4 ms·

The quote you gave refers to cereals specifically, not vegetarian diets in general. Fruits and vegetables are very high in a wide variety of nutrients and I wo

The quote you gave refers to cereals specifically, not vegetarian diets in general. Fruits and vegetables are very high in a wide variety of nutrients and I would argue that it's far easier to eat an all vegetarian diet vs an all meat diet. Sadly, bacon just doesn't have the nutritional profile of spinach. EDIT: Just for the heck of it, here's spinach vs bacon at similar calorie counts: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=spinach+2.3lb http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=spinach+2.3lb http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=bacon+0.1lb http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=bacon+0.1lb And I'm just using spinach as an example...A vegetarian diet should have a wide range of fruits, vegetables, nuts, etc. and you should do your research on it before starting.

pierrec 11y ago
>The quote you gave refers to cereals specifically, not vegetarian diets in general. That's wrong, the last sentence refers to "western populations adopting vegetarian diets" in general, and cites references that suggest this. That's why I chose it. I'm not arguing that vegetarian and vegan diets are quintessentially malnutritious. I'm arguing that many people are doing it wrong.
- ska 11y ago
  In fact I suspect that people are more likely to "do it wrong" in (some?) western populations. If you grow up in a food culture that is primarily vegetarian/vegan or at least has a subset that is, you immediately have a source of familiar recipes that will likely meet your nutritional needs. On the other hand, if all you know how to cook and all you've seen being cooked tends to rely on meat proteins for some of nutrient balance, you really need to do some research to know what to add to your diet to replace what you are taking away. This research isn't difficult, really, but it can be hard to know where to start. I suspect that if you take pretty much any traditional diet and start taking things away from it if you aren't careful you will rapidly run into deficiencies. I suppose an argument for the recent, significant, western trend to over consumption of macro nutrients has an upside in that even if your diet is fairly (but not seriously) unbalanced, if you eat enough of it you tend to mostly get the nutrients you need....
- grardb 11y ago
  I'll likely get downvoted for being a vegetarian, but... > I'm arguing that many people are doing it wrong. I suppose this is true, but this doesn't really add much to the conversation, in my opinion. Take any statistic about Western health — or lack thereof – such as 70% of the United States being overweight or obese. The small number of people in western countries adopting vegetarian diets is not to blame for these things. People love to talk about potato-chips-and-french-fries vegetarians, but the truth is that almost nobody in the country eats well, regardless of whether or not they eat meat. I think singling out vegetarians is pretty unfair, even if it was mentioned in the paper. Anecdotally, I've been a vegetarian since I was seven years old, and I make pretty much no effort to make sure I get the "right" amount of nutrients. I simply don't eat junk, and based on what I've read about nutrients I should supposedly be deficient in (B12, zinc, iron, etc.), I have never suffered from any of the symptoms associated with deficiency. * Technically, lacto-ovo vegetarian, although eggs only come in the form of occasional junk food (e.g. cakes and brownies), and dairy comes from the very rare occurrence of eating out. At home, I eat vegan 99% of the time.
  - npsimons 11y ago
    > I think singling out vegetarians is pretty unfair, even if it was mentioned in the paper. Heck, just the starting to think about what you put in your piehole that vegetarianism forces people to do would immensely help with food-related health issues in places like the U.S. I'm not a vegetarian, but it's glaringly obvious vegetarianism isn't the cause of the majority of the food-related health issues today. As another poster put it, you generally cook/eat what you grew up with; how many people think fresh fruits and veggies are "too expensive" or cooking is "too hard" because they've been raised on fast food? Even if you look at more vegetarian friendly and offbeat sites like E2, they have articles with titles like "a vegetarian dish that isn't just another bowl of brown gack".
- jshen 11y ago
  > I'm not arguing that vegetarian and vegan diets are quintessentially malnutritious. I'm arguing that many people are doing it wrong. You seem to be implying that vegetarian diets are more problematic that meat based diets. You haven't shown data to back this up as far as I can tell. Sure, many vegetarians are doing it wrong, and many meat eaters are doing it wrong. For your implication to stand, you need to show that vegetarians are doing it wrong at a higher rate than meat eaters.

pierrec 11y ago

>The quote you gave refers to cereals specifically, not vegetarian diets in general. That's wrong, the last sentence refers to "western populations adopting vegetarian diets" in general, and cites references that suggest this. That's why I chose it. I'm not arguing that vegetarian and vegan diets are quintessentially malnutritious. I'm arguing that many people are doing it wrong.

ska 11y ago
In fact I suspect that people are more likely to "do it wrong" in (some?) western populations. If you grow up in a food culture that is primarily vegetarian/vegan or at least has a subset that is, you immediately have a source of familiar recipes that will likely meet your nutritional needs. On the other hand, if all you know how to cook and all you've seen being cooked tends to rely on meat proteins for some of nutrient balance, you really need to do some research to know what to add to your diet to replace what you are taking away. This research isn't difficult, really, but it can be hard to know where to start. I suspect that if you take pretty much any traditional diet and start taking things away from it if you aren't careful you will rapidly run into deficiencies. I suppose an argument for the recent, significant, western trend to over consumption of macro nutrients has an upside in that even if your diet is fairly (but not seriously) unbalanced, if you eat enough of it you tend to mostly get the nutrients you need....
grardb 11y ago
I'll likely get downvoted for being a vegetarian, but... > I'm arguing that many people are doing it wrong. I suppose this is true, but this doesn't really add much to the conversation, in my opinion. Take any statistic about Western health — or lack thereof – such as 70% of the United States being overweight or obese. The small number of people in western countries adopting vegetarian diets is not to blame for these things. People love to talk about potato-chips-and-french-fries vegetarians, but the truth is that almost nobody in the country eats well, regardless of whether or not they eat meat. I think singling out vegetarians is pretty unfair, even if it was mentioned in the paper. Anecdotally, I've been a vegetarian since I was seven years old, and I make pretty much no effort to make sure I get the "right" amount of nutrients. I simply don't eat junk, and based on what I've read about nutrients I should supposedly be deficient in (B12, zinc, iron, etc.), I have never suffered from any of the symptoms associated with deficiency. * Technically, lacto-ovo vegetarian, although eggs only come in the form of occasional junk food (e.g. cakes and brownies), and dairy comes from the very rare occurrence of eating out. At home, I eat vegan 99% of the time.
- npsimons 11y ago
  > I think singling out vegetarians is pretty unfair, even if it was mentioned in the paper. Heck, just the starting to think about what you put in your piehole that vegetarianism forces people to do would immensely help with food-related health issues in places like the U.S. I'm not a vegetarian, but it's glaringly obvious vegetarianism isn't the cause of the majority of the food-related health issues today. As another poster put it, you generally cook/eat what you grew up with; how many people think fresh fruits and veggies are "too expensive" or cooking is "too hard" because they've been raised on fast food? Even if you look at more vegetarian friendly and offbeat sites like E2, they have articles with titles like "a vegetarian dish that isn't just another bowl of brown gack".
jshen 11y ago
> I'm not arguing that vegetarian and vegan diets are quintessentially malnutritious. I'm arguing that many people are doing it wrong. You seem to be implying that vegetarian diets are more problematic that meat based diets. You haven't shown data to back this up as far as I can tell. Sure, many vegetarians are doing it wrong, and many meat eaters are doing it wrong. For your implication to stand, you need to show that vegetarians are doing it wrong at a higher rate than meat eaters.