The Challenge of Veganism: All Food Ends in Death

As I continue to take courses through Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s Community Education programs such as The Ethics of Eating and Urban Homesteading, I am confronted with an important question: veganism or meat-eating? I know both philosophies well. And, I have lived both (as I was a vegetarian for several years in college but didn’t eat dairy products so was essentially vegan; more on my story here).

More than anything else, I greatly appreciate the values and recognition of the importance of life that is the crux of veganism. As a Buddhist, I strive to never add additional suffering to anything on this earth. (I have yet to obtain true enlightenment, though, as I still can’t stop myself from killing spiders. They are just too creepy to me.)

Yet, I can’t shake two things as I contemplate veganism:

1. It doesn’t make sense to me that we are to ignore the fact that animals are on the Earth and can be a source of nutrition for humans. This is the case especially since it is the healthy proteins and fats we consumed as meat-eaters that allowed our brains to grow astronomically in size and allowed us to continue to thrive as a species. (see charts below)
2. All food ends in death, anyway.

Reflections on Point One

Not to get too “Lion King” on you related to the “Circle of Life,” but I don’t think it’s chance that there are other animals on our planet. Yes, we can eat plants. But, even when we think about the shapes of our digestive systems as humans, we are not designed to digest cellulose (plant fiber/carbohydrates) well. This is the case as carbohydrates from plants (a.k.a. cellulose) are digested in the large intestine of an animal (e.g. apes, humans). But, guess what?

1. Humans have a much smaller colons compared to other similar animals, like gorillas and chimpanzees, who are mostly herbivores and capitalize on the large intestine’s principal function of generating saturated fat from cellulose. You can find the research article about this here. (Childers, 2019; Noakes, 2019)
2. Humans have a MUCH larger smaller intestine (designed for accessing fats and proteins). (Noakes, 2019)
3. The anerobic bacteria needed to digest and ferment cellulose is not found in the human gut in the same way that it is found in herbivores. (Noakes, 2019)

So, we are not “hind-end digesters” or have the ability to focus on digestion in the later part of our digestive system. Instead, we evolved as a species to take a short-cut: we started to consume ruminants (e.g. cows, goats) whose stomachs were designed to digest and ferment plant fibers like grass and then magically turn it into… saturated fat (the natural fat that, ironically, national dietary guidelines warn us against). Cue the surprise music! We could, then, consume that animal, who had done the genetic heavy lifting for us and have additional healthy nutrients to fuel our bodies.

I think of the Native Americans, a culture with which I have always been fascinated and with which I have always felt a deep reverence for given their ability to use the land while simultaneously honoring and worshiping it. Ultimate sustainability in my mind! The plains Native Americans ate essentially nothing but buffalo prior to the good ol’ white man coming in and ruining their health. You can find this documented in detail in Nutritional and Physical Degeneration by Dr. Weston Price. Somehow, they were able to honor the land while using what it offered them – something that just makes sense to me.

Reflections on Point Two

When we are consuming any kind of food, whether it is a plant or has four legs, it has to die first. I understand the concept behind “I don’t eat anything that has a mother.” However, everything is so connected to everything else, I can’t shake the feeling that “killing” cauliflower by taking it out of the ground to eat it may be just as ethically “violent” as slaughtering a cow. Either way, you are taking a life. There is a sacrifice. And, given the fact that plants (who don’t technically have “a mother”) do actually develop defense mechanisms, aren’t they just as living as a chicken? An interesting article on this here.

Who am I to rate the value of life to be more in a creature with legs than with a stalk? When I found out that plants actually release a chemical through their roots and the air that tell other surrounding plants to become stronger when it is cut down, I think there is more than meets the eye with even plants. There is innate intelligence, whether it has eyes or not. (Click here to find forest ecologist Suzanne Simard’s fascinating and inspirational TED Talk on how this works.) Dr. Gundry talks about this innate tendency for plants to defend themselves in depth in his book, The Plant Paradox, which you can find here, reminding us that no living thing wants to die.

I Don’t Have The Answers

I certainly don’t have the answers for what we “should” be eating. But, I think we need to make sure we are asking the right questions. What does my body need? More protein? What allows me to sleep well at night? What is most sustainable? How do I determine what I value? What matters most?

I think that, when we begin to ask the right questions and look beyond the labels of “meat-eater” versus “vegan,” we will begin to see that, since all food ends in death, all life needs to be honored equally.

References:

Childers, Ann. 2019. Stone Age Body, Space Age Diet: Nutrition, Metabolism and Mental Health. [Powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from Nutrition Network Training, “Professional Training in LCHF/Ketogenic Nutrition & Treatment”.

Noakes, Timothy. 2019. LCHF for Everyone? [Powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from Nutrition Network Training, “Professional Training in LCHF/Ketogenic Nutrition & Treatment ”.

Noakes, Timothy. 2019. Once Humans Were Healthy [Powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from Nutrition Network Training, “Module 1: Scientific & Evolutionary Evidence”.