Vegetarianism
Vegetarianism is certainly not a new idea. In fact, history is full of vegetarians. Leonardo da Vinci, a great scientist, inventor, artist, and painter of the Mona Lisa, from the 1400’s and 1500’s, was a vegetarian. He loved animals too much to eat them and thought that his diet greatly improved his health. Percy Shelley, a famous British poet from the early 1800’s, believed that a diet of water and vegetables was the ultimate in “health food” and lived by it. His wife, Mary Shelley, wrote Frankenstein , the most famous Gothic novel and claimed that he wrote much of it with her (maybe that diet really did pay off!). Mohandas Ghandi, a leader of peaceful protests against violence and British rule in India, was forbidden to eat meat, as he was a Hindu. However, one of his friends convinced him that meat-eating would make Indians strong enough to drive the British out of India. Ghandi tried meat, hated it, but kept eating it to make India strong. He soon realized that meat eating was turning him into a liar, as he had to lie about eating meat to his family, and vowed never to eat it again.
Good reasons for vegetarianism are all dangers related to meat. First there’s Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE) such as “Mad Cow Disease” (BSE). These diseases, which usually take 20 to 30 years after acquired to show symptoms, cause the brain to develop Swiss-cheese-like holes resulting in brain damage and eventual death. A few cows imported from Britain to Canada were recently found to be infected. TSE is transmitted when central-nervous-system material of infected animals is ingested (hamburgers, hot dogs, and bologna sometimes contain central-nervous-system meat). If you would like to know more about TSE, check out “Could Mad Cow Disease Happen Here?” in Atlantic Monthly’s September 1998 issue. “Deadly” E. coli is another meat-related danger. E. coli is the most common bacterium in the colon, but deadly strains of E. coli can contaminate meat during processing and have been responsible for outbreaks of serious illness and death. Listeria is yet another bacteria that can contaminate meat. Listeria normally lives in soil, but when it infects humans, it can result in miscarriages, birth defects, serious illness, and an even higher death rate than “deadly” E. coli. A recent outbreak of Listeriosis (Listeria infection) resulted in several deaths and miscarriages among those who ate meat processed at a Sara Lee packaging plant, where construction work stirred up dirt that apparently contaminated the meat products. Cholesterol plaques in the arteries that supply blood to the heart cause heart disease, the number one killer in the USA. Meat is the main source of dietary cholesterol for Americans. Avoidance of meat lowers cholesterol levels and significantly reduces the risk of heart disease.
At meat processing and rendering factories, the carcasses of animals and the animals’ food is often handled in a quite unsanitary manner. First, the animal feed for a particular type of livestock often contains the blood, bone, tissue (including brain and central-nervous-system tissue) of that same species of animal. Livestock feed contains animal material from rendering plants, which salvage the remains of carcasses from which the meat has been removed. Secret videotaping in the plants has revealed that dead cats, dogs, roadkill, the occasional circus animal, and the bodies of livestock that have been destroyed because they have been found to be diseased are also added to the renderings. Both of these types of unsavory ingredients present serious problems where the transmission of TSE and like diseases from
members of a species or from species to species is concerned. For example, a pig might get TSE from a cow that was in its food, die, be put into another animal’s food, and so on and so forth, until an infected animal ends up on someone’s plate (hey, it might be yours!). The way most meat processing plants remove meat from the spinal cord and bones is also somewhat distressing: the bones and spinal cord are squeezed and plucked by a machine. This means that central-nervous-system fluids frequently drip onto the meat products as the cords are squeezed, making it all the more likely that a steak or side of ribs could be TSE contaminated. Processed meats, like those in spaghetti and barbecue meat sauce, hamburgers, bologna, and hot dogs also often contain interesting “surprises”. There are virtually no restrictions on what can go into these “variety meats”, so the heart, liver, bones, brain, and spinal cord often end up in these foods. Meat processing and packaging plants are not particularly famed for their sanitary conditions when handling the products, so products can quite easily become contaminated with bacteria, dirt, and other potentially harmful substances.
Believe it or not, eating meat has a great negative effect on the environment. Waste from fast food, such as paper bags, cups, plates, and plastic tableware litters roadways these days. Not only is it unsightly, birds and other wildlife can ingest or become tangled in it, leading to serious injury or death. Cow-produced methane increases the Greenhouse Effect, creating global warming. You may think that this is REALLY far out, but I’m serious! The number of cows in the world is unbelievable, and cows fart a lot more than humans do. Finally, much of the world’s forests and grasslands have been cleared for grazing cattle and other livestock. This has caused many species to become endangered or even extinct due to loss of habitat.
If you decide to become a vegetarian, you don’t necessarily have to eat only plant products. Well, maybe you do if you’re a vegan. Vegans (as you’ve probably figured out) eat only plant products. Lacto-vegetatians eat dairy and plant products. Lacto-ovo-vegetarians eat eggs, and dairy and plant products. If you want to become a lacto-ovo-pisco-vegetarian, like my family, you can eat fish, eggs, dairy and plant products. If you want to be a vegetarian, but you don’t like the idea of giving up meat, don’t worry! I never thought I’d be able to do it myself, but after about a month, I didn’t miss meat anymore. Now, I’ve even developed a strong distaste for the stuff, and I usually get nauseated when I smell it or hear someone describing it.
People who eat meat like the taste of it, and they are used to having it. Many meat-eaters that would like to give up meat fear that they will not be able to overcome the overwhelming cravings for meat products. Fortunately, today, many tasty meat alternatives are available which are equally satisfying, even to those whose taste buds are tuned to meat. White Mountain Pure Foods Company produces some excellent barbecue which flawlessly mimics the taste and texture of Texas-style brisket, while Yves Veggie Cuisine makes superb breakfast links that are not only meat-free, but also contain no cholesterol. The veggie burgers on the market have also improved drastically. (I like the rice kind with cheese and ketchup on it – umm!) Tofu, which tastes exactly like hard-boiled egg whites, is high in protein and low in fat. It tastes great mixed in with salads or pasta or in Oriental food. With so many great options, I love being a vegetarian: I like trying the new food and knowing I’m keeping myself healthy!
