◆Top 10 Hazards of Vegetarianism
Case: Zhang Yang, 32, beautician
A husband and wife feud caused by vegetarianism. My husband is a vegetarian and has been a vegetarian for 4 years. I can tolerate the purity of the food, but I can't tolerate his "lack of desire", so I often lost my temper with him, but he said I was being unreasonable, and I couldn't get any comfort from him, so I looked for comfort on the Internet. I often meet different netizens, he also has something to remind me to self-love, but the reason for today's situation, but it is not the result of his vegetarianism?
1. Zinc deficiency: Vegetarians have a lower zinc intake than non-vegetarians. A lack of zinc can affect child development and affect immune function and libido. Because of the low bioavailability of plant-based zinc, vegetarians should strive to meet or exceed the recommended dietary intake of zinc.
Suggestion: You may want to eat more soy products, nuts and fruits or unrefined grains and cereals, and mustard greens, which are also rich in zinc.
2. Deficiency of vitamin B12: Vitamin B12 is necessary for the hematopoietic process and the nervous system. Vitamin B12 is almost exclusively found in animal foods, spirulina, sea plants, soybean fermented foods provided by vitamin B12 is inactive. Long-term vegan diets lead to severe vitamin B12 deficiency, which in turn leads to specific visual hallucinations.
Suggestion: replace vitamin B12 with dark green vegetables + soybeans. since vitamin B12 is found mainly in animal foods, vegans are susceptible to vitamin B12 deficiency, which can lead to megaloblastic anemia, neurological impairments such as depression, memory loss, tremors in the limbs, hyperhomocysteinemia, etc. (which can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease). Supplementation of dark green vegetables such as spinach, mustard greens, olive greens, and carrots, although a major source of vitamins, do not contain vitamin B12, which can cause nutritional imbalances when consumed over a long period of time. The best way is to usually consume vegetables and soybeans with food, because soybeans are rich in vitamin B12, can also be used oyster sauce with meals, because oyster sauce can also provide a rich vitamin B12.
3. Iron deficiency: plant foods contain only non-ferric hemoglobin iron, not as good as meat and ferric hemoglobin iron absorption. The body's absorption of iron from plant foods is poor, so although the iron content of vegetarian food is higher than that of meat food, the stock of iron in the body of vegetarians is lower. Vegetarian diets may also lead to anemia. This occurs mostly in children and women.
Suggestion: replace iron-rich animal blood with grains and cereals. Iron is mainly found in animal foods, such as animal blood, lean meat, liver, etc. The harm caused by iron deficiency is multifaceted. Iron deficiency anemia can cause loss of appetite, fatigue and weakness, and in severe cases, it can also affect intelligence and cognitive ability. Therefore, it is all the more important to be a vegetarian. Vegetarians can get iron from grains and cereals, although its absorption rate is low. Iron must be assisted by vitamin C in order to be converted into the form of iron needed for blood production, so eat more foods that are rich in both iron and vitamin C, such as raisins and red dates. Brown sugar is rich in iron and can be used instead of white sugar. In order to be more conducive to iron absorption, vegetarians should also take care to avoid eating foods that prevent the body from absorbing iron, such as beans, coffee and tea, when consuming fruits and vegetables that are high in iron.
4. Calcium deficiency: For those vegetarians who abstain from dairy products, calcium deficiency is very common. Complete vegetarians, on the other hand, have a lower calcium intake than both dairy and egg vegetarians and omnivores. Calcium deficiency, especially in women, predisposes them to osteoporosis in middle and old age.
Suggestion: You can eat more fresh vegetables, soybeans, hairy vegetables and sesame seeds, which are rich in calcium.
5. Lack of vitamin D. Lack of sufficient vitamin D will lead to a large amount of calcium loss, causing osteoporosis, rickets, weak bone structure and other diseases.
Suggestions: plant foods contain almost no vitamin D, if you eat eggs and milk, you can eat more eggs and dairy products or drink more milk to supplement vitamin D, and if you eat a full vegetarian, may be more sun, so that the human body synthesizes its own Vitamin D, or vitamin D supplements to supplement some of the nutritional supplements, in order to avoid affecting the absorption of calcium and the development of bone.
6. Iodine deficiency: fish is the body's main food for iodine, but long-term non-consumption of fish, easy to cause "iodine deficiency".
Suggestions: Supplemental iodized salt, in addition to iodized salt intake, but also from iodized soy sauce and iodized bread and iodine-rich kelp, seaweed intake. Avoid foods such as cabbage, bok choy, greens, cassava and walnuts, which can cause goiter.
