"Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances of
survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian
diet."
-
Albert Einstein
The word '
Vegetarian' was first used in 1842 to
describe one who abstains from the use of flesh, fish and fowl as food
with or without the addition of eggs and dairy products.India holds more
vegetarians than the rest of the world combined.A 2006 survey by the
Hindu newspaper found that 40 percent of the Indian population, or 399
million people, are vegetarians.But what about the other parts of the
globe ?Aren’t there any herbivorous rich folks or are they all too busy
dining on seafood and veal? Why the heck aren’t there more vegetarians
uptown? You would think that with all that money, they’d be shopping in
the gourmet health food store. :D
Thinking about going vegetarian? Before considering how to become a
vegetarian, maybe you need some convincing as to why vegetarian eating
is
good for you. Well it turns out that vegetarianism
is not only healthy, but can even fight global warming and stave off
world hunger! Here are the top 50 reasons to go vegetarian.
IT’S HEALTHY :
- Vegetables and fruits are
rich in nutrients that are helpful in reducing the incidence of
heart attacks and improve the texture of skin. Some of these
nutrients include vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients that are considered to be vital for good skin health.
- Antioxidants
such as vitamin C and other phenolic compounds are useful in
reducing the concentration of toxic compounds and free radicals
inside the human body. The most common antioxidants found in human
body are vitamin C and vitamin E. Vitamin C is abundantly available in berries, tomatoes, citrus fruits, asparagus and peppers. Vitamin E can be obtained from seed oils, wheat germ, walnut, almonds and brown rice.
- A good amount of nuts like almonds and walnuts and soy proteins are consumed by vegetarians. These foods are rich in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. These fatty acids are useful in balancing the levels of cholesterol
in the body and reduce the risk of heart attacks. Soybeans, nuts
and cereals are also rich in nutrients like iron, zinc and dietary
protein. Vegetarian people has less chances of becoming obese than
non-vegetarians.
- Green leafy vegetables, carrots, beetroot, turnip and radish are highly abundant in carotenoids and vitamin A. These are important in preserving the health of the eye.
- Vegetables and fruits contain compounds that have been found to contain anti-tumorigenic properties.
- Eleven out of thirteen recognized vitamins
are made by plants. These include beta carotene (vitamin A),
thiamin (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin (vitamin B3),
pantothenic acid, pyridoxine (vitamin B6), biotic, folic acid,
ascorbic acid (vitamin C), Vitamin E and Vitamin K. Vegetarians are
less vulnerable to animal-borne diseases like mad cow disease,
which usually spreads through contaminated beef. This is fatal
disease.Also, there are greater risks of getting infected by
bacteria like salmonella & E coli which are easily transferred
to human body through meat, poultry & eggs.Porks contains a
type of parasite known as trichnella which is detrimental to human
health. It diminishes the threat of a pandemic from bird flu.
- Nowadays, cattle & sheep are usually given growth hormones & steroid injections,
in order to enhance growth & increase their size. These
harmful chemicals are found commonly in meat.Morever,to preserve
natural red color of the meat, nitrate is used, which when consumed
is converted to nitrosamines in our body, which is again
detrimental to our health.
- A vegetarian diet (like grains) contains more fiber, vitamins & complex carbohydrates, loads of vitamins.
These indispensable nutrients are NOT found in meat.Non-Veggies
are more vulnerable to diabetes,Osteoporosis,Kidney Stones and
Gallstones ,Multiple Sclerosis than Veggies. Bone loss is
considerably less in postmenopausal women who were vegetarian than
those who were non-vegetarian.
- Lose Weight: In
addition to preventing all the sorts of ailments,weight loss can
also be why vegetarian eating is good for you.Vegetarians often a
lower BMI(Body Mass Index).This is likely a result of lower fat
intake.If you eat a varied diet,switching to Vegetarianism is
likely to help you easily shed a few pounds.
- Protein Rich : Many
doubt that Veggie food items lack proteins but as a matter of
interest,the protein from tofu(soya bean) is 16% by
weight,gluten(flour) is 70% ,corn is 13%,rice is 8.6%, lentils
& beans is 10-35%, Almonds & nuts is 14-30% and pumpkin
& other seeds is 18-24%.In case you consume Excess protein. The
average American eats 400% of the RDA for protein. This causes
excess nitrogen in the blood that creates a host of long-term
health problems.
