Relative Moral Superiority and Proselytizing Vegetarianism

The benefits to maintaining a vegetarian diet are myriad and increasingly well-defined by modern science; these benefits include decreased risk of heart disease and certain cancers. Many vegetarians claim to feel better and more perceptive, and two of the top three sprinters in the world are vegan. Vegetarians often claim moral superiority over non-vegetarians through varieties of a “hurt no living thing” credo. Nevertheless, only 2.8% of American adults are vegetarian. The advantages to vegetarianism are well-known, and the disadvantages seem negligible, yet in most countries only a tiny portion of the populace are vegetarian or vegan; Why would anyone ignore the option to live longer and feel superior, both physically and ethically?

Primarily, the opponents of vegetarianism disagree with it's strictures on scientific grounds. “But of course,” answer the vegetarians “their own muse, science, silences those claims without effort.” No, in fact; studies indicate vegetarians are much more at risk for deficiencies in calcium, iron, zinc, and B-vitamins. Although many devoted vegetarians take supplements to counteract these deficiencies, the eventual lethality of an iron deficiency-related anemia, for example, completely debunks many vegetarian's claims that no meat is somehow “more natural”—if normal humans can't survive unaided after eliminating part of their diet, it can only be concluded that part of their diet was essential.

An even more serious symptom of vegetarian diet is calcium deficiency: calcium deficiency inhibits bone growth, even causing proactive weakening of bone structures, and eventually osteoporosis and death. Again, many vegetarians take supplements or get their calcium from dairy products, which are produced b...

... middle of paper ...

...e it, because not everyone thinks it is.

Diets exist that, followed, can provide conscious eating, including all the health benefits of vegetarianism. Reducing one's meat intake is actually more healthy than being completely without it, and simply being conscious and aware of the origin and nutrition of one's meals can provide all the benefits of a meatless diet and more with the supplemental nutritional benefit of healthy meat products, without the danger of crippling anemia and osteoporosis. The problems that vegetarianism seeks to rectify are not inconsequential; there are certainly ethical issues with the way modern meat production works, and health problems with the American diet and populace. When healthier and more pragmatic approaches exist, however, the combative and self-righteous stance of many vegetarians seems like little more than juvenile idealism.