WHY BE VEGETARIAN ?
Anyone who cares about their health, mental peace or finances are recommended to read the following. This is dedicated to the 800 million starving people in the world today.
HEALTH
Is the human body better suited to a vegetarian diet or one that includes meat ? Two areas need to be considered - the anatomical structure of the human body, and the physical effects of meat comsumption.
Teeth and Hands
Human teeth are designed for grinding and chewing vegetable matter, we lack the sharp front teeth of carnivores. Our hands are more suited to harvesting fruits and vegetables rather than the claws and lock-jaw of carnivores designed to kill prey.
Digesting Meat
The digestive tract of a carnivore is 3 times the length of its body and smooth allowing rapid elimination of poisonous waste brought about by putrefaction of the flesh. Humans digestive tract is 12 times the length of the body and is pocketed to extract the most from a vegetarian diet. Once in the stomach, meat requires digestive juices high in hydrochloric acid. The stomachs of humans and herbivores produce less than one-twentieth the strength found in carnivores. Anatomically, humans are not designed to eat flesh.
Physical Effects of Meat Eating
The result of putting meat into are system leads to many problems. The kidney, which extracts waste from the blood, is overworked which can lead to kidney disease and failure as one grows older.Heart disease becomes manifest with the inability to deal with excess animal fats in the body. With meat being very high in cholesterol, it has been stated 90% of deaths from heart disease could have been prevented by following a vegetarian diet ( Journal, American Medical Association ). Over time fatty deposits accumulate on the inner walls of the arteries, this constricts the flow of blood to the heart, greatly increasing the risk of heart attacks, strokes and blood clots.Cancer ( specifically of the colon - the high fat, low fibre content of meat gives digestion a slow transit time allowing the toxins to do their damage ), arthritis, obesity, diet-related diabetes, constipation, gallstones, high blood pressure, food poisoning and many other ailments have a far greater incidence in meat eaters.
Dangerous Chemicals and Diseases in Meat
In Poisons in Your Body, corporate-owned animal factories were examined. "The animals are kept alive and fattened by the continuous administration of tranquillisers, hormones, antibiotics, and 2,700 other drugs."Animals reared for slaughter in more natural surroundings are susceptible to the chemicals, pesticides and antibiotics sprayed on food. The incidence of pollution becomes more concentrated up the food chain, the effect of bio-amplication.Meat often carries diseases from the animals themselves. Cramped conditions will incur a higher risk of disease, though contamination of B.S.E and other diseases can occur in free range conditions also.
Nutrition Without Meat
A vegetarian diet is one that is balanced to the needs of humans. A point of concern for many meat eaters is protein. The eight essential amino acids, the building blocks of protein, are plentiful in non-flesh foods. The gorilla is vegetarian but hardly a weakling. Carl Lewis, renowned as the greatest athlete of all time, has survived without eating flesh. His health has been superb, has yours ?
THE COST OF MEAT
From a financial point of view meat production and consumption is very expensive and wasteful. By feeding legumes and grains to animals for meat, 90% of the protein, 96% of the energy value, all the fibre and all the carbohydrate is lost. This waste is reflected in the price of meat. For the price of two lamb chops, you can buy the complete vegetarian dinner of soup, salad, main course and dessert for one person. However, by far the greatest cost of meat is the hidden costs.
Solving the Hunger Problem
There are around 800 million hungry people in the world today, every two seconds a child dies from malnutrition. In developing countries over 60 million people die every year from starvation and hunger-related disease.
These people are far from the luxuries of the developed world, we see them on television when there is another famine, and we may send money to an appeal trying to help them.
It is not the fault of these people that they are hungry. The developed world currently produces an excess requirement of food for the world as the food mountains of Europe and the U.S.A indicate. It is the meat consumption and demand of these nations which is responsible for the hunger of so many.
