Vegetarians Explained

Vegan or not to vegan. That is the question.

 My aunt, uncle, and cousins are vegan, and they are one of the reasons why I became vegetarian in the first place. 

Ever since I was little I have heard the controversy of veganism. Is it good for you? Is it not?

Let’s start off with what being vegan entails exactly. According to Google, it is “the practice of eating only food not derived from animals and typically of avoiding the use of other animal products.” Fun fact: some vegans don’t even eat honey.

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Veganism has many benefits such as preventing cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, and arthritis. It also helps maintain blood pressure and improve digestion. Like all plant based diets entail, becoming vegan means it is essential to take vitamins, whether it is B12, iron, zinc, or calcium. (I know I forgot to take my vitamins when I’m cranky.) 

Some vegans eat meat-less products such “chicken-less nuggets,” “impossible burgers,” or even tofu, condensed soy milk pressed into blocks of different firmness, created by a process similar to cheesemaking.  Julia Zumpano, a registered dietician explains, “[it’s] best to avoid chicken-less nuggets and plant burgers except for rare occasions when your options are limited.” This is due to the fact that they all contain soy. 

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Even though soy seems nutritious from the outside, I would consider all the facts. Soy contains isoflavones, which function as phytoestrogens (they attach to estrogen receptors in your body). Isoflavones are beneficial as they improve tiredness, irritability, decrease hot flashes, lower your risk of diabetes, and reduce the “bad” cholesterol (LDL) as well as total cholesterol. 

However, isoflavones can have some negative effects as they are likely to increase and worsen breast cancer, potentially lower immune response, cause Kawasaki disease, harm the developing reproductive system, and have negative effects when taken with medications. In addition to isoflavones, soy has antinutrients that lower your body’s ability to absorb nutrients from food.

Soy has its ups and downs, but it isn’t at the heart of veganism. There are many other options that can serve as substitutes for soy products and protein such as beans, nuts, quinoa, grains, and so much more. 

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To sum it all up, going plant based doesn’t just help your health but it also prevents the harm and distress of animals. There are numerous benefits from becoming vegan or vegetarian, I just wouldn’t be eating a whole tofurky by yourself anytime soon. 

In school, do you remember when a guest speaker came and shed light on the issues surrounding global warming and energy saving, essentially guilt tripping you as I am now? 

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I still remember in 8th grade when the speaker at my school said that we truly don’t need to put water on your toothbrush before you brush your teeth. After that “talk”, I never put water on my toothbrush ever again (before brushing my teeth).

Ever since 8th grade, I have learned a couple of things. One of them being that the people who talked to the class advocated for the wrong solutions to these problems surrounding energy and global warming. 

Did you know that in 2006, the UN said that raising animals produces even more carbon emissions than ALL of the cars and trucks in the world put together?

Regardless, there are many more gasses that contribute to global warming than carbon alone such as: methane, ammonia, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, nitrogen trifluoride. The livestock industry is a huge factor as it generates 64% of the ammonia in our atmosphere, which severely contributes to acid rain. 

We are poisoning ourselves by polluting our own water sources; the main factor of this pollution is animal waste from the meat industry. All of the hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides enter our water, destroy topsoil, contaminate the air, harm ecosystems, hurt aquatic life, and impact humans. 

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Pollutants from the meat industry come back to haunt us, whether it is disintegrating the quality of our water, contaminating other food sources, or destroying the oceans.

The meat industry is also a huge contributor to deforestation. Just think: less than 30% of the world is land and 30% of that 30% is used for livestock grazing. We could be using that land to preserve our planet and the species that live there, but it is used to raise animals for a mere couple years before they are slaughtered. 

The resources to murder these innocent animals and feed them to the public are astronomically greater than the resources used for a plant-based diet as it requires 13,000-100,000 liters of water to produce a kilo of beef, while it only takes 1,000-2,000 liters to produce a kilo of wheat. 

Our population is predicted to rise to 9.7 billion by 2050 and with no changes, we will need an equivalent of 3 planets to meet our resource needs. We have to change as a society to save ourselves and our planet. 

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Choosing a plant-based diet allows you to focus on sustainability and reduce the amount of resources you indirectly use up. By becoming vegetarian for a single year, you can save the same amount of emissions as taking a small family car off the road for 6 months. Think of the impact. Think of the animals you can save. Think of the people you can save.

