| Meat Is Useless Essay, Research Paper
Meat is Useless
Eating meat is part of the daily life of billions of people all over the world. Every day thousands of animals are killed for the production of meat food for people. However, studies have shown that meat is not essential for our existence and gives us nothing more than the other foods on the market. Meat consumption may not harm you or the surrounding environment immediately but there are consequences and sooner or later they will appear.
A meatless diet is healthier than a diet containing meat. According to surveys and examinations of the contents of the food products, meat contains more fat than non-meat foods. Since it is very difficult for our bodies to process high quantities of fat and it is being accumulated in our bodies, fat consuming causes many health problems. According to the American Heart Association, the fat in the food we eat should be no more than 30 percent of the total calories we consume daily. However, this is very difficult to achieve when meat is part of our daily meal plan. The only way to stay healthy and continue eating meat is to put a limit on the amount of meat we consume. Unfortunately, nowadays most people are often tempted by the taste and appearance of the meat products on the market and it is very difficult for them to resist. That is why the solution of a balanced diet can not be practically used. Moreover, it has been recently proven that many diseases are commonly prevented, consistently improved, and often cured by a low-fat vegetarian diet. Among them are diseases such as kidney stones, prostate cancer, breast cancer, stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, colon cancer, arthritis, osteoporosis, strokes, diabetes, peptic ulcers, obesity, hemmorhoids, salmonellosis, and many others (American Heart Association).
Cholesterol can be found in every meat product. This is another particular reason proving that meat is bad. Cholesterol blocks the arteries and makes it very difficult for the blood stream to circulate. Such a process may result in a heart attack. A diet rich in vegetables, fruits, and cereal lowers the level of cholesterol, thus lowering the risk of getting a heart attack as well. Of course, meat is not the only factor that may cause a heart attack but why don’t we try to decrease the chances of getting a heart disease by just getting rid of meat?
Eating meat is also responsible for the mass destruction of the environment. For growing animals people waste overwhelming amounts of natural resources which may be used for other necessities. They may be utilized for growing corn or wheat for feeding people, rather than for feeding farm animals. “The amount of grain a cow eats in a day could feed 15 starving people” (Spence 1). If this food was used for humans and not for livestock, the world’s massive hunger problems would be at least partly solved. The opposing side of this idea states that even if these fields can be used for growing food for people, most of them are under private ownership and the owners would not give their production to feed the people who are starving. However, meat is much more expensive than grains and corns are. And if more of them are produced they will become even cheaper than they are now.
Other damages, result of growing animals, exist. When big quantities of water and food are used for growing livestock, the natural habitat of other animals, plants, and insects is changed and some of them become extinct. Furthermore, the cutting of woods for the extension of the mentioned fields causes the decreasing of oxygen and the increasing of carbon dioxide. Such processes accelerate the global warming and are dangerous for our future survival.
Eating meat is directly connected to the process of killing animals. Ending the life of other living creatures on purpose and only to please our taste preferences is egotistic and has nothing to do with the humanity people are supposed to defend. Most of these animals are grown only for the purpose of gaining as much weigh as possible. Thus, they become fat and put more efforts to move than the animals that are not grown under humans’ supervision. Such a life is a torture for the animals that are live creatures as us and it is their right to have a normal life, not worried by people. In addition, all these animals we kill in order to satisfy our taste preferences, are closely related to humans. They experience broad range of feeling and many of them are quite intelligent. According to recent investigations in this area, pigs are some of the most intelligent animals on this planet. That is why it is ridiculous that we would normally not kill our cat or dog and eat them. Yet, we do not see anything wrong in doing that with other intelligent animals.
Preparation of meat containing food takes more time than that of vegetables, corn, beans, etc. While meat can not be eaten raw, all fruits, vegetables can be eaten without any heating. Even when cooked they still need less time to be prepared. For this reason a diet not containing meat is more appropriate for contemporary people who have less free time than their ancestors. In addition, eating raw foods rather than roasting or frying them can save us electricity and thus decrease our expenses. And, as I already mentioned, the meat itself is more expensive than these foods are.
Nowadays there are many low-fat meat products. However, the contemporary people do not have much free time to prepare food at home and usually buy food at fast food restaurants or order food by phone. In such a way we keep eating the fatty meat prepared at the fast food restaurants. There is no doubt that there are restaurants where we can buy healthy food but there is also no doubt that such places are much fewer and the food offered there is much more expensive. We should take advantage of these places and improve our eating habits but, unfortunately, up to now only few us do it. Most of us consider the fact that the majority of people eat meat a good enough reason for not changing our bad habits. Such an inference, though, can be defined as a bandwagon fallacy. The fact that those who eat meat are a majority does not mean that they are definitely right.
Another opposition is the view stated by the meat food supporters that only meat can give us the proteins needed for our bodies’ health. However, this is not true because eating variety of fruits and vegetables, plus beans and grains provides us with all the vitamins and proteins we need. In addition, “In America, there is more of a problem with getting too much protein than there is with getting too little” (Eaglesham 2) so that is not a problem we should worry about. The actual problem is the daily increasing of obesity which may be lowered significantly if we stop consuming meat.
Many years ago agriculture was not very well developed. There was not enough variety of meat-free foods and there were people (the Eskimos) who lived in areas where meat was the only food. During these years, people needed meat in order to get enough nutrition and survive. Nowadays, however, people eat meat only for the reason that it tastes good. We do not need meat to function (even our digestive tracts are optimized for meatless diet) but we consume more meat than ever before. We should take a minute and think about it. The production of meat causes many problems that are not directly connected to our well being but are greatly important for our future survival and improvement of the quality of our lives. Meat itself may not have an immediate effect on our health, but it increases the possibility that we may get sick in the future. It is time to start thinking in advance and stop being so selfish with the only purpose of satisfying our whims. Meat is useless and if we do not want to keep on harming the environment and our own bodies, it is better to stop eating meat flesh.
Bibliography
Eaglesham, Barbara.”For the Love of Animals.”Oddysey. Oct.2000. Vol. 9. Issue 7.
Spence, Amy. “Why Everyone Should Become a Vegetarian.” The Written Word.
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American Heart Association. FAT.
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