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Vegetarianism: It's Our Future!
#144929
08/30/12 05:56 PM
08/30/12 05:56 PM
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OP
SDA
Active Member 2016
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Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 1,275
Calif. USA
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World may be forced into vegetarianism due to food shortages, warn scientists
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) A rising global population, coupled with shrinking food production capability and water shortages, are likely to drive much of the world into strict vegetarianism over the next 40 years, say leading water scientists.
"There will not be enough water available on current croplands to produce food for the expected nine billion population in 2050 if we follow current trends and changes towards diets common in western nations," said Malik Falkenmark and colleagues in a recent report delivered at the Stockholm International Water Institute.
Currently, humans derive some 20 percent of their daily protein intake from animal-based foodstuffs, but that level may have to fall to around five percent in order to feed the additional two billion people expected to inhabit the planet by 2050 (the current global population is just over seven billion people).
Leading water scientists have issued one of the sternest warnings yet about global food supplies, saying that the world's population may have to switch almost completely to a vegetarian diet over the next 40 years to avoid catastrophic shortages.
"There will be just enough water if the proportion of animal-based foods is limited to five percent of total calories and considerable regional water deficits can be met by a ... reliable system of food trade," said the report.
Food price hikes have already led to civil strife
The dire warnings about water supply and availability come as Oxfam and the United Nations prepare for the a potential second global food crisis in just five years, Great Britain's Independent newspaper reported.
Already, prices for commodities like corn and wheat have nearly doubled on international markets since June, driven up in large part by drought-induced shortages in the United States and Russia, as well as weaker than normal monsoon rains in India and throughout Asia. Already, some 18 million people are facing dramatic food shortages across the Sahal in Africa.
Oxfam - an international confederation of 17 organizations that work on the local level to mitigate poverty - has already forecast that the spike in food prices will have a devastating effect on populations of developing countries that are already hard pressed economically, including parts of North Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.
Food shortages in 2008 led to civil unrest in 28 countries, and officials worry skyrocketing prices will cause similar problems this time around.
Falkenmark and his colleagues, in their report, note that adopting a largely vegetarian diet is one way to bolster the supply of water available to grow more food in a world that is increasingly climate-erratic. Animal-based, protein-rich food consumes about five to ten times more water than a vegetarian diet, the scientists said, adding that currently, about one-third of the world's arable land is used to grow crops to feed animals.
Other options include eliminating waste and bolstering trade between countries with surplus food and those with not enough, the scientists said.
Water shortages projected to lead to future conflicts
"Nine hundred million people already go hungry and two billion people are malnourished in spite of the fact that per capita food production continues to increase," they said. "With 70 percent of all available water being in agriculture, growing more food to feed an additional two billion people by 2050 will place greater pressure on available water and land."
Earlier this year, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a report saying that sustained water shortages around the world will eventually lead to economic instability, civil wars and international conflicts, as well as the use of water as an economic weapon.
"During the next 10 years, many countries important to the United States will experience water problems -- shortages, poor water quality, or floods -- that will risk instability and state failure, increase regional tensions, and distract them from working with the United States on important U.S. policy objectives," the report said.
Sources:
http://www.guardian.co.uk
http://www.naturalnews.com/035370_water_wars_shortages_government.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/036796_food_prices_drought_corn.html
--end of article.
Comment: This scenario may be much closer than we think!
Suzanne
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Re: Vegetarianism: It's Our Future!
[Re: Suzanne]
#145283
09/18/12 06:53 PM
09/18/12 06:53 PM
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OP
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Active Member 2016
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Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 1,275
Calif. USA
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Life-long vegans show no sign of anticipated deficiencies
by Raw Michelle
(NaturalNews) (Natural News) A study of the bone health of long term vegan women showed density that surprised many western physicians. Comparing the bones of over two hundred vegan and non-vegan women, researchers were caught off-guard by the finding almost identical density levels, despite the vegan womens' intake of substantially lower amounts of calcium and protein.
Culture teaches us what to eat and how to eat it
There is a lot of concern about the ability of vegetarian and vegan diets being able to meet the required nutritional intake, particularly with regard to nutrients that are in the greatest abundance in animal products. Some of their main concerns are about the amount of dietary calcium, vitamin B12, and iron. There is a lesser concern about amounts of dietary protein, but even western medicine has now reluctantly acknowledged that protein from non-animal sources is abundantly available from nuts, legumes and other sources.
