The Vegetarian Myth

[liffy]

Definitely a good essay, as you say ST, there are limits to how much info one can pack into such a short text.

I find the panel of judges to be an interesting mix as well.

 

[Esote]

Awhile back the New York Times had an essay contest, asking people to ethically justify the eating of meat. This was the winner of that contest.
...
For me, eating meat is ethical when one does three things. First, you accept the biological reality that death begets life on this planet and that all life (including us!) is really just solar energy temporarily stored in an impermanent form. Second, you combine this realization with that cherished human trait of compassion and choose ethically raised food, vegetable, grain and/or meat. And third, you give thanks.

Worth sharing, thank you whitecoast

 

[Gonzo]

Awhile back the New York Times had an essay contest, asking people to ethically justify the eating of meat. This was the winner of that contest.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/magazine/the-ethicist-contest-winner-give-thanks-for-meat.html?_r=1
---snip---

I see Temple Grandin had also submitted an essay to the contest, which some might find interesting. For those unfamiliar, Dr. Grandin is an autistic animal health specialist perhaps most noted for re-engineering slaughter facilities to decrease animal stress. Since I find her fascinating, I was interested in reading her perspective on ethical meat. Her essay is published on the American Meat Institute Foundation's website at _http://www.amif.org/blog/eating-meat-is-ethical/.

Regards,
Gonzo

 

[whitecoast]

I found a hilarious article on the unpredictable trajectory from being omnivore to vegetarian to vegan to ex-vegan to anti-vegan.

http://letthemeatmeat.com/post/1672705117/the-utterly-predictable-trajectory-of-omnivore-to-vegan

OMNIVORE

1. Grow up on a crappy omnivore diet that
includes a lot of junk food and boring home-
cooked meals. In the suburbs, ideally. When
you meet your first vegan, ask where they get
their protein. Say you love cheese too much to
ever give it up. Convince yourself there was a
strip of leather somewhere on their shoes.

2. Realize how fucked up it is that animals
die so you can eat a McNugget. Go
vegetarian.

VEGETARIAN

3. Openly judge meat eaters. Anti-meat
militancy often peaks early as you distance your
new compassionate identity from your shameful
recent past. Lecture mom about the evil of
bacon while you pick the remnants of last night’s
Sloppy Joe out of your teeth.

4. Get annoyed when vegans say you’re
inconsistent for giving up meat but not dairy
and eggs. Make fun of those extremist vegans
with your meat eating pals to demonstrate how
comparatively sane you are.

5. Finally admit that vegetarianism is
inconsistent. You don’t eat meat because it
causes animal suffering and death, but dairy
and eggs cause animal suffering and death.
Experience cognitive dissonance. Go vegan.

VEGAN

6. Replace your old crappy diet with an
equally crappy vegan version, relying on fake
meats and fake cheese as you “transition.” If
you experience chronic tiredness, frequent
colds, depression, headaches or nosebleeds,
discover that it’s due to purifying your old
meaty ways. If you feel great, credit veganism.

7. Become so conditioned against eating
animal products that finding out there was
some butter in the biscuit you just ate
makes you nauseous. Cease to think of animal
products as food at all. Ask a vegetarian how
she stomachs all those nasty pus-filled cow
secretions and chicken periods. Call her
inconsistent.

8. Surround yourself with as many vegans as
possible. You’re sick of explaining where you
get your protein. You need a support group. Get
some vegan roommates and join an animal
rights student organization or a vegan message
board.

9. Get into cooking. Eating out is so difficult as
a vegan that learning to cook is essential. It’s
also the only way to know for sure that animal
products haven’t tainted your food. Buy
Veganomicon and Vegan With a Vengeance.
Make vegan cupcakes and call them “yummy.”
Dream of opening a vegan fast food chain.

10. Discover new (vegan) foods. Cutting out
multiple food groups forces you to explore all
the nooks and crannies of the groups you have
left. Express pity for omnivores who have never
tried wheat gluten, tempeh, millet, nutritional
yeast, quinoa, flax seed, spirulina or pumpkin
seed butter. Brag that your diet is more diverse
now than when you ate animal products.

11. Follow the healthiest (vegan) diet
possible. Cut back on mock meats and
processed vegan convenience foods in favor of
vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans and whole grains.
Agonize over the optimal milk replacement and
finally settle on almond milk. Have a green
smoothie for breakfast every morning.
Cautiously ponder if you may be immune to
cancer and heart attacks. Claim you never get
sick. Get sick.

12. Be surprised as your vegan friends
“regress,” becoming vegetarians and meat
eaters. Attribute it to lack of commitment and
their junk food vegan diets. Try and fail to
imagine yourself ever eating animal products
again. Call going vegan the best decision of your
life.

13. Make veganism a bigger part of your
identity. Hand out pamphlets exposing the
truth about factory farming to college students,
cook for Food Not Bombs, protest a zoo,
become a vegan dietitian, start a vegan blog, get
a job at a vegan restaurant or become a vegan
body builder to prove how healthy veganism is.

