::loud whisper:: DON'T TELL DANIEL, HE'LL NEVER FORGIVE ME
I can see myself becoming a closet vegetarian.
When you learn in-depth what you're putting in your mouth when you eat meat, poultry, and dairy, you learn of all the chemical by-products, steroids, and hormones put into EVERY piece of creature that goes into the market. By law. There's no way around it. Think of it, no glass of milk you ever drank wasn't loaded with drugs and steroids, so much so that it'd be equivalent as to taking the drugs yourself, and the calcium in the milk isn't enough to override all the cancer-causing, fat-producing, calcium leeching (because there's so much protein in it) hormones yourself. I'm going soy. Look up holistic nutrition, you'll see where I'm getting all this. The truth is, we can get adequate calcium from leafy greens, vegetables, raw nuts and seeds, and beans. And again, these foods come without the hormones, steroids, and antibiotics found in dairy.
I've heard so much about reasons why vegetarians go vegie. I think for most of them, they got so infuriated by the horrors of the meat industry and animal abuse that they didn't want to be part of such an evil system. They've seen videos and documentaries, read interviews and confessions of people in the factories and farms, they've read up on all the investigations of widespread, commonplace animal abuse and familiarized themselves with the angry legislation against it. What about me? What did I think of that? Is that what urged me to write the opening line of this entry?
Like heck. Doesn't phase me one bit. And it's not that I'm misinformed, I've seen tons of horrific footage, read up on investigative reporting and was most touched by the Kentucky Fried Cruelty movie because I love chickens so much. All that stuff in the previous paragraph, that's all me. But all that didn't stop me from eating meat like no other. It just got me going to Popeyes instead of KFC, to be honest. I could continue to joke and tease and rag on vegetarianism (not that I really do), and five minutes after seeing a pig get torn up and skinned alive I could still go for a hot dog. No, it's not the animal abuse that got me, though that shit's got to stop. I'd just say, "Well, the cow suffered horrible pain and agony at the end of its life, but he made one HECK of a good hamburger! :D *munch munch* Now I can enjoy the benefits of his nutrition!"
...aaaaaand that's where I'm wrong. I'm only going to touch on this, because I don't have my actual sources on hand or the full facts that I can read off of, this is from what I can recall. But here's a short blurb to summarize:
In order to prevent disease and promote growth, the animals are given hormones, steroids, pesticides, and antibiotics. We, in turn, are ingesting hormones, steroids, pesticides, and antibiotics every time we eat meat. But it’s been hammered into our heads that we have to eat meat to get adequate protein and iron. The truth is, we can get all the protein and iron we need-minus all that fat and cholesterol-by eating fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and legumes. And these foods don’t pose health risks like mad cow disease, trichinosis, and bird flu. In addition, factory farming is literally destroying our environment, contributing to global warming, polluting our waterways, and wasting tons of valuable resources. When you add that to the fact that the animals suffer immeasurably, it’s hard to see the point of eating meat.
In addition, Americans all eat WAY more protein than actually necessary, because of our meat-crazed society. On average, people eat at least twice more protein than you actually need a day, though depending on who you ask, the necessary daily amount of protein is between 18 and 60 grams. Yet people eat, what, 200 grams in a hamburger? Iunno. But because of all the chemicals and junk you're ingesting by eating meat, it does more harm than good, especially since likliness is you're eating too much protein anyways.
Lastly, just because we can eat meat, doesn't mean our body is necessarily right for eating meat. For example, compare our bodies to those of actual carnivores. Our teeth and claws (hah, nails) are the first obvious failure, but moving beyond that, our digestive processes are completely different. Ours are perfect for passing fruits and veggies at lightning speeds and sucking as much nutrients from them as possible. Comparison time: Carnivores' saliva is highly acidic, specially made with enzymes to break down meat. Our saliva is just the opposite, it's very alkaline and does squat to start the meat digestion process. Next, humans have a very small amount of hydrochloric acid in our stomachs to break down the meat, however carnivores have over ten times the amount of hydrochloric acid in their stomachs to digest the food intended for them. Continuing, carnivores have very short intestinal tracts and are able to fully digest the meat more quickly and expel all the waste. However, humans' intestinal lining is super long, and unless you're pretty much constantly eating fiber or laxatives, a lot of the meat stays in your system and just sits there, fermenting, clogging up your inner plumbing. Does all you eat come out the other end? Often, not for a lot of people.
So, basically, that was the jist of why I'm thinking of being closet-vegetarian-y. It's not that difficult, and you can still get all the nutrients you need with a vegetarian diet. I'm just now less likely to get heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, etc. Why do I say "closet"? Because I don't plan on actually mentioning this to people beyond this, and I might also be brought into positions where eating meat is nearly inevitable (social outings, etc). Also, I'm not giving up fish. It rocks. I'm not convinced of any significant downsides to eating fish, and it's actually proven to be extremely healthy (omega 3 fatty acids!!), in ways unlike red meats.
