10 Interesting Tid Bits That Vegetarians Can Sink Their Teeth Into

Research has found that health is the predominant reason why more than 53% of today’s vegetarians embrace a plant based diet, followed by environmental concerns at 47%. Holding the record as being the country with the most vegetarians in the entire world, 40% of Indian residents (the equivalent of 400 million people) are vegetarian due to religious and class-based reasons – in fact, they account for 70% of the global vegetarian population. Israel comes in at second place with 595,000 vegetarians or 8.5% of their population. 6% of Great Britain’s citizens eschew meat (which is the highest per capita figure in Europe, most likely due to fears about Mad Cow Disease) and 3.2 percent of U.S. adults, or 7.3 million people, follow a vegetarian-based diet.

If you are adverse to consuming animal and insect derived products, then you should probably steer clear of anything made with cochineal which is a fancy name for the crushed beetle colorant called carmine. After being submersed in hot water, cochineal insects are dried, pulverized, boiled along with various chemical compounds and used to tint everything from fabrics and alcoholic drinks to pharmaceuticals, multiple cosmetics, processed meat products, baked goods, assorted dairy products, sauces and art supplies.

The Organic Consumers Organization claims that food production is responsible for 13% of the greenhouse gases produced, and by adopting a plant based diet just one day each week, each of us could cut 1160 driving miles from our yearly “carbon footprint diet”. Furthermore, the amount of land required to raise the livestock that a single meat eater consumes in one year is capable of yielding enough plant based crops to feed 20 people successfully. To view this in another way, 80% of the 2000 pounds of grain allocated toward a typical meat eater’s diet in one year is gobbled up by the pigs, cows and chickens destined for their dinner table, whereas a vegetarian generally consumes 300-400 pounds of grain annually.

Studies have found that those who eat green literally are greener in more ways than one. In addition to spending roughly 20% less at the grocery store (compared to meat eaters), vegetarians who consume a plant based diet inadvertently support agricultural processes that “use 50% less water” and clear “12 times less land” which result in “six times (less) greenhouse gas emissions than a meat rich diet.” In other words, each meat free meal saves 133 gallons of water and prevents 2.5 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from being released into our atmosphere. Consuming an entirely plant based diet 365 days each year prevents 145,635 gallons of water from being wasted and 2,737.5l pounds of greenhouse gas from being produced, which goes a long way toward making a positive and far-reaching environmental impact.

A typical domesticated feline, which is known to be an obligate carnivore (meaning that their bodies require animal protein to function properly) consumes more meat than the average citizen of Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Nicaragua -- 200,000,000 pounds for all 6 countries annually. Dogs, however, are omnivores and can safely eat a vegetarian diet that meets the nutritional standards set by the U.S. Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) and Association of American Feed Control Officials (although they may not be terribly happy about it).

Some of the most famous historically relevant vegetarians include Chinese thinker and social philosopher Confucius, Greek philosophers Aristotle, Socrates and Plato, Italian inventor, artist and all-around Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci, French Enlightenment writer and philosopher Voltaire, 19th century English Romantic Movement poet Lord Byron, highly influential Jane Eyre novelist Charlotte Brontë, theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, dictator of World War II Germany Adolf Hitler, American pioneer Johnny Appleseed and English naturalist and creator of the Theory of Evolution Charles Darwin.

Lesser known modern day celebrity vegetarians run the gamut from musicians Weird Al Yankovick, Rob Zombie, Seal, Elvis Costello, the majority of the B-52’s, Grace Slick, Bob Marley, Larry Mullen Jr., Kate Bush, Joan Jett and k.d. lang to actors such as Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner, Willem Dafoe, Anna Paquin, David Thewlis, Forest Whitaker, Sir Ian MacKellen, Lisa Bonet, Richard Gere, Downtown Julie Brown and Steve Martin.

Animal-derived ingredients are typically used to manufacture a surprising range of consumer products. Charred animal bones (also referred to as abaiser, ivory black, animal charcoal or bone black) help to impart a brilliant white color to refined sugar and are also used to filter fluoride from water. Dried cod fish swim bladders, known more commonly as isinglass, are used to clarify and draw out impurities found in many types of alcoholic beverages. Gelatin – obtained from the boiled bones, connective tissues, intestines and skins of horses, cattle and pigs -- is a very common gelling agent used in everything from photographic papers and film to food, cosmetics, drugs, sandpaper and paper money.

Many mainstream chewing gum brands contain a whole host of odd ingredients that you’d easily think are not suitable for human consumption, including animal-derived glycerin and glycerol as well as petroleum wax, lanolin, polyethylene, latex and dercolytes. Even certified vegetarian Glee Gum is made with a resinous glaze obtained from Lac insect secretions, which while not obtained in a way that harms them (according to the company itself), might still be considered along the lines of a honey based product which many vegetarians are opposed to. 

Vegetarians are less likely to succumb to depression compared to the mainstream population because they generally consume a diet much higher in omega-3 fats, B-vitamins, magnesium and folate, including leafy green vegetables, legumes, whole grains, olive oil, nuts and seeds (especially walnuts and flaxseed). All of these foods work synergistically to insulate the mind from potential mood dips while also ensuring that there are no dopamine, serotonin or epinephrine neurotransmitter imbalances present to wreak havoc on the brain.