Veganism and Vegetarianism is collectively emerging as a very distinct sub-culture characterized by unique nutritional tendencies and beliefs. According to Stepaniak, the major distinction between vegans and vegetarians is that the former strictly avoid consumption of animal products or foods processed using animal products, while the latter only avoid animals products that involve killing of the animals (154). However, both vegans and vegetarians draw their nutrition from similar plant sources. In essence, a vegetarians cuisine might include animals products like eggs, milk and honey that do not involve killing of the animals while a vegan’s cuisine should never contain any of these products. Vegans strictly eat plant products. The fact that the average human being eats three times a day implies that nutrition constitutes a very important aspect of culture. Veganism and vegetarianism is a sub-culture that transcends the aspect of eating alone but that place emphasis in the creation and upholding of harmony and balance and discourages brutality for selfish gains. The paper looks at the factors that motivate individuals towards the sub-culture, the general characteristics of the sub-culture and the health implications of adopting such nutritional practices.
Understanding veganism and Vegetarianism. According to Iacobbo & Iacobbo, “a sub-culture is part of a larger culture” characterized by similar beliefs and approaches towards one or several aspects of life (9). These beliefs become the primary distinguishing factors between people of a particular sub-culture from other sub-cultures or within a larger culture. There are certain distinguishing factors between the American culture and the culture of other countries with regard to ...
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...vegetarian diet that allows for animal products such as milk and honey that will supply nutrients such as zinc, magnesium and vitami D. Vegan vegetarian that does not allow any animal products might pose health risks due to the lack of these important nutrients in the diet.
Works Cited
Breier, Davida Gypsy. Vegan & Vegetarian FAQ: Answers to your Frequently Asked Questions. Baltimore: Vegetarian Resource Group, 2001. Print.
Iacobbo, Karen & Iacobbo, Dorothy. Vegetarians and Vegans in America Today. New York: Greeenwood Publishing Group, 2006. Print.
Insel, Paul. Nutrition. Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2011. Print.
Jamieson, Alexandra. Living Vegan for Dummies. New York: For Dummies, 2009. Print.
Stepaniak, Joanne. Being Vegan: Living with Conscience, Conviction, and Compassion. California: Contemporary Publishing Group, 2000. Print.
The argumentative article “More Pros than Cons in a Meat-Free Life” authored by Marjorie Lee Garretson was published in the student newspaper of the University of Mississippi in April 2010. In Garretson’s article, she said that a vegetarian lifestyle is the healthy life choice and how many people don’t know how the environment is affected by their eating habits. She argues how the animal factory farms mistreat the animals in an inhumane way in order to be sources of food. Although, she did not really achieve the aim she wants it for this article, she did not do a good job in trying to convince most of the readers to become vegetarian because of her writing style and the lack of information of vegetarian
In her Salon.com essay, “Why I Stopped Being a Vegetarian,” writer Laura Fraser uses her own life experiences to explain why she became a vegetarian, what it did to her, and why she decided to go back to being an omnivore. Fraser’s main idea was that even though being a vegetarian might be slightly healthier than a “usual diet”, and that people should not go against what they are made for. Fraser explains why being a vegetarian can be healthier for people in some places, why it is hard to be a full vegetarian, and why it is a good idea to not go against humans natural ways as a human being. By establishing her personal view and facts that she has researched, and appealing to emotions and logic in some ways, Fraser succeeds in writing an informal/argumentative essay about being an omnivore.
“The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality."( Schopenhauer). Vegetarianism and animal rights movement have been crossing each other since 70’s. The meeting point between two is veganism which means strict vegetarianism. Vegetarianism was firstly founded as being formed on ethical issues and then it became mostly based on health reasons. Even though vegetarianism has evolved drastically over time, some of its current forms have come back full circle to its early days, when vegetarianism was an ethical-philosophical choice, not a mere health choice.
"PRIMARY News from the Vegan Home Front." News from the Vegan Home Front. Web. 18 Mar. 2014. .
There are a myriad of myths and misconceptions that surround the words “vegetarian” and “vegan.” One perhaps thinks that becoming vegan is synonymous with becoming weak and holier-than-thou or only consuming foods such as Tofurkey. Thankfully, this isn’t the case for the vast majority of vegans or vegetarians. For financial and health concerns, many Americans are consuming less meat and poultry; approximately one third of Americans follow a diet centered upon vegetables and whole grains, with the occasional consumption of meat. Nonetheless, meat consumption per capita is still extortionate in America—the highest per capita with the exception of Luxembourg—largely due to its ingrained nature in our economy and culture.
Walters, Kerry S, and Lisa Portmess. Ethical Vegetarianism: From Pythagoras to Peter Singer. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999. Print.
