So, I decided to write a blog about my vegetarian diet because I don’t feel like I’ve gotten enough attention and I want to help all the poor unenlightened people to understand the destruction they are bringing upon the world by eating meat like savage beasts. I hope that these thoughts will stay with you and that I can remain in your mind as a visual example of someone who is willing to sacrifice in order to make a difference in this wicked flesh hungry world.
So, I’m kind of a vegetarian and I wanted to talk about it. Cool? We love talking about health don’t we? Every day I hear people talking about their latest health experiment whether it be starting Atkins, South Beach, the Lemon Cleanse, eating smaller portions, eating more meals, drinking more water, or maybe drinking juice made from mystical South American berries. At work or at family functions I always seem to be exchanging ideas about the latest, most effective work-out philosophies. It’s interesting stuff and I love hearing the latest.
So I’m sort of coming out of the closet (at least to some people) that I have seriously cut back on meat for about 6 months now (shameless pat on my own back I know). I think I said that just to refute Dave’s prediction when I started that I wouldn’t be able to stick with it. He knows me pretty well and I like that he has no problem being brutally honest. I said I was “kind of” a vegetarian because I don’t treat it like a religious commandment that others can judge me on for disobeying, nor do I expect anyone else to share my opinions. I hope that it can just be treated like any other diet that people do to improve their personal health. But I have to admit it’s weird that this is the only diet that I have felt an aversion to talk about (considering that I once lived on maple syrup and lemon juice for a week).
Unlike many vegetarians, my reasons are not about morality or ethical treatment of animals so don’t be nervous about me joining the picket line outside of the KFC. When I see a cat for instance, I know very well that if it were bigger it would probably not hesitate to bite my head off and play with it for a while (I actually went through a cat torture phase in my life when I found great joy in adding to my arrogant feline’s anxieties……good times.) So hey, I’m all about dominating the animals yo.
A friend of mine recently said “Imagine how stupid vegetarianism would appear to your starving ancestors. Poor baby, do you have to kill an adorable animal to survive? The fact that you are standing here is proof that your ancestors couldn’t care less about such discrimination when it came to getting through the winter.” That’s a very good point. Vegetarians can seem like pretty ungrateful whiney people I will admit. I worked with a Vegan who loved to tell me everything that was unhealthy about everything I ate; EVEN granola bars which evidently have dangerous amounts of predigested bee vomit (beware). Because my reasons are not religious, I would rather eat meat than have a friend feel awkward or uncomfortable. As a rule I will not turn down a meal that someone has gone out of their way to prepare. These types of occasions are actually quite rare and I feel no guilt about deviating from my diet every now and then.
When I was doing the South Beach thing, I remember the only thing I wanted in the world was CARBS because that was what I was not supposed to eat. My experience with vegetarianism has been quite different. I can honestly say that my desire to eat meat has diminished and has not returned. You know when you are on a diet looking into your fridge, nobody is around and you stare at that forbidden treat knowing that no one else will ever know. I haven’t experienced that temptation at all. I promise I haven’t even tried to get my fix when I’m alone. After a few months of not eating meat I ate a chicken sandwich and expected it to be heaven. I was really disappointed; It wasn’t that great. It was just as I remembered it. I’ve started noticing that meat has been mostly just a texture in my eating experience. Everything that tastes good in a sandwich is not the meat.
I have never felt healthier than when I made this change. I have not lost any energy, quite the opposite. As a personal observation I have also felt more spiritual. This is basically the reason why I am writing this. I am throwing this out there in case any of you are curious and want to experiment as well. I am also writing this to assert my elitist dominance over you impure creatures (I am truthful as well as wise).
