Convince me why I should become vegetarian.?!
Convince me why I should become vegetarian.?
My friend has been vegetarian for over a year and I have seen major changes in her skin and weight. So I need a little push so I can start living the vegetarian way.
Answers:
Being a vegetarian is the second best thing you can do. The best is becoming a vegan. Most people however, need to do this gradually. Try new veg foods, don't get put off if you don't like something, just try something else. Gradually replacing meat, dairy, etc. with veg alternatives. Being a veg*n (vegetarian or vegan) does not mean eating "rabbit food". Fruit, vegies, sausages, burgers, lasagne, spaghetti bolognaise, cakes, biscuits (cookies), ice-cream, and heaps more. If someone thinks veg food is tasteless, then whoever is preparing their food needs some new cookbooks. If you do it right, you'll wonder how you ever ate dead bodies, baby cow food, chicken menstruation and bee regurgitation. ;-)
I disagree that you needing convincing means you shouldn't do it. Smokers, alcoholics, drug addicts, etc. all need help, although, yes, they do need to make the decision for themselves. Meat is just another addiction. Though you'll find that it's not nearly as hard to give up as those other things, IF you do it right.
Being a vegetarian, you'll save about 95 lives a year (that's about the average # killed by your av. meat eater), improve your health (a healthy, well-balanced veg diet is probably the single best thing that you can do for you health), improve the environment.
Check out:
http://vegcooking.com/
http://fatfreevegan.com/
Good luck. :-)
There is no reason to. As omivores, there are things in meat that are essential to the health of our bodies. However, most people eat more meat than what they need. To maintain good health, eat 1 or 2 servings of meat per day, and several servings of fruits, vegetables, and breads. Vegetarian is very unhealthy.
just casue you vegetation dont mean you gon lose weight
you should not.
If you need convincing, than it's not for you. This is a personal choice, one you should make on your own, for your own reasons. Not because someone else tells you why they would.
You shouldn't need convincing...but just in case: Every time you go to eat meat think of it as a dead animal that had a perfectly wonderful life until some pr~ick butchered it so you could cook it up and sit down and eat it's corpse;)
I don't understand why you want to (and if you do, why you need the group to "push you")
Eat a well balanced diet of minimally processed foods (skip the white bread, white rice etc), drink plenty of water and exercise.
my advice to you - DON"T BECOME A VEGETARIAN.
Why would you want to? If we were made to eat nothing but greens, we would have flat teeth like cows do. The reason why we have the teeth that we do is for a varied diet. Everything in moderation, nothing in excess!
Heres a free starter kit
go to this link
Our body designed for vegetarian food. e.g. goat, cow, buffaloes, elephant etc.
Perhaps if you need convincing you aren't really ready to be a vegetarian. I have a friend who is vegetarian and she is very unhealthy and her skin is awful!
If you are keen to give it a go, why not go to the book-store and buy some new cook books - there are some really lovely vegetarian recipe books out and can give you some great options for meals. Why not just start with only keeping fish as your meat you eat and progress with time to complete vegetarianism.
I am not a vegetarian, but that is my choice. Make sure you decide this for yourself and your own conscious and well-being - not what stranges on yahoo answers think...! Happy eating.
well it sounds like you're not doing this because of morals but yes it is a very nutritious way of living there are many vitamins and minerals that help you function that are not included in beef not to mention that meet is full of by products hormones antibiotics and drugs (yes I'm serious, google it)
may i suggest going organic too i have a cousin that lost 30 lbs eating only organic foods. but i do suggest you eat a little fish once and a while for essential omega 3's and protein. Sushi is always good and Japanese food like kelp and Norri a sea vegetable is one of the most beneficial foods in the world. hey i might even go veg it sounds so good.
that's not something you can ask someone else. if you need convincing or reasons, and aren't willing to do it yourself, then obviously you are wanting to do it for the wrong or no reason.
you need to ask yourself. if you are going to invest your time in changing your entire eating regimine, and are not willing to invest your time in doing your own research, you won't last.
besides, if you have a good friend, why not ask them? why ask a bunch of strangers?
if you need a push, push yourself. it's your body, your life, your food. otherwise what are you doing for? do you want to "fit in with the cool crowd" or something?
take a walk and go thing about what your priorities in this lifestyle change you "think" you want to make.
go with the meat!!!
Go to a slaughterhouse.
Read a book about slaughterhouses.
See a movie, if your too lazy to do either.
Read 'Fast Food Nation'.
