Why should you become a vegetarian? What are the health benifits? How will it help the environment and others? Read here to find out

• An animal based diet is invariably high in saturated fat, animal protein and cholesterol, which will raise the level of cholesterol in the blood-the warning signal for heart disease and stroke. Due to the meat-centered diet of most Americans, these diseases account for nearly 50%of all deaths in the U.S.
• If tomorrow people in the U.S. made a radical change away from their meat-centered diets, 200 million acres could be returned to forest.
• Calorie for calorie, spinach has 14 times the iron of sirloin steak. Iron requires vitamin C for absorption, of which animal products are totally deficent.
• The common cold, as well as allergies to dust, cats and pollen, are more likely to go away when milk is taken out of the diet. No other mammal in nature drinks milk after weaning, nor drinks the milk of other species, as do humans.
• Fiftenn million pounds of antibiotics are used in animal production every year. In 1988, animal drug sales came to $2.5 billion.
• Humans have no sharp pointed front teeth to tear flesh as do carnivores; humans have flat back teeth to grind (plant) food unlike carnivores.
• The positive health benefits a person may think they get from eating fish, can be better achieved through a vegetarian diet. And then, fish lacks carbohydrates, fiber and vitamin C. Fish is high in animal protein, which is hard on the kidneys, and high in fat, which increases the risk for cancer and gall blader disease.
• According to William Castelli, M.D., Director of the Framingham Heart Study, vegetarians outlive other people by about six years.
• The treatment of human disease with antibiotics is showing signs of being hampered by the flagrant overuse of antibiotics injected into the animals people eat. People are becoming immune to medicinal drugs just by eating hamburgers and chicken. It is predicted that we are about to embark on a pre-antibiotic era.
• Number of people worldwide who will die as a result of malnutrition this year:20 million
• Number of people who could be adequately fed using land freed if Americans reduced their intake of meat by 10%:100 million
• How frepuently a child dies as a result of malnutrition:every 2.3 seconds
• Incresed risk of breast cancer for women who eat meat daily compared to less then once a week:3.8 times
• For women who eat eggs daily compared to once a week:2.8 times
• For women who eat butter and cheese 2-4 times a week:3.25 times
• Increased risk of fatal ovarian cancer for women who eat eggs 3 of more times a week vs. less than once a week:3 times
• Increased risk of fatal prostate cancer for men who consume meat, cheese, eggs and milk daily vs. sparingly of not at all:3.6 times
• How frequently a heart attack kills in the U.S.:evey 45 seconds
• Average U.S. man's risk of death from a heart attack:50 percent
• Risk of average man who eats no meat:15 percent
• Risk of average U.S. man who eats no meat, dairy of eggs:4percent
• Amount of water used in production of the average cow:sufficient to float a destroyer
• Gallons of water needed to produce a pound of wheat:25
• Gallons of water needed to produce a pound of Califirnia beef:5,000
• 95-99 percent of toxic chemicals residue in the American diet come from animal sources.
• About 30% of all pork products are contaminated with toxoplasmosis, a disease which is caused by parasites. It can be passed on to the cansumers.
• Diet now followed by the original actor who played Ronald McDonald in Ronald McDonald's child-oriented commercials:Vegetarian