What does it mean to become a vegetarian? What do vegetarians eat? According to New Oxford American dictionary, vegetarian refers to a person who does not eat meat.1 Vegetarians do not consume meat of all kinds of animals, may it be fish, pork or beef. Although, they tend to also include egg and poultry to their diet. Generally, there are three types of vegetarians: the lacto-vegetarians, they consume dairy products but not eggs; the ovo-vegetarians, consume eggs but not not dairy products; and the lacto-ovo-vegetarian, consume both eggs and dairy products. 2 Aside from the three types of vegetarians, there are other two variety: vegans, they are total vegetarians, do not consume products derived from animals, even dairy products, egg or gelatin; another is the partial-vegetarian, they avoid meat but may eat fish or poultry.3 Today, vegetarian friendly establishments like restaurants and grocery stores as well as recipes are made available to anyone. It is more accessible to anyone who is just curious and especially to those who decided adapt the diet to their lifestyle. There are many factors that can contribute to why people consider becoming a vegetarian such as animal welfare, a healthy lifestyle and environmental awareness.
Animal welfare is one of the main factors that drive people to become vegetarians. Vegetarians are coined to have a heart for animals. They disapprove the consumption of animals because of the way the workers in the animal farms or factories have mistreated the animals. They believe that if they do not support these products, there will be a big decline on the maltreatment of animals. In the production of foie gras, a famous French delicacy, ducks are force-fed with corn boiled in fat which makes the ducks produce more fat in the liver. Thus, producing the buttery consistency the people are after.4 As a consequence, an inflation of the liver occurs, as well as an expansion of their abdomen making it difficult for the ducks to walk, if the force-feeding continues it might scar the duck’s esophagus and even cause their death.5 Another reason why vegetarians do not support the consumption of meat is because of the over slaughtering of animals. Big supplier of pork, chickens and other meat dealers are profit-oriented, neglecting the welfare of animals. Most of these meat dealers would slaughter animals more that what the suppliers have asked for, hoping that in some way they can still sell the meat and earn a little bit more. Over-slaughtering of animals results in the decrease of their kind, even if there are no threats of extinction, they can still be heavily affected in the long run. The most concrete example is the tunas, there used to be a big amount of tunas in the waters of the Philippines but because most fishermen want to earn extra, they would catch more, even the young tunas thus, resulting in the great decrease of their kind because they cannot reproduce anymore.
Similarly, most people aspire to become healthy. In our current time and age, with the rising popularity of the fast food chains, microwavable food and everything else instant, people have become more and more unconscious and careless of their food intake, all they want is for them not be bothered or hassled by cooking and preparing their food. Consequently, the number one problem of the Americans is obesity; they even call it an obesity plague because of the rapidly growing number of Americans who are suffering from obesity. According to the CNBC report:
“Nearly two-thirds of American adults are either overweight or obese. Childhood obesity is triple what it was a generation ago.”6
In addition, the heart disease also ranks top as another killer in America, caused by the cholesterol and saturated fat build up in our arteries from the animal meat we consume.7 There are also many other diseases that the vegetarian diet can somehow lower the risk of acquiring such diseases like cancer and stroke whose causes are also directly related to meat diets.8
The last main benefit of becoming a vegetarian is the that, people become more environmentally aware. Vegetarians are not necessarily environmentalists but they acknowledge the imbalance that people cause in the ecosystem. The meat-industry collectively imbalances the entire eco-system through: air pollution, water pollution and even land pollution. The meat-industries all over the world are contaminating and poisoning our water, especially those industries near rivers and or lakes. With water pollution, we are harming ourselves and land animals, by hampering us from fresh clean water for drinking and for other use.
In summary, although there are many possible reasons why people become vegetarians, may it be for their health, even if its just a means to detoxify themselves from the toxins they have acquired from all the buffets they have been to during the holidays, by adapting the vegetarian diet, people are becoming good stewards of themselves and of the environment. With regard to animal welfare, not only will we save the lives of animals in danger, we will also make better their habitat and bring back the balance in the ecosystem and also recuperate the population of some animals that already have threats of extinction. By choosing to live healthy, we lessen our risk of many harmful diseases caused by animal meat. We also improve our digestion and even increase our lifespan. Finally, through the vegetarian diet, we preserve and help the environment; giving the generations to have a chance to live and prosper in a healthier and cleaner habitat.
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Sources:
1New Oxford American Dictionary 2nd edition © 2005 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
2 (2009). Becoming a vegetarian. Harvard Health Publications, Retrieved from http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Womens_Health_Watch/2009/October/becoming-a-vegetarian
3 (2009). Becoming a vegetarian. Harvard Health Publications, Retrieved from http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Womens_Health_Watch/2009/October/becoming-a-vegetarian
4 Foie gras controversy (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved August 12, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foie_gras_controversy
5 Foie gras controversy (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved August 12, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foie_gras_controversy
6 Wapner, S. (n.d.). One nation overweight. Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/id/36073283
7 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, (2011). High blood cholesterol: what you need to know (05-3290). Retrieved from NIH Publication website: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/chol/wyntk.htm
8 (2009). Becoming a vegetarian. Harvard Health Publications, Retrieved from http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Womens_Health_Watch/2009/October/becoming-a-vegetarian
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