I think that vegetarianism is a very healthy diet. For 1 reason, you don't consume as much fat and oils that belong to other living things.It is scientifically proven that most vegetarians live healthier lifestyles than non-vegetarians I also believe that it is wrong to eat meat for 1 basic fact that you are murdering. As bad as that sounds, everyone that eats meat is a murderer, and i don't mean that disrespectfully at all. As funny as it sound, when a butcher kills a cow or pig...you have to realize that he/she is killing another animal's sister, brother, mother, father, cousin, aunt, etc...Plus I know you must have heard this many times...but how would you feel if someone was killing you that brutally so they can keep their tummies full? Makes you think doesn't it?
I have been a vegetarian all my life...but some of my friends are thinking of being a veg too so this is what i tell them...if ever you feel like eating meat..then carry a photo or sticker from PETA...that says fish are friends not food or something...if you want them...check out PETA2.com and order them. Just looking at a sticker or an animal in pain will drive away your craving! I know that it is a big step to take...but now a days there is "fake meat". It is actually tofu made by the Bhuddist monks of Nepal (i think). It tastes just like meat and you can eat it with a guilt-free conscience. If you want to purchase that..then go on PETA2.com and you can order the food. Or for the week you can ask your friends to be vegetarians with you...that way you can have fun and it won't be too hard.
Please don't be vegetarian. Most vegetarians are just extremely annoying and preachy. If you order a steak at a restaurant, they'll reprimand you for that decision up front, and things like that. Look, humans are omnivore for a reason, and we need meat AND plants to maintain a more humanlike body. You need to keep high on vitamins with plants, and keep high on iron and protein from meat. Vegetarians won't admit it, but what they're doing is NOT okay for their bodies. A lot of them lie and say vegetarians live longer, but vegetarianism has only been popular for a short time so we don't know that, do we?
Watch the meet your meat video on PETA or goveg.com
That's all it took for me
http://www.goveg.com/factoryfarming.asp...
watch the movie on that page, and here are some reasons i have come up with for hwy you should be a vegetarian.
1. its cruel to animals
2. it introduces you to a whole new world, like before i became a vegetarian, i never tried a veggie burger, and now i love them
3. vegetarians are healthy. for example, dr.atkins died of a heart attack, and he ate a lot of meat.
4. meat has so many hormones and added chemicals, its bad for you.
5. would you eat your pet dog?
6. vegetarians are awesome. it feels good to be part of somthing that other people think is dumb, and you can come up with simple reasons why its not. it has helped me with my arguing skills [= i havent lost an argument since i became a vegetarian
Environment
1.Half of all the water consumed in the US is used by animal agriculture
2.For every 1 acre of land cleared for urban development,7 are cleared to grow feed for livestock or grazing land for livestock
3.The livestock population in the US create 140 times the excrement as the human population of the US
4.Food for a vegan for 1 year can be produced on only 1/6 of an acre of land, while it takes 3 1/4 acres of land to produce food for a meat-eater for one year.
Health
1.“It is the position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada that appropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.”
“Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence. Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits, including lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein as well as higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants such as vitamins C and E and phytochemicals. Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than nonvegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; vegetarians also show lower blood cholesterol levels; lower blood pressure; and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer.“
World Hunger
1.Out of the 40 poorest countries,we buy grain from 38 of them to feed to animals so we can have meat
2.We feed more than 70 percent of the grains and cereals we grow to farmed animals, and almost all of those calories go into simply keeping the animals alive, not making them grow.
3.The world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people―more than the entire human population on Earth.
4.For every 16 pounds of food you put into livestock,you only get one pound back of edible flesh
Worker's Rights
1.The rate of repetitive stress injury for slaughterhouse employees is 35 times higher than it is for those with other manufacturing jobs.
2.The farmed-animal industry has also been condemned for exploiting children―kids in their early teens have even died while working in animal-processing plants, and Multinational Monitor magazine called Tyson Foods one of the world’s “Ten Worst Corporations” because it hires people in the U.S. who are too young to work legally.
3.Kids have even been killed while working in slaughterhouses in the United States―a 15-year-old died, and a 14-year-old was seriously hurt in separate incidents at Tyson’s animal-processing plants. “One teenager died and another suffered serious injuries because this company ignored the law,” the U.S. Labor Department noted. “It was illegal for either one of them to be employed in the kind of work Tyson’s hired them to do.”
4.Immigrant workers are easy prey for the meat industry. After they are brought to the U.S., they’re often so desperate to make money to send to their families back home that they’ll take any job without complaint. If they’re being treated unfairly, they don’t have any choice but to continue working for the farmed-animal industry, and if they become injured and can no longer work, they are often stuck in the U.S. with no job and no money to buy a bus ticket home.
