Should everyone switch to plant-based diet?

By Annie Xu

Mr. Howard

Presumably, everyone should have already heard Pythagoras, a great philosopher, and his
Pythagorean Theorem. Apart from that great achievement in mathematics, Pythagoras is
celebrated as the “father of vegetarians”. Someone assumed Pythagoras and his followers first
spoke to abandon the animal products on the table because of the belief of the circulation of souls
after death1. The Pythagoras Diet Principle was carried forward by Pythagoras’ followers after his
death and indirectly influenced the thought of generations. That principle was later shown in India
among the believers of Jainism2. Considering the ascetic and ethical grounds, they refused all
kinds of products caused by killing animals. They are considered as an extreme type of
vegetarianism which is so-called either ovo-lacto vegetarian or vegan. Those millennia old
traditions remaining as a part of human culture exist into the present day.

Nowadays, vegetarianism is divided to numerous types. Ovo-Lacto vegetarian diet refrains from
meats but supplies themselves with eggs and dairy products, whereas vegan is an idea removing
all animal products from their diet. Moreover, a demand for plant-based diet has been globally
growing since the last decade. For example, according to the research of press offices, the number
of vegan-claim products sold in Australia increased by 92% from 2014 to 20163. Additionally,
China’s vegan market was expected to rise by 17.2% from 2015 to 2020 4. Environmentalists and
animal conservators connect this idea as well with the alleviation of global warming and
nonviolence toward animals. However, many nutritionists and scientists counter that human’s
evolution turned us to be omnivorous. Excluding meat products from our diets might put some

1
Huffman, Carl. “Pythagoras.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 17 Oct. 2018,
plato.stanford.edu/entries/pythagoras/#FatSou.

2
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Vegetarianism.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica,
Inc., 27 Mar. 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/vegetarianism.

3
Mintel News. “Vegan Food Launches in Australia Grew by 92% between 2014 and 2016.” Mintel, Mintel, 25
Jan. 2017, www.mintel.com/press-centre/food-and-drink/vegan-food-launches-in-australia-grew-by-92-between-
2014-and-2016.

4
Inside Retail Asia. “Chinese Vegan Market Booming.” Inside Retail Asia, Inside Retail Asia, 24 May 2016,
insideretail.asia/2016/05/24/chinese-vegan-market-booming/.
strains on our body systems. Either mental or physical issue, as a result, would pour out.
Therefore, it draws further questions in people’s mind: should people switch to a plant-based diet?

This paper will first explore the perspective that people should switch to plant-based diet based on
several reasons including health benefits, ethical problems, alleviate hunger and environmental
sustainability. Secondly, the essay will examine the perspective that people ought to be
omnivorous, and thus should not switch to the plant-based diet. Arguments like human’s evolution
and potential mental illness are raised to support the perspective.

This essay will first examine the perspective that people should switch to plant-based diet. To
begin with, individuals will be benefit from the healthy diet. The study of Harvard Health
Publishing5 found out that vegetarian diet could lower the risk of getting high blood pressure,
elevated cholesterol and triglyceride levels. That shows that the strength of the belief that
widespread adoption of this diet can bring positive outcomes to people. Another theory frequently
raised for switching plant-based diet is that raising livestock might intensify the severity of climate
change. The green-house gases such as NO2 and NH4 released by animal raising could exacerbate
the global warming. The thesis, Livestock’s Long Shadow, published by LEAD (The Livestock,
Environment and Development) had drew the conclusion “Livestock activities contribute an
estimated 18% to total anthropogenic green-house gas emissions.6”. Slashing meat production
means more than just conserving the future of our planet. Roger Segelken published an article in
the Cornell Chronicle suggested “If the agricultural grains cultivated in United State were fed
directly to humans instead of livestock, nearly 800 million people would not suffer from famine 7.”
It enhances the significance that less people could satisfy their basic needs of living and global
workforce will be easy to reach its upper limit after they gain the benefits from this diet.

This perspective has both advantages and disadvantages. Holistic consideration is one of the main
advantages. It considers at least four important aspects: health benefits, ethic, environmental
sustainability and hunger alleviation, which creates an all-win solution that tackles multiple issues.
Vijay Eswaran, the author of In the Sphere of Silence, insists that the plant-based lifestyle should
have countless benefits by considering the social, environment and moral aspects. Furthermore,
this perspective is highly reliable because it is a long-standing concern for centuries and numerous
studies have been conducted. Meanwhile, its disadvantages are obvious as well. Since most

5
Harvard Health Publishing. “Vegetarian Diet Linked to Lower Stroke Risk.” Harvard Health,
www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/vegetarian-diet-linked-to-lower-stroke-risk.

