160 Convent Ave, 

New York, NY 10031
29 October 2019

The staff member of FDA Consumer

27500, Drake Road
Farmington Hills,
Michigan

Dear recipient:

I’m Yifei Wang, a student of the City College of New York. I’m interested in the dieting topic and I have seen your article, “More People Trying Vegetarian Diets”, which was published in the book of “Medicine, Health, and Bioethics: Essential Primary Sources.” As a person who was born in the twenty-first century, we care about issues such as overweight, fat, nutrition this concern shows a different focus shift from the last hundred years. I agree with the article in the book about vegetarian diets that are effective ways to accomplish the goal of being healthy. However, I have different thoughts on vegetarian diets. The well balanced meal is healthier for our body than vegetarian diets.

The reason I write this letter to you is I want to provide other facts to your article. A lot of people are trying to diet but do not know what should they eats. Your article provides great knowledge to vegetarian diets, but the article is missing the part of the disadvantage of vegetarian diets. Diet is not just about how much calorie should be limited but also is about using diet as a tool to provides the healthier nutrient. And a comprehensive with information about vegetarian diets is more persuasive than the article which is only showing the good side.

Dieting is a big subject, but first question pop in my mind is do we really need to diet? In this society that each of us is under our own stress. The stress from others’ expectation, the stress of others’ judgements, the stress of being a good person in all different aspects. These tiring emotions push us into an unfamiliar area that we typically do not wish to try it. I’m pretty sure that we are all heard about someone loose ten pounds weight but that person gains more than ten pounds after dieting. This situation is caused by the confusion of the concept of being skinny and being on diet. Behind the good-looking body is a healthy life style that a person maintain their whole life. Once the person reaches his/her goal, the person gives up the diet and for a short period of time, that person’s weight would bounce back to the weight lost. This kind of model is called yo-yo dieting. According to a study in South Korea, “All told, people whose weight fluctuated most dramatically between appointments (and who experienced related swings in blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar) were 127 percent more likely to die during the study period, as well as 43 percent more likely to have a heart attack and 41 percent more likely to have a stroke” (New York Post, p. 051). Thus, I believe diet is a tool to reach our health goal instead of being the health goal.

Human are animals, we can’t resist the biological factor. Vegetarian diets can be considered as a diet which is an effectively way to reduce weight and also build in metabolism (Taylor & Francis). The fiber of vegetable can reduce the risk of cancer, “A diet high in fiber and yogurt is associated with a reduced risk for lung cancer, according to a study by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers published in JAMA Oncology” (Vanderbilt University Medical Center). But all these studies relate vegetarian diets with low calorie. In biological aspect, the low-calorie diets can cause the hypothalamus of our brain release hunger signals which would made us hungrier. When we get the food, eat become a reward which encourage us to eat more. (Guisinger, Shan). In short term vegetarian diets would made us loose more weight than other method of diets but it would gains the desire of eating in long term. In Taylor and Francis’ study, they claimed vegetarian diets can improve metabolism. But when we only eat vegetables, our digest system would slow down. The reason caused this slowly digest system is when we were starving the digest system would remain the food in our stomach longer for extracts the nutrients from food and for fat storage (Guisinger, Shan). Even we conquer the unpleasant flavor of vegetables but our body’s reaction to diet is opposite to our health goal. In some extreme case, someone would restricts the amount of calorie in diets for loose weight in a short period of time. The disadvantage of this extreme case is greater than its advantage. “All the human eating disorders can be triggered in rats by restricting calories. If starved or if food is limited to one hour a day rats spontaneously develop anorexia behaviors where they ignore their food to run on a wheel. … … Gorging, which is part of bulimia and binge eating disorder is a normal response to starvation” (Guisinger, Shan). Cause by the biological factor, vegetarian diets is a more challenging way for loose weight.

Vegetarian diets are a burden to us or a highway toward the goal of being healthy? Dieting is a big challenge, I have asking the people around me, vegetarian diets is not the first choice as their response. The bitter taste of vegetables is the nightmare of my childhood, I would rather take the risk of getting heart disease than only eat vegetables every day. Your article has mention that “with a plant-based daily diet, eating a variety of foods and sufficient calories for energy needs will help ensure adequate intakes of calcium, iron and zinc” (K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, pp. 416-420). Because vegetarian diets only consider vegetables as the main source of daily nutrition, people need to spend more attention on build the knowledge of the nutrition of vegetables for have a balanced meal. People spending time on family, friends, personal relationship, job, school, so on. And now we need to split a little more time or money for learning the nutrition knowledge. I suppose only few of us can done these tasks perfectly. So, why do we give a harder task to ourself and let the “skinny looking” goal even further from us. 

