In a survey of 11,000 individuals, 37% of those who responded “Yes, I am a vegetarian” also reported that in the previous 24 hours they had eaten red meat; 60% had eaten meat, poultry or seafood. Perhaps those surveyed thought a vegetarian is someone who, from time to time, eats vegetables as a side dish—say, alongside a prime rib. If more than one-third of people in a large sample don’t know the broadest definition of vegetarian, one wonders how they can be trusted with something much more difficult: the full-time care and picky-picky feeding of their bodies, whatever their dietary preferences.
This says a lot more about food and diet issues than I could: I don’t think people actually know what they eat. Regardless of your opinion of the food pyramid, how much of what you ate today meets or exceeds those recommended amounts?
It’s hard to address this issue in anything but generalities, but I think people just eat what they have always eaten, meaning what their parents served them, and never stopped to think of its effects. Is this too much? Is this the right thing for me to eat now that I’m 30 or 40 or 50? Are my parents and siblings healthy? if not, is it attributed to diet or lifestyle and can I make any changes?
Of course, asking these questions makes me some kind of evangelist or zealot, sad as that is.