US Beef Isn't Safe(I believe it isn't)
1.France, which has only a fraction of the U.S. cattle population, tests more cattle in a single week then the U.S. has tested in a decade
2.According to Europe's latest annual report, Europe is testing cattle at a rate of almost two thousand times that of the United States
3.Almost all fattening beef cattle, all dairy calves and all adult dairy cows raised conventionally are fed meat and bone meal in the United States
4.Under the 1997 feed regulations, the FDA specifically allowed the feeding of chicken litter to cattle to continue, even if the chickens had just been fed meat and bone meal made from cattle remains
5.The U.S. also is presently testing only 1 out of every 18,000 cows slaughtered
6.In fact, the USDA, which now tests only 1 percent of all slaughtered cows
7.The USDA is run by several lobbyists,Alisa Harrison,who is now spokesperson of the USDA,was the spokesperson for the National Cattleman’s Beef Association for 15 years,how can an industry meant to protect you be run by the industry they are supposed to protect you from?
Watch(not a peta video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghxknys7r...
Source(s)
See the issues involved with eating meat
http://goveg.com/theissues.asp
I'll tell you why. I have been a vegan since January 1, 2006. I can tell you from exhaustive research and my own experience that there is nothing in meat or animal products that cannot be obtained from a vegan diet.
For me that was what did it. The fact that I can live, happy and healthy, without eating animal products means that any consumption of them is unnecessarily cruel. I'm not missing out on anything. I eat tons of wonderful food. I am healthier than i have ever been in my life.
Meat is such an obvious form of cruelty, but also consider the abuse and misery suffered by the animals that are forced to make your milk, cheese and eggs. There is actually just as much, if not more, suffering in dairy products as there is in meat. Dairy animals meet the same fate as meat animals, they just suffer much more first.
Animals are sentient creatures with an interest in being alive. That is my sole criteria. It is very easy to put an end to animal suffering. Get rid of it completely. Abolish animal use and abuse in your own life by going completely vegan.
If you need to be CONVINCED you are not ready.
if you want to become a vegitarian because of your weight than dont do it. eating meat is a natural process for humans, and all vegetarianism is is really just like a protest, becuase of all the bad things humans do to animals and the environment. most vegitarians become vegitarians because of the way animals are treated, so unless your joining the cause, forget about it, and eat meat.
1 There are many subsidies to the meat industry, but the biggest break, by far, comes in the fact that the Animal Welfare Act does not apply to food animals. Consequently, what once at best might have been described as animal husbandry is now nothing more than factory production. With virtually no laws to protect them, cruelty and abuse of farm animals are institutional. If farmers were forced by law to give their animals spacious environments, clean surroundings, fresh air and sunlight--if it weren't legal to simply administer drugs to animals who would otherwise die from the conditions they live in--cheap fast food could never exist. Ultimately, low prices have kept demand high and allowed the industry to grow. Virtually all of the now over 8 billion animals slaughtered for food in the United States every year are the product of a swift-moving assembly-line system, incorporating dangerous, unprecedented and unsustainable methods of efficiency. Farming in the United States has been allowed over the last generation to grow into a grim corporate monstrosity, the scale of which is hard to comprehend or even to believe.
2 When the Clean Water Act went into effect in 1972, it was decided that agriculture, specifically, should be exempt. According to the EPA, of the 60 percent of rivers and streams considered "impaired," agricultural runoff is identified as the primary pollution source. Incredibly, five tons of solid manure--not including dead animals, used bedding and residual organic material--is produced annually for every U.S. citizen (see #22).
3 After reviewing 4,500 scientific studies and papers on the relationship between cancer and lifestyle, a team of 15 scientists sponsored by two leading cancer research institutions advised that those interested in reducing their risk of many types of cancer consume a diet that is mostly fruits, vegetables, cereals and legumes. They declared that up to 40 percent of cancers are preventable, with diet, physical activity and body weight appearing to have a measurable bearing on risk. In 1996 the American Cancer Society released similar guidelines, including the recommendation that red meat be excluded entirely from the diet.
4 More than 100 species of marine fish were listed by the World Conservation Union as threatened or endangered in 1996. Once-common species such as cod and halibut are being driven to commercial extinction. Fishers, using modern techniques such as sonar, drift nets, bottom-fishing super trawlers, longlines and floating refrigerated fish-packing factories are, ultimately, not only putting themselves out of business but rapidly destroying ocean ecosystems. The seemingly endless frontier that once was the ocean no longer exists. Early in 1998, 1,600 scientists from around the world declared that the oceans were in peril. They warned that swift action was imperative to prevent irreversible environmental degradation (see #92).
