ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA
theory or practice of living solely upon vegetables, fruits, grains, and nuts, generally for ethical, ascetic, or
nutritional reasons. Meat, fowl, and fish are excluded from all vegetarian diets, but some vegetarians use milk
and milk products; those in the modern West usually eat eggs also, but most vegetarians in India exclude them,
as did those in the classical Mediterranean lands. Vegetarians who exclude animal products altogether have
taken the name vegans, and those who use milk products are sometimes called lacto-vegetarians. Among some
agricultural peoples the eating of flesh has been infrequent except among the privileged classes; such people
have rather misleadingly been called vegetarians.
VEGETARIAN FOOD
"The fact is, it is very easy to have a well-balanced diet with vegetarian foods. Vegetarian foods provide plenty
of protein. Careful combining of foods is not necessary. Any normal variety of plant foods provides more than
enough protein for the body's needs. Although there is somewhat less protein in a vegetarian diet than a meat-
eater's diet, this actually an advantage. Excess protein has been linked to kidney stones, osteoporosis, and
possibly heart disease and some cancers. A diet focused on beans, whole grains and vegetables contains
adequate amounts of protein without the 'overdose' most meat-eaters get."
INTERESTING FACTS
- Number of people worldwide who will die as a result of malnutrition this year: 20 million
- Number of people who could be adequately fed using land freed if Americans reduced their intake of meat by
10%: 100 million
- Percentage of corn grown in the U.S. eaten by livestock: 80
- How frequently a child dies as a result of malnutrition: every 2.3 seconds
- Cause of global warming: greenhouse effect
- Primary cause of greenhouse effect: carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels
- Fossil fuels needed to produce meat-centered diet vs. a meat-free diet: 3 times more
- Number of acres of U.S. forest cleared for cropland to produce meat-centered diet: 260 million
- Increased risk of breast cancer for women who eat meat daily compared to less than once a week: 3.8 times
- Increased risk of fatal prostate cancer for men who consume meat, cheese, eggs and milk daily vs. sparingly or
not at all: 3.6 times.
- Most common cause of death in the U.S.: heart attack
- How frequently a heart attack kills in the U.S.: every 45 seconds
- Average U.S. man's risk of death from heart attack: 50 percent
- Risk of average U.S. man who eats no meat: 15 percent
- Risk of average U.S. man who eats no meat, dairy or eggs: 4 percent
- User of more than half of all water used for all purposes in the U.S.: livestock production
- Calories of fossil fuel expended to get 1 calorie of protein from beef: 78
- To get 1 calorie of protein from soybeans: 2
- Common belief: U.S. Department of Agriculture protects our health through meat inspection
- Reality: fewer than 1 out of every 250,000 slaughtered animals is tested for toxic chemical residues
- Contamination of breast milk, due to chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides in animal products,
found in meat-eating mothers vs. non-meat eating mothers: 35 times higher
- Number of animals killed for meat per hour in the U.S.: 660,000
- Occupation with highest turnover rate in U.S.: slaughterhouse worker
- Occupation with highest rate of on-the-job-injury in U.S.: slaughterhouse worker
A few quotes of famous Vegetarians
A human can be healthy without killing animals for food. Therefore if he eats meat he participates in taking animal life merely for
the sake of his appetite
. Leo Tolstoy
Since visiting the abatoirs of S. France I have stopped eating meat.
Vincent Van Gogh
More and more we realize that vegetarian diet is a good idea
. Dr. Edward Martin, head of Dept. of Defense Health
I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals.
Henry David Thoreau
Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian
diet
. Albert Einstein
There are viable (and usually better) alternatives to the use of animals for food, sport, clothing, & experimentation. I beg you to
discontinue any actions that might cause or condone animal torture, abuse, or destruction
. Moby
ABSTRACT
Vegetarianism is a healthy, ecological valuable and "animal friendly" way of living and feeding. Since a few
years there are a lot of proof that "meat eating" is closely connected to a whole string of typical civilization
diseases eating meat is a reason for the increasing environmental pollution and it is also a reason for
malnutrition in the third world.
Vegetarian feeding is definitely not a risk for health but everybody who is interested in a Vegetarian diet should
know and care a little bit about feeding. But this time is worth the trouble because you improve your health and
you also improve the situation of millions of animals.
