We’ve all heard it before, and have either stood behind it, or brushed it off as something that wasn’t for us. For those that want to make a change this year in their diet, and lean towards a more plant based diet, we’ll outline reasons to try out vegetarianism. One important thing to remember is the fact that trying your best is good enough; many people believe that only if they are vegans wearing no animal furs, bicycling everywhere they go, and recycling everything they come by, and never eating another piece of chicken again in their lives, it means that they are “true vegetarians” helping the planet. We all try to improve the world in our own ways, and there is no set standard for being a “good person”. Do what you can, with what you can, and where you can. You can start off slow, and only adhere to certain standards that best suit your lifestyle and taste. If you will be extremely unhappy for following a certain route, then do what you need to do to be happy. With that being said, I believe that a vegetarian diet is an extremely peaceful lifestyle choice, and a very compassionate one at that. I have gone from going meatless only once a week, to eating a pescatarian diet (a meatless diet that excludes seafood and fish), to a vegan diet a year ago, and now, something in between that I still try hard to improve on. Figure out your limit, what foods you enjoy that do not include meat, and pat yourself on the back for trying to do what most people don’t attempt to.
It Can Help to Protect the Environment
We conserve water, grains, and fossil fuels when we adhere to a vegetarian diet. It takes many more resources to produce meat products by feeding the animals, and more energy to produce meat protein. We need more land to create acreage to raise livestock properly, and some of the resources that we use to produce our meat products are non-renewable, which means that they cannot be replenished easily, if at all.
It Lowers Your Risk of Heart Disease
The number one thing that kills many people are cadiovascular diseases. These conditions generally include blood vessels that become obstructed or narrower, which leads to terrifying incidents such as heart attacks, angina, and strokes. The American Heart Association has stated that those who follow a vegetarian based diet of plants, fruits, nuts, and grains have lower rates of obesity, heart disease, and high blood pressure.
It Can Help You Keep Weight Off
Meat products generally have more saturated fat and all kinds of unsavory things involved with its production, incuding hormones and antibiotics. Plant based diets have more fibre and are more nutrient dense with lower calories than meat products. With that being said, go for wholesome, fresh foods rather than keeping an eye on the caloric count. Satisfying foods that are good for you come from eating foods dense in nutrients and vitamins and minerals. Think about it: diet soda has zero calories, but has absolutely no nutrients either. An apple may have a couple more grams of sugar, but you get fibre and vitamins to boot.
It Can Cost Less to Lead a Vegetarian Lifestyle
Meat generally costs more than most other things in your shopping basket at the grocery store. It costs a lot and takes a lot of land, resources, and energy to produce that meat, so of course it’s going to have a higher price tag. Try opting to go meat-free a couple times a week, or even more if you can, and see if it makes a difference in your wallet. Opt for grains, legumes, fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, and dairy-free alternatives to try upping your cooking skills as well. There are plenty of recipes and sites dedicated to vegetarian and vegan cooking, and many of them are delicious!
Helps to Get You Back Into Healthy Eating
No matter your diet, there will be a way for the food industry to sell you something unhealhy, cheap, convenient, and bad for you. There are healthy vegan foods and unhealthy vegan foods (Oreos are vegan, by the way). You can be a vegetarian and be extremely unhealthy. You can be an omnivore and be unhealthy. You can be a steak-loving meat eater and be unhealthy too. The point is, no matter what you like to label yourself as, be sure you’re consuming foods that make you feel good about your body, and gives your mind and body the nutrients it craves and deserves. Vegetarian diets can ease someone back into eating mindfully and healthfully, since many vegetarian diets consist of fresh foods and vegetables.
It Is A Kind Choice (my favorite reason of all)
Animals killed brutally for their meat in factory farms is the best reason of all to give a vegetarian diet as shot, or even a few days out of the week if that’s all you can manage. Factory farms house hundreds to thousands of animals in cramped cages, including pigs, cows, chickens, and turkeys. According to PETA, many of the birds are diseased and go crazy pecking at each other and themselves due to the stress of being unable to move freely, and suffer from deformities, broken bones, and broken legs.
Cows are forced apart from their babies once they are born, for their milk is a precious resource to be used for the dairy industry instead of their newborns. They are to be impregnated over and over by using artificial insemination each and every year. The mother cows are then hooked up to machines, multiple times a day, to milk them for all they’re worth while they’re alive. Quite literally. They are also injected with hormones to produce more milk often, which could cause painful conditions for the cows, including inflamed udders.
Chickens have their beaks cut off with a searing hot knife, so they cannot peck at others while being thrown into crowded cages. Pigs are kept in metal cages so small that they cannot even lie down o r turn around. Imagine being in a box your exact height and width, being unable to sit down or even turn around. Male chicks are considered useless, for they cannot produce eggs, and are thrown away to be ground up. Piglets have their tails cut off without any pain relief.
Many animals are kicked, punched, beaten, thrown, slammed to the ground, sprayed in the face with hoses, boiled alive in water, and have their throats slit open on conveyer belts. They are not animals any longer. They are merely products of a cruel industry. There is no such thing as a humane factory farm.
WARNING: The link below has graphic content and may be very disturbing to watch and hear. Please use your discretion. It is important for many of us to realize that our food comes at more than just the price at the grocery store.
Please watch the video for a look inside factory farms: http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/
Image Source: http://www.peta2.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/pig-caged.jpg
Image Source 2: http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2013/04/feedlot.jpg