Vegan? Ok. Vegetarian? Ok. Wise Meat Eater? Also Ok.

So, it is a common knowledge that we know there is debate happening in our society nowadays involving these groups of plant-based humans and animal protein consumers. While this platform itself is talking about the matter of sustainable lifestyle, I think it is important to finally bring up this issue. It is necessary to put in mind that my position here is not promoting one party and bashing the others. I want to position myself in a neutral area and try different glasses to understand each perspective and provide you both advantages and disadvantages in choosing what foods you should consume in your life.

Vegan

To start this post, let’s talk about this group of people that do not consume, wear, purchase, or use any products made from animals. This means that vegans abstain from eating animal meats, eggs, honey, and dairy foods. They also avoid the usage of fashion items made out of animals’ leather, wools, furs, silk, and other similar products. Products that use animal as a testing object are also banned.

Advantages of being a vegan:

• A vegan diet is richer in certain nutrients. By eliminating meats and other animal products, vegan will rely heavily on other sources of foods as replacements such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans, peas, nuts, and seeds. Since these foods are consumed on a daily basis, daily intake of certain beneficial nutrients will also increase.
• It can help you lose excess weight. There are many speculations that plant-based diet helps people losing weight and that becomes one major reason for people to turn into vegans. The reason here is vegan diets have a natural tendency to reduce your calorie intake. This make them effective in promoting weight loss without the need to actively focus on cutting calories.
• Can contribute more in saving animals’ rights. Cutting the consumption of animal products means that you are no longer supporting dirty animal farms and cruel companies producing animal products itself. Many animal businesses don’t bother about animal rights and they most of the times killing animals by unnecessary torturing them. By avoiding to buy their products, you indirectly help the animals to gain freedom and better life.

Disadvantages of being a vegan:

• Hard times on making meal plans. While many people still think that veganism is a stage and there are many other ways to ensure animals protection by still using animal products, vegans might finding hard times socially when they have to plan their meals outside of the house. Although many vegan restaurants are opened and animals-friendly products are created, but those things tend to be more expensive and harder to get.
• Hard to get enough protein. Most vegans are struggling to with eating adequate amounts of protein. This is especially concerning for those who are for some reasons trying to gain weight or suffering from protein deficiency, as it is more difficult to find the substitutes.
• Vegan diet can be “carb heavy”. While it is stated above that vegan diet might be helping you reduce some excess weight, avoiding meats makes vegans rely mostly on legumes, grains, vegetables, fruits, and any other heavy-carb foods to bulk up their diet. It can be challenging and hard for vegans to eliminate carbs as well as they eliminate meats that will end of excessive amount of carbs that they consume on daily basis. This can be problematic if those carbohydrates sources come from refined sugars and grains, which are lack any nutrition and can lead to bad weight gain.

Vegetarian

Vegetarian is a person who applies the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat and may also include abstention from by-products of animal slaughter. While veganism are based on pure reasons of better life of animals, vegetarianism might be adopted for various reasons, such as religious beliefs as well as animal rights advocacy. Other motivations for vegetarianism are health-related, political, environmental, cultural, aesthetic, economic, or personal preference.

Advantages of being a vegetarian:

• Easing the troubles during menopause. The vegetarians foods are rich of the phytoestrogens that copy the functions of the female hormone by the name of estrogen. The consumption of foods such as soybeans, apples, oranges, broccolis, raspberries, and olives balanced by fibers can increase the rate of phytoestrogens and give proper amount of nutrition to bodies.
• Environmental concern. It is a fact that most of meat industries affect lands and atmosphere because of pollution. By minimalizing the consumption of animal products such as cutting meat and consume only eggs and dairy products, vegetarians have distributions in living a more sustainable lifestyle.
• Save money while still be able to splurge on ‘good and healthier foods’. Meat products are not cheap and by cutting the consumption of meats, vegetarians can save money and use it for other things. Vegetarians can still consume eggs and dairy products as substitutes of meat when eat outside so they can avoid the so-called-expensive vegan food products and at the same time not splurging much for those big pork ribs. It’s a win-win money situation for everyone.

