Reasons to be Vegetarian

Reasons to be vegetarian

YOU WILL LIVE LONGER
Vegetarians live about 7 years longer,
and vegans about 15 years longer than meat eaters.
These findings are backed up by the China Health
Project
(the largest population study on diet and health to
date),
which found that Chinese people who eat the least
amount of fat and animal products have the lowest
risk of cancer, heart attack and other chronic
degenerative diseases. And a British study that
tracked 6,000 vegetarians and 5,000 meat eaters
for 12 years found that vegetarians were 40 percent
less likely to die from cancer during that time
and 20 percent less likely to die from other diseases.

YOU WILL HELP REDUCE WASTE AND AIR POLLUTION
Each year, the nations factory farms, collectively
produce
2 billion tons of manure, a substance
that is rated by the Environmental Protection Agency
as one of the country's(U.S) top 10 pollutants.
And that's not even counting the methane gas released
by cows, pigs and poultry (which contributes to
the green house effect); the ammonia gases from urine;
poison gases that emanate from manure lagoons;
toxic chemicals from pesticides; and exhaust from
farm equipment used to raise feed for animals.
Circle 4 Farms in Milford, Utah,
which raises 2.5 million pigs every year, creates
more waste than the entire city of Los Angeles.

YOU WILL HELP REDUCE FAMINE
72 percent of all grain produced in the U.S is fed
to animals raised for slaughter.
It takes 15 pounds of feed to get one pound of meat.
But if the grain were given directly to people,
there would be enough food to feed the entire planet.
According to the journal Soil and Water, one acre of
land
could produce 50,000 pounds of tomatoes, 40,000
pounds of potatoes, 30,000 pounds of carrots
or just 250 pounds of beef.

YOU WILL GIVE YOUR BODY A SPRING CLEANING
Giving up meat helps purge the body of toxins
(pesticides, environmental pollutants, preservatives)
that overload our systems and cause illness.
When people begin formal detoxification programs,
their first step is to replace meats and dairy
products with fruits, vegetables and juices.
"These contain phytochemicals that help us detox
naturally," says Chris Clark, M.D., medical
director of The Raj, an Ayurvedic healing center
in Fairfield, Iowa, which specializes in detox
programs.

YOU CAN SAVE MONEY
Replacing meat, chicken and fish with vegetables
and fruits is estimated to cut food bills by
an average of $4,000 a year.

YOU WILL AVOID TOXIC CHEMICALS
The EPA estimates that nearly 95 percent of
pesticide residue in our diet comes from meat, fish
and dairy products. Fish, in particular, contain
carcinogens (PCB's, DDT) and heavy metals (mercury,
arsenic, lead, cadmium) that cannot be removed
through cooking or freezing. Meat and dairy
products are also laced with steroids and hormones.

YOU WILL PROTECT YOURSELF FROM FOOD-BORNE ILLNESS
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
estimate that among Americans, there were
approximately
80 million incidences of food-borne illness a year-
resulting in 9,000 deaths. According to the Center
for Science in the Public Interest, 25 percent of
all chicken sold in the U.S carries salmonella
bacteria
and, the CDC estimates, 70 percent to 90 percent of
chickens contain the bacteria campylobacter (some
strains of which are antibiotic-resistant),
approximately 5 percent of cows carry the lethal
strain of E. coli 0157:h7 which causes virulent
diseases and death), and 30 percent of pigs
slaughtered each year for food are infected with
toxoplasmosis (caused by parasites). All of which
leads Michael Klaper, M.D., author or Pregnancy,
Children and a Vegan Diet, to comment,
"Including animal products in your diet is like
playing Russian roulette with your life."

YOU WILL HELP BRING DOWN THE NATIONAL DEBT
We spend between $60 billion and $120 billion
annually to treat the heart disease, cancer, obesity,
and food poisoning that are byproducts of a diet
heavy on animal products.

YOU WILL HELP PROTECT THE PURITY OF WATER
It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound
of beef, but just 25 gallons of water to produce a
pound of wheat. Not only is this wasteful, but it
contributes to rampant water pollution. A 1997
study by the Senate Agriculture Committee found
that 60 percent of American waterways were polluted,
and the major reason is animal agriculture.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development lists nitrate pollution (from fertilizer
and manure) as one of the most serious water-quality
problems in Europe and the United States.

YOU WILL PRESERVE OUR FISH POPULATION
Because of our voracious appetite for fish, 39 percent
of the oceans' fish species are overharvested, and
the Food & Agriculture Organization reports that
11 of 15 of the world's major fishing grounds have
become depleted.

YOU WILL SAVE YOUR HEART
Cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer
in the U.S, and the standard American diet (SAD)that's
laden with saturated fat and cholesterol from meat
and dairy is largely to blame. Children as young as
age 3 who are raised on fast food and junk food
show early signs of heart disease, according to the
Bogalusa Heart Study done at the Louisiana State
University. Cardiovascular disease is found in one
in nine women aged 45 to 64 and in one in three
women over 65. Heart attacks are also deadlier to the
fairer sex: 53 percent of women who have heart
attacks die from them, compared with 47 percent of
men.
Today, the average American male eating a meat-based
diet has a 50 percent chance of dying from heart
disease. his risk drops to 15 percent if he cuts
out meat, dairy and eggs. Partly responsible is the
fact that fruits and vegetables are full of
antioxidant nutrients that protect the heart and
its arteries. Plus, produce contains no saturated
fat or cholesterol. Incidentally, cholesterol levels
for vegetarians are 14 percent lower than meat eaters.