Vegetarians Are Weird

Like most American's I was born into a family who considered meat a normal and healthy food. So like any "normal" mom, I raised my two kids as meat eaters.

Growing up I had heard of vegetarians but never actually met one. I thought the concept of not eating meat was unhealthy and that vegetarians were odd people, weird even.

While I enjoyed eating meat, there was one aspect I didn't like. Preparing the raw flesh for cooking grossed me out. Later when I became educated about the germs in all that mess it not only grossed me out but it worried me too.  Every time I cut up a raw chicken, sliced a bloody hunk of bovine or pork, I wondered would this be the meal of E. coli/salmonella/staph infected meat that would poison my family and make us sick?  (A fear I seldom have anymore, by the way).

I also wondered about the food preparation of restaurants. How careful were they with all that blood and guts and cross contamination?

Denial is a powerful tool. So, I continued to eat meat daily. The satisfaction of a tasty meat dish calmed my fears of food poisoning despite the occasional bout of vomiting and/or diarrhea. (A rare occurrence now.)

Then one day, my son returned home after living out of state for a couple of years. He had changed. He no longer ate meat and totally rejected the concept of meat eating.

It was a radical change for me to wrap my brain around at the time.  His rejection of flesh eating was more than a dietary switch, it was a giant shift in his personal, political and social philosophy.  My son had stopped believing in the Human-as-top-of-the-food-chain and Master-of-the-Planet justification for how we mistreat animals. He had had embraced a new lifestyle, that of the moral vegetarian.

After a few discussions with him, I began to change my mind as well. I likewise started to doubt my "right" and need to eat other animals. It wasn't long until I also became a vegetarian.

Now, 12 years later, I still don't eat meat but, I am no Saint. While I eat meatless meals 98% of the time, to my shame, I occasionally eat a few water species. Perhaps two or three times a month, I eat a serving of salmon, tilapia, canned oysters, crab, sardines or clam chowder.

Right or wrong, I still consider myself to be primarily a  vegetarian or more correctly a Pescetarian. Tho each time I eat fish the guiltier and more ashamed I feel. I sense I am on the brink of shunning this last weakness.

Anyway, since I don't eat cows or chickens or other land species, I have ignored most meat related issues over the last few years. Meanwhile, it seems the meat eater's world has become more dangerous and all around uglier.
 

For example, on April 27, 2012 the USDA released an updated statement which said the "USDA confirmed the nation's 4th case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in an animal that was sampled for the disease at a rendering facility in central California. This animal was never presented for slaughter for human consumption, so at no time presented a risk to the food supply, or to human health in the United States." Just in case your wondering, BSE is Mad Cow Disease, which is transferable to humans. But the USDA says not to worry, it wasn't a cow for eating, it was merely  "10 years and 7 months old and came from a dairy farm in Tulare County, Calif."  It was a dairy cow, so humans only drank its milk, not ate its meat.  For some reason, I don't find the USDA and the Dairy Industry assurances very comforting.

The L.A. Times published a recent article (April 15, 2011) titled Meat Contaminated with Resistant Bacteria which states that "47% of the samples — contained S. aureus, the researchers reported Friday in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Of those bacteria, 52% were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics." Another article by The Translational Genomic Research Institute reports more on this issue in the article,  Nationwide study finds U.S. meat and poultry is widely contaminated.

The FDA has reported that chicken feed laced with a chemical called Roxarsone contains arsenic. The arsenic was absorbed by the birds which ate the feed. The FDA (and Pfizer Inc) have decided to take Roxarsone off the market even though they claim it is safe. This statement is not reasonable or true. If the drug were "safe" it would not be recalled, obviously. Additionally, the results of studies done by the FDA state that the type of arsenic (which is "safe") changes to the non-safe type of arsenic once absorbed by the chickens.

The New York Times Op-Ed article by NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF (Published: April 4, 2012)  Arsenic In Our Chicken mentions not only the addition of arsenic in feed but other chemicals as well, such as caffeine, active ingredients of Tylenol and Benadryl, and banned antibiotics which have been linked to the growth of "super bug" germs in humans. Imported chicken feed from China was also found to contain Prozac. There is speculation the antidepressant was used in the chicken feed in order to help the birds deal with the hellish and unnatural environment in which they survive.

If you're concerned about global warming and pollution at all, studies have shown the side effects of meat production are not only harming people, the animals which are raised for food but our shared environment as well. The momentary pleasure of a fat filled Hot Dog or fried chicken are not worth the long term cost to the planet or your body.  Practically and ethically it's just not worth the trade-off.

You can avoid some of these aforementioned chemicals by simply not consuming meat. But if you insist on eating meat,  take the extra effort to shop local, organic and private farms instead of the toxic factory farmed foods which are found in most grocery stores. Visit your local farmer's market or subscribe to a Veggie Box delivery.

Organic meats, dairy and eggs which have been tested usually show no trace of  chemicals or heavy metals. Yes, organic will cost more but what price is your health and the health of your children?

The safest food is food you produce

Beans Sprouted in a Jar

yourself.  You can start small and simple-- grow your own sprouts in a recycled jar and herbs in pots on a sunny window sill. There are lots of eatables you can grow from recycled fruit and veggies--plant the top of a fresh pineapple to grow a beautiful plant which will eventually give you another pineapple. Take the bottom root section of your celery, stick in a pot of soil and grow your own celery to snip for a fresh salad.

Homegrown Tomat

Or go all the way, raise your own fresh veggies in your own garden or get chickens for pets which reward you with beautiful and healthful eggs to eat.

It can be argued that eating meat is all American and therefore is good for our country.  If this were the case, then smoking cigarettes, DDT, fracking, smog, oil spills and global warming effects like hurricanes and droughts would be good for our country (and the planet) as well...but they're not, and neither is eating meat.  Vegetarianism is by far the kindest, healthiest, and according to Psychology Today, the smartest choice out there.