For the most part it makes me sad.

I believe than humans will eventually evolve to not eat other animals. If “killing animals for food are only natural” then we would buy them alive and fresh from our market surely. And we would all have no fear or guilt to slaughter it in our back yard right?

Its easy to make a personal choice and say: ” I don’t have a problem with it and i eat it in moderation” But the days of moderation for one individual making a difference are long gone. There are 6 billion people on earth. Most of them eat meat. These animals are bred purely for food , if you can still call them animals, as i don’t believe, with all the growth hormones and other chemicals they are pumped up with it still allows for them to be called animals.

People are just too lazy to do the right thing. Everything your body needs you can get without eating meat. Its a fact proven over and over!

I don’t eat meat , cos i’m not savage.

Would you eat your pet dog or cat? Kill it, cut off it’s skin and fry it ?

Please evolve and become smarter already – stupid human race!

Anyhoo, my point.

Humans are part of nature, therefore, by definition, whatever we do is natural and will be compensated for in the long run.

Secondly, we are omnivores. If we were carnivores, would we be having this bleeding heart row over the eating of the omnivores?

Tbh, whatever floats your boat. Eat rice cakes all you want, in fact, I will happily fight for your right to eat veggie.

Just acknowledge the fact you are denying your system essential nutrients, and that you have to take supplements to balance out that lack.

Cheers

C

Thanks for the continued comments all!

I think this issue really speaks to the need to prioritize what is going on in one’s life at the time. I do struggle with some of the health issues that Christine refers to above and, for now, I have resigned myself to the fact that a vegetarian diet just doesn’t make sense for me to follow if I want to get my health on track (which I do!). While this decision feels emotionally hard for the part of me that loves animals and doesn’t want to harm them in anyway, at this time, it has to be more important for my overall well-being. I hope in the future to be able to make a different decision when my health is in a different place. These issues are complex multi-factorial and the only way I have found to make sense of them is to realize what my greatest priority is at the time and go in that direction.

Thanks so much for the article Carlo!

I gave up soy when I found out I was allergic to it, and so ate mostly brown rice, quinoa, nuts, some beans, and tons and tons of veggies. The thing that I didn’t learn until I got into my nutrition program was how hard it is to actually digest grains and beans. They have a protective coating called phytates that is nature’s way of making sure they survive animal’s (and our) digestive acids, come out the other end, to be replanted in the earth (and causing gas along the way–naturally, the are found in highest amounts in beans). Hence soaking and sprouting, which removes the phytates and lets us get at the nutrients inside.

Up until the advent of the modern food system, grains were always soaked before they were baked into bread. Some people actually think that is why celiac has become such an epidemic in the past few years–wheat is actually poisonous to our bodies if it hasn’t gone through the chemical shift of being soaked or sprouted. A good book on the old ways of cooking grains and beans properly is Nourishing Traditions.

Soy, along with being an estrogen mimicker, is also extremely high in phytates. Phytates also act as a chelating agent (great if you have cancer, not good if you are healthy because it takes vitamins and minerals out of your body). Therefore, if a person’s diet is high in foods that are high in phytates, they have a hard time both getting to the nutrients inside, and keeping the ones they already have, unless they go through the soaking and sprouting process.

In healthy individuals with strong stomachs, high in hydrochloric acid, it usually isn’t a problem, at least not for a while. Anyone with any sort of a compromised immune system (this even includes allergies, which most people don’t recognize), it’s not a good idea.

I actually believe it is a good idea for some people to go vegetarian–and even vegan–for periods of time. Too much testosterone? Go veggie for a while. You’ll chill out. Fast food junkie? Go veggie. I also think it’s perfectly healthy to go your entire life without eating beef (just watch b12 and iron levels).

But I think it is hard, for women in particular, living in a society where we have plastics that mimic estrogen, we have stress levels that constantly upset our digestive system, dairy is one of the top allergies, and we all undoubtedly consume foods that are immune system killers and feed the yeast in our bodies we don’t want fed–sugar, caffeine, alcohol–that it is hard to be completely vegetarian (no fish or eggs) throughout one’s life and not feel some repercussions. I’ve seen too many women clients and colleagues go through it to not feel this way.

@Christine – re: your points about soy, etc. I do agree that veganism probably isn’t healthy in the long run. (I also think that avoiding leather and other animal products in clothing is simply a luxury that people in most climates can’t afford.) But I disagree about vegetarianism being unhealthy. I think a big part of the problem is the commodification of veggie/vegan products as this has become such a popular “lifestyle” – with soy cheese, soy ice cream, soy turkey slices, and all that sort of stuff for sale at crazy prices. Yes, particularly for women you’ll get into trouble with all that soy. But none of that stuff existed when I was growing up veggie in Saskatchewan in the ’80s (tofutti? ha!) and my family ate the way peasants who can’t afford meat have eaten for millennia around the world. We ate a lot of pulses and complex grains, along with plenty of veggies and some dairy. I can assure you I always had plenty of energy. I was an extraordinarily healthy kid, and still am a very healthy adult, despite never having had a bite of beef or pork in my life.