Why I Don't Eat Meat

I have a few reasons for being a "strict vegetarian", meaning that I don't eat any animal products. First, as I've described above, is my health needs. Diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol are serious enough to change a person's diet!

Those were the alerts I got from my doctor in August of 2007.
I read Dr. Barnard's book, accepted the sound logic of the diet advice (no animal products or oil, and low glycemic index foods) and three months later my diabetes was cured and my other numbers were on the happy decline.

So why not quit the diet and reintroduce meats, etc? Well, first of all I have brought back some oil (extra virgin olive oil, or EVOO), Promise Light Buttery Spread with Flax Oil, and occasional - occasional cheese. But I'll not go back to meat. For one thing, animal products are the only source of cholesterol. No animals = no cholesterol overload. Period.

In my research about my health, I began looking into reports of contamination in the meat industry. What I found is so disturbing that I cannot stomach the thought of eating a dead cow, chicken, or pig, much less the animal itself. Our meat processing industry is so very much removed from what it was just 100 years ago that the stuff in the meat market is poison to a human body. Literally. Pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, and other "additives" turn a good piece of steak into a cesspool of poisons. I can't afford to do that to me any more.

Then there's the issue of eating animals at all. WAIT. Stay with me here. Yes, the Bible tells how to kill and eat certain kinds of animals. But the Bible also tells how to properly handle divorce, slavery, and warfare, none of which were in God's original plan for us. When you look back to God's original design, you see that He engineered us for a plant-based diet. Look at the original story:

Genesis 1:29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground--everything that has the breath of life in it--I give every green plant for food." And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

Not until after the flood, from 1 to 3 thousand years later, did God allow for animal eating. Yes, He allowed it. No, it is not a sin. BUT it is contrary to His original plan. And contrary to our bodies' needs. In the early Christian church, one way Christians were singled out in society was that they were vegans. They honored God's creation by not taking life for their own carnal desires. (They thought like this: If I gave my grandson a puppy out of love for him so he could enjoy playing with it, and found out later that he killed it and ate it, I wouldn't stop loving him, but I sure would be disappointed. And I'd be careful about what gifts I would give him later on!) It wasn't until after the middle of the first Christian century, when they Roman church began adopting so many worldly traditions into itself, that blood and flesh consumption became accepted into Christian society.

So, health, common sense, and respect for God's carefully designed animals are reasons I don't eat the pets God gave me. It's not my place to condemn you for what you choose to put into your body or your children's bodies - unless you're a dear one to me. Then I'll try to help you see the danger. And offer alternatives.