Many have asked, was it difficult becoming a vegetarian?
My answer is complicated but boils down to: “If you believe in a god, any God, how could a loving God have possibly designed mass suffering for the sustenance of the human species? NO!” When we look back upon this period in mankind, I believe we will see it as an incredibly barbaric, horribly indecent chapter in Earth’s evolutionary process. I see meat consumption by humans in much the same vein as the crows and wild things that dine on road kill along our nation’s highways. Sure, we dress it up, season it, package and process it… then cook it on our fancy decks and gourmet kitchens and call it ‘high cuisine’. But the bottom line is that real suffering is contained within each mouthful. The neat and shiny packages we select at our grocers don’t show the adrenaline, the fear, and the bad karma that the knowing victims feel as they march towards slaughter. Think about it. It simply has to be there. And if you even remotely believe that ‘you are what you eat’, how nutritious can a ground up cow — too weak to walk or even stand — as hamburger — really be?
Worst of all, medical education has largely turned a blind eye towards the root cause of disease, instead preferring a 20th century model where reactive and retrospective treatment (such as surgery and medication) remain the cornerstone of our profession. My medical school (one of the better medical schools in the nation) taught me very little about how nutrition impacts the genesis of disease. Heart disease and stroke, for example, were discussed from a nutrition standpoint only in simplistic, passing terms — as though meat and dairy consumption were part of an obligatory pact with life itself — and that we, as physicians needed simply to ‘deal with it’. Prevention has been given more credence in recent years but, again, largely with superficial instruction like, ‘Don’t eat so much’ and ‘exercise more often’. 3-year old toddlers don’t listen to that kind of conviction-lacking advice and neither do adults when it comes to lifestyle. Physicians need to have teeth in their words of prevention. Who is going listen to us as we puff upon our dietary ‘cigarettes’ and utter non-smoking advice?
The silver lining in the Mad-Cow Disease headline, however, is the scrutiny that will be placed increasingly upon our methods of factory farming — not enough scrutiny, mind you — but a start nonetheless. If we do one day look harder, we may see the suffering. We may see the pain. But we, as physicians, can no longer deny the disease implications of meat consumption. Cancer, stroke, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s — these are the unintended consequences of that packaged suffering, I believe. That said, we are living longer than ever. Advances in medicine and surgery receive much credit for this improvement — but I know we can do so much better with our quality of life. And that is the reason why I am a passionate vegetarian — for life.
In terms of flavor, meat tastes very good — and I was once quite fond of it. Thankfully, meat was a satisfactory means by which our species once survived a very hostile planet. However, now that our survival as a species is no longer in question, we truly do need to become shepherds of our planet. Meat production is a wasteful, energy-inefficient, environmentally-unfriendly process. But, that argument is about as meaningful as saying, ‘don’t drive your car because the supply of oil is finite’ — especially when meat tastes so good! But we need to let it go — kick the habit — let it go.
The real and sustaining argument for vegetarianism is that — it tastes better than meat! And when the chefs of the world recognize the healthful benefits of vegetarianism — promoted by physicians — we will see an absolute flavor explosion — heretofor unimaginable! And I long for that day — one meal, and one patient — at a time. And when that day does come — when our food fully embodies love and life within — we will see, finally — Peace on Earth. And we will all feel better for it.