Signing off,

Kameron

Throughout our lives our diets are constantly influenced, whether it is the commercials where we can’t resist the crispiness of Wendy’s French fries, dinners our parents cook, or our friends bringing us snacks. Regardless, now is the time to truly focus on what food we are putting into our bodies. 

According to Ann Wigmore, “the food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine, or the slowest form of poison.” During my time on the high school swim team, my coach always said to eat healthy, and I soon found out why. I learned the hard way that if I ate bad, I felt bad. Ann Wigmore’s quote emphasizes the importance of eating and the significant impacts it can have on how you feel each and every day. 

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Ann’s message is seen in her quote and her life story. She was born in Lithuania in 1909, and, growing up, she learned the healing properties of plants; she soon moved to the U.S when she turned 16. However, throughout her lifetime, the stress and the “American diet” slowly “poisoned” her health. When Ann was 50, she was diagnosed with colon cancer and the doctors told her she only had 6 months to live. It was only after then that she reflected on the medicinal factors of food and started eating grains, raw foods, and vegetables. In time, she recovered, started research, and created numerous health institutes. 

Ann was just one example of the impact and health benefits of a plant-based diet. Overall, vegetarianism can reduce the risk of chronic illnesses, and, in Ann’s case, cure them. Some of these chronic illnesses include heart disease, as a trial was conducted that showed vegetarians were “25% less likely to die from heart disease.” In addition, it reduces LDL cholesterol, lowers blood pressure, BMI, dementia, and your risk for cancer.

These benefits only are a result of those who are conscious of their eating habits and are not vegetarians in the way of those who splurge on only chips, soda, and ice cream day in and day out. Like all aspects of life, everything is good… in moderation. No matter how many times your doctor says it, fruits and vegetables are essential to your health. 

Being vegetarian has countless benefits and has even performed miracles, as seen with Ann, when taking advantage of greens. However, it all starts with you. As Jim Rohn says, “take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.”

Signing off,

Kameron

A victim. That’s what I was. 

8 years ago, I fell prey to a hungry documentary. During 2016, I remember sitting on the couch mortified, watching a documentary talking about the realities of American eating habits. Every single time I watched one, I would feel disturbed, grossed out, and guilty about what I put into my body as it talked about the mass consumption of meat that occurs in the U.S.

Throughout my life I’ve been able to live both sides, whether it is being vegetarian or a meat-lover. This has made a significant difference in the way I view life itself. 

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After I gave up meat, I suddenly began to feel better. What was even weirder was that my mom felt the same way. Before, she had a hard time standing up after sitting on the couch, but, now, she can do it with ease. After some research, I found that regularly eating red meat raises the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and even colon cancer. What is even crazier is that the source of these illnesses originated from factory farms and the horrendous conditions the animals go through. These poor animals are injected with antibiotics to make them grow faster. Due to the close knit spaces these animals experience, many diseases are passed around within their short lifetime; eventually, they are transferred to us.

For example, think of the last time you bought a pack of chicken for a barbeque or to make your family’s secret recipe of chicken alfredo. 1 in every 25 packages of chicken that you buy contains salmonella, according to the CDC. Think of feeding that to your grandma, your brothers and sisters, or even your parents.  

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Even though plant-based diets can easily negate these meaty issues, there are some drawbacks, like there is to anything. One of its drawbacks is that you could have potential nutritional deficiencies. However, this only means that you need to start becoming more aware of your daily vitamin intake, whether it is Vitamin B12, Vitamin D, or Iron. 

Other than that, a plant based diet has many benefits as it lowers your risk for disease, helps the lives of many animals, and is environmentally friendly. 

Introducing a plant-based diet to your life opens a whole new world up to you. It could change your life as it changed mine. Then, and only then, can stop falling victim to the documentaries.

 

Signing off,

Kameron

Did you know that every second 266 animals are slaughtered, which adds up to around 13.8 billion animals per year? An average person in their lifetime consumes: 4,500 fish, 2,400 chickens, 80 turkeys, 30 sheep, 27 pigs and 11 cows: 7,000 souls. Think of how many animals each of us can save if we put the lives of innocent beings before our comfort and satisfaction.

