There are many reasons for becoming a vegetarian or a vegan, all you have to do is a quick search of the internet and you’ll see. But at the end of the day, the reasons can usually be whittled away to just one; morality. Some people just don’t like the idea of animals getting killed. So they take the so-called moral high ground and make bold statements like “meat is murder” and the such.
Firstly for those of you who are unaware of the difference, a vegan has a diet consisting of no animal product at all, while a vegetarian includes dairy such as milk and eggs along with all of their fruit, vegetables, nuts and grains. Some vegetarians really stretch the term by allowing themselves to eat fish or chicken too and only avoid red meat.
So why the prejudice? Why do some think it’s ok to eat fish but not cow? Well, simply put, in most cases, you’ll find that the further away from ourselves the less of a problem we have with killing it. Cow’s, sheep and especially pigs are fairly close to us on the evolutionary chart. We all have four limbs, two eyes, a face, hair (well I used to at least…) and are warm blooded. A chicken is a little stranger with it’s beak and feathers and strange bone structure, while a fish is a long way from being like us. But for now, we’ll pretend that vegetarians don’t eat meat.
But what about vegetables? They too are giving up their life for us to eat. How is this any different? If you are to take the moral high ground and state that “meat is murder” then isn’t killing a vegetable also murder? Why must only life that resembles our own, be of high enough value to protect? There is only one word to describe a vegetarian or vegan who is such for the sole purpose of protecting life and that is a hypocrite.
Regardless of what propaganda is being pushed on us from these people, humans are not vegetarian by nature, nor are we carnivores. We are omnivores. For those who don’t know, this means we need food from both plant and animal sources. I’m not a nutritionist so am not going to give advice on such, but have you ever seen a nutritional table that did not include both plant and animal products?
Before I get inundated by angry vegetarians and vegans, allow me to state that I am an animal lover but I also love plants and trees just as much. If we are to take the moral high ground and say no more killing, then all that is left are the parts of plants that are freely given without the demise of the plant itself; fruit, nuts, seeds and grains. Basically to become a fruitarian. Is there enough nutritional value in these alone? I don’t know. I do know that dinner would be boring if this was all that we could eat.
