Practices... - Vegetarianism - Benefits

Vegetarian diets are significantly more healthy than the typical North American diet that is low in raw fruits and vegetables and rich in commercially processed foods. The low fat, high fibre vegetarian diet promotes healthy overall body function and acts as a dietary preventative against a variety of ailments and disease. As vegetarian foods are free of the antibiotics and growth hormones used in cattle and poultry production, the strain on the immune and lymphatic systems is significantly reduced and your body can focus its energy on healing other areas requiring attention.

Vegetarianism is a healthy lifestyle choice and, as a result, vegetarians are typically more conscious of the food they eat. Meals tend to be less commercially processed and additives, preservatives and chemicals are replaced with organic, natural, raw foods. This trend is not universal, however, but tends to be the norm.

Aside from the multiple benefits realized by humans who adopt a vegetarian diet, our planet Earth also benefits greatly from this lifestyle decision. The raising of animals for slaughter is an energy-intensive, highly inefficient production system. Manure-containing agricultural runoff pollutes waterways and underground reservoirs. Intensive farming produces large quantities of methane and other nuisance gasses. And 90% of a plant's available energy is lost when converted into animal flesh. For every ten pounds of plants consumed by one cow, only one pound is stored as muscle, with the rest lost through heat, energy expenditure, and waste. Imagine the number of people that could be fed if more people switched to a vegetarian diet.

Intensive farming methods are also ethically unjust. The large majority of cattle (and particularly calves) are housed in cages no larger than their bodies. Chickens are housed three or four to a cage stacked up to four cages high. Their beaks are clipped to prevent pecking themselves and each other to death. Both cattle and chickens are stored in warehouses devoid of natural sunlight or soil. Their feed contains antibiotics to prevent the spread of infection and disease in the unnatural environment and growth hormones to promote quicker "product turnaround". The animals are not recognized as intelligent, emotional, mentally-aware, living creatures, but merely as units for sale in a consumer-based economy.

If this disturbing, yet highly-factual, accurate, and accountable description concerns you, but you still desire a diet based on meat, read our dedicated section on Organic Food for viable alternatives.