MAYBE UNKNOWN WORDS
livestock production - Massentierhaltung
surplus - Überschuss
blood vessels - Blutgefässe
bowel
- Darm
decay - verfaulen
gout
- Gicht
pastureland
- Weideland
VORTRAG:
Okay let's start. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk to you.
Like ... already said I'd like to talk about Vegetarianism and Veganism. And so some things which are closely
connected with Vegetarianism are also part of my presentation, for example feeding
(or diet)
, animal rights and also
some apparent global problems, which are part of the typical discussions about this topic.
The subject Vegetarianism is part of my life since a quite long time. In the last few years I had and of course I
wanted to have a lot of discussions about eating meat and so on. They often had an hot headed nature and this
wasn't always the blame of the "meat-eaters" (auch in Anführungszeichen zeigen !!!).
But I often recognized that it doesn't make any sense to talk about such a topic. It is similar to the problem of the
high petrol prices and the need of cars ... . There are two too controversial opinions and people who discuss
about these opinions take everything what is said very personal. And so it is definitely very hard to find a
solution.
But the last weeks the mass media bent over backwards to present the worst news about the MADCOW
DISEASE. And so I decided to talk about things like livestock production or cruelty to animals. Maybe I can
give some of you food for thought.
Alright feel free to interrupt me or write down questions you would you would like to ask me.
Maybe I should say something about the history of Vegetarianism and its different types. The term
"Vegetarian" was invented by a "vegetarian" society
or party
in 1842, but there were Vegetarians hundreds of
years before. The term by itself seems to be closely connected to the word "vegetable" but it isn't. Vegetable
(it's Latin vegetabilis, vegetare), in its original sense, means to grow up or the possibility to grow up.
But "Vegetarian" is derived from the Latin word "vegetus" which means something like very healthy, lively,
vivid and so on.
There are 5 different types of Vegetarians for example "Ovo lacto pisce Vegetarians" or "Lacto Vegetarians"
I think the names aren't really interesting. The main difference between them is what they eat. Some of them eat
fish and eggs, drink milk, some of them doesn't eat or wear anything which is made of or with animal products.
But they all doesn't eat meat and this is the reason why a lot of people think that vegetarian feeding (diet) is
unhealthy or try to make vegetarians think that it is unhealthy.
I don't know how many strange things I heard about the disadvantages of a vegetarian diet but the definitely
worst argument I heard was an argument of my dentist. I don't know why I told him that I'm a Vegetarian but
he told me that I have to be careful If I wouldn't eat meat my teeth would fall out in a few years...
I thought of changing my dentist but he is the only one in our village and so I had no choice but this is over
topic.
Now I like to name the most typical prejudices against a vegetarian diet:
The first one:
A lack of proteins
All proteins no matter whether animal or vegetarian consist of more than 20 amino acids. The
human organism can't produce 8 of them. So he has to take them by food. These 8 so called
essential amino acids are part of animal and vegetarian food. In vegetarian food the amino
acids are part in a lower concentration and no plant contains all acids. So a Vegetarian has to
think about his food and has to read and inform about his feeding.
Animal products like milk and meat contain all essential amino acids so they offer protein of
high value. But the human organism doesn't need as much protein as animal products offer and
so the surplus is deposited in the blood vessels. The consequences are: The protein hinders the
other vital substances to reach the bones, muscles, skin and organs.
The second one: Iron deficiency
It's similar to the problem of the proteins. Animal products, especially meat, contain a high
value of iron. But the human organism isn't able to make use of such a high concentration.
And so we excrete a main part of the valuable iron.
Vegetarian food, for example spinach, red fruits and a lot of other plants also contain iron but
in lower values. But it is definitely enough if you sometimes care about your health and feeding
and eat such fruits.
Another point is that vegetarian food doesn't contain the extremely unhealthy cholesterol.
Foodstuffs with a high concentration of cholesterol for example are eggs and meat.
A "Nation's disease " is a too high cholesterol level and this disease is the reason for a lot of
health-problems.
The third one:
A Vegetarian is pale, sick and weak
I admit I'm not the best example to disprove this prejudice. But older and also actual
examinations always offer the same results:
- Vegetarians seldom suffer from typical diseases of modern society (I'm going to
talk about this a little bit later )
- Vegetarian feeding definitely improves health and prolongs the life expectancy
(A well known example is the example of Denmark Denmark in the first world
war. Because of the blockade of the Allies the people in Denmark were forced to eat
only grain, vegetables, fruits and milk products. The consequences were a rapid
drop of the death-rate, a drop of circulatory diseases and a better health-status.
