Vegetarianism

Motivations

Ethics

The végétaliens (and vegans) adopt this mode for ethical motivations rather close to those of the vegetarians. They justify their rejection of any food of animal origin by the refusal to not only make directly kill the animals for their flesh, but also to make them suffer, quoting the examples of hens out of battery, male chicks of the laying races “destroyed” without anesthesia, of the production of milk involving the separation of calf of his/her mother a few hours after her birth and its cloistering; and generally, by the refusal to guarantee the exploitation of the animals morally. Some végétaliens regard the practice simply vegetarian as hypocrite, since it allows to make suffer the animals.

Health

Studies tend to show that a mode végétalien is healthier than a typical mode of the inhabitants of the developed countries.

Others on the other hand tend to show that the mode végétalien is not viable long-term without serious deficiencies (in B12 vitamin for example).

Human ethics

The production of meat requires astronomical quantities of basic food the such cereals which could nourish a number of the human vegetarians from ten to twenty times more: in short, the meat is a rich person product which does not take account of world realities in what milked with the food.

Environment

The production of meat requires much water and space. It generates also much pollution.

Religion

Certain religious sections recommend non-violence vis-a-vis the living beings. For example, the hindouism has the concept of the ahimsâ , a word Sanskrit meaning non-violence, that is to say to abtenir itself of violence in acts, words or even in thoughts, by making it directly, by ordering it from others, or by authorizing it.

Composition of the mode végétalien

Leguminous plants

By Leguminous S, one generally understands dry peanuts, beans, broad beans, split peas, chick-peas, lenses, garden peas, etc, but also soya.

The dried leguminous plants have the advantage of being able to be stored easily for long periods of time. In addition, for a faster use, the majority of them are also out of preserves, already prepared and cooked.

In detail, among the most current food, the vegetarians use: the bean S (white, blacks, reds, adzukis, of Lima, Pinto, “borlotti”, “cannellini”, etc), the Broad bean S, the Flageolet S, the garden peas, the chick-peas, the split peas, the lens S (green, fair, red).

Lastly, the Soya which was the subject of an special attention on behalf of the industrialists. For a few years, the latter have offered a very diversified product range: the sauce of soya, the cheeses with soya (which count among the products which have just been marketed), yoghourts of soya (with the fruits or nature), the creams of soya (to be cooked or as serves), the tofu (presented in the form of sausages, smoked, or integrated in dishes prepared such as the lasagnes, raviolis, moussaka, of wafers, nature and/or to grasses), “milks” of soya (aromatized or pure), and finally the Tempeh, the flour of soya (often textured: proteinic vegetable fiber),

Cereals

Here in detail a large range of cereals and derivative products most usually consumed by the vegetarians.

The Rice, of which there exist many varieties: the brown rice (complete) or white, often used in the pilafs and risotto but also in good of other principal dishes, the long-grain rice or short or the wild rice (which in fact is not a cereal, but is cooked like such).

The Quinoa, is a pseudocéréale. Little known, it is however a seed very attractive rich person out of vegetable complete proteins

The millet (that you will find elsewhere than in the graineteries), which can be whole but also in the form of flakes or of semolina.

The Corn, which can be consumed out of ears, cooked like a vegetable, but also in the form of popcorn (burst corn) or corn flakes, of bread, of twisted (when the grain was tiny room in flour beforehand).

The Corn, which are presented in multiple forms, in particular the whole-wheat flour or flour with the sound, the white flour, the bread, the pastes, the noodles, but also the boulghour and couscous generally used in taboulé, the corn flakes which are used to manufacture the müesli, etc

Various other cereals deserve to be quoted although of a use less running: the Rye, the buckwheat, the oats, the Barley, the German wheat, the Kamut, etc

Vegetables

The diversity of vegetables or " fruits of terre" is so large that it is useless to make an inventory here of it. If it wishes it, a végétalien can adapt at least a vegetable different each day lasting from many weeks.

Fruits and seeds

The fruits are quite as numerous as vegetables and as a whole rather well-known. One can divide them into four categories.

Sweetened fruits (Date S, melon S, Banana S, Water melon S, Fig S), acidulous fruits (Grape S, plum S, Apple S, Pear S, strawberries, Cherry S, Apricot S, etc), farinaceous fruits (Sweet chestnut S) and oleaginous fruits (Cashew nut, of pécan, Nut, pinion S, Hazel nut S, Almond S, etc)

The latter as well as the oleaginous seeds (seeds of Pumpkin, Poppy, Mustard, Sunflower, Sesame, flax, etc) are particularly interesting nutritionnellement speaking.

