Have you ever thought about what life would be like if you didn’t eat meat? You’re probably thinking it’s boring, you’re “too southern for all that”, or it’s just not convenient enough for your lifestyle. All of which I used to say myself before I began my transition as a vegan.
Before we go any further, let me just specify the difference between vegan and vegetarian for those who are not so sure. A vegetarian doesn’t eat meat. A vegan also doesn’t eat meat, BUT they also don’t eat anything that is produced from anything involving an animal. For example, at your traditional Thanksgiving gathering, a vegetarian may decide to eat the cornbread, greens, and a sweet potato pie, and they will be okay. A vegan however, may only be able to eat the cranberry sauce and salad.
There are numerous benefits of being vegan, both physically and economically. What really persuaded me however was the physical advantages. I wrote a speech on the meat industry last semester and the information that I learned will forever be engraved into my brain.
Whether you know it or not there are a lot of hormones, chemicals, and toxins in the meats you buy at supermarkets. The animals raised in America consume more than 30 million pounds of antibiotics. As an adverse effect, when we consume so many antibiotics, our bodies build up a resistance to a lot of the bacterias and parasites that can lead to sickness.
Another fun fact: MRSA is a stinky staph infection that is resistant to a plethora of antibiotics and can be passed down from pork, beef, dairy products, and other contaminated foods found in your local supermarket. The staph infection also reportedly kills more people than AIDS. Did ya know that? Well yep, it sure does. But, guess where MRSA comes from a lot of the time? It comes from over half the meats sold in the typical supermarket. Those delicious wings and juicy steaks may contain staph infections and other bacterias that can lead to MRSA. Crazy, right?
Most animals are also being overfed and given hormones to make them bigger and bigger and faster and faster. Those hormones from that fat and juicy cow steak is being passed onto people and it’s having the same affect on our bodies as far as making us bigger and fatter, especially us young people!
You’d even be surprised to know that there are pesticides and other toxic chemicals in the meats being ingested by the general population. There are machines at the meat factories to detect these chemicals, there is however no threshold. So if there is a toxin detected it won’t even be reported because there’s no set maximum threshold.
There are plenty of alternatives to replace the meat that one would consume in their daily meals. So if you are thinking about making the lifestyle change, I encourage you to go ahead and do so. It may be hard at first but I promise it is so worth it. You’ll get used to it.
In the long run we all want to live long and healthy lives, but we can’t do that if we don’t watch the things that we put into our bodies. We have to love and cherish the bodies that we have because it’s the only one we have.
Before your meat reaches your plate, think about where did it come from and what did it eat before you decided to eat it. It makes a difference.
If you’d like to read more information on your own or see where I found all of my information, here are some sources…