Here are a few reasons for you to reconsider what or who you are putting on your dinner table...A vegetarian diet promotes healthier, longer life. Medical studies demonstrating the health advantages of a meatless diet are numerous and convincing. People who eat mostly plant-based foods cut their risk for just about every disease imaginable, from cancer to constipation.
Going animal-free helps maintain a healthy weight. The fact remains: vegetarians on the whole are thinner than those around them. In fact, vegans (who eat no animal products) are an average of 20 pounds lighter than meat eaters who consume the same number of calories! That's because vegan diets are generally low in fat and high in fiber.
Vegetarianism is good for the environment. For anyone concerned about disappearing rain forests, dwindling fossil fuels, or vanishing wildlife species, vegetarianism is a logical choice. Producing plant foods strains the earth's resources far less than producing animal products.
A vegetarian lifestyle is more humane. More than 4 billion farm animals are slaughtered for food every year in the United States. That's a lot of needless killing. And without going into gory details, it's fair to say that the lives and deaths of most animals raised for meat, milk, and egg production are anything but pleasant.
Is there a down side?
By now you may be wondering, "Does vegetarianism have any drawbacks?" After several decades on a meatless diet, playwright George Bernard Shaw claimed (tongue in cheek) to have found one. "I am on the verge of 85 and still work as hard as ever. I have lived quite long enough, and I am trying to die; but I simply cannot do it. A single beefsteak would finish me, but I cannot bring myself to swallow it. I am oppressed with a dread of living forever. This is the only disadvantage to vegetarianism."
Gather information, read books, magazines, talk to other people about these issues and make choices that make you feel good not only for you and your health, but for all of the animals that are sacrificed every day for your meals. Just think about it.
Going animal-free helps maintain a healthy weight. The fact remains: vegetarians on the whole are thinner than those around them. In fact, vegans (who eat no animal products) are an average of 20 pounds lighter than meat eaters who consume the same number of calories! That's because vegan diets are generally low in fat and high in fiber.
Vegetarianism is good for the environment. For anyone concerned about disappearing rain forests, dwindling fossil fuels, or vanishing wildlife species, vegetarianism is a logical choice. Producing plant foods strains the earth's resources far less than producing animal products.
A vegetarian lifestyle is more humane. More than 4 billion farm animals are slaughtered for food every year in the United States. That's a lot of needless killing. And without going into gory details, it's fair to say that the lives and deaths of most animals raised for meat, milk, and egg production are anything but pleasant.
Is there a down side?
By now you may be wondering, "Does vegetarianism have any drawbacks?" After several decades on a meatless diet, playwright George Bernard Shaw claimed (tongue in cheek) to have found one. "I am on the verge of 85 and still work as hard as ever. I have lived quite long enough, and I am trying to die; but I simply cannot do it. A single beefsteak would finish me, but I cannot bring myself to swallow it. I am oppressed with a dread of living forever. This is the only disadvantage to vegetarianism."
Gather information, read books, magazines, talk to other people about these issues and make choices that make you feel good not only for you and your health, but for all of the animals that are sacrificed every day for your meals. Just think about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment