Did we really need to read all that?

Skinless turkey breast is one of the leanest protein sources on the planet. Not only that, it has a rich mix of heart healthy nutrients and vitamins. You want to avoid all meat? Fine. You be vegetarian and I'll enjoy a turkey sandwich. My fingernails probably aren't as brittle as yours but I am not silently judging you.

i think you might be misinformed. all animal products have cholesterol which has proven to be anti heart healthy and a huge contributor to cardiovascular/heart disease. plants do not have cholesterol and do not contribute to heart disease. the leanest protein source on the planet comes from legumes aka beans which also contain a rich mix of heart healthy nutrients.

tajuha:

I'm afraid you are the one who is misinformed there buddy. Legumes are what is referred to as an incomplete protein. You do not get all you need from legumes. It would also be very difficult to get all the protein you need from plant sources if your body is under alot of stress/strain (such as when you exersize intensely).

Please learn something about nutrition, then you can comment!!!

I am not sure how much research you have done on nutrition, but when i decided to switch to veg i made sure to spend a lot of time investigating what i would need to eat in order to maintain my health. Many beans are complete proteins providing the 8-10 amino acids your body doesn't produce naturally. Soy is the most common. However some only provide many of the essential amino acids. a vegetarian solves this conundrum by simply eating a variety of plant based foods.

With the many positive health benefits science has found in a plant based diet more and more athletes are turning to the diet. A quick search yields these names of professional and accomplished vegetarian athletes who, i'm sure, know a thing or two about nutrition.

Robert Parnish, Center (Bulls)

Lawrence Phillips, Football Player (49ers)

Steve Bellamy, Founder of the Tennis Channel

Andreas Cahling, Mr. International Bodybuilder

Stan Price, World Record Bench Press

Ruth Heidrich, Three-Time Ironman

I'm omnivorous. I'm willing to bet that my blood pressure, cholesterol, heart rate and weight (proportionate to size) are all lower than yours. My muscle to fat ratio is excellent. At 45, I have the bone density of someone half my age. I'm so healthy, it's obnoxious.

I eat whatever I want, not to excess, and I work out regularly. I don't take any supplements, because I get everything I need from what I eat. That, by the way, is normal. So says my physician.

So, tell me again how unhealthy my diet is, please.

tajuha:

i think you might be misinformed. all animal products have cholesterol which has proven to be anti heart healthy and a huge contributor to cardiovascular/heart disease. plants do not have cholesterol and do not contribute to heart disease. the leanest protein source on the planet comes from legumes aka beans which also contain a rich mix of heart healthy nutrients.

Are you sure?

And he's too much of a blooming coward to answer my response above. Then he might have to admit that he's not 100% right, and this is definitely an ego thing with him.

tajuha:

With the many positive health benefits science has found in a plant based diet more and more athletes are turning to the diet. A quick search yields these names of professional and accomplished vegetarian athletes who, i'm sure, know a thing or two about nutrition...

I never argue with vegetarians until they start proselytizing. So I have to ask, do you really want to go down this line of reasoning? I could list tens of thousands of athletes who also know a thing or two about nutrition and happen not to be vegetarian.

displacement:

tajuha:

With the many positive health benefits science has found in a plant based diet more and more athletes are turning to the diet. A quick search yields these names of professional and accomplished vegetarian athletes who, i'm sure, know a thing or two about nutrition...

I never argue with vegetarians until they start proselytizing. So I have to ask, do you really want to go down this line of reasoning? I could list tens of thousands of athletes who also know a thing or two about nutrition and happen not to be vegetarian.

tajuha was simply responding to the message that began this thread . . . the message that claimed skinless turkey breast was the most healthy food ever and that all vegetarians had brittle fingernails due to poor nutrition. Correcting that misinformation is not proselytizing and doesn't require a list all non-veg athletes, either.

If you want to debate nutrition, why not pick on some of the vegans and vegetarians in the other threads. I'm sure some of them would be happy to have some back & forth.

...seems to feel free to make sweeping statements and not backing them up. This suggests to me that he is a mere troll who wanted to get a reaction. Either that or he hasn't got any facts.

Why is it so important?

How much healthier might you be if you had a more plant-based diet?

Yes, lots of beans and grains (soy, quinoa, chia, nuts and more) are considered complete proteins and many plant sources have more protein than a lot of meat and dairy sources but as I've pointed out elsewhere it's about getting the amino acids we don't make ourselves so we can make our own protein. There is no food not artificially supplemented that we get complete nutrition from. Further, we break down protein we consume so we can digest it.

