When I was young, it seemed everyone pretty much ate the same foods. We were in the age of the “Four Food Groups” and readily accepted those guidelines as the right way to eat. Of course, meat was the main course back then. Served with potatoes, maybe some canned vegetables, a piece of bread and a glass of milk, it was the All-American meal. I can even remember looking at a can of “Vegetarian Vegetable” soup and thinking how redundant that seemed. Well, at least for many people like me, the times have changed.

It was May of 1990. I was already thinking more about the foods I ate, and then I saw an “Earth Day” show on the History Channel all about the 19th century whaling industry. I watched the brutal techniques used to capture and kill whales, and the blood shooting out of the blowhole of a whale as it gave up its life. My jaw dropped even further in disbelief as my eyes witnessed the shipboard “rendering” of the kill. Now, I never ate whale, but I knew of people who did, and that the blubber was once used to extract whale oil for lamps and such before the growth of the petroleum industry. I just did not know exactly how they did it. The reality was shocking. Even though the whaling industry is diminished, I immediately made the connection between that industry and the modern cattle, swine and poultry industries.

I suppose modern methods of euthanizing food animals are more humane, but what about humane treatment before the kill? The questions keep coming. “Why do we need to do this at all?” Do we need to take the innocent lives of other animals to continue our own lives? Can we live healthy lives if we do not eat meat? Oh, I have heard the arguments about culling the herds and fielded the questions about what to do with the animals if they are not eaten, but I just cannot get around the idea of the unnecessary taking of one life to preserve another. I did some research.

Most people eat meat for the protein, yet very few people seem to know what the RDA for protein is. Yes, there actually is an RDA, but it is more of a guideline. Too much protein in the diet can hypertrophy the liver and kidneys, and lead to other complications. Too little protein can cause marasmus and kwashiorkor, especially in children. To balance this out, the RDA suggests the consumption of just .8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, but not more than 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. Since a kilogram is 2.2 pounds, an easy way for people to figure how many grams of protein to eat is simply to divide their weight in pounds by two. It will not be an exact number, but it will be close enough for easy referencing. Since .8 is almost 1.0, the figure arrived at in the first division should be approximately right in the middle of the recommended RDA limits. An even simpler rule of thumb is to make complete protein just 15% of total caloric intake. That is all a healthy, adult human needs. Doing the math just assures that one’s diet is within the guidelines even though most people, even vegetarians, consume adequate protein every day without ever giving the numbers any thought at all.

OK, so protein is not an issue, but what about nutrition? Are there vitamins and minerals missing from the diet when meat is excluded? The answer to both questions is “Yes”. The vitamins are easily consumed from other sources, but vegetarian diets tend to be lacking in the minerals Calcium, Iron and Zinc. Yet, even this is a simple problem to overcome by choosing foods higher in those missing minerals. To add Calcium to the diet without eating meat, eat kefir, milk, cheese, turnip greens, broccoli, beet greens, bok choy, tofu, kidney beans, oranges, cauliflower, cabbage and whole wheat bread. To add Iron to a vegetarian diet, choose spinach, lima beans, peaches, navy beans, soybeans, kidney beans, parsley, sauerkraut, split peas, and black-eyed peas. To add zinc to the vegetarian diet, consume black-eyed peas, miso, wheat germ, pinto beans, kidney beans, spinach, wheat bran, Swiss cheese, buttermilk, milk, collards and peanuts. Since it is recommended for all to eat a variety of foods everyday anyway, vegetarians just need to remember to pay a little bit closer attention to their food choices or consider the use of supplements.

When I began my journey into vegetarianism, I came across many peculiar ideas. People would see me having a beer or a soda and inquire, “Aren’t you a vegetarian?” At first, I did not understand the question. After further inquiry, I discovered that people do exist who believe vegetarians eat only vegetables and water, and commit themselves to a monastery lifestyle. Nothing could be further from the truth. The only thing missing from my diet and my lifestyle are the meats and “unfriendly” animal products. As long as no animal gave its life to make that food, it is vegetarian to me. The last I heard, neither beer nor soda are made from any animal products. The one I am still trying to figure out is what exactly makes wine “vegan”? To clear up the issue of who is and is not vegetarian, I discovered two classes of vegetarians: 1) Vegans, and what I call, 2) Hybrid Vegans.

