Maybe as part of your New Year’s resolution you took our advice to cut meat out of your diet… or maybe you didn’t – we won’t judge.
But giving up meat could do you a whole lotta good, although we don’t want to shove it down your throat or anything…
This is what happens to your body if you ditch steaks and burgers for a veggie lifestyle.
You lose weight
Research recently done in the U.S. by George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, showed that participants who cut meat out of their diet lost around 10lbs on average. They didn’t even watch their calorie intake or increase the amount of exercise they did either…
Speaking after the study was completed, lead author of the study Neal Barnard said:
The take-home message is that a plant-based diet can help you lose weight without counting calories and without ramping up your exercise routine.
Your gut bacteria will change
A 2014 study by the City University of New York explored the difference between the gut bacteria found in omnivores, vegans and vegetarians, and found differences in all three, with the biggest variation between omnivores and vegans.
It found that vegans had more protective species of gut bacteria. I don’t really know what that means, but it must be a good thing, right? Right?
You could become nutrient deficient
A balanced vegetarian diet can give you enough nutrients with the right plans in place, but despite that it can be pretty hard to get enough iron, vitamin D and vitamin B12.
As long as you eat a mix of plenty of pulses, nuts, fruit, dark green vegetables and wholegrains you should be fine.
For vitamin B12 in particular you can find a lot of it in Marmite, bizarrely, as well as soya products. While eggs, cereals and some milks can be a source of vitamin D.
So don’t let that put you off…
You reduce your risk of getting cancer
It was a very dark day last year, when the World Health Organisation revealed that processed meat like bacon is as carcinogenic as cigarettes and alcohol.
But, just eating 50g of meat a day can increase your risk of bowel cancer by 18 per cent, so you might have to switch to the vegan alternative. We can’t see many takers for that though…
And of getting heart disease…
We might consider this when we’re out, but it looks we are going to have to change our excessive meat-eating ways because it also fucks with your heart, apparently.
Scientists recently came out with the depressing news that red meat is linked to heart disease. The study by Lerner Research Institute in the U.S showed that a nutrient found in the food called carnitine can create a reaction which contributes to the development of heart disease.
This might not be enough to convince you to go totally veggie, but it’s definitely worth at least cutting back on meat. It could make a huge difference.
