Seven Days…Without Meat

 Recently, Pres found a new way to become a more healthy and eco-friendly school and student body. Spearheaded by the SEAS club, students were encouraged to maintain a healthier lifestyle by becoming vegetarian for a week. In addition to eating vegetarian, girls who already adhered to a vegetarian lifestyle were encouraged to take an extra step and eat vegan (no animal products) for a week. If students were willing to undertake this “mission,” they were asked to keep track of the food they ate from March 21 to March 25.

Despite this being the first time Pres has taken part in a Vegetarian Week, the event had a great turnout—more than 60 girls attended. After maintaining a strict no-meat diet for a week, all the girls who participated were invited to exchange their completed food log for a free-of-charge vegetarian lunch prepared by the SEAS club members.

After following this no-meat diet, many Pres girls realized that eating vegetarian isn’t always as simple as it sounds.

“It is really difficult to abstain from eating meat when many of the menus at restaurants and cafeterias that I eat at are not vegetarian friendly. Often, I have to choose a less appetizing dish,” said Archana Bettadapur, junior.

Other students encounter even more obstacles when members of their families are adverse to their diet choices. “My step-mom was none-too-pleased when I informed her about my decision to become a vegetarian, because she doesn’t enjoy having to cook separate meals for me,” said junior Jessica Steinbach. As many Pres girls know, becoming a vegetarian can be even more difficult if you are the only vegetarian in your house; mainly because it requires your parents to prepare two different types of meals. It can also be tough to make sure that you still consume the appropriate amount of nutrients and protein, which you lose if you opt to abstain from meat.

“Keeping a vegetarian diet can be difficult, especially if you are unfamiliar with what foods you need to eat in order to keep a balanced diet,” said Mrs. Rahmig. Because meat is such a significant source of protein, vegetarians supplement protein into their diet by eating other protein-enriched foods such as whole grains, eggs, beans, and tofu. Despite some of the challenges a vegetarian may encounter, the benefits certainly outweigh the drawbacks. The primary reason the SEAS club decided on a vegetarian week because of its many environmental advantages and positive impacts. A decision to refrain from meat does not support animal cruelty and unsanitary living conditions for livestock.

Eating vegetarian also cuts down on the amount of resources that are poured into the livestock and meat industry: energy, grain, environments, and oil. Not only can Mother Nature reap the benefits of this practice, but eat less meat is also healthier. By removing meat from a diet, one can decrease their intake of saturated fats, thus lowering their cholesterol levels. Lower amounts of heart disease, obesity, and cancer have been found among vegetarian eaters. Even though Presentation only hosted this vegetarian friendly event for a week, it is a lifestyle that many choose to live by, including many girls at here on campus. If you are interested in any further information on a meat-free diet, ask one of your vegetarian friends for tips or research it at http://features.peta.org/VegetarianStarterKit/index.asp.

The Benefits of Being a Vegetarian

Let’s just get to the point. I’m a vegetarian, and I want you to be one, too. Thanksgiving is around the corner, and you could do a lot better than eating that poor turkey. Of course, being vegetarian has its drawbacks—limited options at Panda Express, always starving on family trips to Las Vegas and never finding anything to eat at sporting events, where they only serve classic hot dogs and hamburgers. So why am I still a vegetarian? Well, it’s partly due to my family values. Going all the way back to my great-great-great grandfathers, everyone has been a vegetarian. Apart from this, I’m vegetarian because I care. I care about animals, I care about the planet and I care about my health.

Most of us have a dog or a cat, and we know that animals are intelligent and have the ability to feel love, joy and pain. This is no different for the animals we eat. Animals such as pigs, sheep and cows suffer from animal cruelty, treated like production units instead of the intelligent beings that they are. They suffer from intense overcrowding or confinement so  extreme that they cannot move around. Your Thanksgiving turkeys are in continual contact with urine and feces, causing deformities on their bodies.

Would you treat your pet like this? Probably not. In addition, the average meat-eater consumes 100 animals every year. That’s how many animals you can save just by switching to a vegetarian lifestyle.

Being vegetarian is also the easiest way to ‘go green.’ Livestock production requires more land and water than the production of edible crops. In fact, according to the United Nations, livestock production is one of the biggest contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Being vegetarian reduces the rate of global warming, and it solves global problems such as the lack of water. More than one billion people worldwide lack enough safe drinkable water. A plant-based diet requires 15 times less water than a meat-based diet. Switching to vegetarianism can save up to five million liters per year! Why wouldn’t you want to help people from dying?

Aside from the benefits vegetarianism has for the rest of the world, know that being vegetarian is also a great way for you to stay healthy. It is one of the simplest ways to increase life expectancy and decrease chances of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and cancer. A meat diet is filled with fats that contribute significantly to high cholesterol and to these diseases. Conversely, a plant-based diet contains many goodies that fight these diseases, including fiber, which increases metabolism.

So just by eating green, you can save animals, save the planet and save yourself. It’s a triple package–don’t pass it up! So how about skipping the meat this Thanksgiving? Try vegetable lasagna, mashed potatoes, and a salad. Don’t forget the cornbread and pumpkin pie!