THERE YOU HAVE IT! W00T! I ate a vegan burger today and it was pretty good with ketchup.
When you learn in-depth what you're putting in your mouth when you eat meat, poultry, and dairy, you learn of all the chemical by-products, steroids, and hormones put into EVERY piece of creature that goes into the market. By law. There's no way around it. Think of it, no glass of milk you ever drank wasn't loaded with drugs and steroids, so much so that it'd be equivalent as to taking the drugs yourself, and the calcium in the milk isn't enough to override all the cancer-causing, fat-producing, calcium leeching (because there's so much protein in it) hormones yourself. I'm going soy. Look up holistic nutrition, you'll see where I'm getting all this. The truth is, we can get adequate calcium from leafy greens, vegetables, raw nuts and seeds, and beans. And again, these foods come without the hormones, steroids, and antibiotics found in dairy.
I've heard so much about reasons why vegetarians go vegie. I think for most of them, they got so infuriated by the horrors of the meat industry and animal abuse that they didn't want to be part of such an evil system. They've seen videos and documentaries, read interviews and confessions of people in the factories and farms, they've read up on all the investigations of widespread, commonplace animal abuse and familiarized themselves with the angry legislation against it. What about me? What did I think of that? Is that what urged me to write the opening line of this entry?
Like heck. Doesn't phase me one bit. And it's not that I'm misinformed, I've seen tons of horrific footage, read up on investigative reporting and was most touched by the Kentucky Fried Cruelty movie because I love chickens so much. All that stuff in the previous paragraph, that's all me. But all that didn't stop me from eating meat like no other. It just got me going to Popeyes instead of KFC, to be honest. I could continue to joke and tease and rag on vegetarianism (not that I really do), and five minutes after seeing a pig get torn up and skinned alive I could still go for a hot dog. No, it's not the animal abuse that got me, though that shit's got to stop. I'd just say, "Well, the cow suffered horrible pain and agony at the end of its life, but he made one HECK of a good hamburger! :D *munch munch* Now I can enjoy the benefits of his nutrition!"
...aaaaaand that's where I'm wrong. I'm only going to touch on this, because I don't have my actual sources on hand or the full facts that I can read off of, this is from what I can recall. But here's a short blurb to summarize:
In order to prevent disease and promote growth, the animals are given hormones, steroids, pesticides, and antibiotics. We, in turn, are ingesting hormones, steroids, pesticides, and antibiotics every time we eat meat. But it’s been hammered into our heads that we have to eat meat to get adequate protein and iron. The truth is, we can get all the protein and iron we need-minus all that fat and cholesterol-by eating fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and legumes. And these foods don’t pose health risks like mad cow disease, trichinosis, and bird flu. In addition, factory farming is literally destroying our environment, contributing to global warming, polluting our waterways, and wasting tons of valuable resources. When you add that to the fact that the animals suffer immeasurably, it’s hard to see the point of eating meat.
In addition, Americans all eat WAY more protein than actually necessary, because of our meat-crazed society. On average, people eat at least twice more protein than you actually need a day, though depending on who you ask, the necessary daily amount of protein is between 18 and 60 grams. Yet people eat, what, 200 grams in a hamburger? Iunno. But because of all the chemicals and junk you're ingesting by eating meat, it does more harm than good, especially since likliness is you're eating too much protein anyways.
Lastly, just because we can eat meat, doesn't mean our body is necessarily right for eating meat. For example, compare our bodies to those of actual carnivores. Our teeth and claws (hah, nails) are the first obvious failure, but moving beyond that, our digestive processes are completely different. Ours are perfect for passing fruits and veggies at lightning speeds and sucking as much nutrients from them as possible. Comparison time: Carnivores' saliva is highly acidic, specially made with enzymes to break down meat. Our saliva is just the opposite, it's very alkaline and does squat to start the meat digestion process. Next, humans have a very small amount of hydrochloric acid in our stomachs to break down the meat, however carnivores have over ten times the amount of hydrochloric acid in their stomachs to digest the food intended for them. Continuing, carnivores have very short intestinal tracts and are able to fully digest the meat more quickly and expel all the waste. However, humans' intestinal lining is super long, and unless you're pretty much constantly eating fiber or laxatives, a lot of the meat stays in your system and just sits there, fermenting, clogging up your inner plumbing. Does all you eat come out the other end? Often, not for a lot of people.
So, basically, that was the jist of why I'm thinking of being closet-vegetarian-y. It's not that difficult, and you can still get all the nutrients you need with a vegetarian diet. I'm just now less likely to get heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, etc. Why do I say "closet"? Because I don't plan on actually mentioning this to people beyond this, and I might also be brought into positions where eating meat is nearly inevitable (social outings, etc). Also, I'm not giving up fish. It rocks. I'm not convinced of any significant downsides to eating fish, and it's actually proven to be extremely healthy (omega 3 fatty acids!!), in ways unlike red meats.
THERE YOU HAVE IT! W00T! I ate a vegan burger today and it was pretty good with ketchup.