You Are What You Eat: Another Reason to Go Veggie

I became a vegetarian at the age of 14, thinking mainly that it would be the perfect way to show my “individuality” and branch away from “authority.” But now, looking back on the past seven years, I realize going veggie was a much bigger choice than I even realized at the time. Besides the ethical and health related reasons for becoming a vegetarian, the lifestyle itself, no matter what reason you adopt it, can be much healthier and earth-friendly than being omnivorous for a plethora of reasons, meat production being just one, but for me an important one.

Modern meat production is a process often under scrutiny for its ethical treatment of livestock as well as the process by which that livestock is fed. Few meat producers seem to consider that in the essence of the food chain, the eater will ingest anything the animal eats. Therefore not only do the hormones used to make livestock larger inevitably end up being ingested, but also anything else the animal consumes. This causes a larger problem when considering that animals act, not as the original source of many nutrients our bodies need, but as a condensed medium by which to ingest them.

Let me give an example. For most of agricultural history, animals have been left to graze on the native plants in their regions, most often grasses or shrubs. Within these leafy greens is contained various vitamins, most commonly A and C, as well as necessary minerals taken from the soil. The animal, which eats large quantities of these plants, inevitably builds up a stock of them with its system. This is why beef, for example, contains such high amounts of iron- they are able to collect it from the large amount of plants they ingest. 

In the end, the more diverse and natural the animal’s diet, the better nutrients it will provide, but the modern livestock industry for the most part is not concerned with animal nutrition, but rather size. Instead of eating a diet balanced between greens and grains, most livestock are now fed an almost all-grain diet, which builds bulk, but detracts from the nutrition of the meat. In the end, the human consumers of these grain-raised meats have an abundance of carbs, but are at a loss for many of the nutrients they once provided. While this trend does not make meat necessarily bad, it does build on the grain-based culture in which we now live, and leave us even more starved for the veggies we need.

Being vegetarian is one way to avoid the trappings of such a diet, as well as making one more aware of what they can and do eat. Often organic goes hand-in-hand with vegetarian and it’s not had to get organic produce nowadays, and with questions springing up about large-scale food production it’s a viable alternative. In the end, by being vegetarian I have made a conscious effort to bring more fresh greens and vegetables into my diet, not just because they add color, but because they are a main building block of a well-rounded menu.