Vegetarianism 
 

  When you think of vegetarians, you may think of hippies who are all about peace and saving the planet, or your mind goes right past vegetarians and to vegans. There is a difference. Vegans don’t eat any animal products, including dairy and eggs, while vegetarians can eat dairy, eggs, and other animal products, just no meat. You may have heard that it’s healthier than a carnivorous diet, or the opposite, but is any of that true? Let’s take a look at what’s going on behind what you may have heard, at the facts.  

  To start off, animal-based food production (carnivorous diet) causes nearly 80% of deaths in America associated with food production. Fertilizer and animal waste are responsible for about 69% of deaths, while the production of red meat influences air pollution nearly 10 times more than nut and seed production, and 15 times bigger than other plant-based food productions. “Production of eggs, poultry, and dairy products all have a greater impact on deaths attributed to food production air quality than does production of plant foods,” says the author of Dietary Choices Affect Air Quality. As you can see, animal-based food production has the greatest negative effect on our air quality, which you’ve probably heard before. With that said, you can see that the production of animal products (vegetarian diet) has a greater impact than plant food production (vegan diet). 
 
  As seen in a chart about vegetarianism in America, America has been a big consumer of meat for a long time, because they’ve seen it as status symbol - “We eat meat all the time and meat can only be afforded by the rich and powerful”. In fact, America is the second biggest consumer of meat in the world (Luxembourg is first), but around 26% did try to reduce their meat intake, and 13% eat meat with only half their meals. We also see the reasons people avoid vegetarianism, which are mainly social and personal beliefs, such as not getting enough protein, and the simple fact that meat is hard to avoid in some places. Some people still have a negative view on vegetarianism or are doubtful. Years ago, meat was the whole meal, and when more people started becoming vegetarians, others were so genuinely scared that they’d die without the protein they got from meat that people had to do research on the subject. “And I remember joking with people that one of the most important things that my book did was relieve worried parents who thought their children were going to get sick and die without meat. People could not imagine a meal without meat,” said the author of Diet for a Small Planet, Frances Moore Lappe, one of said researchers.

  I’ve been a vegetarian ever since I was in my mother’s stomach, and I’m still doing fine, although I do get asked quite often how I get my nutrients and protein. In many places, however, it’s a cultural and social thing where it’s just hard to avoid meat and people shame you for doing so. On the other hand, there are many countries where it’s popular, like India, which is the number one vegetarian country with 38% of their population being vegetarian, according to WorldAtlas.  

  Doctors also encourage patients to decrease their meat intake to help with health problems like obesity and heart issues. “...many physicians looked at their heart disease patients (of which there are many) and then knew what to say to these people. Many doctors began to say, ‘You should cut back on your consumption of meat and saturated fat,’ And just at that point, meat alternatives began taking off as a category,” wrote William Shurtleff, author of Book of Tofu. With that in mind, there was also a study done on vegetarianism among young adults that found vegetarian teenagers, especially females, had strong feelings toward meat and leaned more toward dieting, as stated in the article “Adolescent vegetarianism,”: “While vegetarianism is a legitimate dietary approach for mature adults, it appears as though there is a reason to be concerned about female teenaged vegetarians. The research indicates that adolescent vegetarianism can lead to eating disorders and an unhealthy perception of physical appearance.” Although vegetarianism can help you lose weight, sometimes that can be a bad thing.  

  Vegetarianism can be a controversial topic, but as we’ve seen, it can be better for your body and for the environment. For some, it can be a sign of body image issues, or even eating disorders. This is common in teenage females, but for adults who go on a vegetarian diet, there is usually no reason to worry. However, that shows the worse side of vegetarianism. There is also the better side, that helps the animals, our environment, and our bodies. Animal production emits pollutants that kill many more people a year than non-animal-based food production. Really, there are two sides to vegetarianism, maybe even more, and there is no simple answer to whether it’s better or worse than any other diet. Like most things, it just is.