14. What’s with all the people saying you
look pale and sick? Write it off as anti-vegan
bias. Go to the dentist and find out you have
eight cavities.

15. Feel tired and depressed all the time,
get bored of vegan food and/or start to
question vegan ethics. If you feel unhealthy,
blame genetics or getting older, then buy a
dehydrator and eat more raw and fermented
foods. If it’s boredom, seek out even more
obscure vegan foods like hemp seed-based tofu
or “carnitas” made from young jackfruit. If you
start to doubt vegan arguments, watch the
animal torture porn classic Earthlings or read
something by Gary L. Francione. Consider
actually eating animals for a split second, then
feel guilty. Remember: it may or may not be
wrong to eat meat, but it’s definitely not wrong
to not eat meat. So stay vegan just to be safe.
Also, if you’ve never been a coffee drinker, now
is the time to start.

16. The cognitive dissonance returns as
veganism becomes a burden. How could the
perfect diet and philosophy be failing? Veganism
is forever… isn’t it? Realize veganism is a major
sacrifice and wonder where all the animals you
saved are. Previously your belief in the
wrongness of eating animals was so powerful
that it was easier to change what you did than
what you thought. Now you’re in such bad
shape that it’s easier to change your beliefs than
stay vegan.

17. Hesitantly try a little bit of fish, turkey,
cheese or boiled eggs. It tastes strange and
the texture is unnerving, and you can’t help but
imagine the ghost of the dead animal watching
with disapproval, but you’re so desperate that
you keep trying.

EX-VEGAN

18. Officially quit veganism. Wonder how you
ever went a day without meat, not to mention
years. Kick yourself for eating nothing but
cheeseless pizza and Maoz falafel during your
month in Paris. Go out to eat with your non-
vegan friends and truly enjoy it for the first time
you can remember. “Welcome back to
humanity,” they say. “It’s good to be back,” you
respond. Give up bread.

19. Get into humane meat and weird animal
parts that you never tried before going
vegan. Explain that your dollars promote
humane treatment of animals whereas vegans
opt out of the question all together.

20. Whenever you meet a vegan, think how
cute and naïve it is. Ask how long they’ve been
vegan. If it’s not as long as you lasted, give them
a patronizing smirk as you calculate how much
time they have left. If they’ve been vegan longer
than you made it, marvel at how demented they
must be to go beyond the point that all
reasonable people stop.

21. Learn from your vegan friends and
family members that you are a bad person
and did veganism wrong. Then learn from
strangers that you might not really exist, or that
you may be a saboteur from the meat industry.
Assuming you do exist: if only you had listened
to vegan dietitians Jack Norris and Virginia
Messina, you could still be vegan today. But you
didn’t, so fuck you and don’t respond to this
email.

22a. Stop thinking about veganism.

ANTI-VEGAN

22b. Write an anti-veganism book or blog

Maybe this could go on the Don't Panic page of SOTT or something...

 

[Manille]

Personally I am half vegetarian. What does it mean? :)

It happens I stay years without having the taste for eating meat. It never affected my health. On the contrary, I noticed I tend to be more in anger and tired when I am in meat diet. I practice run on the water and this is how I can notice it.

But people are doing what they want unless they are not pride themselves on doing, making the others feel inferior or things like that. And even, do these words would stop them to..?

 

[whitecoast]

Personally I am half vegetarian. What does it mean? :)

It happens I stay years without having the taste for eating meat. It never affected my health. On the contrary, I noticed I tend to be more in anger and tired when I am in meat diet. I practice run on the water and this is how I can notice it.

But people are doing what they want unless they are not pride themselves on doing, making the others feel inferior or things like that. And even, do these words would stop them to..?

Did you continue to eat wheat, dairy, and sugar while experimenting with meat-eating or vegetarianism? That could be why your health didn't benefit very much. FWIW.

The Life Without Bread thread and several others contain tons of information about what types of common foods pose the greatest health risks. It could be worth looking into if you're curious.

 

[Manille]

Yes I do, in both diet. I have time I don't eat bread for months. But I like cheese very much, so as for diary...
I don't drink milk, because my belly can't stand it. I am very careful for the sugar I buy and have quite a lot a day with coffee.

I thank you for your advice and will have a look on them.

 

[Nienna]

Personally I am half vegetarian. What does it mean? :)

It happens I stay years without having the taste for eating meat. It never affected my health. On the contrary, I noticed I tend to be more in anger and tired when I am in meat diet. I practice run on the water and this is how I can notice it.

Just because you do not notice any health affects now doesn't mean you won't in the future. Gluten and dairy take some time to show the affects they have on health. Gluten sensitivity caused many different health problems - physical, mental and emotional. And that is not just wheat, but all types of grains.

 

[MK Scarlett]

Personally I am half vegetarian. What does it mean? :)

It happens I stay years without having the taste for eating meat. It never affected my health. On the contrary, I noticed I tend to be more in anger and tired when I am in meat diet. I practice run on the water and this is how I can notice it.

