Why do you become a vegetarian?
Julia Roberts and Gwyneth Paltrow also seem to find more imitators in Germany. Especially women, younger and more educated people increasingly abstain from meat.
But even if vegetarian diets gain in attractiveness - the majority still eats still and often steak, turkey breast & Co. The meat consumption in the industrialized countries is still high: Each year, every German consumes about 60 kilos of meat - the number has been relatively constant since 2002.
How many vegetarians there are in Germany, nobody seems to be able to say exactly. The numbers vary widely, from 1.6 (National Consumption Study) to 9 percent (European Vegetarian Union). In addition there is an increasing number of people who mainly eat vegetarian food, so rarely eat meat and if, usually limited to poultry and fish.
The trend away from meat is unmistakable: "Six, seven years ago, there was a new momentum in the vegetarian movement," says Thomas Schönberger, Chairman of the German Vegetarian Federation (VEBU). In 2000, the first BSE case was confirmed - many people have lost their appetite for meat in the face of cattle disease.
Since then, there are more and more vegetarian products on the market, In addition - especially in big cities - an increasing number of restaurants and fast food chains with a large or exclusively vegetarian offer such as "Gorilla", "nat." or "rich green".
"If you look at the cookbooks of the last decades, meat always had a high priority," says VEBU chairman Schönberger. Meanwhile, Witzigmann & Co. are increasingly relying on vegetarian recipes.
What is a vegetarian anyway?
vegetarian reject food from dead animals in principle, so eat no meat and poultry, no fish and no battle fats. The most common are ovo-lacto vegetarians, which make up about 90 percent of all vegetarians. Ovo-lacto vegetarians In addition to plant foods, only products derived from live animals such as milk, eggs and honey. They treat animal products such as rennet and gelatine with varying degrees of severity (rennet is made from animal stomachs, gelatine is extracted from the skin and bones of animals, and it is sometimes found in gummy bears, desserts such as jello, and sometimes also in cottage cheese and yoghurt).
Rarer variants are Ovo vegetarianswho eat eggs but do not drink milk, and Lacto-vegetarianswho drink milk but do not eat eggs.
vegan (about 10 percent of vegetarians) generally reject the consumption of animal products, both live and dead animals. This not only applies to foods such as milk, eggs and honey, but also to clothing and shoes made of leather, wool and silk.
There are many factors involved in choosing a purely vegetarian or vegan diet. In addition to love of animals or disgust for meat, many vegetarians also base their diet on their own health and, increasingly, on environmental protection.
Animal welfare and ethics
Many people who are vegetarians find the killing of animals immoral. Almost 63 percent of vegetarians who were interviewed by the University of Jena in a study on their motives, animal welfare as the main reason that they do not eat meat. They want to give animals the same right to life and physical integrity as humans.
In addition, animal rights activists have long criticized the cruel conditions in mass animal husbandry. They complain that especially in the conventional attitude animals are housed in a confined space and therefore can not move enough and that the food is not appropriate to species. While the attitude of the animals is better with organic meat, the moral question remains whether to kill animals to eat them.
Environmental and climate protection
Everyone talks about climate change - but what does our diet have to do with it? A lot! The world's livestock is responsible for nearly a fifth of greenhouse gases from the methane emitted by the animals. And otherwise, the environmental damage caused by the production of animal food is enormous: huge forest areas are cleared worldwide to create areas for animal feed and pasture land - above all for industrialized countries.
Almost half of the global grain harvest is fed to animals. The problem: To get 100 calories from meat, we have to feed 1000 calories from grain - 90 percent of the harvest is lost. So if we eat meat one time, we use the same amount of acreage as if we were eating grain nine times. People who eat meatlessly contribute to environmental protection. (More about "Food for the climate")
health
In the industrialized countries too much meat is eaten:We should eat up to 30 to 40 kilos of meat per person per year, recommends the German Society for Nutrition (DGE) - we actually eat almost twice as much. And that has consequences: The risk of diabetes, gout, cancer and cardiovascular disease increases when we often eat meat and sausages. Vegetarians consume less saturated fat, cholesterol and purines, but more complex carbohydrates, fiber and phytochemicals. Ovo lacto vegetarians, in particular, eat healthier than mixed dieters who eat a lot of meat.
The DGE recommends a balanced ovo-lacto-vegetarian diet quite well as a permanent diet. For vegan diets this is only limited - only for healthy adults and with sufficient nutritional knowledge is a vegan diet from the point of view of DGE suitable in infants and young children, they advise against it. (What nutrients do vegetarians need?) Read more in episode 2 of the series "Eating Vegetarians")
Strong aversion (disgust)
While many people are mouth-watering at the sight of a steak, feel other nausea and nausea. They often already feel the smell of meat disgusting. 11 per cent of the vegetarians interviewed in the study of the University of Jena are involved - especially women. This strong aversion can not be clearly explained, as often also individual psychosomatic causes play a role. It does not necessarily have anything to do with the spread of animal diseases such as BSE or the detection of rotten meat scandals.
The feeling of disgust is a primal instinct, which should prevent us from eating something weird or contaminated with: genetic protection against infection and disease. Man is almost powerless when the feeling comes over him.
Religion and culture
The commandment of nonviolence leads in some religions that the followers live vegetarian. Especially in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism there are many vegetarians. Even philosophers like Plato renounced meat, as well as yogis who promise a harmonizing effect on body, mind and soul.