It is true that many vegans and vegetarians are at risk for anemia, but this may be a problem with cultural adaptation rather than lack of alternative bioavailable food sources. Since the standard American diet derives its calcium from dairy sources, and iron and B12 from meats, conventional medical doctrine expects elimination of these foods to result in deficiencies in the nutrients they supplied.
Find out which path was the right one fifty years later
The implications of these deficiencies aren't immediately apparent. Calcium, for example, is far easier to absorb early in life, but around the mid-thirties, women stop maintaining their bone density as well, and calcium stores are faster to deplete. For women, calcium and iron are of particular importance, because of their steady consumption by the processes of the reproductive system.
Because of this, a diet deficient in calcium and iron may not have any noticeable impact until the onset of menopause. Life course studies are limited by time and funding, and in order to show conclusive evidence of the negative impact of vegan diets, the studies would have to appraise long-term diets, and show corresponding evidence of its impact on the end result. Because the body stops efficiently absorbing calcium, the body largely relies on the reserves already in the bone tissue. For women, menopause marks a sudden reduction in hormone levels, particularly for estrogen, which normally guards bone density. Post-meopausal women are thus at a greatly increased risk for bone fractures.
Reconsidering the food pyramid from the other side of the world
The study examined the diets of Buddhist nuns, who are required to follow a strict vegan diet. People typically join the faith very early in their lives, usually in early adolescence; the women studied had been life-long vegans. The women had far lower protein and calcium intake than the non-vegetarian group, and in many cases, less than half the amount. This suggests that the source of the nutrients also impacts its absorption, and that western diets may recommend higher levels because of absorption interference.
Sources for this article include:
http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/91/3/0.1.full
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-04/ra-vbn041509.php
http://www.spineuniverse.com
Suzanne
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Re: Vegetarianism: It's Our Future!
[Re: Suzanne]
#166568
07/04/14 01:06 AM
07/04/14 01:06 AM
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OP
SDA
Active Member 2016
Dedicated Member
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Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 1,275
Calif. USA
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Switching To a Vegetarian Diet Can Increase Longevity By 20 Percent And Help Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
by Jonathan Benson, staff writer
(NaturalNews) Saving the planet and extending one's lifespan in the process could be as simple as switching to a vegetarian diet, according to a new study out of California. Researchers from Loma Linda University say that sticking with fruits, vegetables, beans and nuts rather than meat products may help boost longevity by as much as 20 percent, as well as reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that some say are contributing to climate change.
Published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN), the study looked at food systems around the world and how they are contributing to so-called global warming. The diets of vegetarians were compared with the diets of semi-vegetarians and non-vegetarians to look for specific variances in greenhouse gas emissions, as well as total mortality between groups.
In terms of overall mortality, those who adhere to strict vegetarian diets were found to fare 20 percent better than those who occasionally or regularly eat meat. It was also determined that vegetarian diets can achieve as much as a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, based on the inputs and outputs of food production within this particular agricultural paradigm.
Consuming animal products, on the other hand, and especially those procured on industrial factory farms, is continuing to damage climate patterns. According to the scientists who worked on the study, meat production using these Western methods is unsustainable and will only continue to cause problems as the global population expands.
"The takeaway message is that relatively small reductions in the consumption of animal products result in non-trivial environmental benefits and health benefits," stated Dr. Sam Soret, Ph.D., M.P.H., an associate dean at Loma Linda's School of Public Health and one of the co-authors of the study.
Vegetarian diet can help the planet avoid catastrophe, believe scientists
The first of its kind to use a large, living population, the study drew from data collected as part of the Adventist Health Study, which included more than 96,000 individuals who identify as Seventh-day Adventists. This pool of participants was diverse both in terms of ethnicity and geographical location, providing the ideal data set for making an accurate assessment.
"The study sample is heterogeneous and our data is rich," added Dr. Soret. "We analyzed more than 73,000 participants. The level of detail we have on food consumption and health outcomes at the individual level makes these findings unprecedented."
In a separate paper along the same lines, researchers suggest a large-scale return to plant-based diets. Making this switch, they say, will promote long-term sustainability and food security, and help the planet avoid a disastrous end. No mention is made, however, of sustainable ways to raise animals for food that do not involve factory feedlots and genetically modified (GM) crops for animal feed.
