The Disadvantages of a Vegetarian Diet

The disadvantages of a vegetarian diet are many, but I will limit this article to covering the major ones that I have been forced to deal with in the forty-three years since I first made this momentous change in my diet.

Here are nine of them:

You will appear to have lost a lot of weight -- and your plump friends will be concerned.

You will need to develop a pat answer for friends who warn you of disastrous consequences they read about vegetarianism the last time they were in their doctor's waiting room.

You will become a stranger to your doctor, unless you choose one who shares your passion for strenuous outdoor activities, such as hiking, skiing, or bicycling.

As the years slide by, you will watch your friends deal with weight gain, high blood pressure, various cancers, diabetes, heart problems, and more, while you industriously go about your life undisturbed by health issues. You will have little to talk about when your friends get together to chew the fat -- literally! -- about their latest blood work and CAT scans.

The most heartbreaking disadvantage of a vegetarian diet is that you will need to keep making new friends to replace your contemporaries who have passed on.

You may find it shocking to go to high school reunions and see what has become of the charming athletic young hell-raisers you grew up with.

People will be stunned when they happen to ask your age. They won't believe you.

Those on a vegetarian diet hurt the economy by not going to the doctor as often. They also don't contribute to the mega-profits of the Pharmaceutical Industry. They also reduce employment for the butchers, Cattlemen's Association, and the dairy industry.

Of course, the disadvantages of a vegetarian diet are minor compared to the disadvantages of eating the Standard American Diet. Lacto-ovo Vegetarians suffer 34% fewer fatal heart attacks. They are 40% less likely to die from cancer. They are the group of Americans who live the longest, as long as they don't smoke.

Among the Seventh-Day Adventists, the most-studied and longest-lived group in America, the vegetarians had one-half the high blood pressure and two-thirds the rheumatoid arthritis compared to the Adventists who ate meat.

One way or the other, if you decide to undertake a vegetarian diet, beware of these facts. Certainly, you may miss the flavor of pepperoni on your pizza, but you won't miss the indigestion that used to come with eating such greasy delicacies.

On the other hand, you may enjoy the new feeling of closeness to all the animal kingdom, which your carnivorous friends regards -- except for their pets -- as merely sources of food. You will no longer be a cruel predator in the Peaceable Kingdom.