If you are a vegetarian purely for respect for life principles or for religious purposes, we will not knock you for that. However, if you are a vegetarian that is so because you think it is better for your body and for the environment, keep reading to find out why this is probably not the best lifestyle choice for you! To catch up, read our first post on this topic here!

Hope Memorial Day was awesome for everyone!

Last week we took a break from our regularly scheduled programming to bring you information related to questions your butcher would ask you to help you choose the right meat for your party. Not just the right meat, but the right cut, the right amount, and the proper type to go with the other dishes that you are serving your guests or family.

If you have not checked it out, please do so! At the very least, check it our before you commit to your purchases for the July 4th meat-fest celebration.

Anyway, now that we have covered that, let’s move on…

Last time we discussed reasons that we stand against vegetarianism. We have said it before, but we will say it again; this does not apply to you if you are doing it for one of the following reasons:

1. Respect for life/insistence on better care for farm-raised animals (while Wayside sources all of its meat from ethical producers, some farms treat their animals horribly!)

2. If this is a religious point for you – we will never insult anyone’s religion, creed, or faith. If being vegetarian is part of that, then veg it up!

Now, if you are being a vegetarian because you are thinking that this is better for your body as a whole, if you think that you can save a fortune by not eating meat, or if you think that you are improving the environment by avoiding meat – it’s you that we are talking to.

We know that when we were last speaking (writing?) we had hit on the idea that vegetarianism is not great for your body, and while we pretty solidly concluded that point, there is one more point that I want to touch on here before we move on:

After writing the last post, I was told by someone to take a look at Beyond Meat, a site that touts itself as the “future of protein”.

I took a look at the site, and I have to say that the burgers look like real burgers, and that what they promise sounds good.

It almost had us going back on our argument…

But notice the key word of “almost” – lucky for us, the company puts the ingredients on the website.

Just naming off a few of the ingredients listed in their burgers alone:

· Vegetable glycerin – this is a sugar alcohol. Overconsumption of glycerin results in painful gas an incontinence

· Maltodextrin – maltodextrin is a glutamic acid, effectively making it become chemically equivalent to MSG once your body begins to chemically break it down. The results of this can be migraines, stomach problems, or lethargy

· Pressed Canola Oil (the most prevalent ingredient after water and pea protein isolate) – canola oil is not unhealthy in and of itself, but most canola oils in the US are partially hydrogenated and genetically modified. This does mean that there is risk with overconsumption of canola oil

· Acetic acid – diluted, this is often known as vinegar. Too much acetic acid in the body actually acts may cause hypotension (not hypertension, that is not a typo) or arrhythmias

While the information provided above is not necessarily bad if you are consuming these artificial meat products in smaller quantities, the fact is that you are taking a risk with your healthy if you eat these with the frequency that most people will consume this type of meat.

In addition, to this, there is another point that we should make at this stage – and that is that these burgers have 20 grams of fat (5 grams saturated fat), and 20 grams of protein for every two burgers. If you consider a double-patty beef burger, you are looking at 17 grams of fat (6 grams saturated fat) and 20 grams of protein. In short, what you are getting is less overall fat and the same amount of protein! Yes, if you are concerned about cholesterol, then the veggie burger is a winner. However, the newest studies are showing that cholesterol is not as harmful as once believed, so this may not be an issue.

Consider that – if you are getting the same amount of protein for less fat than the vegetarian option, why would you consider eating the vegetarian option unless it is a religious or respect for life decision?

There is another point to consider when you are thinking about the choice to eat the vegetable burger or to eat the regular burger…

We here at Wayside want you to REALLY think about this point…

Ready?

If people are spending all of this time trying to replicate the taste, texture, and mouthfeel of meat in things like fake chicken, fake sausage, fake burgers, and other artificial meat products, then this should tell you something.

It should tell you that there is a demand for this that taste and feel like meat… in other words…

(If you see where I am going with this… you know what I am saying already)

There is a demand for MEAT. If there is this kind of demand for meat amongst vegetarians that are eating like this, then there is one simple fact to consider.

Your body wants it because it is evolved to require it!

You and your body need specific chemicals in meat to be as healthy as possible. If you think about bodybuilders that use creatine, it is because this is a synthetic version of the creatinine that is found in red meat… and there are vegetarians that are not bodybuilders that have begun using creatine because modern science has demonstrated that we are supposed to have it.

This does not make a case for creatine, because there are risks associated with it, and many of these are related to the human population still not understanding the ins and outs of dosage and the length of time that it should be consumed.

The bottom line here is simple; if you want the taste of meat, the feel of meat, and the overall experience of meat… again, you should see where we are going, here…

Just eat meat! Meat has health benefits that outweigh the risks, because many of these benefits come from the biochemicals in the meat itself, and the only way to add this to the veggie version of meat would be to add meat juices.

Not exactly vegetarian, is it?

Alright… we are over!

So, we are going to have to write another post again this week… we still did not get into the target topics of environmental safety or cost-savings. For that, you can thank the person that sent us the information about Beyond Meat and the supposed change it is going to have on protein consumption in the future.

So, later this week, we promise to get into the ins and outs of the last part of this topic – we will get into the environmental and cost savings question. Please leave all comments below, as we would love to hear from you!

Until next time, as always, eat well, live well, and be well!

Why we Stand Against Vegetarianism, Part II