- You'll live a lot longer.
Vegetarians live about seven years longer, and vegans (who eat no
animal products) about 15 years longer than meat eaters, according
to a study from Loma Linda University. 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 risks 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'll save your heart.
Cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer in the United
States, 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; it
goes to 4 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.
- You'll reduce your risk of cancer. A
study in The International Journal of Cancer concluded that red
meat is strongly associated with breast cancer. The National Cancer
Institute says that women who eat meat every day are nearly four
times more likely to get breast cancer than those who don't. By
contrast, women who consume at least one serving of vegetables a day
reduce their risk of breast cancer by 20 percent to 30 percent,
according to the Harvard Nurses Health Study. Studies done at the
German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg suggest that this is
because vegetarians' immune systems are more effective in killing
off tumor cells than meat eaters'. Studies have also found a
plant-based diet helps protect against prostate, colon and skin
cancers.Studies by the famous Brigham &Young Hospital in Boston
have shown that women who ate red meat each day were two and half
times more likely to get cancer of the colon than women who ate no
meat or sparingly. A twenty year long study of over 6,500 men
revealed that those who consumed large amount of meat, cheese, eggs and
milk had 3.6 times the incidence of prostate cancer. By the age of
sixty, 40 % of US males have enlarged prostates.
- You'll fit into your old jeans.
On average, vegetarians are slimmer than meat eaters, and when we
diet, we keep the weight off up to seven years longer. That's
because diets that are higher in vegetable proteins are much lower in
fat and calories than the SAD. Vegetarians are also less likely to
fall victim to weight-related disorders like heart disease, stroke
and diabetes.
- You'll 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 and 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.
- Constipation will probably be a thing of the past once you adopt a high fiber vegetarian diet.
- Your bones will last longer.
The average bone loss for a vegetarian woman at age 65 is 18
percent; for non-vegetarian women, it's double that. Researchers
attribute this to the consumption of excess protein--the average
meat-eating American woman eats 144 percent over the recommended daily
allowance; the average man eats 175 percent more.
- You'll 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 (PCBs, DDT) and heavy metals (mercury, arsenic;
lead, cadmium) that cannot be removed through cooking or freezing.
- You may get rid of your back problems."Back
pain appears to begin, not in the back, but in the arteries," says
Neil Barnard, M.D., president of the Physicians Committee for
Responsible Medicine and author of Foods That Fight Pain (Harmony
Books, 1998). "The degeneration of disks, for instance, which leads
to nerves being pinched, starts with the arteries leading to the
back."
FIGHT WORLD HUNGER :
Would you have guessed
that vegetarianism combats world hunger? 756 million tons of grain and
corn are fed to factory farmed animals each year, while 1.4 billion
humans suffer in poverty. And most of that food just goes to waste,
literally! It takes between 6 and 26 calories of food to produce just
one finished calorie of meat. If fed directly to those suffering from
hunger, it would provide 6 to 26 calories extra per calorie of meat that
you don’t consume! In fact, if the Americans alone cut back their
current meat consumption by 10% they could feed the 60 million around
this world who are starving today. There is no shortage of food, just
too few vegetarians.
ECONOMIC REASON:
- It economically more
sustainable and viable to grow fruit and vegetables rather than
having paddocks full of sheep, pigs and cows. It is cheaper to have
a market garden rather than a dairy farm, sheep farm or cattle
ranch.You can put more money in your mutual fund. Replacing meat,
chicken and fish with vegetables and fruits is estimated to cut
food bills by an average of $4,000 a year.
- Health care costs. Being healthier on a vegetarian diet means spending less on health care.
- Food costs. Vegetarian foods tend to cost less than meat based items.
- You'll
help to bring down the national debt. We spend between billions of
rupees annually to treat the heart disease, cancer, obesity, and
food poisoning that are byproducts of a diet heavy on animal
products.
ENVIRONMENT :One of the greatest benefits of
vegetarianism is that it helps to save our planet. Studies by the United
Nations and the Pew Commission have revealed that farmed animals
actually take a greater toll on our climate than transportation,
contributing 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions and excessive amounts
of methane. The toll extends to irrigation water, chemical waste, and
even the use of fossil fuels. There may be no greater reason to become
vegetarian than the future of our world.
