To Meat or Not To Meat

There are so many arguments not to eat meat today: 1) economic, 2) ethical, 3 )altruistic, 4) environmental, and 5) nutritional.

Throughout my travels and life, I’ve gotten to know many vegetarians and vegans - some were militant, some were not - but they all swore by a vegetarian or vegan diet. I also did a short video while in grad school exploring the decision to eat or not eat meat. And there’s been periods in my life where I ate strictly vegetarian, but could never sustain it for long periods of time. Not eating meat ever again, I don't know... lets just say, I never had the self discipline. Meat every once in a while is good.

But right now, for the last year or so, I decided that I would not eat meat at home, but only at restaurants or other people’s homes.

Recently, one of the biggest pushes to eat vegetarian is energy conservation. The video clip Meat and Climate Change claims cutting one's meat consumption by 20% is like switching from a regular car to a hybrid car. This is an added benefit of eating vetetarian.

But probably the deciding factor for me to eat vegetarian at home is to avoid unwanted calories. Many plants have more protein than meat. For example, a cheeseburger contains 14.57 grams of protein in 286 calories, or about .05 grams of protein per calorie; a serving of spinach has 2.97 grams of protein in 23 calories, or .12 grams of protein per calorie. Green leafy vegetables are good for me, too! So, I'm told.

Growing up on a pseudo farm with steers in the backyard, it was difficult not eating beef. Beef was plentiful and cheat, but today there aren’t steers in my backyard. Eating LESS meat is probably a good thing. Here’s a good NY Times thingy on the topic: Putting Meat Back in Its Place.