5 The Humane Slaughter Act (HSA) requires that animals be rendered unconscious with one swift application of a stunning device before slaughter. In today's slaughterhouse this requirement is often not adhered to. For poultry birds (not legally recognized as "animals"), it is never followed. In the case of large mammals, the HSA, for all intents and purposes, is not enforced by the USDA, so the law serves in no other way than to make people think that food animals are protected from cruelty. Conveyor lines are pushed to breakneck speeds, frequently causing cattle, pigs, horses and sheep to be shackled and throat-slit without first being stunned. Animals often are skinned, boiled and butchered alive.
6 The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a group of 4,500 medical doctors, revealed in 1995 that annual health-care costs directly resulting from the nation's meat-centered diet are between $23.6 billion and $61.4 billion--comparable to costs associated with cigarette smoking.
7 It might be easy on your conscience to consume the flesh of a creature perceived to be stupid, dirty and brutish. It may be surprising to some, however, that pigs are highly intelligent. Ask Professor Stanley Curtis of Pennsylvania State University. He taught several pigs to understand complex relationships between actions and objects in order to play video games. Curtis, along with his colleagues, found pigs to be focused, creative and innovative, equal in intelligence to chimps.
8 The senseless waste of the world's growing meat-centered diet is illustrated by the following hypothetical statement: "If everyone adopted a vegetarian diet and no food were wasted, current [food] production would theoretically feed 10 billion people, more than the projected population for the year 2050," according to the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington, D.C.-based research group. Even today, 840 million people are malnourished and nearly 50,000 die of starvation every day.
9 In the United States, farm animals receive 30 times the antibiotics that people do--not so much to treat infection, but to make the animals grow faster on less feed. Though perfectly legal, the practice is, in effect, promoting the selection of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Some of these bacteria can cause human diseases that physicians are finding difficult to treat. The practice is adding to the general worldwide crisis of drug-resistant disease. Each year, 60,000 Americans die because their medications were ineffective in combating bacterial strains.
10 Every year, on average, each American becomes sick and 9,000 people die from something they ate. That something was probably of animal origin. The government's strategy in controlling dangerous bacteria is to inspect meat during processing--something it isn't doing very well lately (see #24). Except in rare instances, neither the USDA nor the FDA has any regulatory powers on farms where pathogens originate. With the exception of E. coli O157:H7, dangerous bacteria are legally considered "inherent" to raw meat. It's up to consumers to neutralize pathogens with cooking. Two of the "legal" ones--campylobacter and salmonella--account for 80 percent of illnesses and 75 percent of deaths from meat and poultry. One hamburger can contain the meat of 100 different cows from four different countries. One infected animal can contaminate 16 tons of beef.
11 The best way to show a link between disease and diet is to look at living populations that eat differently from one another. Any Western doctor who practices in areas of the world where the people subsist primarily on plant foods will quickly notice that his patients are not suffering from the same health problems and deadly diseases that plague the West--diseases such as heart disease, gallstones, appendicitis, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, colorectal cancer, diverticulosis and hiatal hernias.
12 Jim Mason and Peter Singer write in their book Animal Factories, "Instead of hired hands, the factory farmer employs pumps, fans, switches, slatted or wire floors, and automatic feeding and watering hardware." As with any other capital-intensive system, managers will be concerned with the "cost of input and volume of output. ...The difference is that in animal factories the product is a living creature."
13 Eating a plant-based diet guards against disease, first in an active way, with complex carbohydrates, phytochemicals, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and fiber; then by default: The more plant foods you eat the less room you have for the animal foods that clog arteries with cholesterol, strain kidneys with excess protein and burden the heart with saturated fat. The American Dietetic Association acknowledges a relationship between a vegetarian diet and reduced risk of coronary-artery disease, hypertension, diabetes, obesity and certain types of cancer.
14 Meat packing is the most dangerous occupation in the nation. Workers may be kicked or bitten by struggling animals who have not been properly stunned. They may be crushed by animals falling off the line. Poultry workers typically make a single movement up to 20,000 times a day and suffer repetitive stress disorders at 16 times the national average. Turnover at plants can be as high as 100 percent per year.
15 An inspection system based on statistical sampling and microbial testing--Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP)--was officially instituted in slaughterhouses in January 1998. Only one in 300 beef carcasses and one in 20,000 chickens will be sampled. As much as 25 percent of broiler chicken and 45 percent of ground chicken is allowed to test positive for salmonella.
http://abafna.googlepages.com/vegetarian...