Vegans are the pure vegetarians. They eat no animals or animal products at all. That means in addition to not eating meat, poultry and fish, they also exclude milk, eggs, cheese, and soups with animal broths, (even vegetable soup, and, thus, the need for “Vegetarian Vegetable”, since even many vegetable soups use a chicken or beef stock). For many, however, this diet is impossible to stick with and may not even be completely healthy. Thus, to fill the void, the Hybrid Vegans developed.

Personally, I am a type of Hybrid Vegan called a “lacto-ovo-vegetarian”, which simply means that although I exclude meat from my diet, I still eat dairy including milk, milk products and eggs. I do not drink milk much anymore. I oppose the treatment of cattle in the dairy industry and resent the addition of BGH, (Bovine Growth Hormone), to the cows. I understand that I could just buy organic milk, but that would only eliminate the BGH and would not ensure good treatment of the animals. Besides, I can use a soymilk maker to make a gallon of pure, filtered soymilk for about twenty-five cents. I do enjoy organic cheeses and I do eat free-range, organic eggs.

I choose free-range organic eggs at easily three times the price because I oppose the treatment of hens on conventional poultry farms. Not only are the animals caged and fed hormones, they are starved to trigger biological survival instincts to make them produce more eggs. Additionally, since they will spend their entire lives caged in close quarters, many young chicks have their beaks cut off, and sometimes more than just the beak is taken. I cannot support that kind of treatment even for animals that are just going to become food. Yet, I see no problem at all with allowing the animals to live free lives, walking around the barnyard and laying all the healthy eggs they can. Besides eggs contain the best, natural source of complete protein available for consumption and the standard by which all other proteins are gauged.

If my style of Hybrid Vegetarianism seems odd to you, consider the some of the other semi-vegetarians who eat some types of meat, but not all. I have run into people referring to themselves as vegetarians because the only ate red meat, only ate white meat, or only ate fish in addition to an otherwise “Omnivore” diet. I have also encountered raw food vegetarians and “Fruititarians”, the people who only eat fruit and nothing else. Yet, of all these, the most odd has to be the “Breatheairians”. As near as I can tell, these people do not eat any food at all and believe they can get all the nutrition they need from the air and water. I expect they will probably last as long as the “Shakers” whose religion forbade them from any kind of sex. Naturally, they all died off.

I have come a long way since I was that six-year-old boy watering at the mouth for a McDonald’s hamburger, some french fries and a Pepsi. Rather than just eat what was once put in front of me, I now take the time to consider what I am eating, where my food comes from and my effect on life on this planet. That may seem odd to some, and I have been called “tree hugger” more than once, (as if it were a bad thing to protect the planet we live on), and there are many people who know me who still do not believe I am and have been vegetarian for over 18 years, simply because I am not a tiny, emaciated man. Nonetheless, it is a lifestyle I have chosen and I have never looked back nor regretted my decision even once. In fact, my conviction to vegetarianism increases daily and I often wonder how I could ever have lived the way I did before.

I invite you to explore vegetarianism further and to consider similar lifestyle changes for yourself. Even though I kind of chuckle at some of the variations people come up with, I know they will get things right if they stick to it. I deeply respect people who can stay healthy on a completely vegan diet and admire their commitment to their planet and the creatures who live on it, including you and me. Yet, now that I have ventured into unknown waters and found something better, I just cannot understand how people can continue eating meat as if it did not come from once living animals, as if it were anything except the cooked flesh of living, breathing beings. It just seems odd to me that people would lobby so hard against abortion, pointing their accusing fingers at others and not even take the time to consider the kind of murder they condone every time they fry up a steak. Needless to say, I am now and always will be a vegetarian.