Newsgroups: rec.food.veg
From: nsingh@hqsun5.oracle (Naunihal Singh)
Subject: Re: Milk and calcium (here we go again)
Organization: Oracle Corp., Redwood Shores CA
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1993 02:39:27 GMT
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people said:

levin@world.std.com (Levin F Magruder) writes:

>Finally, a question.  It's my impression that currently, people with
>greater incomes tend to eat less animal protein than poorer people.
>For example, I own three major metropolitan radio stations, two cruise
>lines, one of the three largest long distance carriers, the Boeing
>Corporation, Cray, Mitsibushi, and Nabisco.  I control and reap over
>90% of the profits of the so-called "cocaine cartel."  My annual
>income is over 275 million trillion dollars a year.  I eat nothing but
>millet and parsly.  My parents, on the other hand, are destitute, and
>live in a two room apartment in a slum in Waltham, Mass.; their only
>income is from Social Security and digging returnable cans out of the
>trash.  And they eat at McDonald's twice a week.

Wow. You're that rich?  Can I have some?  

Seriously, I don't think you're correct.  Everyone in my family is
fairly well off and they all eat meat at every meal (or just about).
But all the vegetarians/vegans that I know are poor.  They are all all
of college age or just past college age.  I think that most people who
become vegetarian are those who learn about it in college.  These
younger people have an open mind, and are eager to learn things, such
as the benefits of a meat-free diet.  As well, younger people are more
concerned, in general, than the older population, about the
environment.  But then again, many older people who have had heart
attacks, heart surgery or who are prime suspects for heart attacks are
warned and sometimes become vegetarian or eat a mostly vegetarian diet
just to stay alive.  So who knows?  I still believe that most
vegetarians are poor college students who don't care about being
lawyers, doctors, or what have you.  They would rather be happy and
live a full life, closer to the natural state, even if poor.  I think
they tend to be much less materialistic than meat-eaters who believe
in the "American Dream". 

>levin@world.std.com

Tara

--
Tara McDermott               
tara@starburst.umd.edu       
I eat tofu, and I vote.

I might agree with Levin, but point out tha this does not disagree
with Tara. I think the issue here is not income so much as class. All
of Tara's examples were of middle and upper class people (i.e. college
goers) who find themselves, at that point in their lives, without much
money. But they have probably been raised in a middle/upper class
lifestyle with middle/upper class expectations and will soon, in a few
years, rejoin the class they came from. On the other hand - try
looking up the eating habits of the american underclass, either urban
or rural. They don't eat many veggies at all - this is one of the
factors at the root of the American malnourishment problem (it is a
combination of not having good resources and not having the knowledge
necessary to parley those resources into the most health effective
things to buy instead of the worst, fattiest, most processed things to
buy). 
An even better correlation than class (and something that is closely
linked to it) is educational background. I would be willing to bet
that over 90% percent of adult veggies have a college eduation or
above, and that of those children who are veggies, one or more of
their parents have a college eduacation and above too.


				Naunihal