50 REASONS TO Go VEGGIE !!!!

"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 ???