Lifestyle Blog

How to Become a Vegetarian

If you are thinking of becoming a vegetarian you may be debating if it is for health reasons or because you do not like the thought of animals dying to be used as food. Although people considering this will ask what difference will one person make? However, if enough individuals do stop, it becomes statistically more important to the health of animals on this planet. A diet made up largely of meat causes heart problems which are the most common causes of death in the United States and other meat consuming countries.

Many of today’s heart conditions would not be so commonplace if people did not eat so much food with high levels of cholesterol, such as dairy products and eggs. Statistics for heart attacks clearly indicate a dramatic rise in the probability of a heart attack for someone who eats meat compared to a person who is a vegetarian; in fact they are four times as likely. Those individuals that have gone one step further an become vegans have around a ten percent chance of a heart attack as opposed to people on regular diets. But these are not the only health benefits of choosing to be a vegetarian.

For instance, you won’t be exposed to nearly as many preservatives, which are common in meat and are linked to cancer. Animal feed also contains hormones to make them put weight on faster so vegetarians are not usually exposed to these chemicals which most people consume everyday. Some digestive conditions are claimed to be caused by a reaction to lactose which is avoided if you are a non-meat eater. On a more ethical note, you will be surprised how much less suffering in animals you will be responsible for by becoming a vegetarian.

The organization Vegan Out-Reach claims that the number of animals killed to feed the average American citizen during their life is in excess of two thousand seven hundred. If you quit eating meat now, you could literally prevent the suffering and death of hundreds of animals over the course of a couple decades. If you were also to give up dairy products and eggs, many battery hens and cows would not need to be used to feed you. The arguments are very convincing and difficult to dismiss; it is definitely better to become a vegetarian. An improvement in your overall health with less chance of cancer or a heart condition and the reduction of animal deaths provide a compelling argument.