Some years later the old standings were reached again. )
- The examinations don't only offer results about the health of vegetarians but also
about their fitness. The scientists couldn't find any proof that vegetarians haven't as
much fitness as meat eaters. On the contrary vegetarians have a better staying power
than "meat eaters". Also some top athletes prove this theory for example Dave Scott
(6 time winner of Ironman Triathlon).
There are of course a lot of other prejudices but I think these are the 3 most important. But it's only fair to talk
about risks which develop from eating meat and too many other animal products (for example eggs).
One of the main risks I told you rests of the animal proteins stop up the blood vessels and hinder a good blood
circulation. Another huge problem is our bowel. It is too long for eating meat and so the meat we ate starts to
decay. And I think everybody can image that this very unhealthy. Vegetarian food doesn't start to rot as fast as
foodstuffs which contain animal proteins.
Other typical diseases which are proven connected with eating meat or rather are typical symptoms for a high
consumption of meat are: - calcium deficiency (Säure in Fleisch/Fisch -- >> Körper gleicht ph-Wert aus mit
Kalziumvorräten aus Knochen)
- heart diseases like cardiac infarction or strokes
-
some
kinds
of
cancer
-
allergies
and
skin
diseases
- diabetes, gout, rheumatism, fatty liver
And so on I found a lot of more diseases but sometimes I really ask myself if these are
scientific results or propaganda. I don't know.
[ Arthritis, Salmonellen, Wasser in den Beinen
Kreislaufprobleme, Hämorrhoiden, Stoffwechselstörungen, Asthma, Nierensteine,
Geschwüre, Multiple Sklerose ]
Propaganda is a perfect note ... What happens if somebody says Nevertheless it tastes fine and hey I don't care
about my health meat is delicious, I want to have my "Sonntagsbraten". And this person isn't at all interested
in the news about the MADCOW-DISEASE.
And I could understand this person take a look at these pictures It looks delicious and I can be open with
you I also think that meat tastes fine oh if I remember - - - fresh bread with "Mettwurst" and mustard mmhm.
But I also saw these pictures and I saw more pictures and movies and read books about this topic and I think
meat is disgusting ... meat is murder.
Animals are kept under unworthy conditions the cages and boxes are much too small, the air is stuffy, the halls
are dark and dirty. Animals are beaten and kicked by slaughterhouse workers, they are driven on with
electroshocks, they are cut open alive that all their blood run out of the down-hanging bodies.
Huge trucks transport Cows, pigs and horses through almost the whole continent the animals die of injuries,
thirst or hunger.
There are some other things I'd like to mention
- the first one: vivisection mostly senseless unworthy and brutal tests on animals
- and the second one is that there are animals which are only kept to make
"wonderful" furs out of them these animal are gassed or scalped alive to save their
coat.
Of course there will always be people who say I don't care about animals they were only born to be eaten but
these people should think about the ecological side. There are problems which nobody would normally connect
with livestock production for example:
- Exploitation of the third world (the reason is the Production of meat swallows an enormous amount
of grain and other plants. Thousands of people in the third world could be feed but we buy their
cheap grain to feed our cows, pigs and chickens. But this is waste meat production uses up much
more resources than it creates.)
- The second problem is the Cut down of the rainforest (International meat groups need huge areas of
pastureland and the cheapest and easiest way is to cut down the rainforest. 90 percent of the area
which is cut down yearly is used for pastureland. )
- And two other ecological problem are the Greenhouse and the Acid rain. And also these problems are
intensified by livestock production. The extremely huge amounts of excrements and gasses of the
animals are the reason.
Okay this is the end of my presentation. I'd like to know good solution for this problem. But I don't know any. I
know there are vegetarian replacements for meat, milk and cold cuts (for example this is made of vegetarian
products) but I also know that a lot of people say that it doesn't taste and is too expensive.
Another possibility could be that everybody has to kill the animals by him or herself. I know this isn't possible
but I think it is the only way that people recognize that the piece of meat has been a living animal. And who eats
this animal is also guilty for it's death.
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