7. Low quality of proteins: Vegetarians consume lower quality of proteins. Although vegetarians can get as much protein as non-vegetarians through plants, the quality of plant proteins is poorer than that of animal proteins, and essential amino acids such as lysine are less.
Suggestion: replace pork with soy protein. For people who don't eat meat, it's easy to be protein deficient. Protein, or amino acids, are important elements for cell growth. Meat is rich in protein, and full vegetarians, often, may be deficient in 1 or 2 essential amino acids for the body. To match different foods with each other to meet the body's protein needs, grains and beans are the best combination, try red beans and rice, eight-treasure congee, etc. Protein is a very important nutrient to maintain the health of the human body. If a person does not consume enough protein, he or she will lose physical strength and resistance to viruses, and will also be prone to mental stress. Manifested as a series of undesirable symptoms such as low body functions, listlessness, lack of concentration, premature aging, dry skin, heart failure, and withered hair. Replacing pork with soy protein is a good choice. Because soy products are rich in vegetable protein, and soy products do not contain saturated fat.
8. Low calorie: Long-term vegetarian diet, due to the serious shortage of protein and fat, easy to trigger malnutrition. Children born to women who have been vegetarians for a long time often suffer from growth and development disorders. Protein is the main raw material for building and repairing human tissues, long-term lack of the body's ability to fight diseases greatly; fat calories, unsaturated fatty acids is the "food for the human brain", to promote the brain's intellectual development is extremely important. Therefore, the long-term vegetarian diet is more harmful to the rapid growth and development of young people.
Suggestion: Replace animal fat with vegetable fat. Although excessive fat intake is not good for the body, a fat deficiency can also have an impact on health. In fact, choosing a vegetarian diet does not necessarily mean that you will stay away from fat, you can replace it with vegetable fats, such as vegetable oils, beans, soy products, nuts, these foods are rich in vegetable fats, and do not contain cholesterol and saturated fats, but rather rich in unsaturated fatty acids, which can effectively prevent the occurrence of cardiovascular disease, hyperlipidemia, fatty liver and tumors and other diseases.
9. Memory loss: many older people are afraid of hypertension, diabetes and other chronic diseases, so switch to a vegetarian diet, but according to the latest U.S. medical research, long-term vegetarianism will be due to a lack of protein and vitamin B12 and other nutrients, leading to memory loss, depression, slow reaction time, fatigue and other symptoms.
Suggestion: Eat more alkaline, vitamin-rich, magnesium-rich foods. Alkaline food has a role in improving brain function. Tofu, peas, greens, celery, lotus root, milk, cabbage, cabbage, radish, potatoes, grapes and other alkaline food. Fresh vegetables and fruits, such as green peppers, cauliflower, capers, strawberries, kumquats and kiwis, are rich in vitamins. Magnesium enables ribonucleic acid to enter the brain, which is the main substance that maintains the brain's memory. Beans, buckwheat, nuts, malt, etc. are rich in magnesium.
10. induced cardiovascular disease: a recent study in Germany, if the over-emphasis on vegetarianism, due to nutritional imbalance and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. German researchers conducted a survey of some German vegetarians. The results show that although these vegetarians have lower cholesterol levels, most of them show symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency, which increases a component in the blood called "homocysteine". This substance increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. It was also found that abstaining from meat may lead to lower levels of HDL in the blood, which can be detrimental to cardiovascular health.
Recommendation: Eating too much meat and not eating meat at all can both cause cardiovascular disease. If we want to effectively prevent such diseases, we must have a balanced diet structure, but also pay attention to the combination of work and rest, and keep a good mood.
Tips:
Balanced proportions: 2 portions of grains or rice, 2 portions of vegetables and fruits, and 1 portion of legumes, has become a highly recognized by the World Health Organization, the United Kingdom, the United States and other ministries of health to promote the proportion of vegetarian meals. The benefit is that it ensures that vegetarians get enough nutrients.
Ingesting fiber: Fiber can help intestinal peristalsis, helping the ribs out of the body of waste and toxic substances, adults daily intake of fiber should be about 20 to 35 grams.
Cautious choice of cooking oil: medical research found that too much oil, cooking oil selection is not appropriate to eat too much processed vegetarian food is a common problem of many vegetarians, but also lead to high blood fat, atherosclerosis of the culprit. In addition to using less oil, olive oil is a good choice for cooking.
Pay attention to the salt: the sodium in the salt will be with the potassium in the food *** with the human body to maintain the balance of water, so as to ensure that the metabolism of the normalization. But eating too much salt is a risk factor for high blood pressure, so middle-aged and elderly people or those with a family history of disease should pay special attention and choose low-sodium salt or other low-salt soy sauce.