Alternative diet options
Stephanie Gardener
What is a vegan diet? Basically, it is a more restricted version of vegetarianism. In addition to the removal of meat from your diet, you would also remove all food items produced using animal products. Milk, cheese, eggs—these are all out. Veganism is frequently touted as one of the healthiest forms of eating. But can such a severe elimination of a food group ever truly be healthy?
This is not to advocate eating steak and eggs for breakfast every morning. Instead, I would contest that while the over consumption of animal products is dangerous for our health, so too is their complete eradication from our diets.
How many of us have access to a nutritional consultant who can make sure that our diet isn’t leaving us with nutrient deficiencies? That would rarely be affordable, and veganism comes with a high risk for these nutrient deficiencies. Calcium, zinc, iron, vitamin B12 and Omega-3 fatty acids are just a few of the important nutrients that run the risk of being negatively affected by a vegan diet. This becomes an even higher risk for those vegans who become dependent on prepackaged, highly processed foods. Did you know that Oreos are marketed as a vegan food? The word “vegan” is not synonymous with the word “healthy.”
One extremely processed food that is common place in a vegan diet is soy. In his article The Health Dangers of Soy, published by the Huffington Post, Joseph Mercola states that, “Thousands of studies link soy to malnutrition, digestive distress, immune system breakdown, thyroid dysfunction, cognitive decline, reproductive disorders and infertility—even cancer and heart disease.” In its raw form soy is extremely toxic to humans. In addition to this natural toxicity, soy is heavily treated with pesticides which then make their way into soy food products, like soy milk. Obviously, this is not something you want to include in your diet.
One argument in favor of veganism that we must consider is that pertaining to the current treatment of animals raised in factory farms. The cruelty of these institutions cannot be ignored. When numerous animals are raised on top of one another it is unsafe, unsanitary and unkind. In addition, these animals are given hormones and antibiotics to increase the production of food products.
As an example, cows are given hormones to increase milk production. Because of the excess milk they are producing, their udders can become infected and to fight these infections they are given preventative antibiotics. These hormones and antibiotics are later passed along to humans when they drink the milk produced by these cows.
However, the fear of consuming antibiotics and hormones should not be seen as a good reason to start a vegan diet. Instead, I would view it as a call toward living closer to the earth. Don’t support factory farms with your money. Instead, spend a little more for grass fed meat and eat less of it. The allocation of your funds toward purchasing “ethically raised” meat and animal products not only benefits your body, it benefits the animals that are raised to produce these food products. If you care about animals, demonstrate that care by giving your money to farmers who treat animals well.
Although strict veganism is not nutritionally beneficial, having vegan days or meals can be, if done correctly. If you cook vegan or vegetarian meals from scratch you can control the nutritional quality of your foods. If you are trying to reduce the amount of meat and animal products in your diet than choose one or two days a week, or one meal a day to eat only vegetarian or vegan meals. By doing this, you can learn to better integrate fruits and vegetables into your diet. You can also learn about vegan substitutions in baking that can benefit your health. You can substitute black beans or apple sauce for butter in your brownies – this is a great way to make what is technically a junk food a little more nutritionally dense.
In so many aspects of nutrition, balance is best. The consumption of meat is just one area of nutrition where that idea is demonstrated. So don’t eradicate meat from your diet. Eat meat. But do so intelligently.
Hannah Clark
I love steak. It’s a delicious, protein-packed food that’s raised right here in Nebraska. I’m also a vegetarian. I haven’t eaten meat in three years because even though bacon is probably the tastiest thing on earth, being an omnivore comes with substantial unwanted baggage.
The first, and most expected, pro-veg argument I have is pretty subjective. Personally, I don’t want to eat the living flesh of another creature. You might. If animal death were the only issue that meat-eating raised, I’d have no argument. Animals will die either way, so we might as well use them for energy. That’s why I’m a vegetarian that supports hunting. As long as the animal lives well and dies humanely, I don’t care if you eat it. Unfortunately, this isn’t the only problem on the table.
Eating meat causes many repercussions, on people and the environment, which make it an unsavory habit. Raising, packaging, and distributing meat is a multi-billion dollar industry. This also makes it a huge strain on the people and the environment.
Every year, more and more of the Brazilian Rainforest is being cleared for grazing cattle, at an alarming rate of 55 acres per hamburger, to feed the American hunger for meat. Raising meat also wastes water (so much water!), destroys important native plants, and throws unbelievable greenhouse gases into the air. When we tear down trees to raise millions of carbon-farting animals, we create 18 percent of global greenhouse gases. I’ll be the first to admit, the agricultural industry also wastes and destroys at an alarming rate, but if I can at least cut one of these devils out of my life, I will.
Meat is also a secondary consumer. This means that about 10 pounds of plant protein is used to produce one pound of animal protein. Yes, animal protein can pack more nutrients per ounce, but that inexpensively produced grain could also go to ending world hunger. A recent Cornell study found that the grain used to feed U.S. livestock alone could feed 800 million people.
Yes, purely grass-fed meat is an option. We, here in Nebraska’s beef-basket, have access to a wealth of local producers who can butcher their own, self-controlled product without sending it to fatten at the feedlot. But we are not buying direct from our ranching neighbors. Unless we are fortunate, we are buying ground beef from Walmart. I know that I can’t solve world hunger by just skipping hamburgers, but given the complete nutrition I can receive from a vegetarian diet, it’s the least I can do.
The pro-meat crowd may mention, at this point, that vegetarians (and especially vegans) can lack many key nutrients, like B-12, which they don’t get from veggies. This is true. It takes a little more effort to get important, fat-soluble vitamins like D and K from vegetables, but they still exist in meatless sources like kale and fermented soy. If those sound gross, remember that we live in an advanced society, with thousands of inexpensive supplements that actually gave me more vitamins than my old carnivorous diet.
There’s also statistically less risk for obesity, heart attack, kidney stones, and diabetes in veggie-world, including a far superior supplier of iron and a likelihood of living three and half years longer. If you feel brow-beaten by all this preaching, I apologize. I know throwing facts around is not an effective way to bring people to your side, but the facts still remain. We are endangering ourselves, and killing our planet, all for a bacon cheeseburger. But honestly, none of the anti-meat arguments I have presented are meat’s fault. By consuming local and natural sources of meat, you can be a very environmentally friendly meat eater.
By eating reasonable and chemical-free portions, you can neutralize the health concerns. By avoiding mass farms and feedlots, and equally irresponsible agricultural providers, you can help world hunger and the earth while still enjoying bacon. But this is easier said than done. It’s easier, for me, to just not eat meat than to support such an irresponsible and corrupt industry with my money. I don’t want suffering, waste, and death to be my legacy. I’d rather just have a guilt-free burrito, because I love steak, but not the plate it comes on.