Is A Vegetarian Diet Bad?

Going vegetarian was a good experience. It was a great way to reorient myself towards more fruits, veggies, and other plant based foods and away from being so meat heavy. However, I also found that it was difficult for me to hit a lot of important nutritional values that way. This left me asking an important question: does this mean that a vegetarian diet is bad?

This post is the 2nd in a series about my vegetarian experience. The first is: Vegetarian Diet – What I Learned.

There Isn’t A Right Diet

This is the operative point. It all comes down to a basic truth, which is that there is not always a right answer in fitness. Sometimes you just have to try things out to see if they are good for you because, especially in health and fitness, it often depends on the person. I had a hard time hitting numbers as a vegetarian, but I’m 6 feet 3 inches tall between 200 and 210 pounds. A smaller and lighter person will find it easier to get their requirements than I.

Similarly, other factors like body type, activity level, age, gender, level of performance (athlete or non-athlete), and more can all play a role in nutritional requirements. In short, no single magic bullet or method can help everyone. You must find what works for you.

Mitochondria And The Case For Variety

I recently saw a presentation by Dr. Robert Rountree on Mitochondria that raised some interesting thoughts. The short of his presentation is this: Mitochondria, which are responsible for creating most of the energy in our bodies, can use fats, carbs, or protein as the raw materials for energy. Some recent research suggests that if you favor one of those raw marterials over the others for long enough, the mitochondria become less effecient at using the others. In other words, if you eat a lot of carbs and very little fat, you become very good at burning carbs and bad at burning fat, which may then accumulate in cells potentially leading down the road to metabolic problems. If (and I stress if) this is true, then variety in our diets may be a key ingredient to a healthy body.

Conclusion On Vegetarianism

So is a vegetarian diet good or bad? Well, the likely answer is that it just depends. For some it’s going to be great, for others it will be a challenge, and potentially for some it may be unworkable.

With that said, here is my advice on diet:

1. Experiment – Try different things out and see what happens

2. Be Patient – If you are going to experiment you’ll have to wait long enough to see what happens. Outcomes can take a while so don’t be in a rush.

3. Be Flexible/Avoid Magic Bullets – One of the reasons nutritional recommendations seem to change so much is that there are few certainties. Variety may turn out to be the best answer.

Look for more posts on this topic soon.