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I agree that vegetarianism is generally healthier than a largely meat-filled diet, but that basic problem is one of balance. Most commercial meat is going to be high in fat and riddled with other additives. It does supply protein though, and veggies have to be careful to get those in their diet as well. Fish is actually quite good for you, supplying a lot of oils that are hard to get through any other means.
Other seafood is prett suspicious. Oysters, scallops, and other filter feeders are horrible, having a wonderful tendancy to accumulate both pathogens (such as cholera) and toxins (such as mercury), making them a signicant health risk if they are harvested from even mildly polluted areas.
However, salmonella, mentioned as a risk of a meat-eaters diet, is hardly eliminated by giving up meat. You can and people often do get it from vegetables. One recent outbreak was linked to strawberries. Even when dealing with meat, it's usually only a significant threat if the meat was a) factory farm raised where animals are crowded into unsanitary conditions and b) the person handling the meat doesn't take care to keep the food preparation area clean and to cook the meat properly (with regard to exposed surfaces. Steak can be undercooked a lot more safely than hamburger). If your meat was raised in a clean environement and you're responsible in your cooking habits, you shouldn't be in too much danger.
However, there's also the threat (how well confirmed or widespread is unknown) of diseases such as BSE (more commonly known as 'mad cow' disease) being transmitted to humans through beef and causing disorders such as KJD (I'm not even going to try to spell out the name of that damned disorder). If it is transmitted, as has been suggested, by a protein and not by a virus, there may not be any good way to protect against it once it is in the meat.
LunaMoth
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