Vegetarianism: My Personal Project

I recenty have been reading a book titled "The Vegetarian Life" How to Be a Veggie in a Meat-Eating World by ELizabeth Ferber.

This book teaches about the history of vegetarianism as well as famous people who were vegetarians. It also tells you the different kinds of vegetarianism; ovo, lacto ovo, pollo, pesco...it tells you that there are different levels and that whereever you are now is okay. It helps give reasons fro being a vegetarian. It also gives some recipes but they don't seem that helpful.

This book helped me to know how to answer people when they ask me why i chose to make this change. I also liked it because it helped to inform me about the diffeent nutrients I need and where i can get them (what foods). I think this is a good introduction book but it really only skims the topics. I feel that I need to read another book that outlines what foods I need to eat as well as more in depth answers about the reasons of being a veggie for when people ask. I want to learn more about the issues regarding dairy for when I am cutting that out (now) and people ask me why.

This week I've been reading a book about Animal Experimentation, it is part of a series on opposing viewpoints. It doesnt have an author but the editor was Helen Cothran.

I don't think I'll keep reading this because it doesn't give me any knowldege related to vegetrianism but there was one idea that I found very interesting. The book discusses people thinking that homosapiens are better than other species snd how that is no different from being racist or sexist, the belief that your race or sex is better than any othe because yu are part of it. People are opposed to animal experimentation but do not see the similarity between eating meet for sustanance and using animals to cure diseases. They both exploit a species that can't really defend themselves.

This week I continued reading the book Animal Eperimentation on animal rights and testing. This week I was exposed to the ideas of people who are for animal experimentation. They say that it does not make sense for animals to have equal rights because they can't have "legal duties--like not killing each other-because they lack intelect and free will." This was very interesting to me and the people for animal rights said that they can't not kill others because that is their right to rights for themselves because they like humans experience a range of emotions. They should be allowed to live a life "according to their own needs and preferences."

When I am able to get a new book then I will stop reading this one. Until then I will read about people's views on animal rights.

Animal rights activists are trying to relate to religion so that more people will be reached. Religion is something that particularly deals with a moral compass and so already is somewhat related. The ideas behind this are a little stretched though because religions already have a set of rules relating to animals and so animal rights activists wnt them to be generalized a little. Rleiogion can help stress the importance beause adapting this state of mind that all living things would completely change society and people might not be willing right away due to the fact that people might not be comfortable admitting their society is wrong.

(This is not very related to vegetarianism! If someone has any books to suggest please let me know!)

This week I started a new book. My book is called The New Becoming Vegetarian by Vesanto Melina and Brenda Davis. So far it is relatively similar to the first book that I read in the way that it describes the different groups of vegetarianism. it also discusses the motives of certain people to choose the veg path. One thing I learned about this week was the idea that at one point vegetarianism was thought to not be healthy and was considered a fad diet but now even the most the conservative diet magazines and organizations agree that vegetariana are no less healthy than meat-eaters if not more. However there are still many things that are not ensured by being a vegetarian. There is still the chance that there will not be enough necessary vitamins in the diet, which is known as micronutrient defiency. There is also the possibility there will be what is known as overconsumption or an excess of calories which makes the good calories and vitamins unavailable. 

In everyday life whne I tell someone that I am a vegetarian they are often concerned with my getting enough calcium. Most people think that milk and dairy products are the main way to get calicium howver this wee kI have been reading about ancient groups of veggies and how they had large bone mass, showing proper intake of calcium. This is a result of eating dark, leafy greens. In the last decade there have been pamphletsstating the importance of milk in people's diets with this increase of milk came an increase of dietary diseases. This is important to touch on in my personal project. Many people need to be informed!

I have not been learning anything new in awhile. It might be time for a new book. I want to focus on facts that I can use to tell people about why people are wrong about vegetarianism and how you can't get the essential vitamins. It is not true that you can't get the nutrients from chicken and beef from vegetables.

This weekend I'm getting a new book. Until then I can't say that I learned much new this week. I am getting a vitamin D12 substitue because it is important. I actually might think about holdiong off on this until the next school year because I'll be able to get Vitaming D from the sun over the summer.