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Ruth Nance
Professor Hunter
ENG 1201
25 October 2020
Literature Review
In recent years, diets that exclude animal products have started to become a topic of
interest in the media, specifically vegetarianism, a diet that cuts out meat, and veganism, a form
of vegetarianism that cuts out not only meat but eggs and dairy as well. These days, one can find
a meatless option on the menu of nearly any restaurant, and the internet is full of videos and
articles on the topic. In their article for Nutrients, Lap Tai Le and Joan Sabaté report that
vegetarians make up 5% percent of the U.S population (2132). However, many people are still
skeptical of the diet. One common issue people have with the diet is whether or not it is
nutritionally beneficial. While plants contain a wide variety of nutrients, there are some nutrients
that can only be sufficiently consumed in animal products, such as the vitamin B12, which is
found in meat and eggs, as Markham Heid discusses in his article “Is a Vegan Diet Better?” for
Time magazine. Heid states that around 80% percent of vegans who do not take B12 supplements
are deficient. These kinds of downsides present an important question: What are the downsides
of vegetarianism that people considering the diet should be educated on?
While many people believe that plant-based diets are a new trend, this is simply not the
case. In her article for Food & Nutrition, dietician nutritionist Ginger Hultin gives a brief
timeline of vegetarianism throughout history and proves that the diet has been around for
hundreds of years. Evidence of vegetarian diets can be found as early as 600 B.C (Hultin). In
addition, some well-known historical figures practiced vegetarianism, such as Leonardo da
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Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, and the Greek philosopher Pythagorean (Hultin). However, the
reasons for excluding meat from diets were not usually focused around the nutritional aspect but
instead often related to ethical or religious morals, such the ancient Indian religion Jainism,
which promoted vegetarianism as a means to practice nonviolence towards living creatures
(Hultin). The nutritional aspect of vegetarianism, whether good or bad, was often overlooked
when assessing the diet.
However, this is changing as more and more scholars and scientists begin to study the
health and sustainability of vegetarianism. In studies about vegetarian health, B12 deficiency is a
common focus when it comes to the potential downsides of vegetarianism, as well as calcium,
iron, vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, and protein deficiencies. These issues can be combated
with the use of supplements, as recommended by experts (Allés et al. 14; Fields et al. 97;
Stanisic et al. 5). Although there are many possible complications with the vegetarian diets, there
is also evidence for many health benefits.
It has been shown that vegetarians enjoy benefits when it comes to cancer and
cardiometabolic risks, as well as vegan diets showing lower rates for obesity, hypertension, and
type 2 diabetes (Le and Sabaté 2142). There are also many important nutrients that are able to be
higher consumed in plant-based diets, such as dietary fibers, vitamins C, B9 and E, magnesium,
potassium, antioxidants, and many more, as shown by Svetlana Stanisic et al. in the scholarly
article titled "Being a Vegetarian: Health Benefits and Hazards." (65). However, whether or not
these benefits are significant enough to outweigh the downsides is debatable. "Being a
Vegetarian: Health Benefits and Hazards" concludes by suggesting that these advantages have
not proven to be substantial and states, “In the absence of direct evidence, claims for the
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superiority of vegetarianism, and particularly its restrictive forms, are probably exaggerated…”
(Stanisic et al. 68).
Regardless of whether or not the benefits and drawbacks were concluded to be
consequential, each of these sources tackles the misconception that vegetarian diets are always
favorable. As Heid points out, “Vegan diets are a massive improvement over the refined carb and
sugar-heavy eating patterns to which many Americans adhere.” However, he also concludes by
suggesting that the ideal diet contains plenty of plants, along with a small amount of meat and
eggs.
With that being said, diets that contain animal products are not always the answer. As for
the question proposed at the beginning of this essay, it is apparent that diets cannot be looked at
by a one-size-fits-all approach. Many people can flourish under a vegetarian diet, and many
people can flourish under a diet that contains animal products. Instead, investigating the question
leads to many smaller questions, such as what kind of people should eat meat? What kind of
people should not? How can people decide which diet is meant for them? The human diet is not a
simple subject, and therefore, will not have a simple answer.
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Works Cited
Allès, Benjamin, et al. "Comparison of Sociodemographic and Nutritional Characteristics
between Self-Reported Vegetarians, Vegans, and Meat-Eaters from the NutriNet-Santé
Study." Nutrients, vol. 9, no. 9, 2017, p. 1023, doi: 10.3390/nu9091023. Accessed 15
October 2020.
Fields, Heather, et al. "How to Moniter and Advise Vegans to Ensure Adequate Nutrient Intake."
The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, vol. 116, no. 2, 2016, pp. 96-9,
doi: ttps://doi.org/10.7556/jaoa.2016.022. Accessed 14 October 2020.
Heid, Markham. "You Asked: Is a Vegan Diet Better?" Time, 25 May 2016,
time.com/4346551/vegan-diet-vegetarian/. Accessed 16 October 2020.
Hultin, Ginger. “The History of Vegetarian Diets: Explore the Progression of Plant-Based
Eating.” Food & Nutrition, 13 August 2019. Accessed 20 October 2020.
Lap, Tai Le and Joan Sabaté. "Beyond Meatless, the Health Effects of Vegan Diets: Findings
from the Adventist Cohorts." Nutrients, vol 6, no. 6, 2014, pp. 2131-47, doi:
10.3390/nu6062131. Accessed 13 October, 2020.
Stanisic, Svetlana, et al. "Being a Vegetarian: Health Benefits and Hazards." Tehnologija Mesa,
vol. 59, no. 1, 2018, pp. 63-70, doi: 10.18485/meattech.2018.59.1.8. Accessed 14
October 2020.
