Keep in mind that a vegetarian diet can mean a diet high in grains. Grains will definitely fatten you up if you're not careful on the amount you eat.

There are so many people that use the "look at this obese vegetarian!" strawman. Does anyone legitimately think a diet of Oreos and Gatorade is healthy? No. Is it vegetarian? Yes.

Processed foods are the majority of the issue. Not "grains". Carbohydrates are not the devil here, yet people dance around it in so many ways.

Try this...

Most processed foods have a high carb to fiber ratio. That's bad. It's also a leading indicator that those products (not whole foods) have a bunch of added sugar and/of fat. The ratio should be lower than 10:1 (carb to fiber) [0]. Many state 5:1 is what you should shoot for. But so many overlook how carbs are good. Fruits and vegetables are loaded with carbs and fiber. Most people don't think 5 grams of broccoli carbs are bad for you, but it's obvious when you compare those 5 grams from broccoli to 5 grams of carbs from Oreos. For reference:

Broccoli: 91g (1 cup) contains 6g of carb and 2.4g of fiber. No fat and 1.5g of natural sugars.

Oreos: 34g of cookies (3) has 25g of carbs and 0.5g of fiber. One wouldn't be surprised to hear those cookies contain 7g of fat and 14g of added sugar.

So, no... Being a processed food "vegetarian" isn't healthy and it's a crappy argument vs a "vegetarian" eating whole foods under a plant heavy/focused diet.

Finally, most don't know that each gram of fiber cancels out each checked gram of carbs with regard to sugars. High fiber diets are crucial to sugar regulation. And this is crucial to diabetics, but not many are taught. [1]

[0] https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-trick-to-recognizing... [1] https://dtc.ucsf.edu/living-with-diabetes/diet-and-nutrition...

I think the point is that vegeterism has been thought of as an automatic healthy diet. At least that's what I thought until my doctor told me that he had vegetarian patients that were obese and dealing with the related problems. Vegeterisim is only healthy if you eat the right diet and don't over do it.

It's a strawman only if you ignore the historical/nutrition data, unless you believe that barley and legumes are processed foods full of added sugars.

"Gladiators, it seems, were fat. Consuming a lot of simple carbohydrates, such as barley, and legumes, like beans, was designed for survival in the arena. Packing in the carbs also packed on the pounds. "Gladiators needed subcutaneous fat," Grossschmidt explains."

https://archive.archaeology.org/0811/abstracts/gladiator.htm...

Consuming copious amounts of anything with a high carb/calorie load can make you fat. Barley, sweet potatos, cookies, etc. If your point is that eating a lot can cause your body to store energy then well done.

Did I state otherwise? No.

Of course you did

First you started by saying how "Processed foods are the the issue. Not "grains". Carbohydrates are not the devil here"

and then

"But so many overlook how carbs are good. Fruits and vegetables are loaded with carbs and fiber. Most people don't think 5 grams of broccoli carbs are bad for you, but it's obvious when you compare those 5 grams from broccoli to 5 grams of carbs from Oreos."

According to you then barley and legumes which are loaded with carbs (Good carbs, not Oreos carbs) and fibers are good and doesn't make someone fat, because as you wrote, processed foods are the issue, right? Nowhere in my post i say anything about "copious amounts", you did.

I believe you're missing the point.

Do I believe processed foods contribute to obesity and health in a negative fashion? Yes. Quick comparison of carb/calorie load of processed vs raw shows the story rather plainly. It doesn't take too much insight to gather that if you compare them side by side those processed foods contain a whole lot more of what you don't want per gram. Saturated fat, sugar, cholesterol, sodium, etc. Those things are fine in moderation, but most processed foods are high in one or many of those things.

And, no - carbs aren't the devil. Eating too much of anything can make you fat. My point is that people use the strawman of saying that by there are fat vegetarians (there are) because it's not hard to eat a crappy diet and be vegetarian.

My guess is that you're on something like a strict "Paleo" diet and have a hard time rationalizing how carbs are part of a healthy diet. But your point is so poorly made I'm not sure what you're arguing. If you're trying to hang me out to dry because I stated fibers are good and didn't qualify that by overeating them they can make you "fat", well then - you got me. I assumed that was implied knowledge and we didn't need to explain simple logic as well.

I believe this was the other commenter's point - regardless of your diet, you always have to be careful with what you eat, and in what proportions. Nothing about vegetarian diets is automatically healthier than meat-based ones.