However, meat is not the only way to acquire these nutrients. Some plant-based foods can replicate the benefits of eating meat — to an extent. Common replacements for meat are Tofu, tempeh (a soy product), and seitan (a wheat gluten). They are protein-rich and are popular with vegetarians. Similarly, other plant-based replacements exist for vitamins and minerals (Petre). They may not provide the same amount of nutrients that animal food does, but are sufficient enough to not lead to any major health issues like those reported in the article. The article claims “vegetarians are two to three times more likely than meat eaters to suffer from depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and somatoform disorders and syndromes” (Araki), and cites this information from research done by Austrian researchers at the Medical University of Graz. Further analysis of the study shows that the researchers mentioned another cause for the increased number of health issues in vegetarians. To quote, “Our results have shown that vegetarians report chronic conditions and poorer subjective health more frequently. This might indicate that the vegetarians in our study consume this form of diet as a consequence of their disorders, since a vegetarian diet is often recommended as a method to manage weight and health” (Burkert et al. 6). …show more content…
However, this statement is insensitive when considering all the animals being tortured alive in slaughterhouses and to the vegans that do care about these animals. It goes without saying that animal cruelty in slaughterhouses is the main reason why most vegans opt for a vegan diet. The video published by PETA on YouTube titled “Official ‘Glass Walls’ Video by Paul McCartney” reveals the business practices used by slaughterhouses to maximize output. Most animals are squeezed into tiny spaces for efficiency, and in the process, diseases kill most of the animals there. The animals are made to consume chemicals to grow faster and be kept alive, and some have been ‘engineered’ to yield more produce than they would normally. Not all of them die instantly when having their throats slit, and those that do survive, remain conscious while being plunged into boiling water tanks to have their hairs removed. All of this happens while they are being skinned or hacked apart (PETA). That being said, dismissing a meat-free diet by saying that meat is too delicious is an ineffective statement as everyone already knows that, and furthermore, all it accomplishes is further angering the people the article is trying to