Green Minds
By Frolic Tan Lopez
PUBLISHED: JANUARY 2009

GREEN IS SEXY With celebrities endorsing - aside from living the practice - vegetarianism, it has become sexy, indeed.

In 1990, then 18-year-old Jason Baker, director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia-Pacific, noticed truckloads of chickens from poultry farms passing in front of his house in Detroit in the US on their way to slaughterhouses.  “Once, a chicken fell out (of the truck) – she was so fat, she couldn’t even stand up.  Her beak was half gone and she didn’t have feathers in some places. We took her to a veterinarian, but it was too late; she had to be euthanized,” he recalls.  “There was no way I would eat meat again after that.”

But while Baker’s decision to become, at first, a vegetarian (exclusion of meat from diet), and, eventually, a vegan (pure plant-based diet, with poultry products and milk also excluded) was triggered by his involvement in the animal rights movement, there are, as PETA itself states, as many reasons to be a vegetarian as there are vegetarians. 

SEEING GREEN

While humans, says Baker, started out as “naturally herbivorous,” it was only in the 20th century that vegetarianism started to popularly become a way of living.  Many of the world's religions and philosophies, such as Buddhism and Jainism, promote vegetarianism, and, more recently, in a Hollywood-dominated society, support from celebrities including Beatles’ Paul McCartney, Pamela Anderson, Alicia Silverstone, and Natalie Portman, among others, are largely responsible in further boosting the practice’s image.

In the Philippines, vegetarianism is a relatively new concept.  In fact, PETA, dedicated to establishing and protecting the rights of animals, including those that end up on dining tables, only opened office locally in 2004.  Amazingly, says Baker, PETA gets more requests for Vegetarian Starter Kits from the Philippines than from just about anywhere else in Asia, Africa, and South America.

“We’ve given out around 30,000 to 35,000 kits in the Philippines alone, (and) there are three times more activists helping PETA in the Philippines than in Australia,” he says.

Baker thinks this is largely because “around 90% of Asians, including Filipinos, are lactose-intolerant.”  Thus, soy products have always been popular in the region, though, he adds, Filipinos are luckier because they have an array of vegetables to choose from, and, already, most food courts in malls have a vegetarian food stall, making vegetarian food as affordable and convenient as any fast food. 

TURNING GREEN

“Going vegetarian is the best thing anyone can do to improve their health, alleviate animal suffering, and save the environment,” Baker says.
According to www.goveg.com, “going vegetarian is the single best thing that we can do for ourselves and our family.”  This is because a meat-free diet that is rich in, among others, complex carbohydrates, protein, fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, minerals, and vitamins “provides optimal nutrition for both children and adults, forming the foundation for dietary habits that support a lifetime of good health.”

Various studies continue to support this claim.  The American Dietetic Association, for example, states that “vegetarians have lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease, lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer.”  Vegetarians tend to be slimmer than meat-eaters, too, making it a popular technique to lose weight among the weight-conscious.

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