By Daniel Grotta-Kurska

To the meat eater, the first, and very puzzling, question is why. Why give up the steak, the barbecued spareribs, the pork roast, the Thanksgiving turkey, the hamburger, and the hot dog? There is a myriad of reasons why people do so:
• Most vegetarians live below the poverty level. They simply cannot afford the high price of meat;
• Followers of certain religions and philosophies exclude flesh foods from their diets because they believe eating meat hinders their spiritual development, or because it is contrary to their religious edicts;
• Health faddists think that meat, as well as all processed or refined “supermarket” foods, are harmful to the body;
• Some pacifists believe that killing and eating animals is inconsistent with their ethical or social consciences;
• Recent emphasis on ecology has convinced many that using meat as a primary protein source is an arrogant exploitation of the earth’s finite resources.CD-SG 36.1

The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that less than 5 percent of the country’s population is predominantly vegetarian; even so, that figure represents more than 10 million people. A second question comes naturally: Is a vegetarian diet nutritionally sound?


CD-SG 36.2