Vegetarianism, and the extreme version – veganism, seems to be gaining acceptance in Western society as a healthy approach to eating. Consider the huge popularity of the pro-plant based diet Netflix documentary What The Health, which gets an “A” for obsessive ideology but a “F” for actual science.
Vegetarians Suffer More Infertility, Far More Likely to Have Girls
This is a worrisome turn of events, especially for our young girls. Folks who jump on the vegetarian bandwagon are risking their long term health as it is impossible for human beings to get all the nutrients they need from plant based foods alone. Vitamin B12, for example, is completely missing from plant based foods and can only be obtained from consuming animal tissues. While it is true that Vitamin B12 “analogs” are present in some plant foods, these analogs are not true vitamin B12 and actually increase a vegetarian’s need for the real thing!  This article discusses how 25% of adults suffer from life threatening B12 deficiency.
The nutritional deficiencies which frequently present in vegetarians are particularly devastating to young women who plan to one day bear children.
Infertility in vegetarians is higher than in girls who eat meat. In addition, vegetarian women who do manage to get pregnant carry fetuses that are at risk for more birth defects. Vegetarians are also far more likely to have females instead of male babies.
While having a girl instead of a boy is certainly not a problem in and of itself, this statistic does provide evidence that vegetarians are not as well nourished as omnivores. Boy fetuses are known to be less robust than female fetuses and, as such, require a higher level of maternal nutrition to remain viable.
Vegetarianism Refuted by Anthropology
Someone who is considering the vegetarian lifestyle need only to read the fascinating work of Dr. Weston A. Price and his groundbreaking book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration to be quickly convinced that this approach to eating is unwise. Dr. Price traveled the world in the 1930’s and studied all the indigenous cultures that had not yet been affected by what he called “the displacing foods of modern commerce”.
The cultures he studied included the Eskimos from Alaska, the Aborigines in Australia and every group that he could find in between. Dr. Price carefully examined and took pictures of these healthy peoples who were free of chronic disease, had happy, optimistic outlooks on life, and perfectly straight teeth virtually free of cavities. The traditional foods that each of these cultures consumed all contained animal foods. To repeat, none of these cultures was vegetarian. In fact, Dr. Price was unable to find an indigenous population of vegetarians that exhibited the health and vitality of the meat eating cultures.
Choosing Healthy Meats is Critical
While eating meat is clearly beneficial to health, it is also important to choose meat that comes from healthy animals in the first place. Most of the meat found on grocery store shelves comes from animals that are confined for their entire lives and are subjected to antibiotics and other drugs to control the disease that results from living in such inhumane conditions. It is in reaction to the negative publicity of these “factory farms” that some folks turn to vegetarianism in the first place. A better approach to protesting the ill treatment of animals raised in confinement would be to purchase grassfed meats from a local farmer and boycott supermarket meats. Where to find such a farmer?
A list of such producers is offered free to the public on the website www.eatwild.com. In addition, the Weston A. Price Foundation supports a system of Local Chapters all over the world. The Chapter Leader for each local chapter maintains a list of local, grass based producers that can be obtained for free just by inquiring! Â Click here to find the Chapter Leader closest to you!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Can’t vegetarians supplement? I don’t eat meat because I find it smelly, bloody and unhygienic and it’s just not a food that I enjoy at all. I like cheese but I am lactose intolerant so I eat it about once or twice a week and I am allergic to fish. Eggs are OK but I don’t like them all that much, the smell when they are cooking puts me off. The only foods I enjoy are all vegetarian foods.
It seems to me the vegetarians are not that heathy and this is from my observation of two members of my family; my 10 year old granddaughter and her mom. My granddaughter is having trouble concentrating, per my observation and reports now coming from her teacher; she needs to take an iron supplement, and her weight seems to be getting slightly too much for her age & height. Her mom is slightly overweight and seems to be nervous and anxious. There eating habits may or may not be to blame, but it sure seems so to me especially since the variety of foods they eat is very limited.
Sorry but once again this article has bad information in it. There are multiple sources of B-12 that are NOT meat based and are NOT supplements if you are a vegetarian, and nutritional yeast for vegans. A 5 second search would have shown that. Please stop posting false information. This is just bro science.
Sorry, but you are misinformed. There is no source of useable vitamin D in non-animal foods.