We have been raised with a tradition that no meal is complete without a large portion of meat. It almost defines a true meal but I am convinced that physiologically our bodies are still designed to eat a predominantly vegetarian diet even though we are behavioral omnivores. If tomorrow we decided that we wanted to start eating tree bark, our bodies obviously wouldn’t be able to break it down and pull nutrients from it. It’s important to understand what our physiological makeup is designed for in order to be healthy. Both Carnivores and herbivores face different issues when dinner time arrives and have evolved to overcome them. For Herbivores plants are difficult to break down and digest. For Carnivores there food tends to run away. So it follows that herbivores are going to be designed to forage and require long periods of digestion. Carnivores will be designed to be predators that eat large but infrequent meals. (I hope this isn’t boring but I find it fascinating)
Characteristics of carnivores…
-Equipped for short bursts of extreme speed
-limbs are lightened for fast running and are also modified to be weapons
-most vulnerable parts of anatomy are shielded behind a muscular chest
-Incisors are reduced to pointy pegs and canines are like huge, sharp, elongated knives used for ripping flesh
-Their lower jaw does not move from side to side only up and down making their teeth work like a pair of shears.
-They do not chew their food but rather slice off chunks of meat and swallow it whole (think of feeding your cat)
-No digestive enzymes in their saliva
-stomachs are extremely acidic and able to accommodate for huge meals (60-70% of total GI tract).
-meat has no fibre and is therefore easily digested and so the length of their intestine is very short (only 3-6 times their body length) and are optimized for protein and fat absorption.
Characteristics of omnivores….
-They are social animals and live in large herds or communities
-Their limbs are modified for standing and walking long distances for gathering food
-Their nails are blunt and used for digging and peeling
-They have muscular lips, a small mouth opening and well developed cheek muscles which “wall in” their food for chewing
-The teeth rest on top of each other and do not slide past each other scissor style but work rather like a nutcracker
-Lower jaw has a pronounced horizontal side-to-side motion for chewing
-Molars are not sharp and blade-shaped, but are square, and flat-topped.
-many vegetarians have more pronounced canines (Like hippos or gorillas for defense), or shortened and reduced ones such as with horses and humans. Canine teeth do not indicate a design for eating meat
-Plant materials contain large amounts of fibrous material. The end result is that plant foods require extensive processing to extract their nutritional content. Because of this, herbivores consume smaller, more frequent meals and have long elaborate digestive tracts -Their intestines are 10-12 times their body length and have an unlimited capacity for carbohydrate consumption.
Sooooooooooo….where would you classify yourself?
Humans are slow runners with low stamina. We have a carbohydrate-digesting enzyme in our saliva called amylase. Our esophagus does not handle poorly chewed food very well (Over 90% of people who choke to death each year choke on meat). We clearly have a long intestine. When meat goes through our tract, it putrefies and fills our bodies with toxins which can cause cancer and dozens of other problems. Only herbivores have an appendix.
One of the most interesting facts to me is that whenever an herbivore eats animal based products, their arteries begin to be lined with a plaque that will eventually block off blood flow and cause death. Studies have been conducted where dogs are fed cubes of butter for days and NOTHING happens to their blood vessels. Rabbits die in no time when fed animal products. Coronary artery disease is directly linked to eating meat along with most of the diseases of affluence that seem to exist in America and not in places like rural agrarian China.
Ask yourself, “When I see a dead carcass on the road side does my mouth begin to water?” We are absolutely disgusted by meat in its natural form. The slaughtering that carnivores must live for we do out of human sight. The meat just appears in our grocery stores pink and clean. The next thing we do is treat it so that it no longer resembles what it is. We cook it, rub spices into it, and tell ourselves that it is not animal flesh. We just saw that beautiful exhibit “Body Worlds” downtown the other day and every time I saw an arm bone with muscle and tendons on it I thought…drum stick!
Now there are of course other factors to consider. Some lineages of people can handle foods better than others. Most people can digest milk because of the fact that our early ancestors have been drinking it for many millennia. It follows that meat would affect some people more negatively than others but the fact remains that we have not made the full evolutionary step toward becoming carnivores and why would we want to? It’s kind of a complicated system that we have going. Our ancestors no doubt supplemented their diets with protein sources such as nuts, larvae, and meat when they could get it, but we are definitely not designed to handle it in the amounts that our culture has demanded.
