can eat any omnivorous diet without any effort (basically junk) and still be healthy but you need to carefully watch what you eat on a vegetarian diet is strange to me. You need to watch what you eat regardless!

I have been veggie for over 30 years. The diet I eat nowadays is mostly vegan - but includes half dozen eggs a week, and very small amounts of cheese or yoghurt. There are bad vegetarian diets, and good ones. Ditto omnivorous ones. If you mostly eat massively refined food either way, you are going to eventually suffer - unless you have won the genetics lottery.

[spyguy]

Indeed - the idea that people can eat any omnivorous diet without any effort (basically junk) and still be healthy but you need to carefully watch what you eat on a vegetarian diet is strange to me. You need to watch what you eat regardless!

I think your digestive system evolves to what food you eat.

[spyguy]

Yes I think fibre is very important, eating raw fruit and vegetables is very good for your bowels......unhealthy problems can occur over time in intestines from over processed, over cooked and sloppy foods.

Diverticulitis is a very common disease in people, caused probably from years of eating the wrong foods the wrong way and not drinking enough fresh water.

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Diverticular-disease-and-diverticulitis/Pages/Causes.aspx

In short- gut piles. Nasty.

[Frank Hovis]

Indeed - the idea that people can eat any omnivorous diet without any effort (basically junk) and still be healthy but you need to carefully watch what you eat on a vegetarian diet is strange to me. You need to watch what you eat regardless!

I wouldn't say I eat junk! I may have the odd biscuit or cake at work but don't buy (and therefore don't eat): cake, sweets, biscuits, or crisps. The only snack food I buy is peanuts which I am ok with as they are high protein and mostly natural. The only high sugar source I have is fruit juice and fruit.

I don't want to put too much time into it and am fine with eating the same meal over and again. As there are a lot of readily available and quick to prepare animal protein sources (I eat a lot of boiled eggs for instance) then this makes sense for me and is ok. This low effort approach doesn't work for a vegetarian diet.

[spunko2010]

Frank are you referring to vegan here?

[Frank Hovis]

Frank are you referring to vegan here?

Yes, I don't regard the eating fish or other animal products versions as doing it properly.

[MrPin]

I'm not sure whether I would fart more or less, or whether it would be so fragrant

[Hail the Tripod]

I think it's pretty easy to be a healthy vegetarian. Just eat a mixed diet of fresh non processed foods - similar to omnivores but without the meat part! Vegan on the other hand... did try it for a few weeks and carried a few things over into my diet like not missing cheese every day like I thought I would, but it wasn't for me. Try finding anything vegan on a menu it's impossible unless you live in Brighton

What counts as non-processed food though?

I was thinking about this last night, while I made some delicious vegetarian chimichangas. Recipe: mozzarella, sweet chili sauce and hummus in a flour tortilla, with salsa on top and sour cream on the side. It got me wondering because I had plenty of time so made the hummus and salsa myself rather than buying it, using garlic and chillis grown in the garden and organic onions, vinegar and olive oil. But then it occurred to me that the tomatoes I used in the salsa still just came out of a can, as did the chick peas for the hummus. For all the extra time and effort the vast bulk of the meal still, essentially, came out of cans or sealed plastic bags.

I think it's probably quite easy to kid yourself you're eating "non processed" foods but still be buying most of the components in cans or sealed plastic packets.

[spunko2010]

What counts as non-processed food though?

I was thinking about this last night, while I made some delicious vegetarian chimichangas. Recipe: mozzarella, sweet chili sauce and hummus in a flour tortilla, with salsa on top and sour cream on the side. It got me wondering because I had plenty of time so made the hummus and salsa myself rather than buying it, using garlic and chillis grown in the garden and organic onions, vinegar and olive oil. But then it occurred to me that the tomatoes I used in the salsa still just came out of a can, as did the chick peas for the hummus. For all the extra time and effort the vast bulk of the meal still, essentially, came out of cans or sealed plastic bags.

I think it's probably quite easy to kid yourself you're eating "non processed" foods but still be buying most of the components in cans or sealed plastic packets.

There is an actual definition of processed food which is what I was referring to. I think it's anything with added sugar or salt at the most basic level. Tinned tomatoes are literally just tinned tomatoes if you check the ingredients.