Just because you do not notice any health affects now doesn't mean you won't in the future. Gluten and dairy take some time to show the affects they have on health. Gluten sensitivity caused many different health problems - physical, mental and emotional. And that is not just wheat, but all types of grains.

Completely agree with Nienna Eluch. I also was a vegetarian (as others people here) during four years until last September after have discovered the Laura's work. Actually, it was by reading the Wave 1 during the summer than I realised I had certainly make a mistake for bad reasons. I also believed all was great for me, no health matter, I thought. But when I look at me objectively today, I HAD some health problems: , memory, excitability, teeths, joints, skin, headashes, etc.

After some months of paleo-diet and now in KD-diet, those problems mentionned above are disappearing for some and have disappeared for others. Without mention all the others profits which I had ever expected during the last months.
I would believe these advices might give you the wanting to understand how our "machine: body/brain" does work you should be surprised as I was and always am. ;)

 

[Hildegarda]

It happens I stay years without having the taste for eating meat. It never affected my health.

Just because you do not notice any health affects now doesn't mean you won't in the future.

I also think that people have different ideas about what it means, when something affects their health. As a vegetarian, you may feel that both your body and your mind feel light, and it makes moderate exercise pleasant while you are loaded on carbs. OK. But, is it really that great? Are you strong, can you do physical labor day in and day out without crashing? Do you withstand cold, or do you shiver at every draft? How is your mood if you are not exercising or munching on something? How's your dental health? I have a friend who is very proud of being a runner and a raw-food vegetarian, and considers herself very healthy. Then she lets slip that she has mood swings, her back is out, and her dentist's bills are killing her. But, she feels she is doing great, not noticing that how she feels is due to sugar and exercise-induced endorphine rushes. And nothing else.

 

[Laura]

Plus, how long can you go without eating at all while still maintaining strength, clarity and function? Can you do well on very minimal amounts of food?

 

[Mrs.Tigersoap]

If one cares about their health more than about their cravings (sugar, dairy, wheat), then, as a vegetarian, you quickly realize that vegetarianism is just not viable. I know because just a few years ago, and as the data on this forum and from the books we were reading began to surface, I was spending hours trying to find stuff to eat that was gluten-, dairy-, anti-nutrients-free while remaining a vegetarian and could not find anything! Talk about trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. I had been an 'ovo-lacto' vegetarian for about 17 years.

Sure, I was in good health. That is, if you did not take into account that since going vegetarian (for ethical reasons), I had put on 33 pounds (lost as soon as I stopped being a vegetarian), my skin was dry as hell (still recovering, getting better with all the fat and omega 3 I'm eating), had the utmost difficulty gaining muscle mass, was always tired at 11 am, 5 pm, had allergies and colds all year long, etc. My husband, also a vegetarian, was as skinny as ever, but was in an almost constant depression. But we had to quit being vegetarians to actually realize all this.

Many vegetarians talk about being less aggressive and angry than when they were eating meat. This is simply not true: just tell a vegan that eating animals is good for you and delicious and you'll see how angry and aggressive a vegan can become! Some might not react at all, maybe because they no longer have the stamina and strength to do so :D

Joking aside, when you are actually fed, truly nourished by wholesome fat and protein, it is probably one of the greatest comfort you can get (that and the love of your friends and family) in this world, imo. And this, I found, is a great reason to be content and having no reason to get angry for trivial things. It's easier to be cool-headed when you're not inflamed by grains and anti-nutrients (which vegetarians get loads of on a daily basis) and not going through withdrawal several times a day. Personally, I found I am much calmer since going paleo than in all my years as a vegetarian. But that's me.

 

[Manille]

Personally I am half vegetarian. What does it mean? :)

It happens I stay years without having the taste for eating meat. It never affected my health. On the contrary, I noticed I tend to be more in anger and tired when I am in meat diet. I practice run on the water and this is how I can notice it.

Just because you do not notice any health affects now doesn't mean you won't in the future. Gluten and dairy take some time to show the affects they have on health. Gluten sensitivity caused many different health problems - physical, mental and emotional. And that is not just wheat, but all types of grains.

There are so many factors that could make a person ill later in the life. How could you know about them precisely?
A majestic example for me: My great grand mother that was vegetarian died at 91 and a lot of people that are eating meat every day are dying under 50...
So you see, I listen to my body. This is the best barometer for me.
Not what rules impose me. Rules can always be broken.

 

[mcb]

There are so many factors that could make a person ill later in the life. How could you know about them precisely?
...

Working alone, it is difficult. Being under the influence of a group or movement that takes a position and discourages questioning makes it even more difficult (which I say as a former "religious vegan"). Working within a group of people that actually want to discover the underlying reality can make it much easier.

 

[Tigersoap]

There are so many factors that could make a person ill later in the life. How could you know about them precisely?
A majestic example for me: My great grand mother that was vegetarian died at 91 and a lot of people that are eating meat every day are dying under 50...

Hi Manille,
It's a human trait that we tend to find the data that will reinforce our beliefs as to not become uncomfortable with ourselves and the reality around us.
Keep reading the forum, you might find that it opens up doors you did not even know existed before ;)