Ardath Rekha

I... try not to post political statements in my journal because honestly, I hate reading them, myself. But I'm really bothered by a repeated attitude I've been seeing, all over the place. It's an attitude that crops up over and over and over in a variety of contexts, too: "What's good for me is clearly good for everybody."

And every time I see someone taking that approach to something, I want to bitchslap them for being a complete idiot.

This time, what triggered that instinct in me was a discussion about vegetarianism vs. eating meat.

The article in question was on CNN, about researchers working on a method of creating lab-grown meat as an alternative to conventional farming. People were weighing in for and against, with the usual range of "OMG this is the bestest idea evar!" to "Frankenfoods, quit playing God!" etc. Among the comments was this fun little gem:

Humans don't need meat; ask any vegetarian or vegan who thrives without the stuff.

I take extreme issue with that blatantly ignorant generalization; I know people who would die in under a month on a vegetarian diet.

My father is one of them. One day, I may well be one of them.

My father has celiac disease, and I'm actually planning on getting tested (once the semester is underway) for it myself. Over the decades, the damage that the undiagnosed condition did to my father's digestive system was enormous. His body cannot process gluten, of course, but along the way it also destroyed his body's ability to process lactose, casein, and a wide range of compounds commonly found in plant matter. Some items, like mushrooms and tomato products, produce reactions violent enough to potentially kill him on the spot.

Ironically, he has no problem eating peanuts. And his blood-cholesterol level is obscenely low, especially when you take into account just how much meat and animal fat he's taking in.

His diet is highly restricted. Rice and potatoes are among the few plant items he can eat as much as he wants of. Peanuts, too, as long as he doesn't overdo it. Cherries are about the only fruit he can safely eat. Occasionally he can get away with a dried apricot or two. Every so often, if he takes a lot of enzyme pills (dudes, I'm talking several dollars worth for a single meal), he can get away with an egg roll or something similarly "exotic."

Other than that, the only thing on the menu for him is meat. Even there, he has to be careful, since so many places try to "improve" the meat with various spices and marinades that are toxic to him.

Now make no mistake, my father loves animals. Polio quashed his dreams of becoming a veterinarian, and he's been doing wildlife rehab work since long before I was born. And when he was in his twenties, he tried to go vegetarian. He ended up getting so sick from the attempt that he had to go back onto a meat-heavy diet, and in the process lost the ability to digest several fruits and vegetables faster than he otherwise might have.

You know that stereotype of the sickly vegetarian weakling? It comes about because my father, although an extreme case, is not completely unique. There are a lot of people who cannot thrive on a vegetarian diet. They may not produce enough of the right enzymes to efficiently digest vegetable matter, thus ending up malnourished. (And those enzyme-replacement pills are expensive enough that if you need them that badly, it ain't worth it!) Or they may have mild allergies to several of the "most wholesome" foods in the vegetarian lexicon, leaving them feeling ill a lot of the time with no idea why (after all, those things are supposed to be healthy, right?) Or their allergies, like my father's, might not be mild at all but genuinely violent and life-threatening. So while there are plenty of people who thrive very well on a vegetarian or vegan diet, there are enough who don't to keep that stereotype around!

It's amazing what can endanger a person's health. The daughter of a woman I used to work for will probably die from eating one saltine cracker, if nobody has an epipen on hand. There are other people who can be killed by eating just one of the peanuts my father can knock back in huge quantities, and other people still who will go into anaphylactic shock if they try a slice of lemon meringue pie. Ever had someone who was about to give you a flu shot ask you if you're allergic to eggs? And if you got strep throat, do you know whether or not it would be safe for your doctor to prescribe penicillin?

The human body is infinitely variable. While experts -- who've studied a hell of a lot longer than the vast majority of us opinionated blogger types -- can write general guidelines about how it will react in the majority of cases, there will always be someone who reacts in the precise opposite manner. Hell, one doctor jokingly told my father "we know everything about you except your genus and species" -- that's how surprising a lot of his reactions to things are.

I try not to make the mistake of generalizing my personal experiences, because I know my body is defective. I've always known that my inability to digest a lot of commonplace foods, without pharmaceutical assistance, was abnormal. But I've always known that it was also real. What shits me most of all are the people who refuse to believe that anybody else's experience, that doesn't dovetail with theirs, is made up or "in their heads." People who die of violent allergic reactions were not imagining them, thank you very much.

So yes, there are a lot of people who do thrive on a vegetarian or vegan diet. There are also people who would waste away and die on one. And many of us, who are stuck as "obligate carnivores," frankly wish that we didn't have to be. It's not a moral failing that keeps us from doing that, and I'd appreciate it if certain people would get off their goddamned soapboxes and pedestals and acknowledge that possibility. I'm not you, you're not me, and there's a very real chance -- albeit probably a smallish one -- that something you thrive on could kill me... and vice versa.

We now return to our regularly-scheduled programming. Whatever that may be.