I haven't ever really understood vegetarians. Even worse, vegans. I know there are many kinds of vegetarians and many reasons for becoming one, but I really don't get it. A great many vegetarians avoid meat of any kind, holding that killing animals for food is cruel and inhumane. And looking at the way many of the animals we eat are killed, I don't really blame them for that. The ones that also avoid animal products, like eggs and dairy, however, really have me baffled. Why should it be any different to harvest the by-products of an animal than to harvest the produce of a plant? No harm is done to the animal in so doing, and the resulting food is quite nutritious and beneficial to humans.
I've heard arguments against eating eggs stating that it's like eating a chicken abortion. Of course, these are people who don't know much about chickens or eggs for that matter and who don't realize that a chicken lays unfertilized eggs in a "menstruation" process much like the monthly cycle of a woman. To declare this an "abortion" is to accuse every woman of having a monthly abortion.
I've also heard people say that humans are the only animal that drinks the milk of some other animal. I've never given such arguments any credence, however, because there are a lot of things that humans do that no other animal does...it's why we're at the top of the food chain, so to speak.
Vegans, who eat only plant products, have to be especially careful of their diet and their protein intake. One of my student's used to be a vegetarian, but her parents made her return to meat eating because of the side effects of not getting enough protein -- hair falling out, nails not growing, perpetual feeling of cold in her extremities, weight loss -- the list goes on and on. I know a lot of people are quite successful at the vegetarian diet, but I just don't get it.
2 comments:
I, for one, think that people who don't eat meat on moral grounds certainly shouldn't eat animal products, either, on the same grounds. The way commercial milk cows are kept, and laying hens, too, is cruel and unusual. Their lot in life would be much more humane were they scheduled for slaughter instead.
That said, I'd have a hard time with a strictly vegetarian diet, too. I read somewhere once that such a diet is insufficient to support reproduction. Perhaps that's one of the causes of increased fertility problems?
I have a neighbor who chooses not to eat meat because of the unnatural foods they are fed. She will eat organic meats, however. As for the other products, she eats organic foods only. It is her way of protecting the chemicals going into her body, and not a moral objection that guides her choice to a mostly vegetarian diet.
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