When I became a vegetarian, I was lost in a sea of cook books written by people who had never eaten meat. Their concept of what tasted good was far removed from mine, and my family rebelled and refused to eat most the new entrees that I put before them. So I set out to prepare plant based meals that were as close to what they were used to eating as possible, through substitution of healthier products. My reasons for becoming a vegetarian were as diversified as the arguments against exposing my husband and children to this strange way of life, and I had to be able to defend my reasoning. I will recap a few here.
Vegetarianism is basically following a diet that does not include meat. Some vegetarians eat dairy products and eggs. Most become vegetarians for one or more various reasons which may be related to morality, religion, culture, taste, health, ethics, aesthetics, environment, society, economics or politics. I think I included most of the above.
The American Dietetic Association and the Dietians of Canada have found a well planned veggie diet will satisfy our nutritional needs. And, numerous studies have shown that vegetarianism can lower risks of cancer, heart disease osteoporosis. renal disease, dementia, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, and many other fatal diseases...significantly. Grains, vegetables, soymilk, eggs, dairy and nuts contain adequate protein, nutients, amino acids to sustane the human body. They also stated, "Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits, including lower levels of satuated fats, cholesterol, and animal protein as well as higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants such as Vitamin C and E and phytochenicals. "
Harvard University studies along with those in Great Britian, various Europeon countries, Canada, Austrailia, New Zealand and the United Staes in general, have confirmed that plant based diets provide suffient protein and all eight of the essentail amino acids, as long as a variety of plants are eaten throughout a day in combination with one another.
Another legitimate concern that I had when making my desicion to let animals live, was one of food safety. It is true that E. coli infections are connected to contamination of food and industrial scale meat and dairy farms. The human gut contains several varients of E. coli but the deadly strain, O157:H7 wasnt recognized until the 1980's. It evolved in the digestive stomache of grain fed cattle on industrial farms. The acidity in the cattle's stomache is increased by the diet of grain and it is in this acidic gut that this deadly virus thrives. The Journal of Dairy Science found that between 30 to 80 percent of cattle carry E. coli o157:H7.
One vegetarian recipe book that I purchased, had a short written piece on the front inside flap book that mentioned "Looking into the eyes of a scared, glossy black calf on its way to the slaughter house..." that broke my heart! For there is a very ethical issue involved with eating animals. Production and comsumption of meat can be acceptable just on those terms alone, but the way animals are raised in the commercial industry and the way they are slaughtered really is unethical. Many animals are kept confined inside, restricting their mobility for most of their lives.
For the environment, according to a study by the University of Chicago and printed in Time Magazine, when a person switches to a vegetarian diet, it is equivilent to switching to a Hybrid automobile. It reduces one carbon footstep by 1.4 times. Livestock produces ethane which is a 32% more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. It takes approximately 8 pounds of grain to get 1 pound of meat. Transporting grain and shipping cattle to the slaughter house means more trucks on the road and an increase in polution.
In 2006 the United Nations stated, "The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors tot he most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." "If all the grain fed to livestock in the United Staes were consumed directly by people, the number of people who could be fed would be nearly 800 million."
According to the theory of trophic dynamics, it requires 10 times as many crops to feed animals being bred for meat production as it would to feed the same number of people on a vegetarian diet.
Although my change of eating habits was not a religious one, it is interesting to note that Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, teach the subject as moral conduct. The Seventh-day Adventists, Hare Krishnas and the Rastafari movement all advocate a vegetarian diet.
I think many of us can see the wisdon for all the above reasons for considering a plant based diet lifestyle, but when we are on the run with only McDonalds available, we really dont relate that little round, brown patty between two slices of bread, doctored up with condiments, with the living entity that it used to be. One that, like our household pets, had emotions. Our pets feel separation anxiety when we are gone, shame when we scold them, happiness and excitement when we get the lease out or invite them to go for a ride and pain when they are hurt. It is just something we have a bit of an addiction to (according to science, red meat has purine acids which can be as addictive as caffine and nicotine. (all ending in "ine"), and so we consume our lunch with no thought of what it was before it was slain, cooked and placed in our sandwich.
Vegetarian recipes that have been considered for the tastebuds of former meat eaters, can be very satisfying and many of them pass for "the real thing". I fear that the large slab of Sirloin steak thrown on the BBQ on the weekend will forever be in a class all its own, but I can make a mean meatball that defies its origin. through experimentation, I have proven that a meal that is strickly plant based can indeed taste very good too. Try it and you might delight in it, as I did!
