Vegetarians more likely to have mental issues...

[DemPGH]

Hmm, but less likely to have heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol, etc.

[DemPGH]

 

To the best of my knowledge, the optimal diet is high in protein, high in vegetables, high in fiber and provides all the nutrients your body needs.  

I think that's pretty accurate, and the benefits of grains/fiber cannot be underestimated.

http://www.brown.edu/Student_Services/Health_Services/Health_Education/nutrition_&_eating_concerns/being_a_vegetarian.php

I think that it's certainly possible for a person who is strictly vegetarian to have some vitamin or nutrient deficiencies, which they can quite easily make up for by use of supplements or items that are fortified with what is needed, like calcium in soy/almond/cashew milk. At the end of it, I think a vegetarian diet is going to be way healthier than a high meat, high fried-food diet. But sure, moderation would not necessarily be unhealthy. I eat fish, for e.g., and really like it, especially salmon. But I've cut out all red meat and dairy, and am quite honestly better off.

One of the things that's underplayed, because Americans consume it in gargantuan quantities, is soda. Soda is terrible, and will contribute to a lot of the problems associated with a meaty diet. Like, your body literally does all kinds of things as a reaction to soda, and there are risks that go on and on (sugar, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and even osteoporosis). It's amazing how bad it really is. It's just sugar, syrup, and seltzer water, and people make it their go-to drink. Ugh. People also salt the hell out of stuff, and the risks to that are well documented (blood pressure, namely).

Also, red (as opposed to black) pepper has many health benefits, so yeah, there are ways to offset the negative side of meat in one's diet.

[DemPGH]

^ Oh, well I would disagree with that - oatmeal and wheat bread have loads of benefits, and you just quit when you start getting full. IDK, I don't like to feel full.

[DemPGH]

The typical diet - outside fishing districts - in preindustrial England consisted almost entirely of bread, cheese and split peas. . . Not ideal, certainly not 'balanced', but sufficient to survive.

Yeah, especially when marching, which was very demanding physically. I absolutely love George Goodwin's Fatal Colours, and he talks for several pages about Medieval diets. When Edward IV marched his army north to Towton, they basically had grain bread, peas, and beans to eat. Meat on that march would have been a delicacy, but there would have been a bit to go around. Protein would have had to come from somewhere, and he suggests that eggs would have been available. Towton, of course, raged on all day (as opposed to the typical 2-3 hours it took to fight a battle) until the Lancastrian line gave way. So it was enough to not only survive, but fight by hand the length of the day in awful conditions (snow and freezing rain).

He also mentions that members of a household, plowmen, soldiers, and other workers had available to them exceedingly large amounts of calories and meat (upwards of 13,000 calories), and also ale, mainly because it was allotted to them for their hard work and toil, but it would be spread around, so no one person consumed nearly that amount. Interesting!

I guess as a nutritionist I'd just say that to sit in front of a computer all day one probably does not need the sugar/calories of a modern diet. Edward IV, who ate and drank from 1471 to 1483, probably died had the symptoms of diabetes, so there you go.

[DemPGH]

When Edward IV marched his army north to Towton, they basically had grain bread, peas, and beans to eat. Meat on that march would have been a delicacy, but there would have been a bit to go around. Protein would have had to come from somewhere, and he suggests that eggs would have been available.

The protein came from the beans and peas you mentioned two sentences prior...

That army was thirty-five to forty thousand strong (ridiculously and tragically large for its time), so that's a LOT of beans (more than my Super Bowl party!), but I think the point was just that while the aforementioned items with beans were staple elements to a Medieval diet, there were plenty of other sources of nutrition to augment it, like bacon, eggs, dried meats, salted meats, fish, etc., and yes, people would have had access to them.