Another English Essay....
Vegetarianism

You’re hungry, what will you eat. Are you thinking about a nice big steak, or juicy hamburger to fill you up? It is possible that the food we choose to eat greatly impacts our society and our individual lives. Americans proud themselves on being better than one another, and we are always trying to beat out the competitor. A simple change in our diet can improve the world around us: economy, environment, health, and well-being. The change of not eating meat, thus stopping mass production of animals, may not seem all that simple. Some cringe at the thought of this, but why is meat so precious to us Americans if it is proven we don’t need it to survive? In fact we are healthier without it. The few who opt for this diet are called vegetarians. Anyone who leads a meatless diet is considered vegetarian, but there are also different degrees of this diet. They range from eating eggs and milk to no animal products at all, even the use of leather. In return, vegetarians as a whole are healthier and tend to have a higher life expectancy. Yes, you may live longer by being vegetarian. So what reasons do we have for eating meat?
Vegetarianism has been around for centuries. Its history dates back to ancient Indian and Greek civilizations. Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher, believed and recommended the vegetarian diet. This philosophy was also practiced by Socrates and his pupil, Plato. Most ancient communities found it was easier to be vegetarian, because of the work involved in catching and killing animals. Many meats were hard to come by, and more expensive for the working class to purchase. Vegetarianism today has been boosted by many movements in history. During the fifteenth century, painter, sculptor, and inventor Leonardo da Vinci was one of the most notable vegetarians in Western society. Da Vinci also believed that using animals for clothing and food was brutal and showed a lack of mercy (Serafin 13). Vegetarianism was reintroduced in the 1960’s, with the protest for an end to the war in Vietnam came new thoughts for people to care for the environment and the world around us. Many of the people who participated in this new environmental movement were vegetarians. Health food stores and vegetarian restaurants began to appear in some cities and many college towns around the United States (Serafin 14). Vegetarianism is wide spread today, and it is a part of our cultural history.
Our culture is woven around vegetarians, and you might not even know if your best friend is vegetarian. William Shakespeare, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley were all known vegetarians. Many famous athletes don’t eat meat, such as tennis champion Martina Navratilova, baseball player and home run champion Hank Aaron, and Kathy Johnson, an Olympic medalist in gymnastics (Serafin 14). They and other great athletes are living proof that vegetarians are not weaker and less active than those who eat meat, as some claim they are. Movie and television stars like Steve Martin, Dustin Hoffman, Kim Basinger, and Sara Gilbert are all proudly vegetarian. Maybe you have listened to the music of Michael Jackson, Natalie Merchant, or Paul McCartney, all of whom are vegetarians as well (Serafin 15). This is to show that being vegetarian doesn’t mean you are an outcast from society, and every vegetarian has different reasons for being so.
When considering vegetarianism, there are many aspects to factor in. When you eat meat, you are condoning animal cruelty and the way our society takes life for granted. Vegetarians believe in animal rights, and disagree with the way animals are bred to be killed. A great amount of these animals experience cruelty and even torture during their short lived lives. Chickens are kept in small cages, cows in stalls with no room to exercise. Many animals are contaminated with hormones, antibiotics, tranquilizers, preservatives, additives and pesticides that can have a negative effect on our health (Null 5); to even see how these animals are slaughtered is enough to contemplate vegetarianism.
Pastures for grazing animals are a waste of food and energy. Proof is shown in the Sports Nutrition Guide for Vegetarians: “The grain used to feed animals provides only a fraction of the energy involved in eating the grain. For every 100 calories of plant material eaten by a cow, only 10 calories are stored in the cow. It takes an average of 430 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat…” (Dorfman 4), this is to show the tremendous waste of energy involved in raising animals opposed to growing crops. The over production of animals increases waste matter, this is also a damaging factor to our environment. The waste can run off into streams and pollute the water. Nitrogen levels build up in the streams causing algae growth, thus disrupting the ecosystem equilibrium. The excess methane gas from animal waste can have a small, but significant effect on Global Warming. Forests are being cleared for more grazing land. This lack of trees impacts nature’s way of balancing oxygen and carbon dioxide gases. With purchasing and consuming of meat products you are allowing the waste and destruction of the earth. An increase in vegetarians would result in a reduction of meat production, and therefore a greater environmental balance. Know what you’re eating and do something about it.
To understand how a piece of meat got on your plate is a disgusting thing to think about, so some people just plead ignorance. If you really thought about it, you would not want to eat it. When you eat a hamburger at McDonald’s do you actually think about what is in it? It could very well be the not so pleasant parts of an animal. Most people don’t realize what they eat affects everything you do; you should know what you are eating. If you just don’t care then why not eat skunks or rats as well, instead of eating more sociably acceptable animals? Would you eat man’s best friend? If these ideas don’t sound appetizing to you, then also contemplate that all living animals deserve to be treated the same. Becoming vegetarian will not only make you healthier, but give you an over all sense of well being.
