What is the health risks of becoming a vegetarian?

Question

What is the health risks of becoming a vegetarian?

Answer 1

none, ask anyone that lives the lifestyle and they will tell you the same

Answer 2

If you don't eat right, you could grow to be 3ft tall.

Answer 3

mmm

i dont think its totally healthy

i prefere eating everything in adequate amounts

ur body is in need of everything to maintain a healthy lifestyle ;)

Answer 4

Happiness, peacefulness, coolness, and a significantly decreased risk of heart disease and cancer.

Yep, veg*nism is VERRRRY risky.

Answer 5

Protein and Iron deficiency. See a doctor before changing your diet so drasticly.

Answer 6

There is more risk involved in eating meat than not eating meat.

Many vegetarians are concerned about their health, especially new ones who are worried about protein.  

But by becoming a vegetarian or vegan, you reduce or eliminate cholesterol in your diet.

You could try keeping track of your nutrition information for a while and see how healthy your current diet is.  If you become a vegetarian, see if it gets harder or easier to eat a balanced diet.

Answer 7

There aren't any.

Answer 8

none whatsoever...

a vegetarian since forever...

Answer 9

Depends on how good you are at being one(, but I bet you already knew that).

Mostly the problems are zinc deficiency which causes hair loss, skin lesions (I don't know what that is), diarrhea, and wasting of body tissues and a minor malfunction of eyesight, taste, smell and memory.

You can get zinc from pumpkin seeds and nuts.

You might not get enough protein (you can compensate it's loss with soya, chick pea, beans, milk).

I'd also worry about iron if I were you. You can get iron from chick peas, beans, lentil and tofu. (By the way, you need iron to make hemoglobin which transfers oxygen trough the body. Without hemoglobin you are ...errr dead. Imagine you stop breathing. Same thing.)

Both zinc and iron can also be toxic if you have too much of them. (EDIT: But for a vegetarian, I don't think it would be a priority to worry about that.)

Your body wont be able to adapt to new diet instantly, so if you intend to go vegetarian, do it step by step. And read a lot about nutrition because you'll have to listen to both your brain (well, books and some good Internet) and instincts instead of just the latter to feed yourself correctly. I suggest you look for RDAs as much as you can starting with zinc and iron.

Answer 10

There are various risks from what I have heard. You may not fill certain nutrition guidelines etc... which eating meat can provide. You have to eat a variety of foods such as beans, rice, wheat and various other foods which will fill the gaps of not eating meat.

I would suggest asking a doctor or an "experienced" vegetarian for more specific information, but yes, you must eat a lot more of those "healthy greens".

Answer 11

None. As long as you make sure your diet is varied and reasonably well-balanced. (But that goes for any diet, doesn't it?;o)

(A well-balanced vegetarian diet is much healthier than the average omnivore's diet - vegetarians have lower risk for a number of common diseases, such as diabetes, several types of cancer, cardiovascular diseases - and obesity)

Answer 12

You will become physically weaker (proven fact) and you will also become very cranky (also proven fact)

Answer 13

pissing off your friends

Answer 14

There is no risk to becoming a vegetarian if you do your research and learn how to replace animal products in your diet with non-animal products.

Take B12 pills and eat plenty of vegetable protein, which can be found in the form of faux meat that you can use in any recipe that you ate with meat.

Eat a fortified breakfast cereal with soy milk in the morning and that should take care of quite a bit of your needs.

Some people picture a vegetarian sitting around eating big plates of steamed vegetables 3 times a day.  In reality I eat much like an omnivore, only I use that faux meat in recipes instead of gobs of bleeding flesh :)

Good luck, which you won't need.  You will need knowledge.

Answer 15

I am sad to see so many negative answers to your question. Vegetarians and even vegans can get all of the nutrition that they need through diet. Two of the big things to watch are your protein and vitamin B-12 intake, because these are two areas that vegetarians (if they are not careful) can become deficient in.

Below are two articles on how to add protein and vitamin B-12 to your diet:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2298990_add-vita...

http://www.ehow.com/how_2298983_add-prot...

Good luck in making your decision!

Answer 16

None whatsoever.  The many people who are answering here have no clue what they are talking about.  they are all victims of the"only meat has protein"   belief and most of them probably don't eat healthy at all.

If you include whole grains, beans, variety of veggies, nuts etc. in your diet, you are eating healthier then 99% of America.

Answer 17

protein deficiency