Which Is Better For You, Veganism, Vegetarianism,Mediterraneanism, or Pescetarianism?
Why I Am Doing My Project?
Have you ever wondered “What are the benefits of being in a vegetarian, mediterranean, vegan, or pescatarian diet?” or “Is it worth being a vegetarian, vegan, {etc}?”. While my mother is a cook and knows a bit from her work, she helped me choose what diets to do my project on and is a vegetarian herself. For people who don't know all these terms pescetarian means, that a person that does not eat meat but does eat fish. A vegetarian doesn't eat meat at all but may eat animal products such as milk and eggs. Now a vegan does not use or eat animal products which are a little difficult seeing how we use animal products for many uses in our life. Many people have not heard of the Mediterranean Diet, and for those who don't know, it is known as one the best diets for your body. The Mediterranean diet mainly consists of eating plant-based Foods and nuts as well as substitutes such as olive oil for butter and spices instead of salt.
I want to answer the question, “Which is a better diet?” I believe it will be the Mediterranean diet, Pescetarian diet, or vegetarian diet. Mainly Because that unless you have access to every fruit, veggie, nut, or grain that you would need some kind of dietary supplement or man-made nutrient to stay alive and have all the nutrients you need. To try all these would be way too much for a project, so I narrowed it down into categories because each one of these diets has their advantages and disadvantages. For the project I will be looking at the ease of getting it in stores and What are the benefits of the diet on your body.
20170330_214601_1016208431355255.mp4My Research
To start veganism is no animal products at all and many snacks are accidentally vegan or purposely vegan such as Dum Dum lollipops, Tic Tac mints, Sour Patch Kids, varieties of Wheat Thins, and many Nabisco products. Also, the popular Doritos Spicy Sweet Chili chips are vegan along with Cracker Jacks. {“Accidentally Vegan Food List”} Now for Cracker Jacks this might be confusing because of the toffee most toffees have butter in them but because they are produced in mass it is replaced with soy oil, and/or peanut oil.
One of the most known vitamins that all vegans aren't consuming and need enough of is vitamin B12 which is in organic produce or mushroom grown in the B12 plentiful soil. The recommended amount is in the range of 25-100 micrograms in a day and even omnivores don't get the recommended amount of B12. Most vegans miss out on vitamin D but Considering we are in Florida many people get the needed amount. Most vegans, they miss out on iodine which is mainly in dairy products. Vegans may use miso which is a Japanese seasoning made by fermentation which would provide the amount of iodine that vegans would be missing out on. Many people consume iodised salt in “junk food” [but many snacks such as that contains animal products this is why most vegans miss out on it]. Calcium is yet another nutrient only some vegans miss out on, it is mainly in milk and orange juice but it would take 4 cups of cooked greens to get the amount of recommended calcium. This might sound like a lot because even the omnivores miss out on the recommended amount. Only a few vegans miss out on the amount of iron they need because the main vegans who need it are women with heavy menstrual cycles.{Messina}
People don't always realize what they use like everyday items such as plastic bags that contain a chemical that is called by “slip agent” but is made from stearic acid in animal fat. So many vegans who know what are in the plastic bags will choose paper. Adding to the list is crayons with the iconic smell have animal waste and sometimes animal fats, now there are not many vegan brands of crayons that are out there but they are available if you look. Downy, the liquid fabric softener, with the child in a blanket has dihydrogenated tallow dimethyl ammonium chloride or to put it more simply rendered cattle, sheep and horse fat. This coats your clothes in lipids which are the fat molecule making the clothes feel soft. Now when you're blowing the candles out on a cake many people don't think that there is beef fat in the cake but yes, in the rush to make dry mixes for cake the need to use beef fat, to have the moistness in the cake. Make up too has it too especially ones with a shimmer to it, the shimmer comes from fish, mostly herring {“13 Surprising Things”}.
Might not be advertised but a few places have vegan options such as Burger King, now this fast food place doesn't have a lot of vegan food but their fries and apple slices are vegan but they do have a Morning Star Veggie burger for vegetarians. Chick-Fil-A has salads that are vegan, minus the dressing, and the fries and hash browns which people have been munching on without considering that they are vegan. There are not a lot of vegan pizza places but Domino's has a vegan crust but not the gluten crust because it contains honey, you can top it with their original pizza sauce and a handful of veggies but no cheese. Starbucks for a place that mostly advertises coffee there is an oatmeal with the topping that are vegan, a plain bagel, and a veggie and brown rice salad but hold the lemon tahini. {“20 Meatless and All-Vegan Options You Can Find at Popular Fast Food Chains.” }
Vegetarianism is the practice of not eating animals but can consume animal products such as butter, milk, and eggs. For fast food there are meat fats and bases of sauces can be meat but you can ask the kitchen if the sauce or dish in all has meat in it. In a Vegetarian food pyramid, there is a meat substitute place so you can eat beans, nuts, seeds, peanut butter, tofu, and eggs.
