Do you want your kids to grow up being healthy? Do you want them to get the proper nutrition and nutrients that your body needs? Well then going vegetarian would not be the right thing to do. My debatable topic is vegetarianism and whether or not it is the best diet for a teenager. There are many pros yet several cons to this topic. Killing animals is cruel, lacking protein is bad. Which side of this argument should you stand on and why? My opinion on this topic is that a vegetarian diet is not the best diet for teenagers. Although many on the opposing side of this argument say that killing animals is cruel and unethical, animals were put on the Earth for mankind to use. This means that killing animals is okay. To continue, some may argue that farming destroys forests, but this is incorrect because most forests are actually cut down for timer, not meat production.
Adding on, it can be argued that processed vegetarian foods such as tofu cause MORE greenhouse gas pollution than farming meat does. Meat has been essential to the human diet for 2.3 million years. Moving on, it can be reasoned that the act of killing animals is fiendish, yet the modern slaughter techniques minimize the suffering of animals so that they don’t go through as much pain. To state further, it can be contended that raising animals for meat can cause environmental problems, although growing crops means that fertilizers and pesticides are used. These 2 things pollute bodies of water such as rivers, lakes, and seas, so growing crops is bad for the planet too. Humans are omnivores, which means that they are meant to eat both meat AND plants.
Also, we have sharp canine teeth so that we can eat/tear apart animal flesh. To carry on, being vegetarian doesn’t necessarily mean that you are “healthier” because some foods such as Oreos are vegetarian but they aren’t healthy. Continuing, several chemicals are used in soil when growing crops and chemicals aren’t good for the Earth either.
Teenagers becoming vegetarians would be a bad idea. Meat is the best source of vitamin B12, which is necessary to the nervous and digestive systems of the human body. If teens became vegetarians, they wouldn’t get the correct amount of this vitamin, which isn’t good, especially as they are growing up and becoming adults. In 1958, the U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower signed the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA), which allowed animals to be killed for food.
This proves that killing animals for food isn’t bad, it really isn’t. Moving on, meat and fish, both foods that are not included in a vegetarian diet, are very significant sources of protein, iron, and other vitamins and minerals for the human body. Teenagers that go with vegetarian diets will most certainly not have the proper nutrition that they should have.
To continue, vegetarian diets can result in a person not getting enough iron because the iron in vegetarian foods is hard for the human body to absorb. Carrying on, vegetarians risk the chance of missing many nutrients such as Omega 3, which is crucial for proper brain function. Also, studies have shown that without meat, you are more likely to get coughs, the cold, and the now deadly flu. To further state, according to the American Heart Association, vegetarians are lower in fat and that isn’t always good. Supporting this idea, plant-based foods have little saturated fat, which is a valuable component of the brain and it is vital for our health. To conclude, vegetarian diets are not the best diets for teenagers.
Being vegetarian would mean that your body would not receive the proper nutrition, and the whole point is to be healthy, isn’t it? Eating meat is something that humans have been doing for such a long time and they should continue to do it. Animals were put on this Earth for us to use, so “animal cruelty” is not a problem in this debate. Vegetarianism is not healthier nor less problematic, so I say no to teens going vegetarian and you should too!
