Freedomwarrior’s BodyBlog

Greetings everyone. Since April of 2009, I have decided to be a semi-vegetarian. What I mean by "semi-vegetarian" is that I eat mostly fruits, vegetables, tofu, etc only eating fish and meat once a week. The reason why I do this is because putting myself on this diet plan helps to increase my intake of protein, vitamins, minerals, and unsaturated fat, and keep the levels of saturated fat and especially trans fat to which contributes to high cholesterol and therefore causes certain circulatory problems like hypertension (high blood pressure) down to almost 0%.

I am quite aware that fruits and vegetables don’t have certain vitamins and minerals that meat and fish do have. For example, fruits and vegetables lack Vitamin B12 which helps the body produce red blood cells. Which is why I do still eat meat and fish but only on rare occasion. I do take supplements like protein powders and vitamins and mineral pills and capsules from nutrition stores, but I don’t want to rely on those very much as I like to just try to get all my nutritional need from natural foods as much as possible.

My main problem with many meats and fish is that many of those products while they have excellent amount of protein, it also have a huge unhealthy source of saturated and trans fat like I mention earlier, and some meats and fish even have a way too much sodium or salt in it too. Sodium in small amounts (about 700 mg at least) for example helps the nervous system in the human body transmit nerve impulses and helps maintain the right balance of fluids in the body. However, most meats and fish products have more than 700mg in it and too much sodium can attract and hold water therefore making your blood volume increases (making the blood thicker than it already is). As a result of increased blood volume this makes heart’s job of pumping blood much more difficult and could lead to certain cardiac and circulatory problems like congestive heart failure. Meats like barbecue, sausages, steak, and beef and fried chicken I will not ever eat again. However, I do on rare occasion eat chicken breast which have a decent amount of protein, and saturated fat and trans fat is non-existent. I also eat lemon pepper fish from the company Gorden’s where it is loaded with Omega 3 and Omega 6 unsaturated fatty acids. I know that the human body needs fat for things like the cells rebuilding their plasma membrane, for natural insulation, long term energy storage, and for natural steroids which give men and women their characteristics by producing testosterone in males and estrogen in females. However, I prefer unsaturated since it’s liquid in room temperature and it doesn’t clog the arteries as oppose to saturated and transfat which both are solid in room temperature and causes arteries to clog up and causes health problems like hypertension (high blood pressure). Also the levels of sodium in the lemon peppered fish is fairly decent too (about 500 mg in most of them).

Fruits and vegetables have sodium in them but the amount is so small (less than 100 mg) that on one would give themselves and overdose and therefore give themselves cardiac and circulatory problems. Also some fruits and vegetables like peanuts and walnuts have a fairly decent amount of protein in them too without the saturated and trans fat and have healthy amounts of unsaturated fats in them as well.

Those are my reasons why I’m a semi vegetarian. Eating mostly fruits, vegetables and anything else that is not meat and fish, and only eating anything meat and fish that is not high in saturated and trans fat and anything else that is not healthy for the human body on rare occasions.

To get a little off topic with health and nutrition, I would like to tell the vegans that are rooting for me that I lowered my meat and fish consumption and hope that I stop eating meat and fish altogether for ethical reasons like killing live animals and tampering with nature something. While many vegetarians and vegans have convinced me to lower my meat and fish consumption for health reason, I will remain a semi vegetarian and eat healthy meat and fish on rare occasion and will not stop eating meat and fish on rare occasion anytime soon. While I know that eating meat and fish may mean that I’m contributing to killing animals, keep in mind that animals and insects in wildlife also kill and hunt other animals too because they must survive that way and it helps keep the population of certain animals and insects in check. I don’t like hunting of any animals regardless if it’s other animals or human beings, but it’s natural and necessary. Also, keep in mind that fruits and vegetables, especially the organic kind are also living things too, hence the word "organic". The fruits and vegetables may not be alive in the same way that human beings and animals are, but they do have DNA (bananas for example have 4 pairs of DNA seriously) and hydrogen and carbon in them making them living or "organic. If you full blown vegans are so worried about eating meat and fish and contributing to killing of animals, then why are you not worrying about eating fruits and vegetables, especially the natural organic kind which all of them are living and have DNA in them as well?

Thanks.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 at 1:37 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.