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Originally posted by CUGreekgirl
My main reason for going vegetarian is because vegetarians have 40% of the cancer rate meat eaters do. Knowing that going vegetarian could reduce my likely hood of getting cancer by 60% is major factor since cancer (esp. colon cancers) runs in my family.
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Spontaneous colon cancer rates are high no matter what a person eats. And it is age that increases the rate of getting colon cancer not eating behavior. I can quote chapter and verse for you if you'd like, but for every 5 research articles I read on colon cancer reduced by a veggie diet, I can find the same amount that finds inconclusive evidence...
Not eating meat with not change your cancer rate levels... If you are going to get cancer, you will get it either way. But it is pretty strongly shown that eating broccoli can assist you in cellular protection with anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory events.
However, you must eat a lot of broccoli--or cruciferous veggies--to get the kind of vitamin load that can be eaten with other sources of diet--such as fish, some cuts of beef, and maybe some untainted poultry.
For everyone considering the lifestyle--vegetarianism is a lifestyle change. You have to change your entire direction of life. You cannot shift one day to the next. Because that is the quickest way to destroy your body. Moreover, you need to have as much medical information about your body before you make a paradigm shift to a vegetarian lifestyle. Mainly what are your blood sugar levels, your iron levels, all your other metabolic parameters, your body weight changes, for women: your menses; your insulin levels, your family history of all diseases; anything else you can think of. Which means you must get a full physical before switching. You can hurt yourself seriously without proper precautions. I would try to see a natural wholistic doctor trained as an full western M.D. with board certification along with a naturalpathic doctor who can tell you the homeopathy and vitamins needed.
I am telling you all this information because I did not have it and now I am suffering from a chronic disease due to my age. I have to correct it from several different directions including from my own knowlege base.
If you choose the lifestyle, you would want to slow your eating down rather than doing a cold turkey vegetarian.
Pick a meat you choose not to eat, and stop eating it for 1 day, then 2 days, then 3 days, then so on and so forth. That staves off the cravings. I would immediate replace it with a false food--like the chix nuggets--especially Quorun products. Morningstar Foods (A Kelloggs subsidiary) replaces their nuggets with a lot of salt and they still include eggs whites in the mixture...
I would also find a good vegetarian multivitamin as soon as I could. Whole Foods has most of the brands. But if you don't have a Whole Foods grocery store, then go for Schiff Brands, Natrol or NatureMade. Watch out for added cellulose and follow up with A LOT of water.
Flushing toxins are important for a wholistic lifestyle. In cooperation with your physician, you can pursue that avenue.
And I am here to tell you doing all of this is NOT cheap. So, a being a budget vegetarian will not work.
Another person I'd speak to is a dietician and a nutritionist. They have the recommended daily allowances needed for energy support.
You also need to consider physical activity in your regimen. Some of that includes weight training.
So be careful out there. I am not a physician, but I am a Ph.D. in molecular genetics that studies human diseases in animals and I do know some things. But I see a lot of illness brought on by pursuing these fad diets and "vegetarian diets" that are taught by less qualified people that give the truly wholistic practioners a bad rap...