What percentage of health care professionals are vegetarian?

Question

I felt like I read a looong time ago that 6% of doctors are vegetarian, but I can't figure out where I got that information. I'm having a hard time finding statistics.

So what percentage of doctors are veg*n?

What percentage of nurses are veg*n?

What percentages of Nutritionalists are veg*n?

Also, if you are a health care professional who is vegetarian, raise your hand high :)

Answer 1

I don't know the precentage, but I'll be one once I graduate :-)

Answer 2

Very few because they are intelligent enough to know that a vegan diet is unhealthy. Humans are omnivores, get a CLUE!

Answer 3

the nutritionist i had to see because of my iron deficiency was a raw vegan.

My brother's girlfriend is a vegetarian nurse, and she's raising their son vegetarian as well.

Couldn't answer for doctors though.

Answer 4

If 10% of nurse are vegetarian, means 90% are meat eating. Thats gotta tell you something.

Answer 5

*raises hand*

I have met a lot of vegetarians and vegans. In particular in the military - many of the doctors, nurses, operating room staff and others seemed to be vegetarian or eat very little meat. I'm not sure why it was, other than maybe once you see how our bodies are quite the same as animals, flesh becomes unnapealing rapidly. In fact, I still find it difficult to see raw ribs at the store because it's a jarring image that reminds me of open human chest cavities.

I would say about 5-10% of nurses I meet are vegetarian. Doctors, I am not so sure, it really depends what field they work in. I'm always surprised to see veterinarians that eat meat, but it's surprisingly common. People don't draw the same sympathy and love for all animals, or maybe they emotionally deviate themselves from the little colorful chunks of meat in the freezer and don't want to think about the feeling, breathing creature it came from.

Nutritionists - depends again what sort. I've met a few that are vegetarian. Happily I think there are WAY more vegan and vegetarian nutritionists in school and just coming out of school now than ever before. I know a few personally.

I have met more college professors that are vegetarian or vegan than anything else - I find the higher educated someone is, the more likely it is they eat very little or no meat. I think with knowledge comes responsibility.

I think after a while you become disgusted with flesh. While the meat in stores has been cleaned and injected with solutions to keep it colorful and fresh-like (despite it sitting around for weeks), real meat smells and discolors quickly. It festers, bleeds. Entrails smell horrible, if you've ever smelled a real opened animal (humans too unfortunately) it just smells terrible. People in health care probably are more likely to be sickened by meat than those that only see meat in a neat little package at the store, seperated from all the f***s that had to be scraped from the intestines, all the urine and waste the animal poured all over itself in it's last, horrifying dying moments. Euuugh.

At least, that has been my experience entirely.

I went into the Army and was a health care spec, and attended med school thanks to Uncle Sam at the same time. I got to sit in for a few surgeries, and I also worked a lot in drawing blood, behind the scenes blood work, lab tests, etc. I just realized that it's not appetizing in the least bit. You could probably process and dress up f***s and vomit to be delicious too, but you couldn't pay me enough to eat it. Meat just became progessively grosser in the same way. To top it all off, I became interested in investigating slaughterhouses and farms, visited a cattle farm myself and talked with many, many people face to face (including someone that had over six months of material from an enormous pig farm in Illinois). It couldn't have been any less appetizing.

However obviously not everyone feels the same way. Someone can spend their day with their elbows deep into someone's guts, rearranging their intestines so a surgeon can sew up a perforation, than eat sausage (pork-stuffed pig intestines), even though pigs are one of the smartest non-human animals on the planet with an IQ of a 3 year old child, easily.

Answer 6

I am not sure of percentagies, maybe google it or telephone such health care professionals.... :-)  I know I am a vegetarian though

Answer 7

I tried a bunch of different searches for this and couldn't find anything.  It's a very good question, and now I am dieing to know!

I talked to a dietitian once because my dad was worried about my being a vegetarian, and she was actually a vegetarian too.