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. You may ask yourself will it really make much difference in the scheme of things. Individually it probably won’t as it is only a small scale thing but if many people feel the same way, it does have an effect on the lives of many animals. This is especially true if you look at Americans who eat meat and the percentage of those that will suffer from heart disease at some point in their lives.
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. The figures speak for themselves when a person who eats meat is four times as likely to suffer a heart attack as someone who is a vegetarian. 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. The heart is only one organ that benefits from a vegetarian diet because there are other health advantages.
Meat contains a number of preservatives which have links with cancer, something which is dramatically reduced when you do not eat meat. Of course vegetarians will not be exposed to the number of additional hormones that are fed to cattle as part of their feed and will not experience some of the hormone problems people have because of this. The consumption of lactose will also be reduced which is claimed to cause some digestive problems. On a more ethical note, you will be surprised how much less suffering in animals you will be responsible for by becoming a vegetarian.
org, the average American consumes 2,714 land animals in their lifetime. By giving up meat, it is possible to protect the lives of possibly hundreds of animals in the space of a few years and many more if continued for a few decades. To help even further and stop the number of battery hens and dairy cows from having to suffer degrading conditions you could stop drinking milk and eating eggs. Well after reading this it is obvious the easy answer is yes it is better to become a vegetarian. This commitment matters to each individual for their health, the health of the planet and those of the animals which will not need to be slaughtered to provide food.