- Reducing meat consumption conserves natural resources
Over
thirty years ago, Frances Moore Lappe wrote the groundbreaking Diet for
a Small Planet, which exposed the fact that America's current
meat-based diet is unsustainable. It takes approximately sixteen pounds
of grain, over two thousand gallons of water, and at least a gallon of
gasoline to produce a single pound of meat. In the U.S., over 70 percent
of the grain grown is fed to livestock. Changing livestock farming to
agricultural crops would free up enough arable land, edible grain, and
potable water to effectively end world hunger. It takes 78 calories of
fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of beef protein; 35 calories for 1
calorie of pork; 22 calories for 1 of poultry; but just 1 calorie of
fossil fuel for 1 calorie of soybeans. By eating plant foods instead of
animal foods, I help conserve our non-renewable sources of energy.
- Reducing meat consumption reduces deforestation
The
United States imports roughly 200 million pounds of beef from Central
America every year. To meet the growing demand for meat in the U.S.,
farmers in the Amazon Basin are cutting down a land area equivalent to
seven football fields daily-- for cattle-grazing. For every hamburger
from animals raised in Central America, approximately 55 square feet of
forest have been destroyed. This deforestation for livestock is
happening in the U.S. as well: more than 260 million acres of forest
have been clear-cut for animal agriculture.
- Reducing fish consumption helps the ocean
The
April 2007 issue of National Geographic Magazine presented the alarming
fact that the world’s oceans are being depleted by commercial
overfishing and environmentally damaging fishing practices such as
trawling, which destroys the ocean floor, and long-lining,which kills
numerous untargeted species, euphemistically called "by-catch" in the
industry. Some scientists tout fish farms as the answer to a growing
demand for seafood. However, these farms pollute the oceans, and
farm-raised fish often escape and contaminate wild populations. Besides,
it takes three pounds of wild fish to provide enough food to grow one
pound of farmed salmon or other carnivorous fish. To top it off, there
is a rising demand for fish-meal as feed for livestock., especially in
Asia. It takes 3 to 15 times as much water to produce animal protein as
it does plant protein. As a vegetarian I contribute to water
conservation.
- Reducing meat consumption reduces pollution
"Factory
Farms," animal feeding operations which confine thousands of animals in
facilities, produce 500 million tons of animal waste per year. This
waste leaks into rivers and streams, contaminating water and spreading
disease. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, hog, chicken
and cattle waste has polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and
contaminated groundwater in 17 states. These farms affect air quality as
well: one study found that hog factories in North Carolina pour more
ammonia nitrogen into the air than all other industrial sources
combined.
- Reducing meat consumption helps wildlife
Loss
of habitat due to deforestation and water pollution from livestock
farms are major dangers to wildlife. Plus, it is not uncommon for wild
animals considered "nuisances" or "dangers" to livestock to be
systematically destroyed, despite the fact that these animals belong in
the environment whereas chickens, pigs, and cattle do not. Countless
wolves and big cats have been killed to protect livestock, as well as
less obviously dangerous animals such as prairie dogs (for digging up
cattle-grazing land) and Yellowstone bison (for fear of transmission of
brucellosis to cattle.)
- Efficient use of grains. It
takes up to 16 pounds of soybeans and grains to produce 1 lb. of
beef and 3 to 6 lbs. to produce 1 lb of turkey & egg. By eating
grain foods directly, I make the food supply more efficient &
that contributes to the environment.
- Oyster beds are natural giant filter.
Because of oyster fishing, these natural cleaners are unable to
work efficiently. Apparently, in Chesapeake Bay in the USA, it now
takes a year for these mollusks to clean the waters of the Bay. A
process they would have achieved in a week a hundred years ago.
- You'll help reduce waste and air pollution.
Circle 4 Farms in Milford, Utah, which raises 2.5 million pigs
every year, creates more waste than the entire city of Los Angeles.
And this is just one farm. Each year, the nation's factory farms,
collectively produce 2 billion tons of manure, a substance that's rated
by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as one of the
country's top 10 pollutants. And that's not even counting the
methane gas released by cows, pigs and poultry (which contributes
to the greenhouse 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.