I was always under the impression that the reason people from the Amazon and Asia were so small was because of protein deficiency which has been found to be untrue. It is because they did not have a variety of nutrients in their diet. Their options were too limited. I was surprised to find out that meat (not including eggs) has little to no nutritional value. It’s all just protein (yeah yeah B12, but that’s it). I was also surprised to find out how much protein legumes, nuts, and whole grains have.
I don’t care if people eat meat. I agree it’s tasty as hell but what I don’t like from our society in general is the philosophy that it is somehow necessary; That a meal is not complete without it. It isn’t nearly as important as we have been lead to believe. I like to look at it like ice cream. It’s not evil but if I want to challenge myself to be healthier, I should really limit it.
A great book that covers the major research that has been done in this field is “The China Study.” It’s totally changed my thinking.
For those of you still reading (and I suspect Dave may be the only one) I would just like to conclude by thanking PITA for helping the cause by planting an association in everyone’s mind that vegetarians are terrorists that will choose to kill people over adorable puppies. Everyone knows that we vegetarians are just lovable run of the mill condescending elitists. Merry Christmas puppy killers.
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17 comments:
Nice post dude. I know you don't want to be religious at all but you sound like the word or wisdom. I'm not very good at eating meat sparingly. I think I need to hit the grains, beans, veggies and fruit more. High rates of heart disease are also linked to eating meat. You may want to read a book called fast food nation. I had to read it for a health economics class. It kept me from beef for a few weeks. I've gone back to my old habits but I know I should be eating less meat. Maybe you'll motivate me to change. I also find it interesting how bad eating meat is for the environment. Not that I'm some weird environmentalist, but think of how much fuel we have to put into a couple slabs of meat. Grow and harvest the grain, build a cage for the animal, stuff the animal with steroids and grain, kill the animal, dispose of the animal, etc. They say that one pound of meat is comparable to 77 lbs. of grain. (meaning the cost and environmental footprint) Also, good to see that your not a crazy veggie person. Don't start beating people up at the B.K.
Huh. Well, to be perfectly honest, I more or less agree with you. I think we should not eat too much meat, defining "meat" as any animal product. I think that the American diet does limit itself too much to domestic animal meat products, such as beef, chicken, and pork. I would bet that the majority of Americans would have to stop and think if asked when the last time they ate some kind of meat other than those three was (unless it's right after Thanksgiving, of course). But considering how landbased our country is, I guess that not's too surprising, although many of the countries that are the healthiest are those whose diet consists mainly of vegetables and seafood.
As Ivan said, your whole concept is very Word of Wisdomy. I always thought that the whole Atkins idea kind of went against those principles. I think Atkins had the right idea in trying to limit bad carb/sugar intake, and that sometimes to get your body off it, you have to just quit cold turkey, but I like the South Beach idea better where you substitute more vegetables and seafood for the carbs, rather than bacon and cheese.
Certainly, nobody is going to tell you that eating more vegetables is bad for you. However, I do not think that no meat is the way to go. I think that the Lord created us to be omnivores, not herbivores, and therefore meat is in some way valuable to us (By the way, hippos are omnivores,too. I recently saw a documentary on them on the Discovery Channel, and not only are they known to eat small or injured animals, but they have also been seen to be cannibalistic). I don't think there's anything wrong with cutting back, I just don't think it's necessary or advisable to cut it out completely. As long as you are making sure that you are getting enough protein and other nutrients from other sources, and you feel good, I say go for it.
Just remember that there are smart vegetarians and dumb vegetarians. Some vegetarians are just as unhealthy as meat-eaters because they still eat tons of sugar and fat. So good luck to you. If it works for you, great. But it is nice to know that I can still invite you over for the occasional pork chop from time to time. Oh, and you'll probably save a lot of money, too, provided you actually make your own veggie meals and not buy some overpriced frozen stuff!
