Plant-Based Diet And Its Effect On Public Health

Plant-Based Diet

Nutrition is an extremely important aspect of public health with so many diseases and disorders branching from poor diet and nutrient consumption. Diet and people’s nutritional habits can either cause or prevent almost all diseases that are plaguing the western societies but most dramatically is the United States. In most of the world people consume some sort of meat or animal product every day and for some countries like the United States of America and many other western societies this diet may be even more extreme with consumption of animal products happening every meal. A plant-based diet can technically mean any diet that has plants on a regular basis, but for the definition that will be used in this paper it will be any diet consisting of only plants and no animal products to be consumed at any time.

Health Issues with Eating Animals

“We humans do not need meat. In fact, we are healthier without it” (Grant, 2017). A whole food plant-based diet is one that is derived from the ground with no animal products to be consumed at any point. There are many health issues in today’s society that can be associated with eating animal products like meat, cheese, and milk. One of the many different problems associated with this animal eating lifestyle is obesity. Some of the research done in Canada reports that “62.1% of the entire population to be overweight and 25.4% to be obese. A total of 32% of children and youth aged 5 to 17 years are overweight or obese. Overall, 40% of men and 29% of women aged 18 and older are overweight, with 27% of men and 25% of women being obese. Vegetarians and vegans, irrespective of age, sex, and geography, are leaner than omnivores,1,6 with a much lower prevalence of obesity (

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Health Benefits of Eating Plant-Based

Eating a plant-based diet has so many great benefits to a person’s health and well-being that just simply increasing the amount of plants someone eats in their current diet has shown signs of healthier bodies. There have been tons of research in the recent years on how a plant-based diet affects people’s health, “A review of studies shows people who follow a vegetarian diet reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease by 40 percent, and hypertension by 34 percent. In addition, up to 91 percent of patients experienced the unblocking of blocked arteries either partially or fully, and total cholesterol and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol are significantly lower in vegetarians compared to non-vegetarians” (Stanton, 2018). Eating a plant-based diet also helps to lower excess body weight, without restricting calories, since the diet is naturally low in fat and helps to prevent over eating highly processed foods. According to the American Heart Association eating a diet filled with plants has been shown to lower a person’s chance of heart disease by 20 percent. “The National Cancer Institute cites colorectal cancer as the third most common type of cancer in the United States. A recent study in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine showed that people who ate a vegetarian diet had a 22 percent lower risk of colorectal cancer than those who didn’t” (Vegetarian Times, 2018). Not only can a veggie filled diet help with obesity and cardiovascular diseases it can also help to manage diabetes complications. The Mayo clinic says that eating vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, and nuts can help people suffering with diabetes to control their blood-sugar and make their body more responsive to the insulin their body makes or receives from shots (Vegetarian Times, 2018). This plant-based diet is naturally high in fiber and when teenage girls and young women have lots of fiber it has been shown, according to a study of more than 90,000 women, to reduce their likelihood of getting breast cancer later in life (Nurses Health Study). Inflammation is yet another factor that a plant-based diet can control and lessen significantly, meat-free diets decrease the production of proteins in the body that can cause or seriously aggravate inflammation. A study was conducted on 73,000 people who were Seventh-day Adventists, people who follow the bible very literally so they do not consume a lot of meat since it is considered ‘dirty flesh’, it was shown that these individuals had a lower mortality rate for all causes which was better than all other forms of diets.

Environmental Impacts With Eating Animals

“Which is better for your health-ordering a cheeseburger or a salad? Which is better for the planet? The answer is the same. Science is finding that what is good for the person is also good for the planet” eating a more plant-based diet is better not only for yourself but for the planet we live on according to Larisa Brass (Brass, 2018). When people think of public health there is rarely any mention of how our dietary lifestyles effect the world we live in. the agriculture industry that gives us all the food we eat in the animal-based diets contributes to 30 percent of all greenhouse gas production. But what is worst of all is this omnivore lifestyle uses 70 percent of the earths total water usage and is the leading cause of deforestation, land usage, and biodiversity loss (Brass, 2018). Not only does animal-based diets take more land, water, and resources it is also not a long-term solution to feeding our rapidly growing population 'Current food production is destroying the environment upon which present and future food production depends, the FCRN report states” (Brass, 2018). Almost one billion people in the world suffer from chronic hunger from not getting enough food throughout the day even though our Earth is more than capable of feeding every person on it if only we were more efficient with our means of feeding the population. “More than half of the world’s crops are used to feed animals, not people. For instance, today 97% of the soymeal and 40% of cereals produced worldwide are used for animal feed” this is just one of the examples given by Alsaffar on why eating animals is not a sustainable food source (Alsaffar, 2016). Not only that but much of our crops are wasted by the animals that we raise to eat since they are extremely inefficient at using these crops by turning the plant proteins into their animal proteins. It takes around 15 pounds of animal feed, or the crops that humans could be eating, just to get two pounds of beef. So not only does it take so much of the food people could be eating if they were not giving it to the animals, but they are also using way more of the crops to feed a cow or other animals then it would take to feed a human those same soybean crop.

Conclusion

The plant-based diet is one that comes with many people who will apposed to it simply for the fact that it is different to the normal way of life. Although it may not seem like a normal way of life to many it has been proven to be extremely beneficial in reversing, preventing, or managing many of the chronic diseases that are affecting the world today like obesity, heart disease, and many forms of cancer. Not only does a plant-based diet help the individual to have a healthy life and a longer life it also helps the plant in many ways that can hopefully overturn any damage already done by the people on the planet. The conventional diet is not only bad for the body if a surplus of certain foods is eaten but it also drains and damages the Earth with every animal farm we must erect in order to feed the growing population be raised on this new western diet.

References

1. Brass, L. (2018, September-October). HEALTHY PEOPLE, HEALTHY PLANET: How What You Eat Affects Your Health--and the Environment. Vibrant Life. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com.db02.linccweb.org/apps/doc/A554494316/AONE?u=lincclin_bcb&sid=AONE&xid=3a78d3f4
2. Grant, J. D. (2017). Time for change: Benefits of a plant-based diet. Canadian Family Physician, 744–746. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.db02.linccweb.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mnh&AN=29025793&site=eds-live
3. Alsaffar, A. A. (2016). Sustainable diets: The interaction between food industry, nutrition, health and the environment. Food Science And Technology International, 102–111. Retrieved from https://doi-org.db02.linccweb.org/10.1177/1082013215572029
4. Hill, D. S. (2014). Health Benefits of a Plant-Based Diet. Maryland Nurse, 6–7. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.db02.linccweb.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=103915676&site=eds-live
5. Eating for the Environment: Dietary choices are important to personal health, and they can also affect the health of the planet. (2018). Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter, Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.db02.linccweb.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.560925666&site=eds-live
6. The Power of Plant Foods: Make the right food and beverage choices to harvest an array of health benefits from a plant-based diet. (2019). Men’s Health Advisor. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.db02.linccweb.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.574695521&site=eds-live
7. Stanton, R. (2012). How Healthy Is A Plant-Based Diet. Nutridate, 2–4. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.db02.linccweb.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hxh&AN=94604889&site=eds-live
8. Vegetarian Diet Lowers Heart Disease Risk. (2019). Environmental Nutrition, 42. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.db02.linccweb.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=134548466&site=eds-live
9. 8 Reasons Why a Plant-Based Diet Is Good for You. (2016). Vegetarian Times, 42. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.db02.linccweb.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=116188872&site=eds-live