This year I celebrate 21 years as a vegetarian. My mother
laughs now, because when I was a child, she remembers cooking delicious
meals and casseroles only to watch me pick out all of the spinach, broccoli,
celery, and anything else green. I would
have a pile of ‘green stuff’ on the side of my plate that I would refuse to eat
for the first twenty years of my life. Now, my whole refrigerator is filled
with everything green.
What made me give up my Standard American Diet (S.A.D.)
of predominantly red meat and potatoes? Several things – and am I glad that
they did!
It was partly my mother’s influence, but it wasn’t her
cooking that prompted my change. My mother and both of her parents developed
colon cancer during a short period of time. In fact, my grandmother lived the
last decade or so of her life with no colon at all. Talk about a reason to
change my ways – I didn’t ever want to have to endure what she went through. A
colostomy bag is not for me. My mother and grandfather were luckier as they
only lost very small portions of their colons. When my mom beat colon cancer
only to have cancer return in the form of lymphoma a couple of years later –
and then beat that too, I knew I had some strong “fighting genes” in my gene
pool, but I also realized I have some genetic predispositions to contend with
as well. Thankfully, I discovered that although our genes load the metaphorical
gun, it’s our lifestyle that pulls the trigger.
I was also influenced by a good friend of mine who was raised
by vegan parents. He had never consumed meat or dairy his entire life. He was
also a phenomenal athlete who was a star on his collegiate cross-country track
team. He made running marathons look easy and he never seemed to lack energy,
stamina or strength. I was so intrigued by his physical ability and absence of
past medical problems that I quickly accepted his challenge to “go raw” for 21
days and only eat fruits and veggies. I was already in pretty good shape and
had yet to suffer any health problems, but nonetheless my transformation was
remarkable. The increased energy alone
was enough to make me never crave animal products again.
It’s undeniable that humans were designed to be vegetarians.
The physiological proof starts with the alkaline saliva in our mouths. Also in
regards to our mouths, the shape of our teeth (flat molars for grinding) and
the movement of our jaw (up and down and side to side also for grinding)
indicate that of a vegetarian. Compare our mouths to that of a carnivorous dog
and you will find acidic saliva, sharp incisors and pointed molars designed for
ripping and tearing flesh as well as a jaw that only moves up and down (no need
to grind the meat side to side). The next clue is the dexterity of our
magnificent hands - complete with thumbs for grasping and picking
fruits and veggies – as opposed to a carnivore like a bear that has massive
claws for holding live prey and tearing its flesh from the bones. Human
digestive tracts are very long and curvaceous so they can extract all of the
nutrients from the living fruits and veggies -while true carnivores (such as
lions) have very short and relatively straight digestive tracts to expel the
rotting flesh and it’s toxic digestion by-products from their bowels as quickly
and easily as possible.
If that physiological evidence isn’t enough to convince you
that vegetarianism should be the way of humanity, then try this test. Put a
pile of berries and a rabbit in a playpen with a four year old child and
observe what happens. Then try the same experiment with a four year old lion
cub in a cage. My guess is that the child will eat the berries and pet the
rabbit. And in the lion cub’s cage there will be a bloody mess and a pile of
untouched berries. Instincts don’t lie. And by the way, anyone who thinks that
humans are at the top of the food chain is dead wrong. I invite them to spend
the night in the wilderness full of lions, bears, mosquitoes and snakes – or
take a swim in shark infested waters. In reality, decomposers such as bacteria
and fungi are the ones on top of the food chain.
If most people in modern society had to raise, kill, clean,
prep and cook their own meat, there would be a whole lot more vegetarians.
Thank God for our modern food production industry – right? Wrong! If
slaughterhouses and meat packing plants had windows or an open-door policy, my
guess is that everyone would be a vegetarian!
Animal cruelty is a travesty and is prevalent in almost every
aspect of the carnivorous side of the food industry, but I’ve found that most
people simply don’t care – they don’t want to think about it – they just want
their meat neatly packaged or prepared and cooked for them. They don’t even
want to know what went into the process. If they only knew or thought about what
went into the “meat process” and how it goes straight into their bodies, then
they would realize that “we are what we eat” – right?
Maybe the chronic diseases suffered by many people in today’s
modern society are simply nature’s revenge for the cruelty that mankind’s
carnivorous population is exacting on the rest of the animal kingdom. For
scientific proof that animal consumption is linked to chronic disease, I would
be happy to direct you to Dr. T. Colin Campbell’s book “The China Study”.
Recently I was having dinner with a colleague who seemed
quite perplexed when they discovered I was a vegetarian. Their immediate
reaction was “Oh, you don’t eat meat? What do you eat?” My simple response was
“Plants and living foods”.
Simple and to the point – when you eat a plant based diet of
fruits and veggies, you are eating living foods and thus ingesting life into
your body. When you eat meat, it is dead and so you are ingesting death into
your body. Plus, the higher up the food chain we eat, the farther we move away
from the natural source energy of the sun, the mineral nutrients of the soil
and water, and the purity and oxygen from the air.
Look, I’m here to tell you that if I can make the
“cold-turkey” conversion from the typical male American meat-and-potatoes diet
to vegetarianism, anyone can do it. Having made the transition and having lived
on ‘both sides of the food chain’ – I can honestly say without a doubt or
reservation that vegetarianism is an exponentially far superior lifestyle to
that of an American carnivore.
Forget all the macho B.S. - you don’t need meat or dairy to
get protein – I work out harder and longer than most of my meat eating friends
and never lack energy, stamina or strength. In addition, I’ve never had a tooth
cavity or a broken bone – and that means a lot considering my active lifestyle!
Don't take my word for it try being a vegetarian yourself and experience the awesome benefits. You’ll be happy you did.