Thanks Robin. Yeah I totally agree with you. Just not eating meat isn't going to help you any. It's eating a variety of whole foods that will give you the real nutrients and fiber. Mom and dad were actually the ones that pointed me in this direction by recommending "The China Study." The emphasis is all about the benefits of minimizing meat intake and maximizing whole foods. South beach was helpful in getting us into good habits in regards to whole foods, and complex carbohydrates. Honestly I think even if I don't stick with it in the long run, this change of routine is worth it just to help myself find other meal alternatives. It has forced me to learn new recipes and search for more varieties of fruits and vegetables. I mostly just want to adjust my thinking on the matter and for a person like me sometimes it takes something like this. I do something all the way and when it's over, half of it sticks with me (two steps forward and one step back). My diet and routine slowly improve over time.
First of all, okay, you proved me wrong. You got to admit though that you did (and still do) sound kind of halfhearted about the whole thing (i.e., I'm kind of being a vegetarian). Maybe that's the secret to successful dieting though: a half-assed level of commitment.
Second, I wanted to point out how much of what you said really is cultural. You mentioned that most of us wouldn't find roadkill to be appetizing. This is because our culture separates the final product from the slaughterhouse. Other cultures, however, don't do this (and anyone who's been to a carneceria knows what I'm talking about). Most Americans grew up with phrases like "meat and potatoes" and "where's the beef", or ads telling us "beef, it's what's for dinner." So eating meat something programmed into us from a very young age. (Of course, to be fair, American culture is all about rebellion also, which is why vegetarianism is accepted. It'd be much harder, I imagine, to be vegetarian in cattle-rich Argentina).
Of course, to prove my point further what would you do if I told you that there was a food source out there that surpassed all the benefits of eating meat and had none of the drawbacks? Sounds pretty sweet, huh? Look up Entomophagy and tell me if your culture tells you that you're still interested. You pulled out some very nice statistics, but to be fair, if we really care about our bodies and this planet we should all be entomophagists.
So again, congratulations on kind of not eating meat for a while. I suppose I kind of knew you could do it all along. I probably said it then, but I'll say it now, if you're not eating Indian food you're an idiot since they have the best tasting vegetarian food on Earth.
Congratulations, Chris! I honestly think vegetarianism is one of the best things people can do for their own health and for the environment. And I'm not saying this as a preachy vegetarian - I'm actually a full-fledged meat-eater (after having been vegetarian for two years). It's one of those things that I actually spend a good amount of time thinking about - "I should really cut out meat again," kind of like, "I should really start exercising."
It makes me sad to see how common it is for vegetarians to feel like they have to defend themselves, so say, "I'm a vegetarian, but not one of those annoying vegetarians." I totally get it - believe me, I know some pretty awful vegetarians who look down on meat-eaters. But then again, I don't ever hear anyone say, "I don't drink - but don't worry, I'm not one of those annoying non-drinkers!" Everyone should be free to make decisions that benefit their health - and should really be respected and admired for doing so!
(Similarly, I get a kick when I read things like Ivan's, "I'm not a weird environmentalist or anything." Vegetarianism and environmentalism have become so entrenched in the culture wars that for some reason the idea of committing yourself to do good for the planet and yourself has taken on this deviant undertone. We really need to get to the point where people realize it's perfectly possible to be a vegetarian, an environmentalist, whatever, without having to be a liberal hippie coastal elitist. :))
Also, I think you made a critical point: Successful vegetarianism is about focusing on whole foods and nutritional variety. So many people try to talk vegetarians out of vegetarianism by telling them that they are going to miss out on important nutrients, but in reality the need to expand your non-meat menu exposes you to a whole host of nutritional richness that most meat-eaters don't have. I get annoyed by vegetarians whose solution to feeding themselves is to go to Whole Foods and buy overpriced Amy's prepared packaged foods. They feel like they're doing so much good, but really they are eating processed food with preservatives and excessive packaging that can't be that much better for their bodies or the environment than a meat-based diet would be.
Anyway, my main point here is that I'm hard-core proud of you and fully support you. In fact, reading this reminded me of why I was vegetarian in the first place and has really inspired me to work hard on cutting back.
