Should we all be vegetarian?
That’s a very good question and as with all good questions, there is a wide variety of answers. There are widely discussed health benefits to vegetarianism, including lower cholesterol, lower body fat, lower sodium intake and lower rates of digestive tract cancers. However, vegetarians must pay particular care to vitamin and mineral intake to rule out various potential deficiencies. There are arguments on both sides of the health issues, although if you do it properly and take the proper supplements than there shouldn’t really be any health issues with becoming a vegetarian.
There is a spectrum of philosophical and moral debate on the issue of vegetarianism, on the one hand we shouldn’t really kill things but on the other we need to kill things to survive. I see little difference between killing a plant or an animal if it’s for food, it’s just necessary. The moral issue really comes into play with how we treat the animals we do kill and we do not treat them very well. This train of thinking can lead a person to become a vegetarian or vegan just to avoid the immorality of the industry, and that’s a fine choice, but in a perfect world we would still eat meat, although not nearly as much of it..
So from a health perspective it can improve your health to become a vegetarian, if you do it right, and it will worsen your health if you do it wrong. From a moral perspective, you can do the right thing but buying organic, free range, antibiotic free meat, although this is up for debate as well.
If you really want to get deep into the debate try reading The Omnivore’s Delemma by Michael Pollan
http://www.michaelpollan.com/omnivore.php
