Vegetarian lifestyle
Vegetarian lifestyle
18 February 2014
The debate on: “Eating Lower on the food chain is healthier, cheaper, more socially, and ecologically responsible”
Within an ecosystem such as ours, every type of organism has a niche in the food web. Everything has an assigned feeding level dependent upon what its source of food or nutrients are. First, we find producers such as grass and plankton who are self-feeders that make their own nutrients from compounds and energy obtained from their environments ( think photosynthesis). Second, are primary and secondary consumers who must get their nutrients by feeding on other organisms or their remains. The latter breaks down further into herbivores (plant eaters), carnivores (meat eaters), omnivores (plant and meat eaters), decomposers (bacteria, fungi), and detrivores who feed on wastes or dead bodies. (1) Human beings fall into the omnivore classification because we have the ability to eat plants, animals, decomposers, or some combination of each. Because of this, it simply becomes a question of why we eat what we eat.
Not only do we see divisions in the food web, there is divisions found among the higher-tertiary consumers, the vegetarians and meat-eaters. Vegetarianism is simply defined as abstinence from all flesh foods in favor of plant foods. Meat-eaters still live the omnivore lifestyle with a diet of both flesh and plants. However, is eating lower on the food chain healthier, cheaper, more socially, and ecologically responsible? Both sides have heavily debated these topics with some validity to both viewpoints.
In a 2002 Time/CNN poll featuring vegetarians thirty-three percent cited health as the main reason for their chosen lifestyle. (2) Studies have shown some credibility for their decisions. According to the American Dietic Association, vegetarian diets are associated with reduced risks in obesity, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, and several kinds of cancers. (3) There has also been an
18 February 2014
The debate on: “Eating Lower on the food chain is healthier, cheaper, more socially, and ecologically responsible”
Within an ecosystem such as ours, every type of organism has a niche in the food web. Everything has an assigned feeding level dependent upon what its source of food or nutrients are. First, we find producers such as grass and plankton who are self-feeders that make their own nutrients from compounds and energy obtained from their environments ( think photosynthesis). Second, are primary and secondary consumers who must get their nutrients by feeding on other organisms or their remains. The latter breaks down further into herbivores (plant eaters), carnivores (meat eaters), omnivores (plant and meat eaters), decomposers (bacteria, fungi), and detrivores who feed on wastes or dead bodies. (1) Human beings fall into the omnivore classification because we have the ability to eat plants, animals, decomposers, or some combination of each. Because of this, it simply becomes a question of why we eat what we eat.
Not only do we see divisions in the food web, there is divisions found among the higher-tertiary consumers, the vegetarians and meat-eaters. Vegetarianism is simply defined as abstinence from all flesh foods in favor of plant foods. Meat-eaters still live the omnivore lifestyle with a diet of both flesh and plants. However, is eating lower on the food chain healthier, cheaper, more socially, and ecologically responsible? Both sides have heavily debated these topics with some validity to both viewpoints.
In a 2002 Time/CNN poll featuring vegetarians thirty-three percent cited health as the main reason for their chosen lifestyle. (2) Studies have shown some credibility for their decisions. According to the American Dietic Association, vegetarian diets are associated with reduced risks in obesity, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, and several kinds of cancers. (3) There has also been an