Food produced in poorer countries is systematically being fed to animals so that meat can be sold to the more prosperous nations, giving money to a few whilst leaving thousands to go hungry. The cost of meat production can be looked at in these terms: Five hectares of land is needed to grow food for 1 person eating a meat based diet. If the land was used for maize it would feed 5 people. If the land was used for wheat it would feed 12 people, if a soya bean crop was grown it would feed 30 people. When so many people go hungry, how can wasteful meat production and consumption be accepted ?
Environmental Damage
An area of the world’s rain forest greater than the size of England is cut down every year, largely to create grazing for food animals. The eco-system of the planet is affected by this deforestation resulting in global warming, soil problems, and the loss of natural habitat. We should and need to respect the Earth more than this. The runoff of heavily contaminated sewage from slaughterhouses has led to problems of pollution in many rivers and streams. Added to this pollution is the depletion of our water levels through the wasteful process of meat production. In Population, Resources and Environment, Ehrlich found to grow one pound of wheat it took 60 pounds of water, whereas production of one pound of meat took between 2,500 and 6,000 pounds of water.
Social Conflict
The great areas of land needed for meat production has often been a source of social conflict. The hunger of many will give rise to such conflict, as productive land becomes scarce when used for inefficient meat production. Soon a country finds it has no more land to produce food for its population, a situation which will often lead to war and suffering as other countries are fought for food or there is internal conflict.
Other Costs
Due to the expensive nature of meat production, it survival has relied on government subsidy. This is a further unnecessary waste of resources.
ETHICS
Anyone who has been inside of a slaughterhouse would be aware of the cruelty inflicted upon animals by humans. Hundreds of thousands of animals are killed every week in scenes reminiscent of hell. Modern supermarkets and food outlets try to separate these images from their animal products. An old television commercial saw a clown, Ronald McDonald tell children hamburgers grow in "hamburger patches".
To become aware of the ethical reasons for vegetarianism is vital if one wishes to achieve a peaceful mind. There follows a collection of quotes from famous vegetarians specific to ethical considerations:
"Oh, my fellow men, do not defile your bodies with sinful foods. The earth affords a lavish supply of riches, of innocent foods, and offers you banquets that involve no bloodshed or slaughter; only beasts satisfy their hunger with flesh". - Pythagoras
"He who does not value life does not deserve it."- Leonardo da Vinci
"We pray on Sundays that we may have light To guide our footsteps on the path we tread; We are sick of war, we don’t want to fight, And yet we gorge ourselves upon the dead."- George Bernard Shaw
"I hold flesh-food to be unsuited to our species. We err in copying the lower animal world if we are superior to it."
"I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants."- Ghandi
Non-violence and Karma; the Ethical Basis for Vegetarianism
The doctrine of Ahimsa, which means non-violence, is an important juncture in Yoga philosophy, Hinduism and Buddhism. The Christian religion has the commandment "Thou shalt not kill." Although many Christians are breaking this by eating flesh.
The psychological basis for non-violence is sound. To understand it requires a knowledge of karma, the law of cause and effect. In the world of matter it is understood that "for every action there will be an equal and opposite reaction". In a subtle but equally powerful way this law is also true in the realm of consciousness. We create our future by our present actions, and therefore "reap what we sow". Specifically, the law of karma insures that those who cause violence and suffering to other living beings must themselves experience equivalent violence and suffering - immediately or in the future.
This fact causes unnecessary suffering on the individual and group level. Individuals involved in either giving permission to kill animals, killing animals or helping to kill them, selling or purchasing meat, cooking or eating flesh will be subject to a karmic reaction. This may manifest as negative personality traits such as hostility, cruelty, depression, arrogance, anxiety, or take the form of physical suffering. On a group level, does the amount of hostility, wars and bloodshed correspond to the violence inflicted upon animals ? To someone who understands the law of karma this is certain. Albert Einstein said, "The vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind."
Please consider the above reasons carefully. Much depends upon your choice.