The Australian reports that being vegetarian is cheaper and greener, but “dieticians urge caution with the study, produced by the manufacturer Sanitarium, which is owned by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, saying going meat-free is not necessarily better“.
The CSIRO Total Wellbeing diet was funded by the meat industry, so I suppose they have to attack vegetarian diets just to be balanced 😉
In all my years of vegetarian living, the only health professionals that have questioned my diet have worried about my knowledge of nutrition, and my ability to eat a balanced diet that includes non-haem iron, and combine it with vitamin C so that I can metabolise it correctly.
To be fair, it is a little harder to have a balanced vegetarian diet, because you have to think about what you are eating more than your standard omnivore. But anyone who does give that extra bit of thought to their diet is likely to have a better diet than someone who eats an unexamined diet.
It stands to reason that a thought out vegetarian diet would be healthier than an “anything goes” omnivorous diet, no?
My life is being closely examined right now, and the diet is under a microscope. Weight Watchers have given me 32 “points” to eat every day, and I haven’t had more than 28 in a single day so far. And I don’t feel hungry. I wonder if I’ll have a loss this week?
PS. Just found out about a new book examining the source of our food. I have read “The Ethics of What We Eat” by Peter Singer, but that was written from an American perspective.
Disco Knitter 
sounds like a great book!
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I laughed when years ago an Australian paed toured NZ trying to convince parents that sugar did not contribute to children’s behavioural problems…he was sponsored by an Australasian confectionary manufacturers group!
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What a load of rubbish. No probs getting a decent, balanced veg diet, the problem is that all around is arranged for meat-eaters!
And I say that as a confirmed omnivore myself, but one who prefers to keep the meat to once a week or so. Don’t fret (not that you were). I have the impression that Australia is a particularly meat-orientated eating culture, which makes it harder for us medics to get our heads round the veggie sort.
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I am a vegetarian and a blood donor – with each donation I get an update on my iron levels. I have never needed supplements to take after a donation and every time the nurses comment on the fact that my iron levels are in the upper range of healthy – even for a meat eater. When I asked my doctor about this she said that most vegetarians who eat a reasonable diet are likely to be getting more vitamin C and thus the smaller amount of non-haem iron we absorb is maximised. Since I became a vegetarian I’ve never been healthier (physically or spiritually), but I also respect others’ right to eat what they choose. And whilst it’s true that a vegetarian diet may not be ideal for everyone, a meat-eating diet isn’t necessarily either.
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