(Oh, also, the "kind of vegetarian" thing I think is actually the best way to be a successful vegetarian. As soon as you rule something out as off-limits, it becomes so much harder to avoid it. If you instead focus on switching your way of thinking about food away from meat, but leave meat on the plate - so to speak - as a possibility when necessary, you're much more likely to stick with it.)
(I also think there's an ethical reason for avoiding eating animal products from animals that are kept in small cages and mistreated their whole lives. The animal rights argument isn't in the killing of the animals; it's in the way they are made to live miserable lives. Free-range or naturally harvested meat is the best bet - it's just completely unrealistic as a way of feeding a huge population of meat-eaters, which is why vegetarianism on a larger scale really has the potential to make some huge changes - to our environment, the overall health of our population, even hunger and poverty rates!)
Some very good points Dave. Allow me to give my opinion.
It's true that there is a cultural difference as far as our exposure to animal slaughter goes. I lived in the Philippines for two years (as you know) and bought my meat fresh from the carniceria at least twice a week. I can remember the pig heads and limbs hanging from hooks. Quite a different experience indeed, and cool in an anatomy lesson kind of way. But to push my point, do you or do Philipinos, South Americans, etc. drool like little children in a candy shop when you are at the carniceria? The first thing even Philipinos do after buying their meat is take it home and cook it with garlic and onions. The fact that they would prefer a situation similar to our own is evidenced by the fact that when you get into larger wealthier cities there tends to be more shopping markets that resemble something closer to ours (at least in the Philippines). The "cultural" difference seems to be related to money and convenience. The point remains that we do not hunger after meat in its natural form. A shark smells blood and becomes excited. A lion if presented with cooked meat or raw bloody flesh is going to want it as it comes from the animal (he actually would probably prefer to be the one who bites into the jugular of said meat when it is still alive). When looking at the overall facts, I think that it is really hard to make the argument that meat should be a major part of our diet.
As for being half-hearted you have to admit that it's a tricky situation Dave if you are really convinced that the diet has merit. What I was trying to communicate was that the desire to eat meat for pleasure has left me and when left alone I will choose against it. We live in a society that claims they are omnivores but eat large portions of meat with every meal (more like a carnivore that is supplementing their diet with vegetables rather than the other way around). Physiologically, our bodies have shown that this is not the ideal fuel that they should be running on. Although high animal protein diets are effective at reducing weight , the other interior effects are much worse.
So, am I weak because I care too much about what other people think of me? yes, it's who I am. Would you prefer I make you feel inconvenienced at the next party you are hosting? I do not feel like I have sinned when I eat meat, I just feel like I have made a poor health choice. So you may want to hold me up to the typical standard expected of vegetarians which is fine and I will seem half-assed. Maybe I haven't earned the title "vegetarian". So I guess I'm an omnivore, except with a huge change of lifestyle from the omnivore I was before. I guess vegetarian has too much of a rebellious, attention getting, in your face association with it like you mentioned.
My overall wish is that the social mentality behind this issue will begin to shift. That's my wicked agenda. I would like to counter the negative associations that activists have attached to a scientifically validated approach to nutrition.
It's true that our quality of life is relative and it's kind of silly that we find faults even after we are so blessed because we can't compare our situation with people that are starving. If our situation is reduced to that of a third world country, I would never turn down a plate of ribs.
I don't know how to respond to the eating bugs thing. It's a good point. I have absolutely no desire to eat grasshoppers. Does that mean that I'm not "designed" to eat them? My flawed logic turns on itself.
hmmmm.
Shrimp are in the cockroach family and I likes them!
Doug. Your comments always make me feel so good. Thank you for the validation. I just really like to talk about health and diets and it seems most of the people around me do as well. I love that I can talk about this with you guys as just another approach to nutrition.
I think your comments about animal mistreatment are actually very important. When I dive into that issue I get a real sense of "not natural ." I feel that it is one more very important layer to the argument.
Um, this "blog" was way too intelligent for me to want to try anything to it... You know me... I have about a thousand things I want to add, but I just want to re-read and be impressed with your delivery a while longer because I completely agree--although for none of the reasons you listed... so I guess, technically, I concur.
Thanks for an awesome read!
