by Carolyn Miller

Created on: April 28, 2009   Last Updated: April 29, 2009

When I was 19, I decided to become a vegetarian. I thought it was pretty disgusting to see my mother eat the gristle and fat from chicken or beef. She would swig down buttermilk and say, "how refreshing!". She would also eat liver at least once a week. It turns out, she was right.

In a report by the West Virginia University Extension service, the authors sited the importance of fatty acids from animal meats and milk in helping to reduce diabetes and heart disease.

Meat is your best source for fatty acids, especially Omega 3. Besides Omega 3, meat contains a complete protein, which is much harder to get in a vegetarian diet. Meat also contains more of the essential B vitamins and many minerals that just won't be found in a vegetarian diet.

Protein

All of the essential amino acids and many labeled "nonessential" (called such because they can be made by our body), are available in animal proteins. Vegetables do not contain complete proteins, meaning they are low in at least one, but often more amino acids, so they must be combined carefully in order to get a complete protein. All plant foods are low in tryptophan (which helps the body produce the B-vitamin niacin, which, ­in turn, helps the body produce serotonin, which helps you sleep) , cystine (a sulfur-containing amino acid that helps form healthy skin, hair, bones, and connective tissue) and threonline (which supports cardiovascular, liver, central nervous, and immune system function). The best sources for these (as well as all amino acids) are eggs, milk and meat.

Vitamins

Vitamin A, D, E and K are best found in animal products, including fats and organs. Many of the B vitamins are readily available in meat and dairy products and usable B12 is only available in animal products.

Minerals

Red meats are rich in iron and zinc. The best sources for usable calcium are in dairy products and in broth made from meat bones (calcium leaves the bones and is then found in the broth). Cobolt (which works with copper to help with the assimilation of iron) is best found in animal products.

While vegetarianism is widely promoted as healthy, it is not easy for a vegetarian to obtain the nutrients needed for a healthy body. The addition of even a little meat in the diet will make these nutrients easily available to the body.

So, my mother was right. The animal fats, gristle, and organs she ate, along with the meat she ate, gave her greater health. I had to take bottles and bottles of supplements to get the nutrients that she got by eating a diet that she had been introduced to as a little girl, and still, I was probably missing the minerals that are available in minute, but necessary amounts in animal products. .

To read more about eating a healthy diet traditionally eaten for hundreds and thousands of years, read Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. William Wolcott, in his book, The Metabolic Typing Diet, suggests that some people need more protein than others and he provides a test to decide if your diet should have more protein or more carbohydrates, but in all cases, he concludes that everyone needs some animal protein to get the nutrients their bodies need.

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