3 Really Good Reasons To Go Vegetarian April 18, 2008
So, right now you’re on a basic meat and potatoes diet, eating all the animal products you want, not really caring where they came from or how their cultivation affects the world. Well, I can give you three good and logical reasons to stop eating meat, or at least cut back on it. Even if you hate animals and wish them dead (which is sad for you if you do), there are other reasons concerning yourself and the rest of the world to cut back on your meat intake or quit altogether.
1. Health:
The first reason and the most excellent one for you selfish people out there is your own health. The only reason I can see that people eat meat in the first place is because it tastes good. Yeah, I know it tastes good because I used to eat meat all the time for almost every meal. If you’re worried about nutrition, which a lot of people who think that you can only get protein from red meat do, there are no real nutrients in meat that you cannot get from other vegetarian foods. Protein, for example, can be found in soy and in beans, so there’s no real worry there.
The truth is that when you eat meat, it rots in your intestines. Just think about that for a minute. Do you really want something rotting in your digestive track? I don’t think so. After that, it clings to the intestinal walls and ends up staying there for a few days longer than it normally should. This contributes to a great deal of constipation and indigestion. And that is definitely not a happy time.
If that little tidbit of information hasn’t swayed you, think about the amount of fat that is in meat these days. Farmers are fattening their animals more and more so they can get more money as livestock is sold by the pound. So, what does this mean for you? Loads of fat and cholesterol clogging your arteries. Take my grandparents for instance; they eat meat every day, at least two times a day or more, and what do they have to show for it? One heart attack each and high cholesterol. Eating meat is extremely bad for your heart, especially when you eat it in bulk as my grandparents tend to do. Plus, with all of the hormones farmers are pumping into their livestock, there’s no telling what health risks could occur later on in life.
Still not convinced, or don’t care about your own health? We’ll move on to the second reason.
2. Ethics
Our first concern with ethics is the wellbeing of animals. Most of these animals we consume are born and raised in tiny cages, drugged with growth hormones, and then cruelly mutilated. As humans, we sometimes think that we are above stupid animals and that we can do with them as we please because they don’t know any better. However, studies have shown that animals feel emotions and pain just as we do. So, then next time you have a slice of turkey during Thanksgiving dinner, give thanks to the turkey whose beak and toes were burnt off before they were slaughtered to give you your feast.
Ok, I may be coming off a little preachy. But, most people do not know what these animals go through before they are packaged and shipped to our grocery stores. For more information on what actually occurs visit GoVeg.com to learn more.
A second concern with ethics is the fact that all the grain that goes to feeding the animals we eat comes from other countries where famine is rampant and where the same amount of grain that we use could save millions of lives. The amount of grain that would feed 240 people is fed to animals who end up feeding only 20 people. Ask yourself if your meat is worth the lives of 220 people.
3. Environment
Our third reason to go vegetarian has to do with the environment. The grain that is fed to the animals has 10 times more energy in it than the meat we consume. Therefore, just by eating vegetables, we could conserve the valuable resources that go into producing and shipping these meat products.
Also, farm animals produce a gargantuan amount of excrement which produces methane that goes into the atmosphere and contaminates our water. Some scientists are saying that producing meat is just about the worst thing we can do for the environment, even next to driving automobiles. This seems like a valid statement when you think of all the resources such as grain, water, transportation and earth that goes into producing meat.
Eating meat seems to take up way more resources and cause more problems than it is worth. I hope this has made you think about your food choices, not just for your own personal health, but for the future of the world. Even if you are the type of person to say “Screw animals”, there are severe problems being caused by the way we produce our meat that cannot be overlooked. So, think about it next time you want to eat some meat and weigh the consequences for yourself.
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