- You'll preserve our fish population.
Because of our voracious appetite for fish, 39 percent of the
oceans' fish species are over-harvested, and the Food &
Agriculture Organization reports that 11 of 15 of the world's major
fishing grounds have become depleted.
An acre of farmland
devoted to soybeans will provide roughly 30 times more protein than an
acre devoted to cattle grazing.The world's cattle - excluding pigs and
chickens - consume quantity of food the equivalent to the caloric needs
of 8.7 billion people. That's nearly double the entire population of
the world today. Who says we can't feed the world without GM food.
SHELF LIFE DIFFERENTIAL.Plant foods last longer than
animal foods. Try this experiment: Leave out a head of lettuce and a
pound of hamburger for 1 day, which will make you sick?
RELIGIOUS REASONS :
Jainism,Hinduism
teaches vegetarianism as moral conduct. Mahayana Buddhism encourages
vegetarianism as beneficial for developing compassion.Other
denominations that advocate a fully vegetarian diet include the
Seventh-day Adventists, the Rastafari movement, the Ananda Marga
movement and the Hare Krsnas.
Having well considered
the origin of flesh-foods, and the cruelty of fettering and slaying
corporeal beings, let man entirely abstain from eating flesh. -
Manusmriti 5.49
"The purchaser of flesh performs
himsa (violence) by his wealth; he who eats flesh does so by enjoying
its taste; the killer does himsa by actually tying and killing the
animal. Thus, there are three forms of killing. He who brings flesh or
sends for it, he who cuts of the limbs of an animal, and he who
purchases, sells, or cooks flesh and eats it-all of these are to be
considered meat-eaters." (Mahabharata, Anu. 115:40)
VEGETARIANS SMELL BETTER?
More strange (but good!) news from the world of science.
Anthropologists in the Czech Republic decided to study the effects of
diet on body odor. More specifically, they wanted to find out if women
prefer the body odor of men fed a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian diet.
Well, you can probably guess what happened. Apparently, women judged
the body odor of men fed a vegetarian diet to be "significantly more
attractive, more pleasant, and less intense". Strange, but true.
PROMOTE ANIMAL WELFARE
We’ve all heard the
horror stories. Animals suffer every day in the meat industry. If you
want to know the gory details, conducting an internet search will
reveal the sad truths. It is important to keep in mind that, as a
society, we consume more meat today than ever before in history.
Animals are made to grow faster and die sooner. The result is terrible
living conditions, horrifying treatment, and farms run like
factories. Going vegetarian withdraws your support from these systems.
FARM TO FRIDGE : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBbYUdvGWk0
(Watch this documentary to see brutality committed on animals in the industry,Disturbing content,viewer discretion is advised )
BODY WASTES.
Food from animals contain their waste, including adrenaline, uric and
lactic acid, etc., Before adding ketchup, the biggest contributors to
the "flavor profile" of a hamburger are the leftover blood and urine.
ADD COLORS.You'll
add color to your plate. Meat, chicken and fish tend to come in boring
shades of brown and beige, but fruits and vegetables come in all
colors of the rainbow. So cooking by color is a good way to ensure you
re eating a variety of naturally occurring substances that boost
immunity and prevent a range of illnesses. Why have boring beef and
chicken cuts every day when you can explore a nourishing world of
color, texture and taste.
MAKE A STRONG POLITICAL STATEMENT.Each
day, 22 million animals are slaughtered to support the American
appetite for meat. "It's a wonderful thing to be able to finish a
delicious meal, knowing that no beings have suffered [to make it],"
says Erik Marcus, author of Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating (McBooks,
1998).
ETHICS :Animals feel pain just as we do. When they
are hung upside down and cut up, they cry. We do too right? They have
feelings to, and they deserve respect just like we deserve respect. I
show gratitude to my Creator(s?) by eating as low on the food chain as
possible. I believe in nonviolence. Slaughter isn't. Animals bred here
for meat are mostly stacked up in stinking tin sheds, minimizing the
area of Land needed. Those sheds do need a patch of empty space
surrounded by barbed wire, so the happy meat-eaters can choose not to
think what their happy meal is made from. Animals too have a complex
nervous system. Imagine your own cheek pierced by a hook that then drags
you with the full weight of your body out of your environment to
suffocate slowly.
