Hi! Welcome to my blog! My name is Deepa and I am writing this blog for my Health Psychology class at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. As a senior in college in Exercise Science and Wellness Management, I will be graduating in May and hope to move on to graduate school to obtain a Masters degree in Exercise Physiology.
So you may all be wondering why my blog is called Life as a Vegetarian....right? I want to be able to tell you why I am one, what the ups and downs are, share what I eat, teach and learn some new recipes, and just express my overall feelings about Vegetarianism.
To start off, I am 21 years old and I have been a Vegetarian almost my whole life. It has been pretty rough living as a Vegetarian but once I learned how to get creative and eat a lot of ethnic food, I have been able to get by. You know what really annoys me? When restaurants or fast food places do not have enough vegetarian options. This thought brings up why I am really upset right now--- which also happens to be my inspiration for this blog. I just flew back from Texas to Philadelphia and when the air hostess was giving out dinner on the plane she handed out chicken burritos and when I asked her if there was a vegetarian option she gave me some stupid answer about how only international flights serve veggie options because its not cost effective and it was cheaper to only get meat meals because they found that when people ordered veggie options and then ended up missing flights or taking different connector flights a lot of food was going to waste. The carnivores would not settle for anything less! argh! It really annoyed me because these airlines or restaurants or wherever think that it is okay to completely disregard the fact that vegetarians need to eat too. So instead of eating a proper meal for dinner, all I had was a bag of chips, some carrots on the side, and a kit-kat bar which was offered along with the meals. I would think that after religion, research, and health benefits today, a lot more people have turned vegetarian now more than before. So why don't these places carry enough options for us? =(
Having been an athlete for a large portion of my life, I have grown accustom to turning to chicken and fish for protein and its nutrients. However, I have always been interested in experiencing a vegetarian lifestyle and look forward to reading your future blog posts. I give you credit Deepa for asking for a vegetarian option aboard you flight. I completely agree with your statement arguing that a vegetarian option should be available. According to the Vegetarian Times, “7.3 million Americans are vegetarians, and an additional 22.8 million follow a vegetarian inclined diet.” When you think about it, roughly ten percent of Americans follow a vegetarian-like diet. According to theses statistics, if a flight has roughly 300 passengers, 30 people aboard the plane would most likely prefer a vegan option. It would be in the best option of the airlines to carry a vegetarian option, updating their service to their customers by considering the most recent vegetarian statistics. I understand that you can’t please everybody, but ten percent is still ten percent.
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What an interesting way to think about that "10%" statistic, Rachel. The issue Deepa discusses (via, the smarmy comments of the flight attendant) about the cost of food is an interesting one, and complicated as well. I've no doubt that the airline doesn't serve a vegetarian option because it is cheaper for them not to. But, think about that...why is chicken cheaper than vegetables? Vegetables get nutrients from the soil, water, and sun. Chickens need to eat vegetables/grain to grow. So, our eating chickens adds another step to the process...one that you'd think would add to the cost of eating chicken. Instead of eating the vegetables/grain directly, we're actually eating them through the chicken (via the food chain). So, the question remains, why is chicken cheaper than vegetables?
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