Vegetarianism / What is Vegetarianism?

Vegetarianism is the belief in and practice of eating vegetable foods and abstaining from animal food.

To what extent this definition applies, in reality varies, what it refers to is a strict vegetarian or a vegan. Lacto-vegetarians include milk and other dairy products in their diet. Lacto-ovovegetarians eat milk, dairy products and eggs.

A vegan, excludes animal flesh (meat, poultry, fish and seafood), animal products (eggs, dairy and honey), and the wearing and use of animal products (eg. leather, silk, wool, lanolin, gelatin). The vegan diet consists totally of vegetables, vegetable oils, and seeds.

veg·an 've-gen also 've-jen or -,jan n [by contr. fr. vegetarian] (1944) : a strict vegetarian who consumes no animal food or dairy products; also : one who abstains from using animal products (as leather) _ veg·an·ism 've-ge-,ni-zem, 'va-ge-, 've-je- n .

Partial vegetarians exclude some groups of animal foods but not others. A diet that excludes red meat but includes fish is often adopted for health not moral reasons.

Zen macrobiotic diets. This is a Japanese way of eating based on the 'Yin Yang' theory. It aims to keep the balance between Yin and Yang (positive and negative) aspects of life for optimal spiritual, mental and physical welfare. Foods are divided into Yin and Yang, and a spiritual goal is aimed for by working through ten levels of diet. These gradually eliminate all animal produce, fruit and vegetables towards the final goal which is only cereal (brown rice). Fluids are also severely restricted. Many nutritional deficiencies may develop and death can result. Infants and children subject to these restrictions are particularly at risk [Thomas et al., 1988]

This is extreme, not all macrobiotic diets are so extreme and are often equivalent to a balanced vegan diet. It is important to eat as much variety of food as possible and not limit it to one group of foods.

I don't recommend you become a vegetarian unless for a strictly a religious reason. The reason being is that unless you are very careful in getting all of the amino acids, you run the risk of getting very sick. I can tell you that in 20 years of clinical practice, the sickest of sick patients are my vegetarian patients.

There are benefits to vegetarian diets for certain health conditions, and some people function better on less fat and protein, but, as a practitioner who has dealt with several former vegans (total vegetarians), I know full well the dangerous effects of a diet devoid of healthful animal products.

It is my hope that all readers will more carefully evaluate their position on vegetarianism Read about the myths of vegetarians here. It is important to note that there are different types of vegetarianism, including lacto-vegetarian diets (dairy products included) and lacto-ovo-vegetarian diets (dairy products and eggs included). The nutritional caveats that follow are primarily directed at veganism, or a diet totally lacking in animal products.

Vegetarianism is an ancient custom. It has long existed among certain Hindu and Buddhist sects that consider all animal life sacred, and it was advocated zealously by numerous philosophers and writers of ancient Greece and Rome. In the Roman Catholic church, it has been practiced monastically by Trappists since 1666, and among Protestants more recently by Seventh-Day Adventists. As an active Western movement, it originated in 1809 near Manchester, England, among members of the Bible Christian Church. In 1847 the Vegetarian Society, a nonreligious organization, was founded. The movement spread to continental Europe and the U.S. (1850), and in 1908 the International Vegetarian Union was founded. Today the union holds congresses every two years in different countries.

Although vegetarianism originated as a religious or ethical practice, it has also gained acceptance among many for aesthetic, nutritional, and economic reasons. Humanitarian vegetarians refuse meat because they believe that the killing of animals is unnecessary or cruel, or that such a practice can conceivably lead to a disregard for human life; the trades that the slaughter of animals supports, such as butchering, are considered degrading. People who adhere to vegetarianism for health reasons believe that meat is harmful to the human body and that a purely vegetable diet is more nutritious. [Infopedia, 1996]. Read the counterpoint here.

Evolution.
Some people believe that humans were originaly vegetarian through the evolutionary process. It is not in the scope of this book to get into a complex discussion of evolution, but here are a few background notes covering the subject

Primates evolved from ancestral mammals more than 60 million years ago, during the Palaeocene Era. The first known primates resembled small rodents or tree shrew. Like tree shrews, they probably had huge appetites and foraged at night for insects, seeds, buds and eggs on the forest floor.

The Hominids probably emerged between 10 million and 5 million years ago, during the late Miocene. There appear to have been many varieties of early hominids, but many had three features in common:

Bipedalism
Omnivorous feeding patterns
Further brain expansion and elaboration.
Monkeys have long canines and rather rectangular jaws. Human teeth are smaller and more uniform in length, and the jaw is bow-shaped. The jaws and teeth became less specialized during the evolution of forms leading to humans. Beginning with the earliest primates, there was a shift from eating insects, then fruit and leaves, and on to a mixed diet.