There are numerous health benefits to being vegetarian, and many studies have supported this diet. “One major advantage to consuming a plant-based diet is the reversal of coronary heart disease, shown most recently by Dean Ornish, M.D., and his Preventive Medicine Research Institute. His program demonstrated that arteries that have become clogged with fatty deposits actually respond to lifestyle and dietary changes, including a low-fat vegetarian diet…” (Dorfman 3), states the Vegetarian Sports Nutrition Guide. It’s proven that eating meat increases your fat intake, and that increases your chances of getting heart disease. A vegetarian diet decreases many health risks, and even types of cancer. “Reduced rates of lung and colorectal cancer have also been shown, likely because of the abundance of dietary fiber, vegetables, and fruits consumed. Lower estrogen levels in vegetarian women may also protect against breast cancer. A 1998 study published in the American Dietetic Association Journal reported less oxidative DNA damage and lower breast cancer risk when consuming cooked vegetables versus a diet with meat” (Dorfman 4) reports the Sports Nutrition Guide for Vegetarians. Eating the correct vegetarian diet can easily be comparable to a meat diet and in most ways even healthier.
Many myths arise about not eating enough nutrients, especially protein, on a vegetarian diet. Consider this: when an athlete wants to improve his or her performance they cut down on meats, and increase their intake of carbohydrates (Havala, Suzanne 18). This increases their stamina and results in better performance. Thus, vegetarian diets have an advantage because they tend consist of primarily pastas, rice, grains and bread product which all contain high amounts of carbohydrates. Some may think that the only good source of protein is meat, this is also a myth. When considering that the main part of an animal’s diet comes from greens and leafy products, it is easily seen that the protein made starts from plant sources. Why not cut the “middle man” out and just eat the plants? Too much protein can have its negative effects too. An abundance of protein can raise acid levels in the body, deplete calcium sources, tear up your kidneys, and possibly accelerate the age of many bodily organs. Even NASA has realized this, the increase of kidney stones in space, and is considering a vegetarian diet for their astronauts. Even consuming meat just for the protein is not good, because of all the other fats and contaminates contained in it. Vegetarians eat nuts, grain, milk, eggs, beans and such to gain protein while not intoxicating their bodies with it. Dr. Mervyn G. Gardinge, medical physician and researcher with degrees from Harvard and Stanford, wrote a whole paper on “Do human beings need to eat meat?”, finally concluding that we can do without the substance (Null 137). Why even pay for something, when you can get the better nutrients at a lower cost?
Meat is the American cultural symbol. A lot of our economy’s money goes into the production and effects of meat. “Our government is in fact subsidizing the cost of meat there times over: first for its production, second for its environmental cost, and third for the increase in health care costs” (Vesanto, Melina 76). If farming favored grains and vegetables, then a greater number of people could be feed more cheaply and efficiently. Even simply deciding not to buy that steak or huge turkey can save you more, and overall increase your spending money. There you go; vegetarianism answers all your problems, even financial ones. If you even missed that taste of meat, there are a plethora of substitute products at your disposal.
We have all heard of them, meat substitutes. They are the cheap mans meat or girly patties, wrong! If you don’t eat those Boca burgers simply because you are scared of what people will think of you then you are missing out. There is a plethora of products available as an alternative to eating meat. There is hotdogs, burgers, ground beef, sausages, fish, and chicken that are all healthier substitutes to eating the real thing. Much of the grocery sold meat replacements contain significantly less amounts of fat, and contain more protein than meat itself. Some may argue they don’t taste like its real predecessor, but that’s simply due to the lack of harmful toxins and unhealthy material. One can simply cut the real meat out of their diet, not eating more or less vegetables or fruits, and add in the meat substitute without noticing a difference in taste or nutrients. In fact, this way would definitely be healthier and cut most of the dreaded fat out of our daily consumption. If this lifestyle is not even considered, then there must something wrong with Americans today, right?
It is precisely that, there is something wrong. It’s called American Culture. Meat has been held up high for so long that it has become a part of our image of a perfect society. We need it as much as we need sport utility vehicles for highway driving. There is no factual reason to keep meat in our diets, yet there is only about seven percent of Americans who choose to be Vegetarian (Havala 14). The American society is based on improvement, making its people the best and leading the “perfect” life. So why not choose vegetarianism if it embodies American ideals, making our lives better. Maybe its time we thought about what we do, instead of letting the popular image make our choices.