Robert Brown
Dr. Smith
English 101
28 May 2014
You are what you eat and your diet says a lot about who you are and in what regard you place on your health and environment. That being said would you be willing to change the way you eat if you knew it would positively change your life? A plant-based diet is better for you than the Standard American diet. A Plant-Based Diet or is a diet based on vegetable, grains, legumes, fruit, with little or no animal products including dairy. This diet has been known to have great benefits on health, environment, and is more humane and ethical. America is suffering from the The Standard American Diet. A standard American diet consists of a high intake of red meats, sugary desserts, high-fat foods, refined grains, high fat dairy products, and processed meats. The Standard American Diet has negative effects on your health, environment, and supports animal cruelty. They both pose a very real and life changing affect on you as an individual and our society. After reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Shlosser it has opened my eyes to another side of the fast food industry and the origins of the Standard American Diet. I am writing this essay and hope it will expand your awareness, and inform some people that a Plant Based Diet is better then the Standard American Diet because of the many cons it has.
Your health is important in this lifetime of ours and what you eat greatly affects your health. There can be positive effects and negative effects your diet has on you. Both diets possess one of these attributes, and I am going to talk about the negative affects of the Standard American Diet first. In a spectrum Diabetes journal I researched it states the number of people in the world with diabetes is expected to double by 2030. It affects over 26 million people of all ages some one fourth of who are not diagnosed yet. I know and knew plenty of people that are living and lived with Diabetes. Diabetes is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar. The most common form of Diabetes is type 2 Diabetes. Type 2 Diabetes is a problem with your body and causes blood sugar levels to rise higher then normal. Over time having high levels of sugar can affect your kidneys, eyes, and heart. Having a meaty or high fat diet typical of the Standard American Diet you are more susceptible to getting Diabetes according to pcrm.org article. My own grandmother had diabetes and had to shoot herself with insulin daily. She had to constantly check her blood sugar levels and she ultimately died from a heart failure due to having Diabetes for many years. Her diet was a high meat and sugary intake with little to no vegetables and that diet falls under the Standard American Diet. It is unfortunate but it is a fact that 2 out of 3people with diabetes will die from stroke or heart disease. On the other hand implementing a Plant Based diet into your life has gains, and that is cutting your risk in half of getting diabetes as well as prevention and management of the disease. Once again the Spectrum Journal reveals that the diabetes in America is lower among vegetarians then non-vegetarians. Type 2 Diabetes is a lifestyle disease because of the choices we make and what we eat. On Diabetes.org it states a Plant Based Diet is naturally higher in fiber, much lower in saturated fat, and cholesterol free when compared to the Standard American Diet. By reducing the intake of a Standard American Diet and replacing it with Plant Based Diet you greatly reduce the risk of getting Diabetes, and it will help people with Diabetes manage it.
When it comes down to how these two diets effect our environment there are pros and cons too. The Standard American Diet mostly consists of a high meat intake, so where does all this meat come from and how does eating a lot of meat effect our environment? "Our current factory farming system, with the help of federal subsidizes has allowed every American family the luxury of meat and dairy with every meal. Americas food industries; grocery stores, fast food restaurants and dine in restaurants are structured on meat products. Our nation economically is tied to factory farming" That is a quote from the ethical implications of factory farming on rooterville.org. The Food and Agriculture Organization report by the United Nations in 2006 stated unequivocally that factory farming of animals for meat production has a bigger impact on global warming than all the plains, trains, buses, and cars on the planet combined. Factory Farming has a lot of animals that they tend to and waste massive amounts of natural resources like water each day. A document from Earth Save How Are Food Choices Can Save our Environment and I quote " If I had known for every pound of beef I did not eat I would save anywhere from 2,500 to 5,000 gallons of water, I would have been moved." According to an article from Vegetarian Society typical meat eater's diet requires up to 2.5 times the amount of land compared to a vegetarian diet and 5 times that of a vegan diet. Because a Standard American Diet is such a high meat intake and relies a lot on factory farming you can see just how much you can affect your environment by having this diet. If one were to incorporate a Plant Based Diet you would reduce your meat intake substantially and thus reduce harmful emissions, save land, and natural resources. Overall A 2006 study, examining the impact of a typical week’s eating, showed that plant-based diets are better for the environment than those based on meat.
As I stated earlier a Plant Based Diet diet is a step towards a more humane and ethical life. I for one have greatly reduced my meat intake. I have had a lot of benefits, but the one that sticks out to me a lot is my conscience. It made me upset when I thought of another life being killed against its will to feed a lifestyle choice. I now know I don’t need to eat meat with every meal. I have educated myself and I eat more vegetables now. The physical pros alone are enough to go on. I think it is fair to say all life including human life feel pain and it is very inhumane to support or even follow the Standard American Diet. The Standard American Diet relies a lot on factory farming. According to the USDA in 2011 the United States exported 2.7 billion pounds of meat of that years total production. This meat is of animals that were once alive. However when I think of over crowded factory farms and the inhumane conditions these animals endure just so we can eat meat we don’t need all the time is sickening. You can see how it would really make one sad to think about how many animals we kill a day to satisfy the Standard American Diet taste for meat. If one were to take on a Plant Based Diet and according to John Robbins book Diet For New America, The grain used to feed livestock is enough to give every person in the world two loafs of bread. Food For Life Global states a plant based diet is does not support and condemns cruel and inhumane practices of raising animals in abhorrent conditions to satisfy or feed our taste for meat. Having a Plant Based Diet is more humane. “Compassion for animals is growing, as the harsh realities of factory farming–overcrowding, filth, disease and cruelty–are increasingly exposed. People are realizing it’s not necessary to eat animals any more, and a more compassionate, nonviolent lifestyle benefits all the earth’s creatures.” is a quote from VegMichigan’s online article.
In conclusion I talked a lot about the pros and cons of both these diets. I have made some very clear examples and facts why a Plant Based Diet is better for you and overall better for our world. There was so much information on both of these diets and I could not touch on all of them because it would take to long. There are many variations of a Plant Based Diet and there are only positive results to having this type of diet. The Standard American diet on the other hand has a negative impact on so many facets of our life. Looking closely the overall health in the United States is deteriorating due to diseases like Type 2 Diabetes and our environment is suffering due to factory farming. Our moral compass is way off course and education about these diets for human beings are necessary for us to evolve. I think we need to change the way we eat in America and we need to evolve to a higher level of consciousness. The Standard American Diet is a choice and is a negative one at that. A Plant Based Diet is the undisputed obviously better choice for your health and our environment, so it is clear why this diet is better for you on many levels. Times have changed and I think it is time we realized that in order to make a change in our world sometimes it starts with something as simple as changing the way you eat.
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