Vegetarian for all the Wrong Reasons

Gotta love family sometimes. Well, actually most of the time. They can provide great blog post fodder. This post is inspired by a dietary change my aunt is making. I heard through the grapevine the other night that my aunt is becoming a vegetarian. So I sent her an email asking why she would not be interested in achieving optimal health. Her response was fascinating. She is doing it for the planet. She is concerned about environmental issues so she will no longer eat meat. I must admit I was not expecting this response. I think this is a completely valid and outstanding reason to make a change. The only problem is she's making the wrong change. Woohoo, bullet time!

1. The feed used by big corporations to fatten cattle and chickens is absolutely horrible for the environment. This is what we can buy at the local grocery store. Cutting that out of your diet will certainly benefit the environment. However, we must make a very clear distinction between corporate meat (chicken, eggs, beef, etc) and properly raised meat (cage free chicken and eggs, grass fed beef.)
   
2. Corporate meat fed a diet of mainly corn feed loses it's nutritional benefits. There are limited vitamins and minerals due to the lack of vegetation in their diet. And the worst part is it becomes a source of bad fats (Omega-6) as opposed to good fats (Omega-3.) Grass fed beef is just as good a source of Omega-3 fatty acids as salmon! Feeding animals a corn based diet to fatten them up has a significant negative trickle down impact on the environment (for the sake of my sis I won't get into poop again.) Raising animals the way they are meant to be raised and and they way they existed for thousands of millions of years has tremendous trickle down environmental benefits.
   
3. The presence of GMOs (Genetically Modified Organism) in our food supply is frightening. These allow large corporations like Monsanto to produce more food product while manipulating the nutritional contents. The negative impact on the environment and human existence could be staggering.
   
4. Eating properly raised meat (eggs, raw milk, cage free chicken, grass fed beef) has amazing health benefits. Eggs (perhaps the world's most perfect food) contains the highest quality protein to build and repair our tissue along with heart disease preventing fats (choline.) Grass fed beef is a tremendous source of Omega-3 fatty acids.
5. Ok, time for full disclosure. Eating high quality meats is more expensive. I buy my eggs, chicken, and beef at Trader Joe's. The prices are very reasonable, especially for the beef, compared to other sources of grass fed beef. But people often make the argument that eating properly is simply too expensive. I agree that eating properly should not be as expensive as it is. There is no way that a box of pasta should cost a fraction of what it costs for some grass fed beef, but it does. My answer to that argument is if you need to cut back don't do so with your health. There are plenty of areas we all could save some money, your well being is not one of them.
   

Conclution:

Helping the environment is a great reason to make a personal change with your diet. To really make a significant environmental impact we need MORE people to eat properly raised meats, not less. If we all put our money into cage free eggs, chicken, and grass fed beef we can take a stand against corporatations that raise animals simply to make a dollar with no regard to our health or the health of our planet.