Diet, Food, Health, meat consumption, vegetarianism Most of us who know vegetarians have heard scary stories: A vegetarian accidentally gets a bit of pepperoni on her pizza slice or her soup contains chicken broth and she gets very ill.Do our bodies really react so strongly to meat after avoiding it for a while? Or is this just a vegetarian myth?We’ve put the question to scientists.If our scientists are right, they say  there’s no reason to fear a catastrophe if a vegetarian chomps into the wrong pizza. But a vegetarian who decides to start a new life as a carnivore with a huge T-bone steak might risk an upset stomach. Few researchers have studied the consequences when vegetarians fall for temptation or simply make a mistake. However, Professor Birger Svihus of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB)’s Department of Animal and Aquaculture Sciences can make some educated guesses based on his general knowledge of the human digestive system.“There’s no reason to believe we get sick.

I can’t conceive of our bodies losing the capability to tackle meat,” he says.“The nutrients in meats also have to be digested when we eat other foods. The enzymes that the body produces to break down meat proteins are also used to metabolize plant proteins.” Professor Bjørn Skålhegg of the University of Oslo’s Department of Nutrition concurs. Nothing would indicate that the bodies of vegetarians should reject meats.“A person might have a little problem if he or she started right out on a huge steak. Their body might not have sufficient levels of the right enzymes. Along the same lines it can be hard to digest any large meal after a long fast or period of starvation,” he says.You might also have this problem if you start to eat other kinds of foods that you haven’t eaten in a long time.The lonely geek who does nothing but heat up frozen pizzas day in and day out might experience some intestinal discomfort if he suddenly starts eating a lot of fruit and vegetables.

Skålhegg thinks most of us would soon get accustomed to the new additions to our diet.Svihus points out that meat is actually relatively easy to digest.“Proteins are generally hard to digest but compared to other sources of protein, meat is rather easy,” he says.We might not always feel this way, but the human body is tough. It’s a very robust and adaptable machine that can tackle all kinds of challenges. “We tend to forget human history,” says Svihus. “Just 50 years ago many people [in Norway] had very unbalanced diets from day to day. And there were big variations from season to season.”“In the late summer they had vegetables and in the autumn there was a meat surplus. But the last rutabagas stored in their cellar would be consumed by March. In March, April and May they had almost no vegetables. Fresh fruit wasn’t available after Christmas.”Human beings are adapted to these kinds of regimes.“The body is prepared to consume most of what it can get. Our survival has depended on being able to eat whatever was available,” says Svihus.

This means that little in our physiology and our ancestral history should cause vegetarians to have problems if they eat a piece of meat.“sushi rice buy ukDespite that, there can be some differences between various types of vegetarians. brown sushi rice cooking instructionsSome have eaten eggs and milk all along, whereas vegans avoid everything from animals. brown sushi rice cooking instructionsI don’t believe that a vegetarian who has eaten eggs or dairy products would get sick from chicken broth,” says Skålhegg.He says that in that case, the reaction would have to be due to a food allergy.sushi in mississauga near square one

A very few – less than one percent of the population – are allergic to meats from common livestock, such as pork and beef. magic sushi online gamesIf a vegetarian has this kind of allergy, she could have a reaction from just a speck of these meats.cheap sushi london bridgeBut an allergic in a cases like this would be more typical of a common allergic reactions, with symptoms such as congested air passages and a runny nose or eyes. where to buy sushi salmon roeSkålhegg doubts that a vegetarian who originally didn't have this kind allergy would develop one and become more sensitive to meat.He thinks we should keep our cool and resist the onslaught of disparate warnings about nutrition and diet. After all, humans are omnivores.“

We don't need to get hysterical. If it’s food we can usually eat it.”Read the Norwegian version of this article at forskning.no The time will inevitably come when your immune system fails at its ONE JOB, and you'll get sick. Out come the pillows and the Netflix, but as you ride out the illness, you also need to eat. You may know that trying to kill those germs with alcohol isn’t the smartest move (it’s not!?), but what should you consume? Is chicken soup really good for you, or is that something your mom told you to shut you up? We asked Lingxia Sun, a clinical dietitian at Johns Hopkins Hospital, what the best eating strategy is for anyone who’s got a cold, the flu, or is just generally feeling lousy. “The most important thing is that you still eat something,” Sun advises. “Some people don’t have an appetite when they’re sick, so they don’t eat anything. Food is how our bodies function, and you need all the food you normally eat because your body is fighting the disease.”

That said, some foods are going to help you more while others can even make you feel worse. With your typical cold/flu situation, you have an infection that might be making you feverish, achy, nauseous, and stuffy, depending on how your body does things. So your goal is to eat foods that relieve some of those symptoms, and to avoid foods that aggravate them. A few foods provide specific benefits to reduce your symptoms. For nausea, ginger has been shown to provide relief, so add ginger to teas or a mild stir fry to calm your stomach. Bananas are easy to digest when you have an upset stomach, and they provide potassium, an essential electrolyte that helps maintain water balance for optimal cell function. Congestion can be relieved with hot tea and soup, and a lab study has even shown that chicken soup officially has potential for helping with colds! Guess Mom was right, after all. Garlic has antiviral and antibacterial properties, though research on whether it’s helpful for colds is inconclusive.

Still, if your stomach can tolerate it, garlic can’t hurt, especially if you add it to that ginger-y stir-fry you made. While none of these foods will magically cure you, they can make your sick days a little less miserable. The bottom line is that you should be eating something and focusing on healthy foods, though that can be difficult when there are close calls, like the next two... Most people have heard that dairy products produce phlegm, so scientists decided to test whether it was hearsay or actually true. The experimental design involved some appealing lab work: weighing the used tissues of 51 study volunteers! The team found no evidence that milk makes you more congested. Still, it may not be the best choice for everyone. “Some people become lactose sensitive when they’re sick,” explains Sun. “But the problem is mostly from milk; yogurt is usually OK. And it’s not necessarily that you have to avoid it, it’s individual.” With fruit juice, it depends on what you drink.

Juice with no added sugar -- or better yet, freshly prepared from a juicer -- is great because it’s hydrating and provides much-needed vitamins. If you’re reaching for the processed, sweetened juices, those are the empty calories that you want to avoid. Of course, there are some items you should abstain from completely: You’re definitely better off without are alcohol. It turns out that alcohol doesn’t kill the germs in your body; in fact, it reduces your immune system’s ability to respond to an infection. This means it’s easier to get sick in the first place, and you may stay sick longer. Greasy foods can cause or worsen nausea, which makes it harder to eat the foods that are actually good for you. Chicken noodle soup over chicken wings, always. In general, the empty calories you get from sweets, and sugary beverages like sweetened fruit juice and soda, aren’t your best bet, even if they aren’t making you feel worse per se. “If your appetite isn’t great, the little bit you eat should be nutrient rich,” recommends Sun. Rather than eating junk to drown yourself in self-pity, prioritize eating the foods that will help your body get back on track.