THE VEGETARIAN DIET - GOOD FOR HEALTH AND FAT LOSS? Like lots of people, I am a massive animal lover. Marley and Me literally rendered me inconsolable for pretty much the whole of my 9 hour flight to Thailand, as my travel companion, Jon Le Tocq will testify (sorry dude). Ive had dogs, cats, fish, horses, hamsters, rabbits, guinea-pigs, and even aqua-monkeys (desperate times as an 8 year old) all my life. And I totally understand why people become vegetarians. But it sure does make things a bit tricky on the fat loss (and sometimes health) front, and thats due to a few associated problems. Firstly, sugar, starches and grains are without doubt the biggest culprits for excess fat storage. Remove these from a vegetarian diet and there isnt all that much left to eat. Secondly, due to difficulty in finding suitable protein-containing foods, vegetarians are generally prone to muscle loss and consequently muscle strength and slower metabolism (muscle tissue is the most metabolically active in our bodies). Plant foods are also actually pretty tough for the body to digest. Whilst they are packed with awesome nutrients, they also contain some anti-nutrients, which, if eaten in large quantities, can actually damage the gut wall and trigger digestive issues such as IBS, bloating, diarrhoea, constipation and flatulence. Leading nutrition and gut expert, Dr.Natasha Campbell-Mcbride, makes an interesting point which is that, whilst in a laboratory setting we can use all sorts of techniques to extract nutrients from plants, it doesnt actually correlate with the ability of the gut to break down these foods. The human digestive system doesnt possess these same methods and therefore cannot benefit from plant foods in the way many proponents of vegetarianism would like to believe. If we look at the digestive system of herbivorous animals who only eat plants, we see that they are created with various different stomachs, each equipped with bacteria designed especially to break down plants. The human digestive system, however, is much more similar to the gut of predatory animals such as lions and tigers. We have just one stomach with very little bacteria in it and a short digestive system. The acid and pepsin that our stomachs are designed to produce also indicate that we are really designed to break down meat, fish and eggs, ie. animal foods. Historically, people only ate plants as a supplement to meat or when animal foods were hard to come by. They also understood that the human digestive system is not that adept at breaking down plant matter and thus developed special ways to make it more digestible, such as sprouting, malting and fermentation, techniques which have now been largely forgotten. Everyone has the right to follow their beliefs and as I mentioned before, I completely understand why people choose to eat a vegetarian diet. In terms of health and fat loss, however, it pays to do your research to ensure that your diet provides all the nutrition you require for your goals.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 07:56:42 +0000
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