One common lie is that we cannot get enough iron from plant sources. The meat boards quote the fact that heam (animal) iron is much easier to absorb than non-haem (plant) iron. This is only a half truth. Although non-haem iron, on it's own is harder to absorb, when it is combined with a diet that is high in vitamin C, like that of a vegan, the absorbtion rate rises to about the same level as haem iron. This little fact is often over looked by the meat boards when they come out with their nutritional information.

The reason for this desceit can be traced back to a fall in meat sales. The meat industries noticed that less and less meat was being eaten. To counter this, the meat boards started releasing their lies, half truths and propaganda. Many people believed these lies, withou questioning, or looking up the actual facts.

Another common mistake made by people arguing against veganism is that you cannot get enough complete protien without eating meat. This is another lie that has no real basis on any fact. However, by eating meat, you can get all the kinds of amino acids, or protiens, our bodies need, it is also possible to get them from combining a legume and a grain. So instead of having the meat every night, you can vary your diet by using different grains and legumes with each meal, keeping things fun. Also, meat eaters tend to have 400% of their daily protien needs. This excess protien can result in reduction of other nutrients, such as calcium, vitamin C, and others. Also, meat eaters tend to have excess iron, which has been linked to heart attacks, and other heart problems, as well as the loss of important nutrients.

Aside from the fact that we can get all the nutrients we need, and in safer levels, with a vegan diet, there are many other reasons not to eat meat. For example, as a vegan I am less likely to become obese, diabetic, have heart failure, a wide variety of cancers, arthritis, impotency, stomach ulcers, intestinal cancer, kidney stones, or gull stones. More on the intestines. This is a fact I found on a page put out by a meat board. I don't have a clue why they decided to include it. It said that the average meat eating male has 6 pounds of undigested meat in their lower intestines. This meat is rotting, it's fermenting, it's creating a putrid gas that has no where to escape, but through you buttocks, offending everyone around. It is for this reason that vegetarians have less smelly farts or craps. Just compare the putrid smell of a carnivorous dogs crap to that of say a rat, or even one cow. The smell difference is very noticable. One cow crap, though much larger than a dogs crap, smells much less powerful than the dogs crap. This is because meat eaters are like tombs for rotting meat.

Infact, our bodies are made like that of herbivourous animals. Herbivours sip water, while carnivours lap it up. Carnivours can produce their own vitamin C, unlike herbivours. Herbivours can sweat, carnivours must pant. Carnivours have short intestinal tracts, unlike herbivours, and us. Carnivours have sharp claws and teeth with which to rip at the skin, flesh and bone of other animals. Just try biting through a peice of leather with your bare teeth, or hands. We have the colour vision, the hands, the feet, the teeth, the mouth, the intestines, the biochemistry, and the sweat glands of non-meat eating animals.

With all this in consideration, that we do not need meat to live, that meat is unhealthy for us, and our bodies are not made to eat meat, you can clearly see that we are killing millions of animals a year, simply to stimulate our taste buds. I see this as incredibly greedy. These are lives, just like ours. If you are a Christian, you can look up Ecclesiasties, which states that animals and humans are equal, as we await the same fate. The ancient hebrew word describing most of the animals we eat implies that they have souls. Also in Genesis, we were twice (once in the garden of Eden, and once after the flood) put in the place of caretakers of these animals, and the earth in general. Eating animals for no reason are certainly not the actions of caretakers. Many of the early Christians were infact vegans, and all of the apostles became vegans as well. Paul was the last to stop eating meat, doing so after writing Corinthians, which many people quote from when arguing against vegetarianism in Christianity. Paul's conversion to veganism is recorded in Acts. Matthew was a strict vegan. And also, in the oldest complete copy of the New Testament, Jesus said in Luke "Do not do anythign that will make your mind heavy. To do this, do not eat meat or drink wine"

This is just a small part of the vegan argument. If you want to see more, have a search around the internet, or pop on down to your local library, they're bound to have some good info for you to use, and read.


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