Eating moderate amount of red meat is good for health. In your article, “‘Some may choose to eliminate red meat but continue to eat fish and poultry occasionally, and such a diet is also to be encouraged,’ said Jack Zeev Yetiv, M.D., Ph.D” (K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, pp. 416-420). However, according to a recent study by University of Nottingham that having a little amount of red meat would reduce the amount of LDL cholesterol in the blood which is the one of the reasons that can cause heart disease (University of Nottingham). When people are talking the pros and cons of vegetables and meat, the stereotype would come up first, meat is harmful to people’s health and vegetables improve people’s body condition. But the article on Medical New Today would break the stereotype. Red meat is contains the nutrition of vitamin and iron which can be used for synthesize red blood cell. Usually only taking vegetables are lack of vitamin B-12 and meat is the main source of vitamin B-12. Taking moderate unprocessed meat would prevent B-12 deficiency anemia (Berry, Jennifer, Medical News Today). These facts remind us that both diet menu which is only eat meat or only eat vegetable are not helping people become more health or loose weight.

The health diets include vegetarian diets are released more green gas than we thought. The opinion of eating vegetable has small effect to the earth of your article, “Some believe it’s a better use of the earth’s resources to eat low on the food chain—that is, to eat plant foods, rather than the animals that eat the plant foods. ” (K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, pp. 416-420, pp. 416-420). Nowadays, the green gas is reaches to the highest record compare with history record—412 in parts per million, according to NASA. Another study indicates “‘Eating lettuce is over three times worse in greenhouse gas emissions than eating bacon,’ said Paul Fischbeck, professor of social and decisions sciences and engineering and public policy” (Carnegie Mellon University). Does this study means we should eat meat instead of vegetables? However, the carbon dioxide was emitted by cattle is another main source of green gas. Consider the efficiency in terms of land use, “The reason is that fruits, vegetables and grains must be grown on high-quality cropland, he explained. Meat and dairy products from ruminant animals are supported by lower quality, but more widely available, land that can support pasture and hay” (Cornell University). Combine these facts, the using proportion of land is the key point. My opinion to environment issue is as long as the modern civilization exist, the environment issue can never be solved. But all we can do is minimized the effect of human activity.

Diets involving many factors and our diet not just affects ourself but also others. Sometimes people confused their main purpose of being health and be on diet, the vegetarian diets are stressful to us because we need to consider taking balanced nutrition from vegetables. Even we overcomes these stressful situations, our body would slow down digest system for “survival”. Red meat is not bad as we thought. In the environment protection aspect, produced red meat is efficiency than vegetables in term use of land. And eat a little meat is good for people’s body. Thanks for reading this letter, I wish these facts can be mention in your article for knowledge the public.

Sincerely,

Yifei Wang

Reference

Berry, Jennifer. “Is Red Meat Bad for You? Benefits, Risks, Research, and Guidelines.” Medical   News Today, MediLexicon International,                            https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326156.php.

Carnegie Mellon University. “Vegetarian and ‘healthy’ diets could be more harmful to the environment, researchers say: Eating lettuce is ‘over three times worse’ in greenhouse gas emissions than eating bacon.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 14 December 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151214130727.htm>.

Cornell University. “Diet With A Little Meat Uses Less Land Than Many Vegetarian Diets.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 October 2007. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071008130203.htm>.

Guisinger, Shan. “Low-Calorie Diets Create Health Problems.” Can Diets Be Harmful?, edited by Amy Francis, Greenhaven Press, 2016. At Issue. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/EJ3010463237/OVIC?                   u=cuny_ccny&sid=OVIC&xid=19dd30b6. Accessed 27 Oct. 2019. Originally published as        “Dangers of Dieting a Body Adapted to Famine,”, Mar. 2012.

Health & Fitness The dangers of yo-yo dieting.” New York Post [New York, NY], 9 Oct. 2018,  p. 051. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link-gale-com.ccny-      proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A557433409/OVIC     u=cuny_ccny&sid=OVIC&xid=88080868. Accessed 26 Oct. 2019.

“More People Trying Vegetarian Diets.” Medicine, Health, and Bioethics: Essential Primary Sources, edited by K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, pp. 416-420, Gale, 2006, pp. 416-420. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3456500157/OVIC?u=cuny_ccny&sid=OVIC&xid=0b6591f0. Accessed 27 Oct. 2019.

Taylor & Francis. “Vegetarian diets almost twice as effective in reducing body weight, study       finds.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 12 June 2017.     <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170612094458.htm>.

University of Nottingham. “You do not have to go cold turkey on red meat to see health benefits.”   ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 30 September 2019.            <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190930101521.htm>.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “High fiber, yogurt diet associated with lower lung cancer     risk.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 25 October 2019.     <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191025113010.htm>.