BBC Young Reporter @ LCS
Is going vegan too extreme?
By: Osian
Saving the environment by becoming a vegan is a great idea to help try to save the world, but is it detrimental to health?
Going vegan means not eating any meat, or any animal products (like milk and eggs). It saves the world by making sure that animals aren’t killed as much, and dairy is produced in much less quantities. If everyone went vegan, then 75% of global farmland would not be needed. This is a significantly big amount and would ultimately save the environment. Whilst this is one of the best ways to help the environment, how does it affect your health?
Becoming vegetarian is not eating meat, which means that you are going to struggle getting protein, which could harm your health. But not being able to eat things such as eggs (another source of protein) and fish (a big source of protein and minerals) would be detrimental to your health as you will struggle to get the correct and even amounts of carbs, protein, minerals etc. inside your body’s system. So, if you become vegan, ultimately, you are sacrificing your health to create a better world.
“I would say that becoming a vegan to save the world is not a good idea because most people in this world won’t become vegan so there is no point in trying.” Shreya, a year 7 pupil said.
As you can see, this is a controversial topic as if you are trying to save the environment, you need more than yourself to do so. But, most people would argue that at least they are making a difference, even if it is unnoticeable, as it might just be enough to save our world.
A poll shows that out of 26 people, 4 were vegetarian or vegan. This means that just under 16% of people are vegan or vegetarian, which is a substantial amount of people who are helping to save the environment.
Overall, lots of people are vegans just to be healthier, yet what they don’t realise is how they could actually damage their health instead of helping it and making it stronger. This is simply because a good and balanced diet consists of lots of protein, carbs and fruit, and a vegan diet struggles to have lots of protein and minerals etc. inside of it, damaging health as we need protein to gain muscles.