Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Dieticians “can encourage eating that is
both healthful and conserving of soil, water,
and energy by emphasizing plant sources of
protein and foods that have been produced
with fewer agricultural inputs.” 3
—American Dietetic Association, the world's largest
association of food and nutrition professionals
the air, water, and soil around facilities, as well as on meat, and we
can be exposed through infected animal products and water sup-
plies contaminated by farmed animal waste.
The world's leading medical, agricultural, and veterinary
authorities—the World Health Organization, the Food and Agricul-
ture Organization of the United Nations, and the World Organiza-
tion for Animal Health, respectively—have concluded that animal
agribusiness's overuse of antibiotics is, indeed, contributing to
human health problems. Add to that the many negative health im-
pacts of diets laden with meat, eggs, and milk (particularly from
factory farms), and plant-based diets should look even more at-
tractive, even solely from a personal health perspective.
And nutritionists agree. Vegetarian diets, according to the
American Dietetic Association, “are healthful, nutritionally ad-
equate, and provide health benefits in the prevention and treat-
ment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegan and other types
of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle,
including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and
adolescence. . . . Vegetarians have been reported to have lower
body mass indices than nonvegetarians, as well as lower rates
of death from ischemic heart disease; vegetarians also show
lower blood cholesterol levels; lower blood pressure; and lower
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