Eating My
/this:who?”that’s not easy toSister’s Chickens
by camilleDuring my first year of college, one of my frequent conversations went like“Camille, you’re a vegetarian, right?”
“Well, no.”
“No? You really seem like the type.”
“Well, I only eat free- range meat.”
“Free
I guess I do seem like the type. Personal health and the environment are
important to me, and my vocational path even hints at vegetarianism—I
teach yoga, and may study nutrition in graduate school. The meat- eating
question is one I’ve considered from a lot of angles, but
explain in thirty seconds. A lunch line is probably not the best place to do
it, either. For one thing, all meat is not created equal. Cows and chickens
that spent their lives in feedlots, fattening up on foods they did not evolve
to eat, plus antibiotics, produce different meat from their counterparts that
lived outdoors in fresh air, eating grass. That’s one nutritional consider-
ation to bear in mind while weighing the pros and cons of vegetarianism.
There are others, too. Vegetarians and vegans should consider taking
iron supplements because the amount of this nutrient found in plant
sources is minuscule compared with the amount found in meat. Of course,
eating plenty of iron- containing dark leafy greens, legumes, and whole
grains is a good plan. Along with a host of other essential nutrients, they do
offer a good bit of iron, but in some cases it may not be enough to keep the
body producing hemoglobin. Vitamin B12 is also tricky; in its natural form
it’s found only in animal products. There are traces of it in fermented soy
and seaweed, but the Vegetarian Society warns that the form of B12 in plant
sources is likely unavailable to human digestion. This means that vegans—
people who eat no meat, dairy, or eggs—need to rely on supplements or