Vegetarianism

[thedelographer]

Some time ago, I was having a discussion about diet with one of the many vegetarian graduate students in the philosophy department. He is a vegetarian on utilitarian grounds--more specifically, he believes (1) that an omnivorous diet brings more suffering into the world than a vegetarian one, (2) that the pleasure to be gained from eating animals

Comments

[rinku]

I think that depends on the grain. By raising glucose, do you mean glycemic load or glycemic index (GI)? If you mean GI, unprocessed grains tend to have low GI, about as low as animal products.

But even if vegetarian diets tend to have a higher GI than the average diet, I don't think high GI is so dangerous that it overshadows all the other factors. High GI is bad, but there are other equally bad aspects: saturated fat content, sodium, and all that. You can't just focus on one particularly bad part of a vegetarian diet (high GI) and discount all those other factors. The best way to do this is just to use empiricism, not deduction, because nutrition is so complex. And empirically, vegetarians do seem to live longer, although the benefits of vegetarianism decrease with age (probably due to reducing early heart attacks). A good summary of the studies I found is here: http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2006/jan2006_awsi_01.htm

I didn't see an study in that blog post, the only study mentioned was about low-carb diets.

[thedelographer]

Unprocessed grains are probably okay in moderation. Grain intake is probably similar between vegetarians and omnivores, so that's probably not the cause of difference between the two groups.

I'm talking about the post titled "Vegetarians AGE Faster." The scientific paper that he discusses is here: http://www.biomed.cas.cz/physiolres/2002/issue3/krajcovic.htm

I've seen some persuasive challenges to the idea that saturated fat is bad. I no longer think that that is what is bad about red meat; more likely, it's probably the out of whack omega 3: omega 6 ratio of red meat that is caused the grain feed given to cows. But grass-fed cows have a ratio similar to that of poultry.

[rinku]

I'd also expect grain intake to be similar. I don't know how most vegetarians eat though, I suspect that many of them, especially in the US, consume more processed foods than the average meat-eater in the US, which would probably be less healthy.

I agree that saturated fat isn't all bad, but it's not the best form of fat either (monounsaturated fat from olive oil appears to be the healthiest). Most of my fat intake is in the form of olive oil.

I agree with you about the omega 3: omega 6 ratio, but I also think a main problem with red meat is caloric overconsumption. Most people eat too much, and meat is often a big part of that because it's a lot of calories in a small package. It's harder to be an obese vegetarian, and obesity is a major health problem.