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Vegetarianism is a life-style choice to forgo the consumption meat. People may implement this to varying degrees. Some vegetarians are more 'strict' than others.
Reasons for vegetarianism include:
- moral reasons (animal welfare) - sometimes rejecting all meat-eating, sometimes rejecting the cruelty of modern farming practices.
- environmental reasons - the greater resource use required to produce meat in many cases; depletion of fishing stocks.
- personal health - some people have conditions that are made worse by the eating of some kinds of meat.
Many vegetarians will still eat eggs and/or dairy, sometimes restricting these to free-range or organic products. (Organic certification often includes a greater emphasis on animal welfare than conventional factory farming). Vegans eat no animal products.
A vegan is a particular adherent to a stringent vegetarianism, where even animal derived products, including dairy and eggs are not consumed. Some even go so far as to avoid all animal products, not just food: leathers, furs, feathers, bone, etc.
Protein requirements
There is some controversy over the quality and quantity of protein available to vegans.
The nutritional value of plant-based diets in relation to human amino acid and protein requirements, Millward DJ. [Proc Nutr Soc. 1999] - PubMed Result] - This study suggests that "high-lysine maize supports similar weight and height growth to that of casein. Inadequate amino acid supply is not an issue with most cereal-based diets."
Human adult amino acid requirements: [1-13Cleucine balance evaluation of the efficiency of utilization and apparent requirements for wheat protein and lysine compared with those for milk protein in healthy adults], Millward et al. concluded that "The results show that adaptive mechanisms of lysine conservation allow wheat protein to be utilized more efficiently than expected."
= Interwiki links on protein in vegan diets
Suitability for children
An extreme case of neglect ("a diet largely consisting of soy milk and apple juice.") in providing a proper diet resulted in the death of a 6-week-old baby.[1]
This led to claims in some quarters that veganism is unsuitable for children - however no conclusions about the suitability of a carefully planned diet can be drawn from such a case. It should also be noted that breastfeedingW is strongly advised
for such a young child and in the absence af human milk, a special formula is needed. Cow's milk is not ideal, but soy milk and apple juice are clearly unsuitable. (See Response to NY Times Story: Death by Veganism for one rebuttal.)
Promoting vegetarianism
Delicious vegetarian recipes do exist. If people don't believe you, get some top-rated vegetarian recipes from web sites (5 star or at least more than 4.5 average, preferably with a very large number of ratings) and share the recipes (and perhaps share the food) with your friends.
External Links
- Vegetarian is the New Prius - on CommonDreams.org, by Kathy Freston, January 20, 2007 the Huffington Post.
- Vegetarianism and the Environment, Animal Liberation Inc. (South Australia) - includes interesting graphs of the relative impacts of various human activities.
- Environmental aspects of Animal Liberation: Real conservationists don't eat meat, Animal Liberation Inc. (South Australia) - a talk by by Geoff Russell, prepared for a vegetarian conference, Adelaide, March 1997.