6
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), “Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and
Options,”  fao.org, Nov. 29, 2006

7
August 7, 1997. “U.S. Could Feed 800 Million People with Grain That Livestock Eat, Cornell Ecologist Advises
Animal Scientists.” Cornell Chronicle, 7 Aug. 1997, news.cornell.edu/stories/1997/08/us-could-feed-800-million-
people-grain-livestock-eat.
arguments of the meatless diet are delivered from vegetarian or vegan who might hold the
prejudice as processing the information, misinterpretation would take place. Further researches are
needed to validate the causal relationship between plant-based diet and health benefits. The article
in Harvard Health Publishing8 suggested “But there still aren't enough data to say exactly how a
vegetarian diet influences long-term health. It's difficult to tease out the influence of vegetarianism
from other practices that vegetarians are more likely to follow, such as not smoking, not drinking
excessively, and getting adequate exercise.”  

In the nineteenth century, the increasing number of art works focus the concern on the food ethics.
Among those films, Robert Kenner’s Food Inc might be the most influencing one. It is a
documentary which exposes shocking facts that how some monopoly factories produce meat
products in an unhealthy way and treated livestock’s in a cruel way at that period of time. The
movie is persuasive by interviewing the famous writers such as the author of The Omnivore's
Dilemma Michael Pollan, and their comments were originally presented in the script. Those
primary resources reflected the original condition and effectively supported its argument.
However, the lacking of counterbalance and coming up with questionable assertion weaken the
perspective. The movie has not displayed even one healthy organic factory, so it is questionable
that whether the movie reveals the holistic picture of the meat production. Also, it continuously
forces the idea of the existent of those unethical companies but, in the end, it has not given any
rational solution.

While the general trend is being inclined to the adoption of a plant-based diet, some arguments
consider humans should be omnivorous. Before starting to cook meat, our earliest ancestors only
ate uncooked foods like plants and fruits, which required them to eat much for their calory needs;
thus, a strong digestion system is needed. However, Leslie Aiello, an anthropologist and the
director of the Werner-Gren Foundation, explained the drawbacks that if the digestive system
dominates most of the energy in the human body, our brain, which uses about 20 times energy
comparing to the amount of muscle, can get will be insufficient9. Meat, in that case, lightens the
burden of food demand to release the pressure of digestive system, which facilitates the
development of the brain.

This perspective suggested that omnivorous diet play a significant role in the evolution human
species. So, it is unnecessary to modify our eating habits for the reason of the natural evolution.

8
Harvard Health Publishing. “Becoming a Vegetarian.” Harvard Health, www.health.harvard.edu/staying-
healthy/becoming-a-vegetarian.

9
Joyce, Christopher. “Food For Thought: Meat-Based Diet Made Us Smarter.” NPR, NPR, 2 Aug. 2010,
www.npr.org/2010/08/02/128849908/food-for-thought-meat-based-diet-made-us-smarter.
Evidences also can be found inside the human body: to chew the hard foods, human beings evolve
both sharp incisor teeth and big molars. Additionally, human triggered a genetic change that
enabled a better processing of fat and cholesterol10. Craig B. Stanford, an ecologist of
the University of Southern California, said, "As a species we are relatively immune to the harmful
effects of fat and cholesterol.11” Because human organs evolved for reasons like better surviving
and prospering, it seems that switching to vegetarianism diet runs against human’s natural
evolutionary.

The perspective that human should be omnivores has advantage due to its internal logic and
inevitable facts. The perspective suggests that since human body develop to fit in both maigre and
sarcophagus diet, human should have no reason to go against their natural way of eating. Some
more studies show that if people exclude meat products in a long-term, a high risk of getting
disease will come due to the deficiency of vitamins-B, calories, and fatty acid. The thesis of
Wolfgang Hermann et al published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows among the
3 groups, the vegans had the lowest vitamin B-12 status. The risk of nutrition imbalance may be a
convincing argument to deter the idea of having a plant-based diet. However, probably the most
obvious weakness of this perspective is that most of the evidences fail to prove the causal
relationship between mental illness and plant-based diet. Although several studies show that there
do existed the certain connection between depression and vegetarianism, it might be too assertive
to say vegetarian diet will cause depression. Clearly more researches should be conducted to find
the causations.

One of the supporters of the omnivorous diet is Vaclav Smil, who published an article setting the
scene about how eating meat has been promoting human evolution, environment protection and
health improvement. His main idea applies ‘rational meat eating’ to solve the problem of the waste
of the lands, inhumanity animal slaughter and so on. For the good side of this paper, the author
analyzed both negative and positive impacts of meat consuming and brought forward some
practical solutions, like agronomic improvements. Instead of completely restricting meat
consumption and adopting vegetarianism, he suggested a scientific and rational method to
alleviate the pressure of increasing the demand of meat, which makes his argument convincing.
The paper included several assumptions such as the dramatic growth of meat demanding in the
future. Although it is according to the trend of the data, those assumptions may against his
argument since the social condition will alter in the following fifty years.

10
Mayell, Hillary. “‘Evolving to Eat Mush’: How Meat Changed Our Bodies.” National Geographic, 18 Feb.
2005, www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/2/evolving-to-eat-mush-how-meat-changed-our-bodies/.