Never again will I try a vegetarian diet. It’s the most unnatural diet in the world! Since eating meat again my color is back, I have normal and consistent bowel movements. My energy is up, my strength is up, my thinking is sharper and my general mood is far and away more upbeat. No more cotton mouth and bad breath. Not to be rude but my bowel movements are enjoyable again, its like someone greased the tracks!! A healthy balance of meat & vegetables is the only way to live. Exercise is a must!!!
I am in 11th grade, and I am against vegatarianism and veganism only because I feel bad for mostly the woman out there that are starving themselves for no reason.I am doing a persuasive speech at my school on how vegatarianism and veganism is not healthy for the human body, and I want to thank you for your comments supporting this website. For my speech I needed more than just the fact that your not getting proper vitamins for your body, thank you Aron for your comments about childbirth ect… I will defiantly look into it, I’m sure it will add a good spice to my speech.
ROFL the vegans are offended because you criticized their trendy lifestyle choices. Ya lets check out that wikipedia page! cause you know…. wikipedia is the ultimate source for credible information.
i do agree that wiki is not the place to start, and tho i am not vegan, just vegetarian, it has always been about the animals for me – though, it has opened my eyes to so many health benefits and has been a health gateway to bigger and better things for me. Dont knock it til you try it 😉
Let me tell you something. I was a vegetarian for 5 years and I was the moodiest, meanest, most neurotic depressed person in the world. I suffered from anxiety and never felt grounded AT ALL. The SECOND I had grass fed buffalo again my pupils widened and there was an overwhelming calm that permeated throughout. I realized I literally had been starving. Vegetarians experience at first a cleansing, but as time goes on their bodies become deficient because of lack of protein. Especially women. Vegetarian women do not get enough fat, or enough protein. I see these women in Wholefoods Market who are vegetarians who are emaciated and look…quite frankly…gross. They look much older than their age as well. i look into their baskets and their is not one fat, or meat oriented food. I sometimes want to look at them and say…You know what? You’re starving yourself…go get a steak, stick! LOL. I don’t, however, because their choices are none of my business, or none of my concern. But you know what? Don’t attack this woman who does this blog who is trying to help people…probably mostly women, improve their health. You have been sold a LIE by the government and the diet industry, because they’re all in cahoots with big pharma and they want to make you sick. You keep up your vegetarian diet and I guarantee you in within 20 years you will get sick from something. Women need fat. Women need cholesterol. Women need protein! Do you know how much stress is put on a woman’s body just from menstruating alone? A LOT!!! And believe me…grass ain’t gonna replace your iron!
Where are you getting this research from babe, because I don’t see any (quality) back-up.
As a professional Home Economist of over 40 years, I can’t begin to tell you how wrong you are with your assumption of, “Vegetarianism is not Healthy!” It takes a LOT more creativity to be a vegetarian than a carnivore. I find your reference to a doctors research in 1930 to be grasping at straws to support your assumption. A little updated research on your end is in order! A good place to start are the references cited in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism
agreed. and it takes a lot more effort to be compassionate about animals to make this choice. i have been veg for 7 yrs and am more than sufficient in neccessary vitamins and minerals. i think vegetarianism keeps me in-line and in-check and on the right path to making my own healthy and vegetarian meals at home. I do not do soy or tofu and dont miss meat or meat-substitutes. I have an extremely diverse and all round diet, I do eat some dairy. I am much healthier than my meat-eating counterparts. I take vegetiarian ‘fish oil’ and a quality whole vitamin, though these are clearly not needed to keep me running as a vegetarian. As a meat eater, I did not consume half the fruit and vegetables I needed and currently am consuming daily. And protein is not lacking as I am toned from working out six days a wk. Meat is not a staple for a healthy diet.
if this article is true, which i have my doubts, i would still never go back to eating disgusting carcass – filled with death and horrible karma. but thanks for the thought, though i am almost hesitant to read on to other articles, as this one is clearly not backed up.
Well if I were those people I’d ask for my money back, because you sold them a lie,
wikipedia is quite possibly one of the worst sources of info there is, jus sayin
http://www.vegsource.com/news/2009/11/reflections-on-the-weston-a-price-foundation.html
And, lumping vegetarianism and veganism together is deliberately misleading. You must be well aware that no nutrients are missing from a lacto-ova vegetarian diet. Cheese and eggs are among the best sources of b12.