Vegetarianism as Medicine
My research is focused on the positive impacts vegetarianism and plant based diets have on the world. I am mostly focused on health, and the environment plays a part of human health as well. I also want to study how it is associated with diseases and other conditions. I found both of these important because diabetes runs in my family and it is something I am constantly worried about getting if I do not eat right; So if vegetarianism helps you avoid diabetes, that would ease my worries. I would also like to see how even diets affect our world.
In the article, “Nutritional update for physicians: plant-based diets. The Permanente journal, ” They study the effects of a plant based diet on patients with occurring health problems. They noticed that when patients switched to a vegetarian and plant based diet reduced the need of medication in many patients. The conditions they focused on are; obesity, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, lipid disorders, or cardiovascular disease. They stated that the benefits to a plant-based diet were, lower body weight, decreased risk of cancer, and a reduction in their risk of death from ischemic heart disease. The article also mentioned that this type of diet could prevent said conditions. This article was intended to show the association between plant- based/ vegetarian diets and the reduction of risk in diseases. I suggested physicians should prescribe a change to a healthier diet instead of medicating first(depending on the disease already there). “These data suggest that plant-based diets may be a practical solution to prevent and treat chronic diseases.” What I got from this article was that the reason eating meat is associated with so many diseases is because the way our bodies burn calories. It is harder to burn the calories we get from meat and then they are stored as fat. It was surprising to see that doctors also recommend or treat their patients with vegetarian diets.
The second article focuses on the sustainability of diets. What is meant by sustainability is health for the people and environment. The way it can be healthy to our environment is by the way our resources are being used. The article, “ Sustainability of plant-based diets: back to the future”, puts two diets side by side for comparison: Vegetarian/ plant based and meat diets. This article proves plant-based to be the most sustainable diet because it is more resourceful. Farm- animals need to eat, and what they eat could be eaten by us(the people). They also require a greater amount of land,” land required to raise the feed to produce animal protein is 6–17 times greater than for soy protein.” It is also better for the environment. Greenhouse gasses are produced from both plants and animals, but, as stated in the article, 80% of them come from animals and their digestion process. The gasses could also be a factor of deforestation because the land is being used differently. The article ended by stating that even though plant based diets are more sustainable it is hard for the demand in meat to decrease. This article showed me a new perspective I had not thought of before. I never though about the food animals eat and how it is food that can be eaten by us, or the water they drink. Also, I did not know that when land is being used differently it changes the gasses that it emits into our atmosphere.
These sources brought a more in depth awareness. These were reliable being that they were found in medical websites, and It also gives medical analyses on the subject. I think that this shows that even people who have studied medicine are on the side of vegetarianism as well. It was refreshing to know the specific diseases it could prevent, and why. Something I would like to look into further would be using a vegetarian diet to treat people with diseases, and how a plant based diet is healthier directly, and not just in preventing disease. For example, I would like to know what vitamins you find more in plant food. Overall, these sources gave me a great number of information and helped me get a better understanding of their stance.
Citations
Joan Sabaté, Sam Soret, Sustainability of plant-based diets: back to the future, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 100, Issue suppl_1, July 2014, Pages 476S–482S, https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.113.071522
Tuso, P. J., Ismail, M. H., Ha, B. P., & Bartolotto, C. (2013). Nutritional update for physicians: plant-based diets. The Permanente journal, 17(2), 61–66.