TASTY:Vegetarian
food is tastier. Try eating meat without a sauce land see how that
tastes 'naked'. Fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, offer our
taste buds a gourmet delight even without dressings.
You'll provide a great role model for your kids. "If
you set a good example and feed your children good food, chances are
they'll live a longer and healthier life," says Christine Beard, a
certified nutrition educator and author of Become a Vegetarian in 5 Easy
Steps (McBooks Press, 1997). "You're also providing a market for
vegetarian products and making it more likely that they'll be available
for the children."
AVAILABILITY :Going
vegetarian is very easy to do. Vegetarian cooking has never been so
simple. Supermarkets carry packaged convenience foods like tofu hot
dogs, veggie burgers and soy yogurt, milk and cheeses. There's greater
availability of vegetarian options in mall and arena food courts. Many
more restaurants specializing in vegetarian food have opened, and
others have added "veg-friendly" dishes to their menus. Even
traditional fast food chains now offer salads, veggie burritos and
vegetarian pizza.
VEGETARIANISM WAS INTENDED BY GOD(Human Physiology ) : Humans
are more anatomically similar to herbivores, with long intestinal
tracts and blunt teeth,the human intestines are 16-29 feet long and
winds round and round. This is typical of a herbivore (grass eaters).
Carnivores always have short, straight intestines. This means they pass
out the write from the meat before it rots. In humans it remains in the
digestive system too long.
FAMOUS VEGETARIANS:You'll be in good company -
Pythagoras, Socrates, Leonardo de Vinci, Albert Einstein, Benjamin
Franklin, Thomas Edison ,George Bernard Shaw, Madonna, Lamina
Novratilova, Nikola Tesla, Steve Jobs, Tina Turner, John Denver,
Vanessa Williams, Bryan Adams, Paul McCartney and even Pamela
Anderson(:P), to name a few, were or are vegetarians.Some of the famous
Indian Veggies are Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Vidya Balan ,R Madhavan,Lara
Dutta,Mallika Sherawat,Shashi Tharoor, Kareena Kapoor, Amitabh
Bachchan, Shahid Kapoor.
U can find quotes on Vegetarianism by some of the famous personalities at this link:
http://www.betterworld.net/quotes/vegetarian-quotes.htm
"Having
spent twenty-five years of my life as a meat-eater, I was constantly
perplexed by the physical ups and downs that are a natural part of a
high protein meat diet. But my energy level as a vegetarian has been so
consistent that for me a low-energy day is indeed a rarity."Peter Burwash, a formerly top ranked tennis player (USA)
In
May 2009, Ghent, Belgium, was reported to be "the first [city] in the
world to go vegetarian at least once a week" for environmental reasons,
when local authorities decided to implement a "weekly meatless
day".
Who would be the NEXT ??
WOULD YOU STILL BE MUNCHING INTESTINES & LIVERS ???
I work in an office looking at Excel spreadsheets,SQL databases or Java
Codes ,waiting for days to get approval before I can move on with a project,
waiting for an hour to get a reply to an important email all day. After a while
I start to look at the ceiling, maybe pull up CNN and read some of the
knuckleheads that post stuff; otherwise, yeah, it's like I work in a
place where time stands still and I'm stuck going nowhere. People sometimes
think working at technologically advanced workplace is rather less boring but I
sometimes think that civilization is over-rated: I think I'd rather be hunting
mastodons and living in a cave. I have a theory that 1/3 of the people in any
given company can probably be laid off without any negative impact on
productivity. I also think, that might be a big factor is why hiring is
still so slow. I am not really the Martin Luther King of off-business-hours
employment. But people hold jobs outside of normal business hours too. Retail,
food industry, hospital employees, fire fighters, police officers, etc. are all
just pleasant volunteers! They are a bunch of people who work at times
other than 9:00 am to 5:00 pm,even though that does not represent the hours for
the vast majority of people. And working at those odd hours of the day could be
REAL boring as you might have already noticed half of ‘em sleeping during wok
hours[atleast here in my country,which happens to be India].
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