Today there are many vegetarians in our society as well as other groups that eliminate meat for spiritual or ethical reasons; this article isn't an attack on those populations or to prove them wrong in anyway, I respect their decisions for what they believe in, my chief aim is to look at some interesting facts and take a step back in time to uncover some traditional eating habits.   My awareness of the high numbers of people practising a vegetarian lifestyle or some level of vegetarianism came about from doing my job personal training people from different backgrounds and the misconceptions I hear from many of them, a couple of these misconceptions mainly from semi vegetarians involve the belief that better health can be obtained with a diet without animal products and the delusion it will make them slimmer in the process, with slimmer being the major emphasis in most cases.   This spurred me on to write an article to debunk the myths.

I was kind of halfway there myself with this way of thinking years ago believing that eliminating red meat and natural high fat foods would be healthier for my heart and keep my body fat at bay.   It seemed logical at the time before my knowledge grow on nutrition, now I know that there are too many considerations involved when it comes to solutions in reaching goals for optimal health, whether if its for weight loss or weight gain, performance or strength, there are too many variables to consider for the elimination of a single food group to put right.   Ignorance through a lack of knowledge or allowing to be drawn in by the limited knowledge of friends or glossy magazines is a common trap many fall into.   Read on to find out more.                      

Why all the fuss?

Protein is protein, right? Not exactly, you have what's classed as complete and incomplete proteins that are found in different foods.   The complete proteins have all the essential amino acids and the incomplete proteins have some missing or not enough to be classed a complete protein.   Complete proteins can be found in animal foods including meat, poultry, seafood, eggs and dairy.   It is these complete protein foods that provide all the 8 essential amino acids.   Very briefly, amino acids are the building blocks of the body and a necessary part of every cell in the body and vital for health.   Specific amino acids have been linked to greater fat loss and known to correct brain chemistry deficiencies for food cravings and depression.   If you don't consume complete protein foods such as animal foods it is very important to combine different types of plant foods to make up a complete protein and ensure you get all the essential amino acids in your diet.   Anything termed essential in the diet means that it is necessary for proper functioning.   As a matter of interest the other food group that is termed essential is fat, there are essential fatty acids that must be acquired in the diet or serious health problems can occur.   Carbohydrates aren't classed as essential but protein and fat are.   

In my opinion the drawback to relying on food combing to get all the essential amino acids is that insulin resistant people would find it hard losing weight on this kind of diet because of the high percentage of carbohydrate to protein ratio.   Many vegetarians eat mainly carbohydrates and can become addicted to sweets because of their poor blood sugar management.   Protein has less of an effect on insulin and a greater effect on glucagon; glucagon rises after a high protein meal and has the opposite effect of insulin, which is a storing hormone.   Glucagon breaks down fat but is inhibited when there are high levels of insulin in the blood.   Protein also increases metabolism more than carbohydrate foods and are more satiating, even better reasons to increase your protein intake.   

So far you should have a good idea that protein in our diets is a necessity for health and to function optimally.   An awareness should be unfolding of where to find complete and incomplete protein foods and how eating protein with every meal will significantly lower the chance of storing calories in to the fat cells, providing carbohydrates are limited.   This will quash cravings that normally lead to eating sugary snacks in between meals that increases levels of insulin and the wrong calories.         

In part 2 of this article I will be talking about evolutionary eating habits and uncovering some important information about certain foods that you need to know.   I will also weigh up the pros and cons of vegetarian and non-vegetarian diets.