Moreover, from some of them, one manufactures oils (sunflower, almond, groundnut oils, etc), Margarine (with oil of Soya) and pastes (pastes of nut, hazel nuts, of sesame, etc).

Vegetarianism and food additives

Vegetarianism excludes any food manufactured starting from an animal. Food industry introduced, in the composition of many food products, various additives which are not appropriate for a mode végétalien. If one reads the descriptive labels of a product, these ingredients can be noted such as they are (animal grease, gelatin, etc), but they can also be recognizable only under one number of code (initials “E”).

List (nonexhaustive) ingredients of animal origin

animal Fat contents /Mono and diglycérides / Glycerin / Glycerol : various terms to indicate greases which can be lard or derived from the dairy products.
Gelatin (E430): manufactured starting from bone and of ligaments. One finds it in many food, candies, the cream-desserts, the ices, yoghourts, etc the gelatin can also hide under the indication “gelling”, although this term also includes/understands substances of vegetable origin, like pectins (E440), agar-agar (E406, alga) or the carrageenan (E407, lichen).
Presses : extracted the stomach of new-born calves. It is used as coagulant for the manufacture of the majority of cheeses.
Pepsin : also used as coagulant, comes from the stomach of the pigs.
Lecithin (E322): extracted from blood or neuralgic fabrics. One finds some a little everywhere in the food products. There exists however of the “lecithin of soya” (written in all letters on packing).

Health hazards

To adopt the mode végétalien requires to be attentive with the food risks of deficiencies. Badly led, such a mode can cause considerable damage, in particular deficits in vitamins B₁₂, D and in Calcium, being able to cause Rachitisme and Anémie. It is however to note that any type of food mode balanced evil can have serious consequences for health.

The dangerosity of vegetarianism is the object of a debate which is not closed, as follows:

For American Dietetic Association (translation of the original article):

“Well-planned vegan and other standard off vegetarian diets are appropriate for all training courses off the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence. ” (A mode végétalien planned well, just as of other modes vegetarians, is adapted at all the stages of the life, including in the course of pregnancy, during breast feeding, early childhood, childhood and adolescence.)

Whereas for INPES (National institute of precaution and education for health)

“this type of mode makes very difficult the satisfaction of the requirements in essential amino-acids, out of iron, calcium and certain vitamins. The follow-up of a mode végétalien in the long run made run risks for health, in particular for the children. ”

The drug company having made considerable progresses, it is today possible to synthesize the near total of the Nutriment S, and the removal of food of animal origin can thus be compensated by the ingestion of nutrients of synthesis. Food balance is however more complex to reach and requires a serious nutritional self-discipline. The ethical questions related to this supplementation and in particular on the methods of synthetisation, make also debate at the végétaliens.

Techniques of complementation

As that was indicated to the preceding chapter a mode végétalien badly organized can involve important disorders. The decision to follow a végétalien lifestyle should not thus be dissociated from that to invest itself in a serious training in nutrition. This chapter is purely informative and does not claim with exhaustiveness necessary to be able to exempt to you of a thorough study on the subject.

Proteins

There exist two types of Protéine S, classified according to their origin: plant proteins and animal. The proteins are made up of amino-acid. There exist 20 different amino-acids represented in the genetic code, of which 8 must be present in a food mode. They are the amino-acids " essentiels".

The mode végétalien is often criticized because of the deficiencies which it could involve, in particular concerning animal proteins. It is often marked that the plant proteins do not contain all the essential amino-acids.

Except in the case of soya, all the essential amino-acids are not present in the same plant. It is thus important to have a varied food. The food of the expectant mothers and the infants must be the particular care object. One finds plant proteins in particular in the Soja in many other seeds, the lens S, the Quinoa, the Algue S, the Spiruline.

Vitamins

The cover of the requirements in B₁₂ vitamin requires an special attention. This one is present in few plants. It is often necessary to have recourse to supplements of B₁₂ (supplemented pills, bulbs, or simply food), manufactured starting from bacteria. Some criticize the need for this complement “not naturalness”.

Iron

The deficiencies in Fer are not more current at the végétaliens than at nonthe végétaliens, however a risk is posed if this mode is associated with the consumption of The and/or Café, which reduces the fixing of iron by the organization. On the other hand, the consumption of products rich in vitamin C at the same time as that of a rich food in iron, clearly improves absorption of this one.

Random links: