Vegetarianism does not equal better health!

"I completely disagree! I have been vegetarian for 30 years and feel great! When I ate meat, I was going against my beliefs and I felt terrible."

This is a response from a man who recently emailed us about some of our more meaty content.

Before you start shooting us emails like this one, let us just say that we see hundreds of vegetarians at Caring Medical. Guess why many of them come to see us: because they are sick! What we often see with these people is that they complain of being overweight, completely fatigued, cannot handle stress, and have all sorts of hormone issues. One thing they tend to have in common is that the person never pegs his or her diet as aggravating the problem at hand. First, we’ll say that we understand and completely respect people’s beliefs for not eating animal meat. In fact, we think that in an ideal setting we would not need to eat animal protein and could all survive happily and healthfully as herbivores, grazing the planet for the freshest and finest in fruits and vegetables. In our many years of clinical experience though, that is not the case. So let’s get back to reality…some people will never feel great if they continue eating a vegetarian diet. There, we said it!

What is a vegetarian?
The definitions are different from person to person. For the purposes of this article, let’s just say that a vegetarian is someone who does not eat animal meat (chicken breast, pork chops, etc.) but will occasionally eat animal products (cheese, yogurt, fish oil). A vegetarian will generally eat foods such as pasta, vegetable salads, fruit, muffins, bagels, tofu, rice, beans, cereal, corn products, and breads. Unfortunately, many vegetarians we observe eat too many of these foods in highly processed forms: flavored instant rice packages, flavored noodle packets, sweetened cereals, white pasta, frozen "vegetarian" dinners, canned soups, pizzas, crackers and cookies with trans fats, and the like. The additives and preservatives in these processed, meat-free foods act as toxins in our bodies. So, just because a person cuts out meat, doesn’t mean he or she is choosing "healthy" foods.

"I don’t eat processed foods, not all vegetarians do. Fruits, vegetables and plant foods are natural, so they are good for everyone to eat." We hear this comment a lot from people after we discuss the obvious processed food problem with many vegetarian’s diets. Let’s start by saying that for each of the Hauser Diet Types on the Hauser Diet, vegetables are an essential part. They contain the vitamins, minerals, fiber, and anti-oxidants that are not in other foods. In some ways, the same can be said for all fruits and other plant food (carbohydrates). The problem lies within what the body needs and doesn’t need in the food. Fruits and other plant foods raise blood sugar and acidify the blood pH (Remember this is blood pH we are talking about, not urine or saliva). For people who already have a tendency toward acidic blood ph, and unstable blood sugar, we typically do not see them do well on a vegetarian diet. These people need more protein, and fewer carbohydrates. Although there are plant foods that contain protein, they contain a lot of carbohydrates, which are exactly the foods that aggravate unstable blood sugar and make the blood more acidic. We are speaking of particularly fruit and grains (such as rice). Again, vegetables are in a different category and should not be lumped in with fruit when it comes to health benefits. Everyone needs vegetables, but not everyone needs fruit!

Does the Hauser Diet say that vegetarians are not healthy?
Absolutely not! There are a whole lot of vegetarian clinics, books, and products that would not be successful if there weren’t people who felt fabulous on a vegetarian diet.

In fact, our Monkey Diet and Giraffe Diet, are vegetarian-based diets and we recommend them based on a person’s individual health needs and objective measures (Diet Typing). Since we are a part of the medical community, seeing patients from all around the world, we are well aware of what other diets and treatments are available. We understand that many people believe specific vegetarian diets can "cure" specific and serious diseases, such as diabetes or cancer.

We stand firm, through our experience with thousands of patients and years of research, that there is no one magic diet for everyone. As we mentioned before, we see a lot of people who have already been to world renowned, vegetarian-promoting clinics and they are overweight, do not heal quickly, and still have many health issues since becoming a vegetarian. We do not accuse these people of not doing the diet correctly or tell them they have to try harder and longer. We can tell them that they are likely not eating according to their Diet Type. In most cases, once Diet Typing is done, we have the objective data to prove to them why their vegetarian diet is NOT working and a plan to get them back to good.