VEGAN & VEGETARIANISM
Veganism & Vegetarianism
Many people associate vegetarianism or veganism with being healthy. Indeed, many of the people that engage in either lifestyle cite better health as being a primary reason for their choice. However, there is the open question as to whether a vegan or vegetarian diet is better than other diets that include one or more types of meat. This report aims to find out by studying those actively living a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle and deciphering whether there is indeed an incentive to eschew meat in favor of a diet that excludes some or all animal products. While there are some obvious health benefits that commonly occur with eating a meatless diet, it is far from conclusive that doing so is clearly superior to diets that include meat.
Further, there is a variety of reasons why people are vegetarian or vegan. These reasons include religion, concerns about animal cruelty, environmental concerns and others beyond that. For some, it may be a combination or two or more reasons. The high-level reasons just mentioned can actually be drilled down into more specific topics. For example, animal cruelty can manifest in the form of people that believe animals have the same or similar rights as humans, that killing an animal unnecessarily is immoral and so forth. Environmental concerns can include things like methane from herds of cows, the downsides to eating red meat and so on.
Even with all of the negative aspects that many people point to in relation to eating meat, there are those that say that not eating meat can lead to shortfalls in important nutrients and vitamins such as protein and others. While there are natural alternatives in many cases, there are those that state that some of those solutions are impractical and/or that there is nothing wrong with eating meat. The primary and secondary research in this report will cover all of those angles and then some.
Literature Review
One thing that should be noted straight off the top about vegans and vegetarians is that their numbers are not all that high. Indeed, the Vegan Times states that "3.2% of U.S. adults, or 7.3 million people, follow a vegetarian-based diet. Approximately 0.5%, or 1 million, of those are vegans, who consume no animal products at all. In addition, 10% of U.S., adults, or 22.8 million people, say they largely follow a vegetarian-inclined diet" (Vegetarianism in America, 2016). Although vegetarians represent a rather small part of the United States population, there are countries that have much higher rates of people eating vegetarian or vegan diets. For example, India has a vegan or vegetarian population of nearly a third, coming in at about thirty-one percent (Yadav, 2006).
Something else that must be noted is that veganism and vegetarianism is not the same thing. Vegetarians are those that do not eat meat at all. This would include poultry, beef, lamb, pork and so forth. Vegans do that but they also eschew any food that comes from an animal and this holds true even if the animal is not harmed or killed. In addition to not eating the animals themselves, vegans will not eat dairy (e.g. milk, cheese, etc.) or eggs as those come from animals. Vegans also typically refrain from wearing leather, fur, wool and other animal-sourced materials due to the perceived or verifiable killing or cruelty involved. Indeed, harvesting wool typically just involves the shearing of a sheep rather than its death but vegans typically take a pretty hard line on the matter. Some approach the pro-vegan or pro-vegetarianism lifestyle as a "movement" while others just point to the health effects of eating meat and how "we are what we eat" (Bisogni, Connors, Devine & Sobal, 2002).
Of course, there is the majority of people that can basically be called omnivores in that they eat food from all of the food groups at one time or another including meat, dairy and fruits/vegetables. However, there are some in-betweens and variations such as Pescatarianism These are people that will not eat any meat with the exception of fish and other seafood such as crab, lobster and shrimp. There are also "flexitarians" that act as vegetarians some or a lot of the time but do eat the occasional meat product every now and then. In other words, they generally avoid eating meat but do not have a problem doing so once in a while ("Move over vegetarians," 2012).
There is the open question as to whether food preference even matters. According...
Vegetarianism: A Serious Issue Fraser's choice to become a vegetarian in college because she was "broke" and could not afford meat dishes and because it was a nice "identity" to construct for herself (an alternative to identifying as, say, a "lesbian," as she notes) undermines the actuality of vegetarianism and reduces the lifestyle choice to that of superfluity. Singer's philosophy of vegetarianism, on the other hand, is substantial, consistent, ideologically-rooted, and
Dietary Analysis The first and most noteworthy fact about my three-day food intake, when compared with the Dietary Reference Intakes that are recommended by medical experts, is the astonishing number of "Empty Calories" listed. The easiest way to examine this is by taking a closer look at one of the most deleterious items on my three-day menu, which was a McDonald's Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese. The Double Quarter Pounder with
Joyce's Ulysses Claude Rawson is best known as a scholar of Jonathan Swift and the eighteenth century, but Rawson's has also used the savage irony of Swift's modest proposal for a series of essays which consider Swift's invocation of cannibalism in light of a longer tradition (in Anglo-Irish relations) of imputing cannibalism literally to the native Irish as a way of demonizing their "savagery" or else to implying a metaphorical cannibalism
Omnivore's Dilemma In Michael Pollan's book he touches on many issues relative to what humans eat, and in the process he spends time covering the poor eating habits of Americans and the likely reasons for the obesity crisis in the United States (think carbohydrates). His narrative includes animal flesh that is produced on so-called "factory farms" -- including pig meat he proudly kills himself -- and in doing so he
Religion has been a potent force in my life, shaping my identity, values, self-concept, and worldview. Beyond the psychological power of faith, religion has primarily served as a social mechanism in my life. I have always struggled with the more esoteric elements of faith and religion including the efficacy of theological concepts. Especially because I have been exposed now to many alternating views of what God is, how the cosmos
Christian Biotechnology: Not a Contradiction in Terms Presented with the idea of "Bioethics" most people in the scientific community today immediately get the impression of repressive, Luddite forces wishing to stifle research and advancement in the name of morality and God. Unfortunately, this stereotype too often holds true. If one looks over the many independent sites on the Internet regarding bioethics, reads popular magazines and publications, or browses library shelves for
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now