Vegetarianism Is A Healthy Lifestyle That Has A Vast Amount Of Benefits.

It's a Saturday morning and every body in the house is a sleep. You just rolled over in your bed and you see your alarm clock blinking as if the power has gone out during the night. Without hesitation you jump out of bed and run over to check the clock on you cell phone and the time reads 4:45 am. Immediately, you start yelling to wake everybody up saying, "Where late, every body get up, where late!" Your spouse jumps out of bed and runs down the hall to wake the kids up. With in 15 minutes every body is running out the door and hopes into the car, which then races down the street. In record time you pull up to the grocery store and before the vehicle comes to a complete stop the kids and you spouse jump out of the car and start running. The time now is 5:20 and you are approximately fifteen hundred people back from the front of the line, which stop at the front door of the grocery store.

Now imagine the year is 2076, and the reason you are at the grocery store a hour and forty minutes before it opens is because of the worldwide food shortage. Fitting to the vast population that did not convert to vegetarianism we are seeing decreases in our health, which caused a chain reaction that has affected our local and nationwide economics in a negative way. Due to the population growth and being unable to produce enough food for everybody this has resulted in to a worldwide shortage of food.

We are back in the year 2006, after seeing a glimpse of our future as humans. How can we prevent the outcome we have seen from becoming our true future? If the vast population converts to vegetarianism we will see increase in our health, which causes a chain reaction that will affect our local and nationwide economics in a positive way. To truly prevent this outcome we must look at our past and current eating, which will then let us know what needs to be done.

"In the western tradition, Genesis suggests that the first diet of humans beings was vegetarian, and permission to eat meat was given only after the flood. After that, vegetarianism gains little support from either the Jewish or Christian scriptures, and from Islam (Singer, P)." There are records that have been uncovered dating back to 1000 BC showing the Hindu Upanishads beliefs of reincarnation is the reason of their opposition to eating meat.

"In the 1960s, Americans ate less than 160 pounds of meat per person per year. By 2002, Meat consumption had burgeoned 37% to 220 pounds per year- that's more than half a pound of meat per person per day, every day (Upton, J)." Studies show vegetarians have much lower rates of high blood pressure, heart disease, strokes, type 2 Diabetes and some cancers than meat eaters. By decreasing the amount of meat eaten and adding more whole grains will help keep meat eaters weight under control and decreasing the odds of diseases.

In the 70's the vegetarianism argument has gained strength for three major reasons: health, ecology, and concern for animals. Peter singer said, "the first of these grounds rest on a scientific, rather than philosophical." The advantages to eating less meat can affect our health and our environment. To produce one ton of beef it takes seven tons of grains, four tons to produce a ton of pork, and two tons to produce a ton of chicken (Upton, J., Lawrence). We also cannot for get that livestock's waste pollutes our air and water.

How can livestock not be environmentally friendly? Every head of beef produces over 300 liters of methane (a greenhouse gas) every day. Central America has removed entire forests to provide land for grazing cattle. A big percentage of the grazing cattle in the old forests end up as second grade hamburger meat used at your local fast food restaurant.

Resent reports from Greenpeace show that the dairy industry of California uses the same amount of water as of a large city populated at 22 million people. The grain and water that is used to feed the cattle could be used to feed people nation and worldwide helping to reduce waste. In the United States livestock animals are fed 70% of the domestic grain harvest. On a global scale, around 38% of the world's grain is fed to the livestock (Vegetarian Times, 1993, p.58). Think how much grain could be salvaged if everyone reduced his or her meat consumption to once a week? Just to give a clue of how much grain could be saved; from one eight-ounce steak you could fill forty bowls of grain.

It takes 17 kilos of corn, beans, grain, etc. to produce one kilo of usable beef, as illustrated in the graph. It is a shame that every day we have children starving to death in this world. As the population of human's continues to grow, so does the need for food. If the would continues their dependence on meat rather than changing their lifestyle to adapt to a healthier and economical diet structure such as vegetarianism, we will see the number of starving children continue to increase like the world's population's health.

Studies shows that people on a vegetarian diet are 4 to 20% lighter than the average meat eater diet. Vegetarians are usually healthier due to the consumption of foods that are high in nutrients that the body needs. Meat eaters say that the best protein is found in meat products, that is not true. A healthier source of protein is found in pasta, lentils, rice, potatoes, soy beans, chick peas, nuts, seeds and grains. By eating a variety of foods each day, a vegetarian should meet their individual requirements. Additional nutrients for athletes or active people can be found in health supplemental vitamins.

When the meat in our diets increase so does the reports of cancer. Scientific studies show that too much consumption of read meats will increase the odds and/or most likely cause cancer. Vegetarians also have lower risk of heart diseases than their meat eater counterpart. In the 1960's Denis Burkitt a British surgeon spent time in Uganda and noticed that the black population there was free from colon cancer. Burkitt noted that the reason for the population to be free from colon cancer is due to their high-fiber content and whole grain diets.

Wayne Martin said, "It was of great interest to me then when in November of 2005, I heard a news report on a study of over 100,000 patients that showed that adding fiber to the diet will not prevent colon cancer. The freedom from colon cancer among the Ugandan blacks most likely was caused by the absence of read meat in their diet." "Still, when you cut out meat you need to be careful to replace the nutrients it provided in your diet, says Dawn Jackson Blatner, R.D., a dietitian at Northwestern Memorial Hospital Wellness Institute in Chicago (Stamos, J)."

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