Vegetables Are Good For You!

In the midst of all this food fair goodness, I thought it was worth taking a moment to think about some of the reasons why vegetarianism is reason for celebration in the first place.

Reason number one: it’s good for you.

However, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, it is still a popular belief that a vegetarian diet is less healthy than one that includes meat. And I’m not even talking about evidence buried from the layperson’s eye in scientific journals—a google search will find you millions of hits on the health benefits of vegetarianism. Yet there remains an awful lot of worrying going on that vegetarians and vegans aren’t getting everything they need, and that meat is what does our bodies good. What gives?

Personally, I blame the lingering ghosts of the old Canada's Food Guide; the version of my childhood had us believe that every plate should be as a quartered pie of food groups, and half of the plate should be made up of animal products. In my home and many others, the meat was the centrepiece and the rest of the meal was designed around it. Meat had become synonymous with protein, and protein keeps you healthy...right? Well, yes and no. More on that later.

Okay, okay, so our cultural allegiance to meat may have a few more layers beyond the content of a government publication. But incidentally, the food guide isn’t what it used to be. It’s evolved into a much more flexible tool over the years, and now focuses strongly on variety and balance—including recommendations on exercise, for example, and a far greater emphasis than its predecessors on reducing high fat foods such as red meat, milk, and cheese, if they are used at all. In 1977, the “meat” food group was renamed to include non-meat alternatives. Now even the holy “milk” category, largely unchanged since the guide’s inception in 1942, also includes milk alternatives. In this model, vegetarians and vegan diets are as balanced as those that include meat. Be sure to tell your mom.

In fact, a tremendous body of literature suggests that a plant-based diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts is directly linked to a lower incidence of all the big boys: cancer, heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes. This isn’t to say all vegetarians are healthy, of course—but conscientious eaters have the advantages on their side. The official position of the Dieticians of Canada and the American Dietetic Association is that vegetarian diets are not only nutritionally appropriate for people of all ages, but the diet also has numerous health benefits in disease prevention. And the World Cancer Research Fund agrees.

Want to know more about what a body really needs? Check back soon!