Vegetarianism taught me a good lesson. I began to feel my body and to listen to its signals. I am pleased to share my experiences with my friends. I try to show them the pros and cons of this diet. Smart people learn in someone’s mistake. I wasn’t smart enough and started five-year long experiment to understand how it’s like to be a vegetarian. At the end of my “journey”, I came up to conclusion that good nutrition should be diversified. We can not live without vegetables, eating only meat and vice versa. We need to combine meat products with plant food in order to maintain healthy lifestyle and enjoy our lives in full.
There are many factors to why some want be vegetarians. Many believe that it is more ethical to become vegetarian. That warm-blooded animals being slaughtered have emotions and connections and are sacrificed to satisfy the decedent meat eating lifestyle. Or let it be that we are supporting many genetically modified crops and feeding them to the animals we eat; only supporting an artificial lifecycle. Many vegetarians are born into the lifestyle; most people from India are vegetarians because of the animals they worship. It is called the Asian –Indian diets, which is predominantly lacto-vegetarian. Many choose the lifestyle because of health concerns and concerns of the environment; that we are a product of our environment. What ever we take from the world or put into it is the reason there are so many health problems, like a circle of life.
While plant-based diet have been around for decades, veganism did not make headlines until the late 1990’s. ‘Vegetarian’ first appears in a title of an article on September 16th, 1852, five years after the Vegetarian Society was formed (Vegetarian Society). Although veganism has clearly risen in popularity in the 21st century, it can not be concluded that American’s view plant-based eating positively. Multiple articles have been published bashing the lifestyle. ‘Vegan’ first appeared in a title of an article on December 6th, 1998, fifty-four years after the first vegan society was formed (Vegan Society). The article was titled, “All Species Welcome At A Vegan Mixer.” The author wrote about veganism as a foreign idea and made jokes on vegan’s behalf. The second time veganism appeared in the New York Times was in December of the same year. The article exposed a vegan eco-terrorist group, giving all vegans a bad reputation. Two years later, on February 1st, 2000,
The number of people becoming vegetarians these days is growing. There are a few different types of vegetarians, for example; the lacto-ovo vegetarian doesn’t eat any animal products except milk and eggs. Another type of vegetarian is the vegan, they exclude all animal products.
Rachels, J. (2013). The Moral Argument for Vegetarianism. In L. Vaughn, Contemporary Moral Arguments - Readings in Ethical Issues Second Edition (pp. 617-622). New York: Oxford University Press.
In October of last year I finally became a vegetarian, meaning that I chose to not eat meat products anymore. Technically, I am a lacto-ovo vegetarian because I do eat eggs (ovo-) and milk (lacto-) on occasion and not a vegan-one who doesn't eat any animal products. My first year as a vegetarian has been very revealing. Since adopting this new identity, I have learned a lot about myself as well as others. Here I write about why I am a vegetarian and what I have learned since becoming one. In doing so, I hope to dispel some misunderstandings about vegetarians and to reveal some unappreciated aspects about what it takes to become and remain a vegetarian. Please understand that I speak for one vegetarian and not for vegetarians in general.
For several years the issue of eating meat has been a great concern to all types of people all over the world. In many different societies controversy has began to arise over the morality of eating meat from animals. A lot of the reasons for not eating meat have to deal with religious affiliations, personal health, animal rights, and concern about the environment. Vegetarians have a greater way of expressing meats negative effects on the human body whereas meat eaters have close to no evidence of meat eating being a positive effect on the human body. Being a vegetarian is more beneficial for human beings because of health reasons, environmental issues, and animal rights.
As we can now observe, vegetarianism has become something fashionable, and the number of people who reject eating meat is constantly increasing. In Britain, for instance, over 5 million people have done it so far. It is obviously connected with the recent animal diseases, but this tendency is likely to spread on the other regions of the world. However, it is not only a fashion or fear of illnesses. I myself became a vegetarian about 2 years ago, and I can see a number of reasons why people should stop eating meat. They are mainly of ethic, economic and health type. Those who think in an ecological way should also be aware of how this meat consumption ruins our environment. I don’t have an intention to force anybody to become a vegetarian, but I hope that my argumentation would be strong enough to make some people think about it, at least. In this essay I will try to present this point of view, expressing my personal feelings and showing scientific facts about the problem.
Albert Einstein said, “Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” Nowadays, a growing number of vegetarians has been showed in many studies, such as a poll started by a nonprofit organization named Vegetarian Resource Group. It showed that United States has 6-8 million adults who do not eat poultry, meat, or fish (“Becoming a Vegetarian”, 2009, pp4). Much more people choose to be a vegetarian because it is more flexible than before, which means that vegetarians have more choice to combine a healthy lifestyle and high quality of life together. Food products like quinoa and fake meat are available for most people. Moreover, restaurants, schools, and hospitals are friendlier to vegetarians with some special offers. In addition to this, an iPhone APP named Vegetarian Scanner can alert people that the food contains meat (DeVries, 2012, pp41).