| Subject: My answers to your questions: |
Author:
chadi
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Date Posted: 03:00:33 04/27/03 Sun
In reply to:
Doug
's message, "Chadi: Two Vegetarian Questions" on 20:41:44 04/26/03 Sat
1. The term "food chain" is an ecological term. The ecosystems have been degraded because of human activities.
Claiming that if man does't eat meat he wouldn't be partipating in the food chain is a wrong assumption because nowadays we are not hunting animals grown in the wild or in their "natural" ecosystem. The animals you find in the wild are most of them "protected" because they are endangered and its uncontrolled hunting would lead to inbalances in the ecosystem, therefore damaging the balance of the food chain (human overpopulation is the great danger here). The meat humans eat nowadays comes from animals raised by humans in farms, so I don't know what "ecologic food chain" such activity represents. Indeed, farming is a great destructive activity to forests, and natural habitats of many wild animals. Thus, since I don't agree with the assumption on which your question was based, I can't anwer that question in the way it was asked. When you don't eat meat, the farming activity will be less. Therefore animals won't be raised in farms in great numbers for the mere purpose of being slaughtered when they grow up.
Now humans are one species out of millions of species on the Earth, keeping the morality issue aside, if we imagine that humans didn't exist, the ecosystems would be extremely much healthier then they are today because of human's negative impact on them. The food chains were in great balance before we started messing with it. Now we imagine that humans are introduced to the ecosystems. They have to survive. They can live (healthier) on a vegetarian diet. However, if the vegan food resources aren't sufficient, they will need the intake of animal products by hunting other animals. Ancient humans living in Jungles had to live as hunter-gatherer societies when vegetarian food resources weren't sufficient for their survivor. However, nowadays, we live in an age where non-poor people are able to get whatever food they want. Water, air and earth are getting polluted, and still animals are raised in famrs and exploited. Farming consumes much more water and energy than agriculture. If you don't want animals to suffer, and you want to reduce the amount of resources exploited, refraining form eating meat would be a wise solution...
2. I think I have answered this question in previous posts: meat protein isn't an essential nutrient. Essential amino acids are. It is widely much more advisable to replace animal protein with vegetable proteins. Meat does contain the essential amino acids to humans. A single vegan item (except soy) lacks one essential amino acid. Proper food combining will make up for the missing amino acid. Example: combining grains and legumes. Note that soybeans contain all the essential amino acids. On the other hand, it is believed that animal proteins consume calcium in digestion, and that leads to osteoporosis.
If you want to become vegetarian, I advise you to do it gradually. Your body is "digestively" and psychologically unprepared. Start by removing red meat from your diet. After at least half a year remove the other meats...
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