Plus, the RDA is considered high and that we don't need nearly as much and more is not better:

"New York Times nutritionist Jane Brody writes in her Good Food Book, "There's no need for an ordinary, healthy person to eat more than the RDA suggests." Further, she writes that many Americans eat twice as much protein as needed. Excess protein can't be stored, and its elimination puts a strain on the kidneys and liver. Too-high protein consumption is linked to kidney disease, cancers of the colon, breast, prostate and pancreas, and even osteoporosis."

"In addition, Brody suggests, too much protein can make you fat since most of the typical protein sources in the American diet (70 percent of which comes from animal and dairy foods) are high in fat and calories."



These are simple things to find on the web.

<link>

"Americans are downing close to 200 pounds of meat, poultry and fish per capita per year (dairy and eggs are separate, and hardly insignificant), an increase of 50 pounds per person from 50 years ago. We each consume something like 110 grams of protein a day, about twice the federal government’s recommended allowance; of that, about 75 grams come from animal protein. (The recommended level is itself considered by many dietary experts to be higher than it needs to be.) It’s likely that most of us would do just fine on around 30 grams of protein a day, virtually all of it from plant sources."



And here's another athlete doing just fine on a vegetarian diet:
<link>

Not to mention there's quite a few vegan body builders who are doing quite well:
<link>



I think it's possible that tajuha isn't a troll, just has other things to do and doesn't even know people are all het up about the idea of eating plants.

messyONE,

Sorry i was not here to reply to your remarks. I had to go to work, then i went to dinner with a friend, and then to a party and am only now getting home. As a vegan, contrary to popular belief, I do not consider it my life's goal to defend my diet on the internet. If you take a 2nd look at my posts you will find no claims to my health in comparison to yours or any mention of unhealthy diets. cgw and chopstick sum up my intentions quite succinctly(thanks guys!).

displacement,

With the list of vegetarian athletes I was not trying to proselytize or say that vegetarian athletes know best. I was merely trying to show FirstInLastOut that there are many people who "exercise intensely" and get all the nutrients they need from a plant based diet.

I am baffled that my statements about the nutrition of beans has caused such emotion.

Sure, you can be healthier than most with a vegetarian diet. I wasn't disputing that. This is especially true when you consider the sheer tonnage of junk that the average American eats in a year. But we don't all eat that way and neither do most of our friends.

Why do so many vegetarians have such a hard time admitting that there are many, many of us omnivores that are ridiculously healthy? Is it a doctrinal thing? Is it threatening to some people to admit that we read labels, too?

I have no junk food in the house. We even make our own pita chips. The canned stuff we have is pretty basic - tomato paste, unflavored beans, etc. We don't do pre-prepared anything, because vegetarian or not, it's generally loaded with salt and fat.

I really, honest to goodness want to know what the issue is. Why is all this emotion wasted on something so silly? I don't care what anyone eats. There are things I loathe, both veggie and animal that you won't get me to try no matter what you do.

I will and can admit that omnis can be just as healthy as a veg. My husband has lost 20 pounds by eating lots of meat (primarily lean turkey and chicken or fish). I've lost 20 pounds since becoming veg. Is either of us healthier than the other? We still eat lower-fat foods, whole grains, watch our caloric intake, take vitamin supplements to catch whatever we've missed. He has found, however, that he needs to up his fiber intake in order to compensate for all the protein in his diet.

I think the common perception, one that leads to the "veggies are healthier than omnis" comments, is that if a diet is centered around meat with breads and veggies as mere small-dose side dishes, an omni can miss out on a lot of vitamins and minerals than a vegetarian may consume. That is absolutely not saying that ALL omnis do that, and we certainly know there are vegetarians who lives off french fries and mac & cheese. Just sayin' us vegs tend to consume more nutrient-rich products than our omni friends.

I don't know what the big deal is, why everyone (both sides) seems to get their panties in a twist over this topic! It's just food! Eat what you want, be happy and healthy. Sheesh.

ICallShenanigans:

I don't know what the big deal is, why everyone (both sides) seems to get their panties in a twist over this topic! It's just food! Eat what you want, be happy and healthy. Sheesh.

Vegan here.... maybe the "big deal" is the 10 billion animals slaughtered a year?

If all things can be considered realitively "equal" - omnivore and plant based diets - Proper nutrition can be achieved through either. Then, IF we could say that animal agriculture and a plant based diets had equal impact on the environment..... Then, we finally get to concerns of the lowly existance of creatures - grown and slaughtered merely for "unnecessary", (replaceable) food. "Food" justified only in that it "tastes" good. When there are lives to consider - it really is more than "just food".....

Although my veg husband and I feel physically healthier on a plant based diet: weight loss, more energy, better digestion, etc. I feel that our disposition seems better balanced - our emotional well being improved by not being responsible for the needless death of innocent creatures.

Body & soul health..... That's what a plant based diet has done for us.....