"Both papers demonstrate that the production of food for human consumption causes significant emissions of greenhouse gases and compare the environmental impacts of producing foods consumed by vegetarians and non-vegetarians," explains ScienceDaily.
Abstracts of both studies can be accessed at the following two links:
AJCN.Nutrition.org and AJCN.Nutrition.org.
Sources for this article include:
http://www.sciencedaily.com
http://ajcn.nutrition.org
http://ajcn.nutrition.org
http://science.naturalnews.com
Suzanne
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Re: Vegetarianism: It's Our Future!
[Re: Suzanne]
#172777
04/07/15 11:37 PM
04/07/15 11:37 PM
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OP
SDA
Active Member 2016
Dedicated Member
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Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 1,275
Calif. USA
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Study shows 1 in 10 Swedes is vegetarian or vegan
by Luke Jones
(NaturalNews) A recent study commissioned by Animal Rights Sweden suggests that the number of people adopting vegetarian and vegan diets in Sweden is growing.
The study has shown a 4 percent increase in the number of people adopting a vegetarian or vegan diet.
A survey was carried out in February and March by Demoskop and involved telephone interviews with 1,000 Swedish people aged 15 and over. Four percent of respondents said they were vegans, while 6 percent said they were vegetarian. The highest prevalence was seen amongst the younger populations. Seventeen percent of 15- to 34-year-olds described themselves as vegetarian or vegan.
The major cities of Skane and Stockholm had the highest percentage of vegetarian and vegan residents, perhaps due to the wider range of vegetarian and vegan products in supermarkets and restaurants.
The study also showed that there has been widespread increased interest in vegetarian foods even among those who consume meat. Thirty percent of the non-vegetarian respondents stated that their interest in purchasing vegetarian products had increased over the past year compared to 26 percent in 2009. The results also suggest that even more non-vegetarians would be interested in vegetarian products if access was greater in other areas of the country.
There are many different reasons why one might adopt a plant-based diet. Twenty-one percent of those in the study who identified themselves as vegetarian or vegan said their choice was mainly due to their concern for animal welfare, while 28 percent claimed that this was only a part of their decision. This suggests that the remaining 51 percent of people made their dietary choices for health or religious reasons, or possibly sustainability concerns.
The rise in vegetarianism and veganism is without doubt a move in the right direction when we consider both the ethical and sustainability issues associated with the production of animal products. It certainly reduces our carbon footprint, and the amount of animal suffering.
Perhaps the only concern is the health implications. A whole-food, plant-based diet with low amounts of processed foods and little to no animal protein has been shown to be health promoting, but just being vegan or vegetarian does not necessarily mean that you are consuming mainly whole foods. You can still be a "junk food" vegetarian/vegan.
So, although the global benefits of the vegan/vegetarian movement are great, from a health standpoint it's important that we keep in mind that we need to consume a nutrient-dense, whole food diet, and limit our intake of processed foods -- vegetarian/vegan or not.
Sources:
http://www.djurensratt.se
http://science.naturalnews.com
Suzanne
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Re: Vegetarianism: It's Our Future!
[Re: Suzanne]
#172780
04/08/15 03:31 PM
04/08/15 03:31 PM
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SDA
Active Member 2024
5500+ Member
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 6,424
Midland
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but just being vegan or vegetarian does not necessarily mean that you are consuming mainly whole foods. You can still be a "junk food" vegetarian/vegan.
And that's what many fail to understand. Vegetarian or "vegan" (which is really a religion or political view and nothing about health) does not imply eating healthy.
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Re: Vegetarianism: It's Our Future!
[Re: kland]
#172782
04/08/15 04:40 PM
04/08/15 04:40 PM
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SDA
Active Member 2020
5500+ Member
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 6,368
Western, USA
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but just being vegan or vegetarian does not necessarily mean that you are consuming mainly whole foods. You can still be a "junk food" vegetarian/vegan.
And that's what many fail to understand. Vegetarian or "vegan" (which is really a religion or political view and nothing about health) does not imply eating healthy. Potato chips and Coka-cola is Vegan!
Oh, that men might open their minds to know God as he is revealed in his Son! {ST, January 20, 1890}
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Re: Vegetarianism: It's Our Future!
[Re: Suzanne]
#172799
04/09/15 03:41 PM
04/09/15 03:41 PM
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SDA
Active Member 2024
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 6,424
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And so is beer! And cigarettes!
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Here is the link to this week's Sabbath School Lesson Study and Discussion Material: Click Here
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