[MrPin]

There is an actual definition of processed food which is what I was referring to. I think it's anything with added sugar or salt at the most basic level. Tinned tomatoes are literally just tinned tomatoes if you check the ingredients.

Tinned tomatos are wonderful.

[crashmonitor]

Yes, I don't regard the eating fish or other animal products versions as doing it properly.

I definitely have a pick n mix approach and try and avoid meat unless it is forced on me at someone else's house. Fish, meanwhile, is a favourite. Some truth in the poster saying you get used to a certain diet. A week of meat and my digestion would be completely buggered, as indeed would a week of vegetables for an Atkins' fan.

[crashmonitor]

Cows would take over the world.

No doubt who has the upper hand when you have to run the the gauntlet across an open field. Man is actually quite vulnerable, knock him over, sit on his chest...quite a few deaths have occurred like this recently especially as walkers get few and further between and spook the cows. Just have to hope they are not clued up to this where I live.

[spunko2010]

I did check my tinned tomatoes after thinking of this thread earlier. They contain citric acid, and tomatoes. I don't know if this counts as processed.

[SpectrumFX]

I did check my tinned tomatoes after thinking of this thread earlier. They contain citric acid, and tomatoes. I don't know if this counts as processed.

Unless you hunted it, or gathered it. It's processed.

The idea that all processing reduces food quality is one of those absurd popular delusions of modern life.

The only way to eat unprocessed meat is to take a bite out of a live animal. That's not good for you!

[Bloo Loo]

For healthy eating everybody should be eating mostly vegetables, topped up with The odd bit of meat and fish.

If you want to go veggie, then it's still mostly vegetables, but topped up with other stuff designed to fill the nutrient gap left by cutting out the meat and fish.

The trouble with trying to make any sort of healthy diet gastronomically satisfying is that we're hard wired to seek out sweet fatty food. Any diet plan that doesn't give you at least a little bit of what you fancy will not work as you'll just get pissed off with it.

If you really like meat then I'd keep eating it, buy try something like only having it on certain days of the week, or at certain meal times.

I wonder why we are "hard wired" for fatty food?

Maybe fat is better than carbs.

[Riedquat]

I wonder why we are "hard wired" for fatty food?

Maybe fat is better than carbs.

Because in the environment we evolved in it's not easy to get hold of, and it is rather useful to build up a store when your food supply is unreliable. It's similar for sweet, which is generally not-so-easy-to-get high energy. Those meant that it was worth the extra effort to try to obtain, and would've evolved at a built-in instinctive level long before we were capable of thinking about our diet. To look at in horribly economic terms thousands of years of thinking about it has allowed us to completely mess up the supply-demand balance. Stuffing ourselves with fat and sugar is dietary HPI.

[SpectrumFX]

I wonder why we are "hard wired" for fatty food?

Maybe fat is better than carbs.

We will have evolved a "desire" for tastes that correspond with the relative prevalence and nutritional value of foods in our original hunter gatherer niche.

Fat would have been hard to come by, and associated with high nutritional value (you only could have got it in a "food package" associated with other nutrients).

Today we can refine out the things we're primed to desire and consume them neat.

[spunko2010]

Unless you hunted it, or gathered it. It's processed.

The idea that all processing reduces food quality is one of those absurd popular delusions of modern life.

The only way to eat unprocessed meat is to take a bite out of a live animal. That's not good for you!

Going back to the above I believe the regulators in this country regard processed as having sugar or salt added, at the most basic level.

[SpectrumFX]

Going back to the above I believe the regulators in this country regard processed as having sugar or salt added, at the most basic level.

The "no added sugar" lable on things like orange juice which are mostly sugar is just farcical.

[JoeDavola]

Going back to the above I believe the regulators in this country regard processed as having sugar or salt added, at the most basic level.

Yes.

Unprocessed food = single ingredient.

A potato. Some rice. Brocolli. Kidney beans. ect...

No added salt, sugar, or oils. Simples.

[MrPin]

The "no added sugar" lable on things like orange juice which are mostly sugar is just farcical.

I think they mean refind disacharides (cane sugar). Still I don't trust labels. There are many sorts of sugar. Some are easier to digest.