More About the Fish

To all you fish-eating "vegetarians" out there:

Step Three (Why Stop Eating Meat?)

Your Health: it has somehow become a general acknowledgement that eating meat is vitally important for a healthy and varied diet. It's what I would call one of the greatest myths of the capitalist society. First of all because we don't need to consume meat, in fact - we're not even physically built for that. Our stomach does not produce enough acid, our intestines are very long (about 10 times our body length compared to 3 times the body length for carnivores). It takes us a very long time to digest meat - it basically stays rotting in our system for several days and all the unnecessary substances like saturated fat and cholesterol get absorbed by the body, whereas a carnivore "ejects" it much faster, having absorbed only the necessary. You can get more information on this subject here.
Factory farms use a lot of antibiotics on the animals, not as much to treat illnesses but to make them grow faster or prevent their death before arriving to the slaughter house. Some of those “growth promoters” are used to treat serious human diseases. Animal products transmit them to humans and lead to the increase of treatment resistant bacteria and thus - more incurable diseases.

Chicken, as “white meat”, has often been considered being healthier and containing less fat. Since chickens are bred and drugged to grow very large, their flesh today contains three times as much fat as it did just 35 years ago. The most toxic form of the poison arsenic is used in chicken feed because it promotes faster growth. This cancer-causing chemical is then ingested by people.

Fish is considered to be health food by many. In fact, the oceans are now so polluted that fish flesh contains a lot of toxins, especially mercury. Eating fish even just once a week can increase your mercury level over 30% above the safe limit. This can lead to many health issues including coordination problems and depression.


The Environment: Livestock grazing transforms fertile land into desert, and thus affects a great number of threatened and endangered species. More than 50% of forests and rainforests has already been cleared to use the land for grazing or animal feed crops. As for the crop – a great majority of it is fed to farm animals, while it could be used to feed hundreds of millions of hungry people. Same thing goes for water: an estimated 15 000 liters of water is needed to produce just one day animal-based food supply (for one average meat-eater), whereas a one day plant-based food supply requires about 13 times less water.
Factory farms produce thousands of tons of manure every day. This often finds its way into the groundwater supply, the lakes, the rivers and the oceans, polluting drinking water and killing aquatic life. Here’s an interesting story for those who want to find out more about factory farm manure “lagoons”.
Livestock rearing also produces gases known to contribute significantly to global warming. See here for more detailed information on this subject.

Seafood consumption is driving many species to extinction. In fact, overfishing is responsible for the depletion of about 70% of fish populations worldwide. Tens of thousands of marine animals (like dolphins, sharks and turtles) get stuck in tremendous fishing nets and are killed and thrown back into the ocean each year.

Even if dolphins aren’t accidentally trapped in nets, they are still killed intentionally by tuna anglers because they prey on tuna.Fish farming, like livestock farming, damages delicate aquatic ecosystems, polluting water with run-off containing potentially hazardous chemicals, drugs and pathogens. Plus, farmed fish is usually fed with wild fish and it takes approximately 2-3 kg of wild fish to grow 1 kg of “farmed” shrimp or salmon.

Shark finning (consists of removing shark fins and discarding of the carcass at sea) annually kills over 100 million sharks and has decreased worldwide shark population by 90% over the last few decades. Experts estimate that within a decade, most species of sharks will be lost because of longlining. This could have devastating impact on marine ecosystems. For more precise information watch the film Sharkwater.

What about protein, iron and fatty acids?
There are numerous great plant-based protein sources. You can get enough protein from legumes like beans, peas and lentils; grains like rice, oatmeal and wheat; vegetables like potato, tomato, cucumber, cabbage, onion, broccoli, spinach; fruit like apple, banana, orange, grape, strawberry, peach and many many more…
Plant-based iron sources are for example ginger, chickpeas (garbanzo beans), lentils, spinach, prunes and raisins. It is best to consume them along with a source of vitamin C for better absorbtion.
Nuts and seeds (for example pumpkin and sunflower seeds, walnuts and almonds) contain good fatty acids, but are also great protein and iron sources.

Step Two

Assuming you followed the "step one", or if not don't worry, I won't be upset... So now you might be wondering werther it's not too late, werther doing something would make any difference what so ever? I honestly don't know, but I'm sure as hell that trying to change is better than giving up on it. If we give up now then it's surely true that there is no hope for any change for the better - the icebanks will keep melting, the canadian sealers will continue slaughtering seals, the plastic bags will continually not decompose, the poor people will keep eating dead animals and the rich people will keep eating shark fin soup until there will be no more sharks left in the oceans, thus no plankton, thus no air. And we will all eat factory-produced food and keep factory-produced pets and breathe factory-produced air through our factory-produced special air masks or something...

I don't know how about you, but I'd rather try and keep the hope of a brighter scenario. "Okay smartass, how do we do that?" you ask me? I would start with something small and simple like changing some of my wasteful habits. Here are some personal examples:

• Water: try to use as little as you can - don't leave it running while brushing your teeth (I know, it seems obvious but there actually still are some people out there who don't pay attention to that) or while washing dishes or rubbing shampoo in your hair... Well, I just try to minimize the moments where it stays running uselessly. Don't buy water in bottles! Tap water is ok to drink and if you don't like the taste then getting a filter is not a bad idea. Have you ever noticed that if you spell the name of a famous bottled water backwards you get "naive"? Do you think that's a coincidence or could it mean something about the fact of selling people water for more than 1 euro per liter whereas they can get it as much as they want for free at home? Besides, some of the chemicals used in making the bottles are actually transferred into the water, which makes it bad for you and the nature.
• Recycle: I know, I know, it's obligatory in most countries now, but from the example of my flat-mates I also know that we can always try harder. Re-use the glass and tin jars to put in your tea/coffee/sugar etc. If you have the possibility of choice, buy the products that aren't packed into ten million different bags and boxes.
• Plastic bags: Get a cloth tote bag for your grocery shopping (or make it yourself with personalized decorations). Don't hesitate to refuse the free bag they give you in all the different clothing and what not stores, unless you really need it. Re-use the old ones instead of trash bags... And I still haven't really figured out how to replace or reduce the little bags used for fruit and vegetables in supermarkets (the ones we use to weigh out and then stick the price on, which makes them tricky to re-use)...
• Transport: walk or take the bicycle as much as you can. Or use public transportation rather than a car. Pay attention to where your food (especially fresh stuff) comes from: did the orange travel all the way across the globe, polluting a lot of air and wasting a lot of fuel on its way to your plate? Prefer your local products as much as possible, they are surely better for your body too.

This obviously is far from being a thorough list and all new propositions, ideas and/or objections are very welcome. Those to whom the above is not only a habit but already an obvious one, might want to take a little step further in the whole "making a difference" business. On this occasion I eagerly encourage you to take the 30-day Veg Pledge. You can even download your free Vegetarian Starter Kit, which might seem a bit cheesy for the skeptics, but it's actually quite informative and motivating and answers to pretty much all the questions that might arise for a beginner-vegetarian. Plus there are some really nice recipes and who wouldn't appreciate a possibility to eat somehting new and tasty?!

Any more ideas on this subject? Let me know! In the meanwhile I hope you'll keep tuning in and that the next time you read my new post, it will be as (even temporarily) a meat-free person :) As for all the already-meat-free readers: thanks for bearing with me, I promise that the steps yet to be taken might interest you guys...