11
Mayell, Hillary. “‘Evolving to Eat Mush’: How Meat Changed Our Bodies.” National Geographic, 18 Feb.
2005, www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/2/evolving-to-eat-mush-how-meat-changed-our-bodies/.
Clearly, vegetarianism would always be a hot-spot issue even in the future - the debates between
personal choice and food ethic will continue. For the further research, the lab-growth meat could
be a new choice for people to eat meat in an ethical way. They believe that people could enjoy
eating a juicy meat without any concern about unethical killing and environment cost raised by
grazing. Nevertheless, the lab-grown meat still needs to overcome several barriers to be
commercially viable. Firstly, because of the technology limited, the cost of production and selling
price is high. Secondly, although the scientists carefully select the texture and add judicious
supplementing to address the taste concern, it’s impossible to have the exactly same taste as the
real meat. Last but not least, some traditional meat producers argue that the lab-grown meat are
not meat at all and should not be labeled as such12. However, those challenges and concerns may
be dispelled by developmentally technology in the future.

After viewing numerous researches and different perspectives, my opinion has been slightly
influenced as well. When I traveled to London, I contacted with the vegetarianism for the first
time. As I chatted with my host family after dinner, since all them were vegetarian, they liked to
share their ideas of vegetarian, such as how that diet eliminates the crucial suffering of animals
and brings them to a healthier lifestyle, with me. After that, I formed a superficial concept that
vegetarianism is the only the ideology of religious people or fitness enthusiasts, and it is too far for
me to be relate to those ideas with my life. However, from the research of the first perspective, I
was shocked that personal food choice could make an enormously positive impact on global
environment. In other words, my concept of vegetarianism is not just a “personal stuff”, but a
global issue. The vegetarianism interprets a kind of individual belief that is derived from a deeper
thought of connection among creatures, ecological environment, and human activity. Vegetarians
are using their own actions to make contributions by consuming resources in a more sustainable
way. I do not mean that I will become a vegetarianism, but I am able to have empathy with
vegetarianism.

Overall, I believe that it is people’s own right to choose what to eat, but human should recognize
their role in creating the future, about how everyone of us deals with our food choices and tries to
make a better world.

References

Huffman, Carl. “Pythagoras.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 17 Oct.

2018, plato.stanford.edu/entries/pythagoras/#FatSou.

12
Schaefer, G. Owen. “Lab-Grown Meat.” Scientific American, Scientific American, 14 Sept. 2018,
www.scientificamerican.com/article/lab-grown-meat/.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Vegetarianism.” Encyclopædia Britannica,
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 27 Mar. 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/vegetarianism.

Mintel News. “Vegan Food Launches in Australia Grew by 92% between 2014 and 2016.” Mintel,
Mintel, 25 Jan. 2017, www.mintel.com/press-centre/food-and-drink/vegan-food-launches-in-
australia-grew-by-92-between-2014-and-2016.

Inside Retail Asia. “Chinese Vegan Market Booming.” Inside Retail Asia, Inside Retail Asia, 24
May 2016, insideretail.asia/2016/05/24/chinese-vegan-market-booming/.

Harvard Health Publishing. “Vegetarian Diet Linked to Lower Stroke Risk.” Harvard Health,
www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/vegetarian-diet-linked-to-lower-stroke-risk.

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), “Livestock’s Long Shadow:
Environmental Issues and Options,”  fao.org, Nov. 29, 2006

August 7, 1997. “U.S. Could Feed 800 Million People with Grain That Livestock Eat, Cornell
Ecologist Advises Animal Scientists.” Cornell Chronicle, 7 Aug. 1997,
news.cornell.edu/stories/1997/08/us-could-feed-800-million-people-grain-livestock-eat.

Harvard Health Publishing. “Becoming a Vegetarian.” Harvard Health,

www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/becoming-a-vegetarian.

Joyce, Christopher. “Food For Thought: Meat-Based Diet Made Us Smarter.” NPR, NPR, 2 Aug.
2010, www.npr.org/2010/08/02/128849908/food-for-thought-meat-based-diet-made-us-smarter.

Mayell, Hillary. “‘Evolving to Eat Mush’: How Meat Changed Our Bodies.” National Geographic,
18 Feb. 2005, www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/2/evolving-to-eat-mush-how-meat-
changed-our-bodies/.

Mayell, Hillary. “‘Evolving to Eat Mush’: How Meat Changed Our Bodies.” National Geographic,
18 Feb. 2005, www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/2/evolving-to-eat-mush-how-meat-
changed-our-bodies/.

Schaefer, G. Owen. “Lab-Grown Meat.” Scientific American, Scientific American, 14 Sept. 2018,
www.scientificamerican.com/article/lab-grown-meat/.

1 – L5
2 – L4
3 – L5
4 – L5
5 – L4
6 – L4
7 – L5
Very good communication, excellent use is made of globally contrasting sources, relevant and
credible evidence is used, there is clear empathy for the perspectives, the reflective element is
strong. Analysis of the second perspective is a bit weaker than the first, and is a bit imbalanced.
28/35