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So I’ve recently decided to be a healthier person (for full details you can check out my blog post about it by clicking here). My path to health includes planning meals ahead of time and working out regularly. Anyways I’ve honestly been trying to weigh the benefits of adopting a vegetarian diet. I come from a family background where a meal isn’t a meal unless it includes meat. And it’s taken the past almost five years for me not to throw a fit when a meal doesn’t include a main and side dish. So I’m not 100 percent sure that I could adopt vegetarianism… is that a thing? I’m not sure but I’m going to keep saying it. Here are the top 5 reasons I can adopt vegetarianism for a few meals a week.
1) It’s a natural detox.
Fruit and vegetable juices contain natural chemicals that help our bodies detoxify naturally. Often meat contains pesticides, preservatives and hormones. Though many of these toxins cook out during the cooking process some are still ingested. Vegetables of course also have pesticides but are more easily washed off. If you buy your produce at a local farmers market, not only are you helping your local economy but they may also have less pesticides. Because your body is detoxing you’ll also make more regular visits to the bathroom. Yes I know that’s icky, but the truth is that means you will lose more weight.
2) Healthy heart
Fruits and vegetables are loaded with antioxidant nutrients that protect the heart and the arteries. Fruits and vegetables contain no saturated fat or cholesterol. The cholesterol levels for vegetarians are on average 14 percent lower than meat eaters.
3) Save money
Meat is usually the most expensive item on my grocery list. By consuming less of it I can spend my money on more vegetables and fruits. I usually don’t buy many fresh fruits because they tend to be more expensive but by saving money on less meat I can purchase more fruit. Probably the healthier option.
4) More efficient use of resources
So this is a pretty interesting fact: 72 percent of all the grain that is produced in the U.S. is fed to animals who are raised for slaughter. It takes about 15 pounds of feed to get one pound of meat. This same amount of grain could feed the entire planet.
Also an interesting fact, one acre of land could produce 50-thousand pounds of tomatoes, 40-thousand pounds of potatoes and 30-thousand pounds of carrots or just 250 pounds of beef.
Also if more people became vegetarians it would reduce waste. A pig farm where 2.5 million pigs are raised annually produces more waste than the entire city of Los Angeles. Each year factory farms, collectively produce 2-billion tons of manure.
And the last and most important reason……
5) It’s more humane
I absolutely hate the idea of eating animals. I try not to think about it when I’m eating meat and most of the time i can push it out of my mind that I’m eating a sweet lovable cow, pig, chicken, etcetera. 22-million animals are slaughtered each year to support the American appetite. Many are slaughtered in a messy, painful way and most are raised in terrible conditions and live a sad and painful life.
Also I stole borrowed most of the facts from this website. There are a lot more facts and information there and the writer has some information about where she got the statistics.
Tags: Health, Lifestyle Choices, Nutrition, Vegetarianism