Now when people think of the Mediterranean diet many people think of big bowls of pasta and glasses of wine but the Mediterranean diet is plentiful in vegetables like fruit, beans, peas, and grain. Also unlike vegan or vegetarian you can eat meat such as chicken and fish only a few times a week but can only eat red meats a few times a month. People on a Mediterranean diet can't drink wine every night but they can drink it in moderation, and they have to do physical activity regularly. Some people might think that there are no benefits to the Mediterranean diet well it is good in preventing spikes in blood sugar, preventing heart troubles, and for older people, it can prevent muscle weakness too.
People in a pescatarian diet can eat any seafood but they cannot eat anything else, a better way to see it, a vegetarian that eats seafood. Vegetarians consume less fat but pescatarian eats some of the good fats in fish.
My Procedure and Supplies
For the experiment I will test people's sight and see if they can tell the difference between a veggie burger and a beef burger. My mom and I went to Chilis to get our supplies, we got an ‘Ultimate Bacon Burger’ and a ‘Black Bean Burger’. We did not want to make the dish at home because of the variation that can be easily made at home but on the menu it says everything about the nutrition of our two burgers. The Ultimate Bacon Burger has 1040 calories with fries and all the toppings on it along with 600 calories in fat, 165 milligrams of cholesterol, 2310 milligrams of sodium, and 55 grams of carbohydrates. The Black Bean Burger they do not directly have a black bean burger but the kitchen will change a ‘Oldtimer With Beef Patty’ to a Oldtimer with a black bean patty and after some math the calories will come out to 550 calories with fries. For the rest of this examination I will just compare a beef patty with a black bean patty.
We can see just by a few numbers that the veggie burger is healthier in many ways, if you want to see all the nutrition it is all on the Chilis website. Even if this is one restaurant it shows the great difference in health many others can too.
As you can see on the Expo board there are two photos of a different type of burger, one is the ‘Ultimate Bacon Burger’ from Chili's and the other one is a Black Bean burger with the toppings from their ‘Oldtimer’, just with the exchange from the beef patty to the bean patty, from Chili's. There are two containers in front of the Expo board of my project. One will be for if you believe one burger is the black bean burger or the beef burger. As you can see the experiment go on and see how people see each burger and the texture of burger even if it is only in a picture. If you have keen sense of sight you might be able to see the beans of that burger or the miscellaneous shape of the ground beef. As you can guess this is not a normal project so I can not tell you the end results but you have to look at the two containers on the table and see which has more paper slips in them. I have little flaps of paper folded down, so you can see the answer, revealing the answer to whoever lifts it up. I think that many people will get the answers right and be able to figure it out based on their sense of sight and the texture of the burger that they see. You might be able to see the grease or a shine on the burger because of the burger grease.
Conclusion
At the beginning of this paper I was asking “Is it worth being a vegetarian, vegan, {etc}?”. Just by seeing the comparison of the beef burger vs. the black bean burger we can see just by having beans in it makes it healthier than normal meat. By this we can say that the more natural something is the better it is for you, this can mean meat if is not fed by a meal in a bag and has actual vegetables and good nutrients, it can be good for you in reasonable proportions. Such as a small portion once a day that is full of vitamins and not full of fat. Just by this we can cut force breading for all the animals that people consume on a daily bases and we can reduce the farm section of the animals and expand the crop size and grow more vegetables. Or you can start your own either by dirt or hydroponics, farms can also use hydroponics, hydroponics is a type of farming that doesn't use soil but rather water with the necessary nutrients for that plant. Now it is popular in the farming world seeing as it can be used populated areas with a vertical hydroponics system that can bring more vegetables in populated areas. This would be beneficial considering that in big cities that smog can internally hurt you and having a better diet wouldn't hurt. So the healthier the diet the better it would be for your body, even though the food may be processed it is better for you than the normal convenience store meat. So I say that my hypothesis that said that I thought that you might need a little bit of meat and cannot be completely vegan without powdered protein or something similar, I was wrong with my hypothesis.
Works Cited
“20 Meatless and All-Vegan Options You Can Find at Popular Fast Food Chains.” One Green Planet, www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-food/vegan-options-at-popular-fast-food-chains/. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.
“Accidentally Vegan Food List.” Peta, www.peta.org/living/food/accidentally-vegan/. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.
The culinary Institute of America. Cooking Essentials for the New Professional Chef. Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1997.
“What Is a Vegetarian?” Vegetarian society, www.vegsoc.org/page.aspx?pid=508. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.
“Mediterranean Diet.” Patient, patient.info/health/mediterranean-diet. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017
“Mediterranean diet: A heart-healthy eating plan.” Mayo Clinic, www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/mediterranean-diet/art-20047801. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017
“The Mediterranean Diet.” Help Guide, www.helpguide.org/articles/diet-weight-loss/mediterranean-diet.htm. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.
Messina, Ginny. “Recommended Supplements For Vegans.” The Vegan r.d., 8 Nov. 2010, www.theveganrd.com/2010/11/recommended-supplements-for-vegans.html. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.
Stuber, Aaron. “5 Non-Negotiable Vegan Foods to Eat Every Day (if You Want to Live a Long, Healthy Life)” No Meat Athlete, www.nomeatathlete.com/vegan-health-foods/. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017
Sterbenz, Christina. “13 Surprising Things That Are Partly Made From Animal Products” Business Insider, 24 Mar. 2014, www.businessinsider.com/15-surprising-things-that-contain-animal-products-2014-3. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017