The Goodness of Meat, or the Case of an Author Infected with Mad Cow Disease?

After reading "The Goodness of Meat" by David Hunt, I couldn't help but wonder if the author had been infected with some mind altering disease such as Mad Cow Disease. I didn't realize diseases like heart disease were "rare" or that vegetarian atheletes were so weak (makes me wonder if the author even won an Iron Man competition). How the author fails to see how eating meat might even possibly be unethical is simply unbelievable to me. The last time I checked, "meat" was not specifically a part of the food pyramid either.

Eating a little meat every now and then may not harm you much (unless you happened to eat some beef infected with Mad Cow Disease), the prolonged consumption of meat has been linked to heart disease, several cancers, diabetes, and arteriosclerosis. Those aren't rare diseases at all, in fact, they are among the ten leading causes of death in the United States (Robbins, 206). Consumption of the standard American diet has been linked to many health problems. Notice the obesity rate going up? Notice how school children are eating fast food and getting fatter? More children are getting diabetes now than ever before. Coincidence? I think not.

I just love how everyone says vegetarians are weak. Do people really not realize how many atheletes are vegetarians? Exactly which vegetarian did everyone meet that they are calling the weak one? My guess is that people seem to find some teenage girl who claims to be vegetarian, and then noticing she is not all that strong. Nevermind that she doesn't exercise or is bulimic, she must be weak because she is a vegetarian. If you don't believe there are vegetarian atheletes just because no one ever gave you any names, fine, here's some names. Could you swim the English Channel? Could a weak person swim the English Channel? No. But Bill Pickering set the record for swimming the English Channel at the time, and he is a vegetarian. Murray Rose was another great swimmer who won three gold medals in the Olympics, and he was also a vegetarian. Andreas Cahling the Swedish body builder is also a vegetarian (Robbins, 160). Do a Google search and you'll find many more vegetarian atheletes.

You aren't going to miss out on iron by not eating meat either. Spinach has 11.3 milligrams of iron per 100 calories, while lean steak only has 1.9 milligrams of iron per 100 calories (Robbins, 165). You'll likely have more fiber in a vegetarian diet and more folic acid. The only thing you'll really miss out on is cholesterol. Only animal products contain cholesterol. So if you aren't eating meat, eggs, or dairy products, you aren't going to be taking in any cholesterol (cholesterol is necessary, by the way, for cell membranes, but don't worry - cholesterol is also made by your liver).

Even if you don't care about your health, there is also the issue of ethics. Perhaps in the past people did not consider eating meat unethical because in the good old days, animals were raised and killed on family farms. Those days have passed however, and we are now in the era of the factory farm. Animals are subjected to overcrowding, unnatural environments, and sometimes slow and painful deaths. Many omnivorous people are concerned about animal welfare even if they don't agree with animal rights activists that animals are on the same level as humans. Many people are now buying cage-free eggs and grass fed beef (as opposed to grain fed beef from feedlots). It is absurd to not even address the issue that eating meat might be unethical.

Eating meat might not only be unethical because of what is done to the animals. While world hunger is a complex issue, it is important to note a few things about meat consumption. No matter whose statistics you use, grain to meat conversion is inefficient. However, it is not likely that enough people will stop eating meat so that the grain will be used to feed people rather than animals. Even if the grain was available to people because animals were no longer being raised for meat, there is still the issue of those starving not being able to afford the food. In any case, the inefficiency of consuming meat should not be overlooked.

The USDA food pyramid is constantly evolving, but on most of the recent pyramids devised, "meat" is not a group. The group is called the "protein" group and can also include nuts, beans, and more. Protein is a necessary part of the human diet. Meat is not.

Unfortunately, the human diet is not a simple issue. However, much research has been done on diets and links to diseases. While Mad Cow Disease may be rare, unfortunately diseases such as heart disease are not. It can be easy to dismiss the idea of trying a vegetarian diet by saying that vegetarians are weak, but you need to look at the facts. Even if you aren't the most ethical person, it is hard to deny that there is an ethical issue involved with the consumption of meat. So even if you'd never consider a vegetarian lifestyle, don't be the ignorant person who says that vegetarians can't get enough iron.