Disadvantages of being a vegetarian:

• Inadequate amounts of protein. The major concern that both vegan and vegetarian have is the fear of not getting sufficient levels of protein. But different than vegan, vegetarian can still eat few products such as eggs and dairy to increase the level of protein in their bodies. It can be said that vegetarian is not for the faint of heart regarding of this protein matter. Because to still have adequate amount of protein by eliminating meats, one has to not be lazy and explore of more combination of foods.
• Social issues get in the way. When it comes to parties or hang out with a meat-eating friend, vegetarians find it hard to cope up with them. It might be bit hassle and people will tend to look at you in a weird way when you inform them that you don’t eat meats. This leads to days or even weeks before trying to inform the party or event host about your food preferences and might have to spend few bucks more choosing certain type of inflight meals when you travel by plane.
• Lifestyle changes. Often when vegetarians go to visit their friends or relatives, they have to be extra clear about their lifestyle. It is possible to cause a bit of clash because some cultures might find it insulting to reject meat as part of feast that has been prepared before. Vegetarian also has to spend more time double-checking everything at supermarket to see the ingredients of every food product.

Wise-meat eater

I come up with this term to describe ‘normal’ and usual people before the concept of vegan and vegetarian was developed. Meat eater has also various reasons for consuming meats, such as belief that every human being was created biologically as a meat-eater, to reduce addiction of sugar and carbohydrates, to build stronger muscles, to boost immune system and antibodies that protect the body from any kind of infections, and so on. Whatever the reason is, I give my fully respect to that. While everything that is done too much or has word ‘over’ in front of it is not good, so is over-consumption in terms of meat. The term wise-meat eater comes up from the consciousness of one human being to take benefits offered by any type of meats but at the same time give full attention to cruel practices in animal industries.

Advantages of eating meat:

• Good intake of protein for the body. Since meat contains a large amount of protein, this could be beneficial for the body as the need for protein is an important one for the body. Since protein is said to improve the overall health and well-being of one’s body, there are other benefits such as the repair and building of body tissues as well as the production of antibodies that will protect the body from infections, thus strengthening the immune systems as well. Most importantly, since meat contains all the essential amino acids, it definitely ranks as one of the best sources of protein.
• High of nutrients to the body. Of the many nutrients that meat contains, it is rich in iron, zinc, and selenium. While iron helps in forming hemoglobin that transports oxygen to different parts of the body, zinc helps in tissue formation and metabolism as well as selenium break downs the fat and chemicals in the body.
• Maintenance of skin’s health and beauty. Vitamin A, B, and D are commonly found in meat products. Not only do these vitamins promote good visions, stronger teeth, and bones, they also support the central nervous system thus promoting mental health as well.  Another big benefit of eating meat is the maintenance of your skin’s health.

 Disadvantages of eating meat:

• Livestock production impacts the planet in a huge way. Meat impacts the environment more than any other foods we eat, mainly because livestock require much more land, food, water, and energy than plants to raise and transport. The animal cruelty factor in some meat industries is also sickening.
• Meat puts your colon and brain at risk. Meat contains a whole lot of iron which, when eaten in excess, can raise levels of iron in the brain and may increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. When iron accumulates in the brain, a fatty tissue that coats nerve fibers is destroyed. This disrupts brain communication, and signs of Alzheimer appear.
• You can get sick from E. Coli. Foods most likely to sicken you with E. Coli include unpasteurized milk and cattle also presents a major threat. The greater the number of cows in the hamburger, the greater the chance of contracting something that wasn’t intended to be in the meat, such as E. Coli bacteria. E. Coli can cause dehydration, abdominal cramps, and kidney failure.

While the debate in between those three above seems like far from closure, every human being has their own choice in living their life. One thing to remember is that being overly strict or overly open to something is not good. I  believe in the importance of balance in every aspect of your life, and choosing what you eat in your life is no exception.