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WHY GO VEGETARIAN OR VEGAN?
There are many reasons to switch from a meat centred diet to a vegetarian or vegan diet. Some people have even come up with elaborate scientific arguments citing such things as the shape of human teeth and what our ancestors ate "in the state of nature" millions of years ago to prove their point. There are many books on these fascinating topics which can be found in your local library or ordered through your local book shop. However, it is not within the scope of this page to plunge into such arguments. This page is to be used as just a starting point for those who are thinking about becoming vegetarian or vegan.
There are, at a basic level, three positive reasons to change one's diet from one that is centred around meat to that of a vegetarian or vegan nature. These three reasons are:
- FOR THE ANIMALS
- FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
- FOR YOUR HEALTH
1. FOR THE ANIMALS
The animals which inhabit this planet along with us humans are thinking, feeling, social beings - just like us. When an animal such as a pig or cow is raised on a farm, they are often kept in appalling conditions when they are alive. Most of these animals can't even turn around, flap their wings or groom themselves. Their only breath of fresh air comes when they are loaded onto a truck (where they are given no food or water) and driven off to the slaughterhouse. When it is time for the animal to be killed, they are usually strung up by their legs and their throats are slit - all while they are still fully concious. It seems that such a practice is un-necessarily cruel - particualary when there are workable alternatives to treating animals in this way.
2. FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
The amount of forest that is cleared each year for animal farming is enormous. Slowly but surely, the clearing of forests for farm land is contributing to the global environmental crisis that the world is currently facing. The clearing of forest also contributes greatly to the environmental phenomenon of desertisation (for example: the Sahara desert in Africa is enlarging at an alarming rate due to the clearing of the North African jungle for purposes such as animal farming). Furthermore, the amount of water that is required to raise animals on farms equates to more than half the water usage of every country in the world that significantly takes part in the practice of animal farming (eg: Australia and the United States). These practices are slowly but surely poisoning the planet and are contributing the the seemingly gloomy future of the environment. To learn more, click HERE to read a great article by Christine Hutton who uses predominately Australian sources in her investigation into how being vegetarian and vegan benefits the environment.
3. FOR YOUR HEALTH
*Note: This third reason summary is found on PETA's site: www.goveg.com
The only two researchers in human history who have successfully reversed heart disease, by far America's biggest killer, have included an exclusively vegetarian diet as a part of their programs. On the Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn programs, patients become "heart attack proof" (to quote Dr. Esselstyn, in the August 1999 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology) by getting their cholesterol levels to below 150 (the average vegan cholesterol level is 128), the level below which no one has ever been documented as having died from a heart attack. And people who consume animal products are also 40 percent more susceptible to cancer, and at increased risk for many other illnesses, including stroke, obesity, appendicitis, osteoporosis, arthritis, diabetes, and food poisoning. Additionally, meat contains accumulations of pesticides and other chemicals up to 14 times more concentrated than those in plant foods.
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MEETING TIMES
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