Ape, any member of the primate families Hylobatidae (the lesser apes), which includes the gibbons (Hylobates), and Pongidae (the great apes), which includes the orangutan, the chimpanzees, and gorilla. They belong to the superfamily Cercopithecoidea, the Old World monkeys and apes. Apes, or anthropoids, are distinguished from other primates by their complex brains and hence intelligence, their large size, and their lack of tails. They are mainly vegetarian but, except for the gorilla, occasionally eat small animals.

Remains of skeletons from 4 million old australopiths were found. They were transitional between the Miocene apes and later hominids. Unlike apes, their jaw was slightly bow-shaped. And their dentition suggests that some were omnivores and others, vegetarians.

The omnivores were slightly built and the vegetarians, heavyset hominids (genus Australopithecus and esp. A. robustus and A. boisei) were heavily built, taller, and muscular, characterized by heavy molars and small incisors adapted to a vegetarian diet. A. robustus had strong jaw muscles and large, heavily cusped molars. This hominid may have specialized in chewing seeds, nuts, and other tough plant material.

A.africanus was probably omnivorous. It's cheek teeth formed a platform that could grind plants, but its incisors were relatively large, as in the case for carnivores.

By about 2.5 million years ago, hominids started making stone tools and are referred to as the "early Homo". Compared to the australopiths, these "early Homo's", had a smaller face, more generalized teeth, and a larger brain. This hominid apparently was a scavenger and gatherer of plant material, small animals, and insects. And it may have been ancestral to modern humans.

But when we enter the Neolithic era, things changed. Read about it here.

Miso is made from fermented soybeans, and usually is found in a paste form. It is used as a flavoring agent, and for soup stocks. Storing Miso: If it is a dark miso, like hatcho miso, or red miso, it will keep for a while unrefrigerated, especially if it is 3 year miso. However, it does not hurt to refrigerate it. If it is sweet miso like yellow, mellow white, or sweet white, it will not keep unless refrigerated. Also, if the miso has been pasteurized, it should be kept refrigerated. Nutritional value, per tablespoon: calories 36 g. protein 2 g. carbs 5 g. fat 1 g. sodium 629 mg.
(from Pennington, "Food Values of Portions Commonly Used")

Tofu, or Soy Bean Curd, is essentially curdled soymilk minus the liquid (a parallel is the way cheese is made from dairy). Its natural flavor is quite mild, but its natural ability to absorb the flavors of other ingredients has led it to be called a culinary chameleon. It's found in several varieties, from soft (silken) to extra-firm style. Soft tofu is often used to make frostings for cakes, dips for chips and vegetables, while the firmer styles are often found in stir-fries and soups. Frozen tofu is an excellent substitute for ground beef in many recipes. Tofu is usually found in the refrigerator sections of stores, near the vegetable or dairy sections.

Tempeh is a somewhat meatlike substance made from cultured soybeans. It is used in dishes like barbeque, and has a rather strong taste compared to tofu.

Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) is a meat-like substance that is used to boost the nutritional content of meals, while still remaining relatively attractive-tasting. TVP usually contains "defatted" soya flour, and is very low fat. It is quite often sold in mixes for meat substitute dishes, and can often be found in bulk bins in health food stores. It is sold in a dehydrated form and requires re-hydration before using. Avoid soy as much as possible. Read why here.

Seitan is a form of wheat gluten. It is a high protein, low fat, no cholesterol (of course, all vegan food is cholesterol free) food that is usually found in the refrigerated section of most organic groceries/health food stores. It is usually near the tofu and typically comes in small tubs (like margarine tubs). It is brown and sometimes comes in strips 1/4 to 1/2 inches thick. Seitan is made from whole wheat flour which is mixed with water and kneaded. This dough undergoes a simple process of rinsing and mixing, to remove the starch and some bran, until a gluten is obtained. After boiling in water, this glutinous dough is called Kofu, which can be further processed in many ways. One of which is seitan. Kofu becomes seitan by simmering in a stock of tamari soy sauce, water and kombu sea vegetable. Seitan can be used in sandwiches, or to make dishes such as sweet and sour seitan, seitan stir fry, salisbury seitan, etc. It can be made at home from scratch or with a commercially available mix. Some companies produce vegan seitan products such as Meat of Wheat by Ivy foods.

A case reported recently underlines the dangers of a strict vegan diet, one that excludes all animal products. It involved a 33-year-old patient who had been a vegan since the age of 20. He did not eat meat, eggs, dairy products or fish. He had no history of alcohol abuse, did not smoke cigarettes and was not taking any supplements. The patient was diagnosed with severe optic neuropathy in both eyes with poor vision of 20/400 in each eye. There was no evidence for an infectious cause of this severe loss of vision but blood samples revealed deficiencies in B1, B12, A, C, D, E, zinc and selenium. The patient was treated with intramuscular and oral multivitamins until his blood levels normalized but his eyesight did not recover—the damage to the optic nerve from lack of nutrients was irreversible. The moral: beware of claims that veganism has no downside. (New England Journal of Medicine, March 23, 2000 342:897-898)