The outside of a factory farm looks like a regular old building, but the inside is a horror house consumed with mass murdering. 

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Chickens are genetically engineered to have larger bodies and grow rapidly, so they can harvest them for more meat. However, most of the time, their legs and organs can’t keep up with the growth of their bodies, so they suffer from heart attacks and leg deformities. While chickens grow up, they are confined to cages, the size of a piece of printer paper, and never see the light of day until they are slaughtered. Slaughtered 42 days after their life began, the chickens are stunned by being dunked into electrified water. Then, their throats are slit. As you know, all animals experience countless emotions, such as love, jealousy, fear, and pain. Many chickens are afraid during this process and lift up their heads from the water. This causes them not to be properly stunned and die a slow, painful destressing death, drowning in their own blood.

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This doesn’t even begin to mention the horrors that cows or pigs experience.

Normally, cows can live up to 20 years old. However, factory farms kill milk cows after they stop producing milk, only 3 to 4 years after their birth. Then, they are shot in the brain by a retractable gun, hoisted up by their legs, and their throat is slit. While milk cows experience more years of life, male cows are less lucky and are killed at only 15 to 28 months old. 

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Why aren’t there laws against these horrible things? Sadly, there are, but it isn’t what you think. It is called the Humane Slaughter Act. I never thought there would be an oxymoron in an official Act. What is humane about slaughtering? Anyway, this act ensures animals are stunned before they are killed. However, chickens are not currently recognized under this act and are the most abused animals in the factory farm industry. In addition, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service passed a ruling that allowed factory farms to monitor its own compliance to inspection regulations. There were even laws passed (“ag-gag” laws) that punish those who try to uncover the atrocities of these slaughter houses and make it a crime to take photos or videos in the factory farm, without the owner’s permission.

Factory farms are a sad topic, but necessary to understand the full picture of our ignorance as a society and the severity of our actions.

So what exactly can we do to stop factory farms? There may not be much we can do to legally fight against factory farms, but we can stand up and protest, sign petitions, and buy organic foods. We can save lives each and every day through our eating habits and actions.

Signing off,

Kameron

This week, we are going to take a deep dive into the history of vegetarianism, but first, I want to cover the different types of vegetarianism. 

Generally, a vegetarian is a person who consumes a plant based diet and does not eat any animal flesh. An ovo-lacto vegetarian is very similar to a vegetarian, with the exception of consuming eggs and dairy. However, a vegan does not eat any animal based products, including honey, eggs, and dairy. 

At the beginning of the 6th century, Hinduism and Buddhism were created, which is where plant-based diets took root within humanity. Similarly, on the other side of the world, some Greek citizens, who followed the Orphic Mysteries religion, also took part in this way of life. As a result, they consumed nuts, seeds, fruits, and wild cereals. It wasn’t until the New Stone Age that dairy products were consumed and vegetarianism originated.

(For those of you who are unfamiliar with the practice of Orphism, they are a set of practices and beliefs as well as practice, which are based on Orpheus, a poet, musician, and prophet in Greek mythology. Their goal was to escape the cycle of reincarnation and “achieve eternal bliss.”)

Even though many such as the Hindus, Buddhists, and followers of Orphic Mysteries came before him, Pythagoras is credited for being the father of ethical vegetarianism.

Soon after Pythagoras, vegetarianism disappeared within the Middle Ages, but it reappeared in the Renaissance Era as well as the Age of Enlightenment.

Many years later, Upton Sinclair wrote the Jungle and displayed the unsanitary practices in the meat-packing industry, the challenges of immigrants trying to assimilate, and the corruption of the upper class, all within 1905. From the release of this book, the US Food and Drug Administration and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 were born.

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In the 1990s, the media viewed vegetarians and vegans as hippies who were extremely skinny and unhealthy. It has taken many years for most prejudices against vegetarians and vegans to dissipate. Regardless, some still exist as my family had a difficult time with me going vegetarian, but they accepted my decision over time. 

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The media skews information a certain way based on the opinions of the people presenting the media – similar to how they presented plant-based diets. However, recent research suggests that vegetarianism reduces risks of numerous diseases. Today, many partake in this diet for various reasons: ethical, logical, and social issues.

