Vegan is Weird. Those of us who are plant-based hear this sentence quite frequently and read social media posts putting plant-based or vegan folk in some subspecialty psychological disorder. What’s weird about it? Let’s parse that out.
Eating a vegan lifestyle is making the active choice not to eat meat. That concept has been around for millennia. From meat insecurity in the pre-frozen food era to Lent, not eating meat could range from supply change problems to a spiritual cleansing of fasting to discourage the growth of one of the seven deadly sins – gluttony. I’m of the Catholic faith, and as with many of the spiritual beliefs, a little self-sacrifice can create discipline, self-awareness, concern for others, empathy, etc. You get the picture. Eating massive quantities of meat, even in Roman times, wasn’t about health – it was probably about showing wealth – an even worse deadly sin in my opinion, all the while, keeping the regular populace happy with bread. Contrary to popular belief, and based on bone studies, Roman gladiators were probably mostly vegetarian.
Within the realm of the plant-based world are variations of not eating meat at all to eating some on occasion. From the ethicism of veganism to the Mediterranean eating pattern, and many options in between, somehow the concept of eating more plants and less meat got weird.
Perhaps the naysayers of veganism think honoring animals’ lives is weird. For many, it may be something you didn’t grow up with. I know for myself, that in the 1960s, my grandfather was one of the first to start “cagers” for egg production as a means to maximize his land and increase his income with little effort. I get that. With massive marketing and resources from the Farm Bureau encouraging caging birds and animals, it worked. Raising cagers and selling less-elegant eggs provided him with financial security.
When I would gather those beautiful warm, pink eggs as a child, it never dawned on me there was something not right about chickens in an 18-inch by 18-inch cage, with sometimes two in an elevated cage, with layers of chicken feces dripping below on the ground teaming with worms. It was foul fowl. The better-tasting eggs that made luxuriously orange scrambled eggs were always over in the cute wooden hen house where the chickens were given space, scratched for insects, and laid eggs in beautiful clean hay nests.
If caging worked for chickens, confinement could start working for turkeys and hogs. It did, and here we are with a supply chain of meat that is in almost every fast food and table dinner in the country.
What Is Weird?
1. Most Americans don’t know more than 90% of their meat supply comes from Concentration Animal Farming Operations. (CAFOs). 70% of cows, 98% of pigs, and 99% of chickens and turkeys are produced in CAFOs. Don’t you think that’s pretty weird?
2. Animals are packed in housing like humans in a concentration camp and once crowding begins, humans or animals, create the perfect conditions for communicable diseases. Thus, roughly 66% of antibiotics go to CAFOs to manage diseases, and in some instances, increase animal body growth – a real plus (?) That is weird for our resistance and gut.
3. Conventional wisdom is to think we have to eat meat to get the right amino acids, That theory is considered false. This is an excellent podcast with Christopher Gardner regarding his research on protein. All plants have protein and if you don’t want to fully listen to the podcast, scroll down to Figure 1 for his analysis of amino acids (the building blocks of protein) in plants versus animals.
4. We’d rather deforest and ruin agrisystems with pesticides and animal manure to raise beef rather than eat the plants that go to the beef, chickens, and pork. That’s weird math, science, and logic.
5. We’d rather take a pill than modify our lifestyle. Too many times I hear “My doctor says everyone gets high blood pressure as they age.” Yes, there is some truth to that, but “everyone” is not 100%. “Everyone” is approximately 60-70% of the adult population who may get hypertension. Do you want to be in the 60% group or the 40% group? Hypertension is not a given, just a high probability.
6. God gave us animals to eat. I agree with that if that is the only thing to eat. That has happened in the course of human history – we ate what we needed to nourish and live. Looking around at our oversized world, I don’t see eating meat as the only option to live and be healthy. I’m trying to listen to God as he might be telling me it’s OK to cage animals, and, kill over 300 million male chicks a year just in the United States. I’m not hearing that message quite yet. Are you? That in itself should give rise to pause and just seem weird.
7. Bigger is better. The US chicken has tripled in size since the 1950s. This is weird, not normal and the chicken does not do this naturally. It’s weird. But, honestly, 10 years ago, pre-plant-based, I brought home some unnaturally-looking oversized chicken breasts. I took pictures and ogled at each of their two-pound sizes, thinking it was a bit weird. I was so socialized about “big,” I didn’t understand or want to know how they got that big. Now I do. As I look back slicing them horizontally into thin paillards and then again into smaller pieces, wrapping them in freezer wrap, and having at least eight servings, the whole activity should have screamed “weird.”
8. We eat baby animals. Not just for taste, but also for economic reasons. So, the more meat we eat, the faster the supply chain wheel rolls. We should be a bit troubled by that. And perhaps think that is weird.
The Health Side
So, as I prep my next pot of beans while writing this article, let’s rephrase weird into health. No one has to be 100% vegan or plant-based. Try to get to 75% plants or more. Find the plants that will work for you and aren’t weird to you. And, if they are weird, enjoy the weirdness. The shapes. The colors and textures. Explore the cuisines, flavors, and plant textures that become amazing dishes. And consider the weirdness of our meat supply. That’s weirder than a Buddha hand citron.
We have one chance, one life, and one life for each of those who come next. Eat like you and your earth depends on it.
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