5.26.2010

Health care.

So I've been quite busy lately. Wrote a good shot story, worked some more on my novels, and of course keeping up with my school work. There isn't much to say on my end, because for the most part, not much has happened in my life. I was on a particularly mean streak a few months back, and now I'm back to the sort of kindness that I want to have. I've sent repentant messages to many of my friends that I've harmed in the past, trying to make amends for some of the greater douchebaggeries that I've committed, and in general I feel like I've helped myself and others by finally just sitting down and admitting that I've done a few wrongs. Other than this, there isn't much to speak of, except the one thing that has been on my mind lately.

I would like everyone to understand here, that eating a healthy diet is NOT the same thing as being a vegetarian.

I know that it's became fashionable and all to eat nothing but veggies and decry all that is meat, but to be honest, there isn't much nutritional basis for this. I've done some preliminary research here, and my findings have confirmed the facts that I already know. The enemy to your health isn't meat, it's the processing of food.

Now, of course, it is much easier to fuck up meat than it is to fuck up vegetables and fruits. The process of mass-producing meat generally involves a lot of disgusting stuff, such as unsanitary living conditions for the animals, the fact that every chunk of beef that makes its way to you is made up of probably about eight different cows, and the fact that we process this meat to remove the nutritional value and replace this with flavor. The process of mass-producing fruit and veggies, on the other hand, is simply to grow more of them. Yes, you can try crowding them together, but unsanitary living conditions are less important here; if plants are growing too close together, one dies and the other one keeps going. Simple. And then, there's far less processing that goes into fruits and veggies, and as a result they tend to end up on our plates much closer to the way that nature intended, with all their value intact.

The real enemy here is everything processed. It's all the salt we put into soups and spices to preserve things, it's all the sugar that we extract from god-knows-where and dump into our food, and it's all the high-taste low-nutrient stuff that gets packed onto the shelves today. The important thing to understand, is that not all meat is victim to this process, and not all vegetables escape it. It's perfectly fine to eat lean, humanely grown meat, and it's also just as disgusting to me to eat apples that have been coated in wax so that they last longer on their way to our mouths.

This being said, it is also true that a vegetarian diet is simply not a balanced diet. A balanced diet is one that contains the right amounts of all available food groups, not one that cuts out one group entirely and thus forces you to eat too much of another to catch up. Meats contain valuable fats and proteins, which we need for muscle growth and energy. You could argue that fat makes you fat, but hell, having energy isn't a bad thing. Of course, if you eat a lot of fats and don't spend any time getting exercise, yes, you will get fat, and be very unhealthy, but for a person who spends an adequate amount of time taking care of their body, there's no such worry, because you're then burning that fat just as it was designed to be done. Another issue of the vegetarian side of life is that you are forced to eat a lot of concentrated types of veggies, say legumes, in order to make up for nutrients in meat that you are lacking. In the process, you get too much of other nutrients, and this is of course unhealthy in a slightly less visible but just as effective over time kind of way. I'm not saying that vegetables and fruits are not the portion of your diet with the highest amount of nutrients, because this is completely true. But as with all things, you need enjoyment to balance out your work, you need things of lesser importance and lesser effect to balance out the ones of higher importance and effect. Ignoring meat is like saying that you would like to work for the rest of your life, no breaks except for the necessary rest and food. Certainly, at first you would start doing a lot of work; after a time, you would be burnt out. It's the same way with your body; too much of a good thing is still a bad thing.

That being said, I have no problem with someone who goes the mile to inform himself, and then chooses to take up a vegetarian diet. I can't do it, because I spend a lot of time in the gym and can't support my workout routine without eating meat or eating excessive amounts of veggies and sugars to make up my energy. But I do have a problem with people who blindly take up vegetarianism as a way of life and a superior diet, because in fact it isn't. As with all things in life, it's simply a different one. It has its own strengths and weaknesses, just like all other diets. There is no 'best' diet, only one which is well-tailored to your tastes and type of lifestyle. So don't just decide that vegetarianism is your lifestyle, and start acting accordingly. That's a terrible idea.

And that's the sort of problem that I see around me today; that most vegetarians I know have done this out of the wrong sort of blind faith, and that they aren't actually getting out of it much except the placebo effect that they were looking for all along. Please, readers, feel free to contradict me if anything that I've laid out above is grossly incorrect, but as the way it stands, I feel that this challenge isn't very controversial, and tends to stand to reason.

If you're a vegetarian, please, tell me that you've thought this thing through. Otherwise, I'm not sure how much I can respect your dietary decisions.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Adam,

I would like you to validate this sentence:

"In the process, you get too much of other nutrients, and this is of course unhealthy in a slightly less visible but just as effective over time kind of way."

and would also like to make a comment about your perspective on a "balanced diet"--you state that being a vegetarian is not a balanced diet, but why? Because you look at the food pyramid as your source of scientific proof that nutrition can not be adequately attained if not through all the colorful food groups? Nutrition is skewed on this superficial level; look beyond the "groups" into essential proteins and amino acids, which can easily be found in places other than meat products. A health conscious vegetarian has every means of eating a fully nutritious diet. It also surpasses me why you feel that your exercising schedule can't be supported by food other than meat. Where are your sources? The American Dietetic Association seems to be one of the more stable sources of nutritional information; I suggest you look there.

But beyond these details of personal health, I know many vegetarians to choose their diet in boycott of the meat industry and in support of environmental health. So even if what you say is correct (which, I apologize, it is not) that would comparably be a small sacrifice to make for the animal holocaust that runs legally as factory farming.

Maybe you are right with the vegetarians you know, that they are misinformed idealists...but I believe you are either asking them the wrong questions or not questioning them at all. With matters like these, it would be wise not to philosophize for understanding and scientifically educate yourself instead.

Adam said...

dear anonymous,

It should be clear at this point that I don't use sources.

There is also the fact that I'm not here to save animals. In a natural state, we kill each other to survive. This is a fact that I'm not going to pretend we can gloss over with our technology or our horrid meat industry today. If you want to save animals, do it on your own time, and don't bother me about it.

Lastly, I consider energy a nutrient. The argument that I'm trying to make here is that meat is important to a diet precisely BECAUSE meats are so typically devoid of other nutrients. I'm trying to argue that it's good BECAUSE it's bad for you, because a diet of nothing but 'good' foods is not a balanced one. I'm trying to argue that the best diet is NOT the best diet.

Adieu.