Thoughts on Vegetarianism

Howdy-do, everybody. If you read my last bulletin you would know that among other things I had been overseas for a while. Yep, spent a good long week in Tasmania where I attended my baby sisters wedding on a beautiful island beach just outside of Hobart, a very beautiful part of the world. Damn cold though!

One of the many great things about getting away of course, is getting to meet new people and engage in new and interesting conversations.

Being a trainer I am often asked questions regarding nutrition and exercise and if I'm not careful I can find myself in the middle of a nutrition or fitness consultation and if they're not careful they might ask me something about nutrition after I've had a couple beers…

Lol.

It does help if I have family around as they don't really let me talk too much shop when on vacation and certainly not after beer.

Anyway, on this occasion I was chatting with a few of my sisters' friends about the differences and difficulties that come along with being vegetarian. It was an interesting conversation in that although some of these young ladies knew a little bit about being vegetarian they were just a little off the mark on a few things. To start with they didn't quite know how to categorize themselves as to what type of vegetarian they were.

So should you be at a dinner party or gathering and the subject of vegetarianism comes up, here area few things that you should know.

Vegan

A vegan does not eat any fish, meat, poultry, eggs, dairy products or foods that contain any of these products. If they are true vegan then they also do not use any non-food items that contain products from animals, including wool from sheep, leather and silk. Vegans often do not eat honey for example because bees may be killed while harvesting it.

Duncan's 2 cents- Nutritionally speaking this is obviously the hardest form of vegetarianism. As a vegan you have to check, double check and then re-check most everything you eat and that's just at home, let's not even consider the hassles of going out to a restaurant or a dinner party.

True vegans also find it difficult to acquire the right amount of protein throughout the day, especially if they are training at a moderate to intense level.

I know, I know, a lot of vegans would, of course, disagree with this but then they don't have a $2,500 body composition analysis machine that they use to measure the rate at which we burn or synthesis protein and well… I do!

In my 15 years of using this body composition computer I have probably met less than a dozen vegetarians that seem to get enough protein from their diets to support an active lifestyle.

The problem lies with the fact that we need 22 amino acids in our diets to complete our protein profile. Any less and we will not have the building blocks necessary to synthesis protein for muscle recovery, repair and building. The problem with plant based protein is that they are incomplete protein sources, meaning that you have to combine plant based foods properly to complete the profile.

Although this isn't too difficult to do, it does take a reasonable amount of time and diligence to do it properly and it has been my experience that most people have a hard enough time trying to get in 3 meals and 2 snacks per day let alone making sure the foods are combined properly to ensure that the 8 essential amino acids are present within the meal.

So the long and short of it is that it can be done but it's often far too challenging for any but the truly dedicated.

Lacto Ovo Vegetarian

A lacto ovo vegetarian does not eat meat, fish or poultry, but will eat eggs and milk. This of course includes products made with eggs and dairy including; yogurt, cheese, milk and ice cream… Hmmm, ice cream ;o).

One could also separate this into those who eat eggs and not milk and vice versa. For example a Lacto Vegetarian does not eat meat, fish, poultry or eggs, but includes dairy products in their diet. They can consume milk, ice cream (that does not include eggs), yogurt and cheese. They would naturally avoid things like ice creams, baked goods, pancakes and veggie burgers that contain eggs.

Duncan's 2 cents- This is a much easier method to work with as a trainer. Eggs especially are a great source of protein because they fulfill the complete amino acid profile. They are also full of other healthy nutrients. (See March 08 E.B. The Truth About Eggs).

The down side of this, is that personally, I am not all that keen on too much dairy. For starters, we are the only mammal that drinks the stuff after we have been weaned off our mothers' milk let alone drinking the milk of a completely different species. Secondly and I think more importantly, I have read a reasonable amount of research showing how milk, especially from cows treated with synthetic hormones, can and do create all sorts of health issues. (I will talk more about the problems with milk in another bulletin.)

My choice here would be as an Ovo Vegetarian. (Eggs but no dairy)

*Note- A small amount of milk probably won't hurt you, so a little cheese and yogurt can be a good way to lift your protein profile throughout the day, although it shouldn't be used as a sole source of protein.

Pescatarian

A Pescatarian is a vegetarian who doesn't eat meat except for fish.

True vegetarians would say that this means that this isn't true vegetarianism but I say it's pretty darn close. Of course this individual may or may not eat eggs and or milk products.

Duncan's 2 cents- Some of the perceived health benefits of a pescatarian diet lies in research that has been done over the years showing that red meat may be detrimental to your health. An example of this would be the link drawn between the consumption of red meat and osteoporosis. The idea being that the phosphorous in red meat can cause calcium to leech from our bones. (I have yet to see some really conclusive evidence to this however).

*Note- A more likely reason for people who eat a lot of meat getting certain illnesses is that a lot of 'meat eaters' tend to fill themselves up on meat and empty calories such as pasta, bread, rice and don't tend to eat enough fruit and veggies.

One of the big advantages of pescatarianism is that the fats from fish, being mostly omega 3's, are generally viewed as much healthier than the saturated fats found in red meat. Again, I feel that moderation of these saturated fats is a better alternative than abstinence. In fact, if one looks at a Mediterranean diet, which has been shown to be one of the best diets in the world, you would quickly see a lot of similarities to pescatarianism with a small amount of red meat generally consumed.

In my experience, a lot of vegetarians don't eat meat because they believe they are making a healthy choice and yet having read many hundreds of food diary's over the years, I have found similarities to our 'meat eating comrades' in that a majority of their nutrition ends up coming from pasta's, bread, rice and cereal. No good at all.

Other vegetarians have a more philosophical reason for not eating meat, such as the treatment of animals. I believe there is some validity to this when one looks at the practice of giving growth hormone treatments to animals to improve growth rates and indeed some living conditions could certainly be improved especially with caged hens.

For this reason, I simply choose to eat free range/grain fed organic eggs and chicken while attempting to do the same with my meat and fish while eating as much fruit and raw vegetables as I can.

duncan