Throughout history, plant-based diets were vastly different, but they have evolved into what we know today. We are lucky to have many options that allow us to have the option of saving our animals, our environment, and our health.

Signing off,

Kameron

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Have you ever seen a commercial played on the glossy tv screen? What about the one promoting a dog shelter that showcases the struggling dogs, who almost look like there is an ocean full of sadness within their eyes? What if I told you that they do not only look that way, but they actually experience sadness. Dogs and all other animals express countless emotions: anger, fear, happiness, empathy, pride, pain, and numerous others. 

Emotions within dogs are parallel to emotions within humans. They help us learn, grow, and survive; they help us avoid negative circumstances and embrace positive ones. According to a Ted Talk, emotions are guesses our brain makes that predict how we would feel based on our surroundings. However, society boxes animals in, deems them emotionless, and fit to murder.  

Many do not believe that animals have emotions or are sentient beings. However, that is contrary to the facts. Even Pythagoras and Charles Darwin believed that animals have a full range of emotions. 

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Just recently, researchers have seen sentience in the most unlikely of places: within fish, proving they feel both fear and pain. Throughout my childhood, I could see emotions flashing through my dog’s eyes: the way they became jealous of each other when one of them received a treat the other didn’t, the way they became excited in the moments before I would take them for a walk, and the way they became angry after I gave each of them a bubble bath. I experienced their emotions with them, and they heavily influenced my decision to become vegetarian (as seen in the previous blog). There are numerous other examples of scenarios of emotions within animals: dolphins that have mourned the death of members in their pod, dogs comforting humans that undergo trauma, a mama bear avenging the death of her cub, and chickens playing with each other. How can we say that they can’t feel anything when the evidence is right at the tip of our nose? 

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Our society has taught us to choose ignorance instead of facing the truth and severity of the situation: we kill these beings that are much like you and me. As children, we were taught to disregard where our meals come from, but, as the population grows and the meat industry rises, we must choose to face our impact on the wellbeing of other animals; we must recognize the pain and damage we cause. 

Signing off,

Kameron

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How old were you when you experienced your earliest memory? Studies show that consciousness begins in children, starting at five months old. My story of becoming vegetarian stems from the earliest time I remember. At three years old, I remember sitting on the black, wooden chairs of my kitchen counter with my elbows laying on the marble island. I peacefully ate my chicken nuggets, unknowing of the despair that would soon come. That day, my mom finally decided it was time she shared with me the truth of human consumption habits: we eat animals. In my early childhood, I could not fathom the relationship between chicken nuggets and the animal that I knew so well from the song “Old Macdonald Had a Farm.” It shocked me, to say the least. However, like every other child when their parents bestowed this information upon them, I brushed it off.  

That same year, I met my childhood best friend, who was vegetarian. Whenever we would eat together I would always say, “I would eat like you, but I love meat too much.” 

As humans, we choose to ignore the consequences to our actions to maintain a positive image of ourselves. I thought I was a good person, even though I was indirectly killing thousands of animals every year. 

Why exactly does society have negative opinions about vegetarians when they attempt to better society, help animals, or improve their health? In my mind, I always thought consuming meat products was the superior lifestyle, since it is a staple within our society and corresponds to “strength” and “muscle building.” However, it could not be further from the truth. 

I adopted my dogs, Albert and Dixie in 2nd grade. As I grew up, I witnessed their emotions and interactions with each other. This became a significant aspect in me becoming vegetarian.

 

My fate was sealed by the end of middle school. When the leaves coated the ground, I hopped on an airplane, flew to Nebraska, and visited my aunt for Thanksgiving. There, my mom and I experienced a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner, proving that vegetarianism and deliciousness were not mutually exclusive. Throughout the week, my aunt showed me her ways, and I discovered countless possibilities. As I delved into her cookbooks, I discovered a world of countless recipes that allowed me to see vegetables in a new light. 

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The next year, I finally acquired the last stepping stone on my journey to be vegetarian, my support system. With the support of my mom, I finally embodied who I was meant to become. Vegetarianism roots me to my core values, strengthens my beliefs, and contains the basis of who I am and always will be.

Signing off,

Kameron