Sample Online Lesson:
WHAT IS A VEGETARIAN DIET?

Other Benefits of Plant-Based Eating

As health professionals, we are very focused on how eating affects our own health and the health of others.  We may see food as medicine, with our food choices affecting our ability to prevent or treat diseases.  And, as miraculous as that may be, the influence of food goes further.   The food choices we make each day greatly affect our environment and world hunger.   Eating may also be based on religious and ethical beliefs.  Many religions teach individuals to avoid meat daily or just on certain days or times of the year.   Also, many people choose to be vegetarians for ethical reasons; because of the conditions and practices of animal agriculture, some choose to eschew meat and even eggs and dairy products in order to eat a diet that is more compassionate.

Below are some other benefits to plant-based eating.  You may counsel someone who is a vegetarian for religious, environmental, or ethical reasons, so it is important to have some background knowledge on these issues.

The Environment

By choosing to eat foods from plants rather than animal sources, individuals can greatly change the impact of food production on the environment.   Here's why:

A.  Ratios

• It takes 25 gallons of water to grow 1 pound of wheat.  It takes 390 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef.  Most of the grain grown in the United States is fed to livestock, not humans.  We could save thousands of acres of land if we ate the grains we grow instead of feeding the grains to animals and then eating their meat.

• A cow has to eat 7 pounds of protein from grain and soybeans to produce only 1 pound of beef.  That's a poor investment.

B. Land Usage

• Livestock grazing causes desertification of the land by causing erosion of the topsoil and drying out of the soil.  Using topsoil as quickly as we are will mean we may not be able to grow enough food to eat in the future. 

• Deforestation is occurring at a rapid rate both in the United States and in the rain forests. 

C.  Water Usage

• One of the greatest threats of animal agriculture is to our supply of fresh water.

• We're using large quantities of our water to irrigate the land to grow crops to feed to livestock.

• Pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers used to grow animal feed are running into—and polluting—our water supply.

• The cows in dairy farms and slaughter houses (as well as the pigs, poultry, and sheep) produce huge amounts of waste which run off into our water supply.

D.  Fossil Fuels

• Production of meat, eggs, and dairy products requires the intensive use of fossil fuels: transporting farm feed and the animals, running farm machinery, and operating the factory farms.

For more information on the effect our eating has on the environment, please visit the Web site of EarthSave.

Religious Reasons

Many of the world's religions stress a vegetarian diet to their followers.  Some of the religious groups that traditionally follow a vegetarian diet include:

• Hindus

• Buddhists

• Seventh-day Adventists

Other people of different religions also find that eating a vegetarian diet is more peaceful and, therefore, more consistent with their own religious beliefs.   For more information about religion and vegetarian diets, please visit the Web sites of the Vegetarian Resource Group or the International Vegetarian Union

Ethical Reasons

It is easy to feel disconnected from our food sources.  We go to the grocery store and  pick up a package of meat, not knowing where it came from or what was involved in the production and slaughter processes.

Many of the people who choose to follow a vegetarian diet do so for animal protection issues.  Meat production today involves extremely crowded and often cruel conditions.  Animals are confined and often kept inside for most of their lives.

There are many animal protection organizations that are working towards calling people's attention to some of these issues.  Below is a billboard from a nonprofit organization.  You can also learn more about these issues at the Web site for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Which do you pet and which do you eat? Why?

Food Safety Issues

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), foodborne infections are "estimated to cause 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,200 deaths in the United States each year.  Known pathogens account for an estimated 14 million illnesses, 60,000 hospitalizations, and 1,800 deaths annually." The majority of the pathogens come from animal products.  To read more about foodborne illness and to view a list of common pathogens, visit the CDC's Health Topic: Foodborne Illnesses.  We will discuss more about foodborne illness in a future lecture. 

Pesticides, Herbicides, Hormones, Heavy Metals, and Antibiotics

Animals raised for food are often given hormones and antibiotics to increase the amount of meat produced and/or to prevent disease outbreaks.  The animals we eat also ingest pesticides and herbicides through the food they eat.  They then concentrate these contaminants their body fat, making the cheese, beef, and chicken we consume contain high levels of pesticides and herbicides.  You may have heard that the CDC has warned pregnant women from consuming most fish because of the high levels of heavy metals (such as mercury) found in their meat.  In order to avoid consuming most of these contaminants, many people decide to become vegetarians.  We will discuss these contaminants in greater detail in another lecture.

For more information on how environmental contaminants can affect the food we eat, visit the Web site of the Sierra Club. 

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