P.S. But if you do want to know my beliefs on food/diet and all that you can look into ayurveda. A good book on the subject is The 3-Season Diet.
come on now Sheralyn. You're not going us give anything? I love that I can always count on you to have an entirely unique perspective on any subject. I would love to hear your thoughts.
I see your point with the whole carcass thing better now. That I'm aware there are very few cultures that eat meat the same way, say, a lion does. Very good point.
Culturally though there is definitely a tension between vegetarians and meat eaters in the United States. I wish we could be more like India (What's that? You're vegetarian? Well whoop-dee-doo, you and about half of the country). I had a good friend in college was vegetarian. She told me that she had her family over for dinner once and they were so unwilling to eat the meat-free dishes she had prepared that they had to go to McDonalds on the way home. Here's my point: most of the people who are going to give you are hard time about not eating meat are people who are very closed-minded about food to begin with. These are people who think a place like TGI Fridays is as good as it gets. These are people who when I suggest an obscure place to eat, begin to freak out that won't find anything they like because it's not a chain. And ultimately, they've never had a good meal that doesn't have meat (because Indian food sounds too "ethnic" to them).
I agree with your overall mentality as well and will gladly give you validation. After reading Doug's comments I kind of think there is something to half-assing a diet. If you're trying to be healthy then you don't need to cut something completely out of your diet (especially at first cause it will drive you crazy). I think if you do it gradually then your body can work its way off being dependent on things that are bad for it.
I personally think there should be a lot more than just two groups, since I think it's a bit more complicated than that. For example, being a meat eater doesn't mean I'll eat whatever meat comes my way (yummy, yummy tripe). I really like turkey a lot, for instance, but I really don't see the need to eat it more than once a year. You're just becoming that way with other dead animals as well. That could be a useful argument for you to help other people understand (since I'm sure most people don't eat turkey more than a couple times a year).
Ultimately, saying your vegetarian does make red lights go off in a lot of people's minds. But saying "I don't eat a lot of meat" or "I don't really like hamburger" is far more acceptable in society. I wonder why?
So at any rate, I validate you, even though you're not willing to eat bugs (although, if I found a place, would you be interested?) and I validate you even though you misspelled "PETA" (it's People for the ETHICAL Treatment of Animals. Although spelling it with an "I" would remind us all to eat more bread. What could that "I" stand for? "I"ronic? "I"nhumane?)
I want to throw in there that I've been pretty intrigued by entomophagy for a while, ever since I started hearing about its potential to feed so many people on a wide scale with a good dose of nutritional variety. I don't see it ever ever ever happening on a significant level in our culture, though, unless we really hit a major food crisis and there's just not enough of anything else.
I also wonder whether harvesting, transporting, packaging, and processing bugs on a macro level would really turn out to be that much better for the environment in the long run. I guess I can see bug farms working out, and they'd be less resource-intensive than farms for large animals, certainly! Hmmm...
I love your comments Dave. I would never pass up an oppurtunity to eat bugs with you. You can recomend your favorites. Next time you're in town.
I agree with you about wanting more than two groups (This sounds like politics). Nutrition is a complicated subject and our understanding is always growing. If we really want to be healthy we have to accept the complexity of it all.
I bet in India where half the population is vegetarian they have more than one crappy vegetarian item to choose from on a restaurant menu as well. Sometimes it seems like an extreme stance in opposition to the norm is the only way to bring a shift in thought but who wants to be the annoying one to push it?
HAHA Factory bug farming. Fascinating concept. Wouldn't it be great to bust out processed bug burgers at a BBQ?
I'm thinking bug TV dinners.
I think all of your points are so valid. However, my father is a steak and potatoes man and he told me he would disown me if I went vegetarian. And frankly, I've been looking forward to inheriating my mother's troll collection for years now:) My favorite part of this post was the title:)
I knew it was only a matter of time before you came out. Wait. What? Oh, vegetarian! Oh...um...er....
Good for you for sticking with it. I could never, ever be a vegetarian. I like my meat!
And isn't it "PETA?"
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