Hello Steemians!! Hope everything is fine at your end! Today I am posting on a very controversial and well debated topic "Vegetarianism". I am presenting here my findings and thought process about my inclination to remain a vegetarian. I guarantee you that by the time you reach the end of this article I would have justified my thought process pretty well...
Precursor
Survival of the fittest is the undoubted law of nature. For one species to survive, it has to consume another, only then can life be sustained. But what life is consumed to sustain one's own is a question of choice.
A man is what he eats. It manifests in his actions and emotions.
For thousands of years, humans have lead a nomadic life. They have been habituated to both meat and plant diets. It is only in the recent few hundred years that humans have started forming settlements and living their whole life in the same land. Once man restricted himself to a land, he started exploring the available varieties of plant and animal life around him to consume. Farming became a part of life and food cultivation became very prevalent and man started consuming more plant based foods than ever before. Though these factors have a role in the food consumption pattern of humans, the design of human body makes it very clear that it is best suited for a vegetarian diet. I would like to discuss this in detail.
Design of body
Image Source: Lion Digestive tract
In general, a carnivore's stomach secretes very strong enzymes like hydrochloric acid, 10 times more powerful than humans or herbivores. Also if you observe the body of a carnivorous animal, let us take a Lion for instance, the design of its digestive system is such that the distance between its mouth and stomach is very less. Also once the food is processed, the path from there to the anal outlet is also very small. The strong enzymes and the short path from inlet to outlet makes carnivores like Lion suitable for their diet.
In general, meat, be it raw or cooked is acidic in nature. Human tongue secretes saliva which is alkaline in nature. It helps in bringing down the acidity of the food consumed to maintain optimum health. Also if you observe the human digestive track, you will find that the distance between the mouth and anal output is at least 3 times more than that of any carnivore. Any form of meat consumed increases the acidity in the human system. After consumption, the digestion of
cooked meat takes more than 8 hours. Also for it to be completely out of the system, it takes anywhere between 40 to 56 hrs. The same takes a little more than 72 hrs for
uncooked meat. If consumed raw, imagine the amount of rotting it will go through before it moves out of your system.
Commercial production of meat is today's reality
In the past, meat consumption was basically from locally bred species. With the advent of commercial enterprises taking up meat production, things have drastically changed. They have started injecting hormones into chickens and started mutating them. Look at this video from youtube to get an idea.
I don't know how you feel about it, but I find it repulsive, not because they don't have feathers, but because they are not safe for consumption. The lady in the video claims it to be safe, but practical realities have proved otherwise. We have seen in the recent past that consumption of genetically mutated birds and animals like these are causing hormonal imbalances in the consumer's body. Typically a girl child comes of age around 12 to 14 years of age. But girl children having these mutated broiler chicken are coming of age at the tender age of 7 or 8 years.
Fear is a common emotion
Fear is a common emotion with all forms of life. If you go to pork factories and beef factories, you will see the brutality with which they get killed for commercial meat. If meat consumers see it live, I am sure they will stop eating. I would not like to add more cruelty in this post, but i would urge you to watch this heart wrenching video on youtube. You will see that the pigs are transported in a row for slaughter and each pig can see and hear the one in front of it being slaughtered and shrieking in pain. This will not only subject them to mental and physical trauma, but also alter the hormonal composition in their body. When you eat the meat of an animal that has gone through so much trauma, you are not only consuming its meat, but also its fears and emotional imbalances. It will manifest inside the consumer in one way or the other. The more complex the nature of your food, the less easier for it the digest. How many vegetarians have you seen getting a colon cancer? Hardly any right? Just think about it.
Conclusion
In my opinion each of us should experiment with all types of food, but stick to those that make us feel active after consumption. Vegetables, fruits, pulses etc,. are simple foods. They have very minimal emotional quotient and assimilate into the body very naturally. There are no side effects to them and they only make us healthy. Ideally speaking, it is best to consume about 50% of each meal as raw vegetables and fresh fruits. The rest can be diary products and other cooked foods.
Note: The views expressed here is just my opinion, not intended to hurt anybody's sentiments or feelings.
If you have contrary views, please feel free to share them in the comments section below.
Nice post @rajivv203. You can use #steemstem tag if you are writing any scientific articles or technology articles. SteemStem is a community in Steemit that supports S - Science T - Technology E - Engineering M - Mathematics articles.
But you have to quote your references properly. You can either embed the reference in-between your articles or you can have them mentioned in the last section of your article.
Thanks Bala... Will do...
Hi, we have voted on your post because you have posted your article to either food, recipe, recipes, cooking or steemkitchen #tag. Steemkitchen is a brand new initiative where we want to build a community/guild focused purely on the foodie followers and lovers of the steem blockchain. Steemkitchen is out of the conceptual phase and growing each day. We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas.
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Hi rajivv! I really appreciated the scientific open-to-discussion approach of your post as it's really rare.
When I usually talk about the topic to people they often feel offended (both parts :D) and I think the hesitation I feel in choosing the right words to make sure no one get upset is itself symptom of the fact that the topic is quite taboo. In my opinion it shouldn't be like this, it would be nicer if everyone would feel free to express their feelings about the question without feeling inferior or superior to the others.
I was vegetarian for almost 20 years, but not long ago I decided to force myself to eat meat again.
I took this choice because in the long run - in my personal experience- is not healty. I'm not happy with this and I have nausea every single time I eat meat because it's not natural anymore for me. But, sadly, I must admit I feel way better and stronger. I don't need supplements anymore and also emotionally-wise I feel better, like more emotionally stable if you get what I mean.
I think the problem here is: human being is omnivore, so we need both veggies and a tiny bit of meat.
I also believe each person is different from the others, so what it's good for you may not be the same for me. I don't know anyone who was vegetarian for long time as I did, but I would really appreciate to hear they're experiences also.
And if you can prove me wrong I will be very happy :)
Thank you for the post, it was a good reading.
Hi @creepyturtle. First of all, thank you for reading through the post and sharing your opinion. With so many bots around, it has become hard to find genuine comments and opinions from actual people.
I agree with you that meat consumption increases your libido and makes you feel stronger, but in our region most of the families have stayed vegetarians for generations. It is really about which part of the globe you are from and the kind of vegetation that's available there. In our region we have a plethora of choices for vegetarian food. I have been a meat eater for a couple of years in the past. I have been a vegetarian for the past 8 odd years now. I haven't felt a craving for it with the choices here. Dont get me wrong, if you haven't felt strong with vegetarian food, probably you haven't tried the right foods. I am a vegetarian myself and I have never felt better, if you understand what I mean...
I have friends that are vegetarians and vegans and it's great for them, they are healthy and happy about their choice, but personally I would miss meat like crazy, although I'm certainly not against trying vegetarian/vegan options (just don't try to get me eating seitan again...yuck :D) Anyway, it's an interesting article, thanks for sharing your thoughts <3
Hi @tinymischiefs. Thanks for reading through my article and sharing your comments... Hope it was informative....