Humans as omnivores

Omni is from the Latin and translates as “all” or “everything” and the root word vore is related to the Latin term vorare, which means to consume or devour. It’s not far off to say that an omnivore eats everything, though plenty of omnivores are fairly picky about their diets.
The genetic make-up of the human is that of an omnivore, giving us a lot of flexibility over what we are able to eat in order to survive, though the degree to which we eat more or less meats and plants may vary by finances, food availability, and location.

Some humans choose to become exclusively herbivores and are called vegans. Many vegetarians are still omnivores because they will eat animal byproducts such as eggs and dairy products, and may refer to themselves as ovo-lacto or lacto-ovo vegetarians. Though they don’t consume animal flesh, they do consume animal products and are not technically herbivores. The Innuit on the other hand thrive on a diet consisting almost entirely of animal products, ie as carnivores.

Vegetables for the planet?

Vegetarianism appears to be as old as mankind. The Greeks called it antipreophogy, meaning anti-flesh eating. While such notables as Plato, Diogenes, and Pythagoras advocated vegetarianism in the West, in India the Buddha preached the doctrine of Ahimsa - harmlessness to all living things. It was not before the Renaissance that vegetarianism re-emerged in Europe as a philosophical concept based on an ethical motivation.

Most people who convert to vegetarianism now do so for health reasons. Others are vegetarians because of religious, moral, environmental, and/or ethical motivations. Albert Einstein once said that, “Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”

Currently, one third of the world’s cereal crop goes to feed the 60 billion farm animals reared every year to produce meat, eggs and dairy products - the majority of them on factory farms. Farm animal production is responsible for 18% of the greenhouse gases which we produce - more than transport at 14%. Meat and dairy production also uses huge amounts of cereals and soya grown for animal feed and, that most precious and increasingly scarce global resource, water. As Dr Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said, "Please eat less meat. Meat is a very carbon-intensive commodity."

To combat climate change and protect the environment, many environmental experts urge people to at least cut back on the amount of animal products they eat. According to Chris Weber, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, not eating red meat and dairy products for a year is the equivalent of not driving 8,100 miles in a car that gets 25 miles to the gallon. It cannot be denied that industrially produced meat and dairy products are heavy users of energy and water, in comparison with vegetables, although vast swathes of corn or soy are also not blameless when it comes to considering the health of our environment and ecosystem.

Nutritional Pros and Cons

Vegetarianism is said to promote good health and overall well being and vegetarian food is touted as having many preventive benefits. As well as any physical benefits, vegetarianism is said to give moral, humanitarian and psychological benefits. Vegetarian lifestyles are said to be associated with a reduced risk of many chronic illnesses, including heart disease, many types of cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity. Not only do most vegetarians eat more healthfully than meat eaters, they tend to avoid alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco and to exercise regularly.

However, is that really so - can things be taken too far? There is a constant debate about the health and nutritional aspects of becoming a vegan. Vegans can have particularly low intake of vitamin B and calcium if they do not eat enough items such as collard greens, leafy greens, and tempeh. High levels of dietary fibre, folic acid, vitamins C and E, and magnesium, and low consumption of saturated fat are all considered to be beneficial aspects of a vegetarian diet, although recent understandings of the effects of omega 3/6, cholesterol, trans-fats and refined sugars and starches in our diet indicate that the simple assumption that fat/cholesterol is bad, is far from correct.

What to eat, how to eat it? That is the question of our times. American author, journalist and activist, Michael Pollan, has pointed out and even given some practical advice in his book In Defense of Food, An Eater's Manifesto, “Eat mostly plants, especially leaves, and fewer seeds (that would be corn, wheat and soy) – and that goes for any animals we may consume. Pay more, eat less. Add more species to your diet. Eat well-grown food from healthy soils. Eat wild foods when you can. Regard non-traditional foods with skepticism. Eat meals. At a table. Not snacks. Don't eat alone. Eat slowly. Cook your own food.”

Feeling confused? You're not alone. There's a lot of conflicting information out there when it comes to diet and nutrition. While the experts continue to battle it out over whether vegetarianism is healthy or harmful, you can take comfort in the fact that there is no one right diet for everyone.

You are what you eat

In the industrialised world we have, over the last 50 years, become used to cheap food, produced on an industrial scale, with a lot of processing. We have to realise that this has been something of an aberration - such food is lacking essential nutrients, overloaded with refined starches and unnatural chemicals and our continued consumption is causing us harm.

Whether you become a vegetarian or simply decide to eat less meat, will likely be a benefit to yourself and to the planet. The bigger picture is that fresh products or those preserved by traditional means, produced without use of artificial fertilisers or pesticides or other fossil fuel inputs, produced in a manner that benefits the local ecosystem, will be healthier for us and for the planet in the long run. We have to accept that this will mean our food costs more and choice may be limited to what is seasonal in our locality.

Traditional food production methods, diets and recipes have evolved over thousands of years in myriad localities to provide sustainable healthy nutrition - we should seek to understand and build on this collective wisdom.

© EcoAsia 2009