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职称英语卫生类考试考前每日一练 Vegetarian A strict vegetarian is a person who never in his life eats anything derived fromanimals. The main objection to vegetarianism on a long-term basis is the difficulty of getting enough protein, the body-building elements in food. If you have ever been without meat or animal foods for some days or weeks, say, for religious reasons, you will have noticed that you tend to get physically weak. You are glad when the fastis over and you get your reward of a great meat meal. Proteins are built up from approximately twenty food elements called amino-acids, which are found more abundantly in animal protein than in vegetable protein.This means you have to eat a great deal more vegetable than animal food in order to get e-nough of these amino-acids. A great deal of the vegetable food goes to waste in this process and from the physiological point of view there is not much to be said in favor of life-long vegetarianism. The economic side of the question, though, must be considered. Vegetable food is much cheaper than animal food. However, since only a small proportion of the vegetable protein is useful for body-building purposes, a consistent vegetarian, if he is to gain the necessary 70 grams of protein a day, has to consume a greater bulk of food than his digestive organs can comfortably deal with. In fairness, though, it must be pointed out that vegetarians claim they need far less than 70 grams of protein a day. | 
