Being vegetarian isn’t easy and it takes time and effort to prevent yourself from becoming a junk food vegetarian. By this, I mean eating crappy snacks and things because it is harder to make a full meal or find something filling. I was a junk food vegetarian for a while and managed to get about 40 pounds heavier than I wanted to be. Stopping the constant junk food snacking is essential to keeping fit and healthy.
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I’m going to start a regular segment called Eating Vegetarian Without Cooking. By “without cooking” I mean simple meals that can be made quickly either with no cooking at all or by using a microwave or toaster oven. I never have much time for cooking, and with three small kids I have learned a few things about feeding people (myself included) quickly, simply, and vegetarian.
The avocado is an awesome fruit – yes, it is a fruit and not a vegetable. It has been maligned recently because of the fat content, but you absolutely should be eating avocado. The fat it does have is the monounsaturated kind and everything about the avocado – including the fat – is really healthy.
Now that you know my story of how I became a vegetarian, this follow-up looks at why I have continued this lifestyle. I strongly believe that not eating animals is the single most important thing anyone can do to help save our planet. Eating animals contributes to the terrible suffering of animals, personal bad health, the obesity epidemic, and the worsening of our planet. It is completely spot on to say “go vegetarian, save the world”! I’ll kick this off with an excellent quote from Paul McCartney on GoVeg.com.
Animals as Meat
I strongly believe that there would be many more vegetarians if people were more aware and involved in the process of turning animals into food. If people had to witness or participate in the slaughter of animals it would make them think differently. Having to see a carcass cut up and turned into “food” would make people stop and think about it. Today it is just far too easy to get meat wrapped up in nice cellophane packages or order burgers from fast food places. Chicken fingers and nuggets are so far removed from the suffering of those poor birds. Chickens are the most abused animals on the planet and their treatment and lives is stunningly sad if you are aware of it. This chicken story at goveg.com has more details.
If you missed it from my last post, be sure to check out PETA’s calculator that tells you how many animals you have saved (if you already are vegetarian) and how many you can save in your lifetime if you continue to avoid eating meat.
If you need some further convincing, please check out some of the terrible undercover video that has been shot inside slaughter houses. The video at meat.org is a great starting place and they have links to other videos.
Health
Being vegetarian is just plain healthier. People are not designed to eat meat. Animals that eat meat have very short digestive tracts so the meat doesn’t stay in them long and have the chance to rot. Ours on the other hand is over 20 feet long! Do you really want that animal carcass slowly moving through your intestines and decaying as it goes? Also, meat eaters have sharp teeth at the front of their mouth to tear the flesh, which we humans lack. If none of that convinces you, try it and see for yourself. I suspect you will feel lighter without the heavy weight of meat going through you. My daughter was accidentally served spaghetti with meat sauce once when she was about 4 and her body almost instantly rejected it and she threw it all up. This was before she or we realized the mistake, so it was purely her body talking!
Environment
Being a vegetarian is great for the environment. Raising animals for food is extremely resource-intensive. Eating lower on the food chain is a great way to do your part to save the environment. I have a great post from Earth Day that covers the terrible environmental impact.
For me it started out as a personal health thing, but over time all three of these reasons – personal health, animal cruelty, and the environment – have all become excellent reasons that justify why I have continued to be a vegetarian and why I don’t forsee changing for the rest of my life.
I recently realized that the story of how I became a vegetarian and why I am still a vegetarian after 17 years would make a good article. I’ll start with how I became a vegetarian and follow it up with why I’ve remained vegetarian. Hopefully you find this at least entertaining, if not thought-provoking.
The Beginning
In my first year of college, my roomate was a vegan. This was in the early 90’s and the dorm cafeteria was terribly un-vegan friendly. For every meal, his only option was the salad bar and he usually had to pick out the bits of shredded cheese that had gotten mixed in with the lettuce. Often I sat across from him eating a hamburger and poking fun of him grazing on a salad. He talked to me about the benefits, how he felt healthier, and how it was better for the earth to not eat animal products. None of it had much impact on me at the time.
The following year we took a week long road trip. At the beginning of the trip I agreed to eat what he ate for a week and thus began my vegan/vegetarian experience. Eating vegan on the road is incredibly hard. Eating vegan on the road with a college student’s budget is even harder. I have a distinct memory of crouching in the bread isle of a convenience store somewhere in Ohio reading the ingredients of all the loaves of bread. Just about every loaf eventually had a dairy product somewhere near the bottom of the list. Surprisingly, Wonderbread Wheat was vegan so we picked that up and some peanut butter and jelly and had sandwiches for several days. We did eat better than just PB&J, and by the end of the week I was hooked. I felt better, I felt lighter, and the ethics of not eating animals was starting to get into my head.
No Turning Back
That was January of 1992, and I haven’t (willfully) eaten animal flesh since then, with the exception of fish occasionally which I’ll get into later. I’ve had my ups and downs, I’ve been overweight and lost weight, but I am happy to say that I am still a steadfast vegetarian. Using this handy calculator on the PETA website, I can proudly say that by not eating meat I have saved the lives of 4,760 animals. Adding in my whole family shows we have saved almost 15,000 animal lives! That is pretty cool.
Do you have a story about how you got turned on to being vegetarian or vegan? Are you currently a meat eater, but considering changing? Be sure to let me know.