A MUCH BETTER BLOG

Over 27 billion animals are violently slaughtered in America each year after enduring lives of neglect, torture, and mutilation in cramped, filthy conditions with virtually no laws in place to protect them from cruelty.

The next time you are deciding what to eat picture yourself at the petting zoo.

Reason #2 – You love our planet
Water conservation is a hot topic. You might do your part by using a low flow showerhead or turning off your water while you brush your teeth. What you may not realize is that a whopping one-half of the water supply in the United State goes to animal agriculture.

Our existing air and water supply is also contaminated from the enormous amounts of excrement produced by these animals which is far too much to fertilize the local crops so the excess is disposed of as waste.

America’s forests are being destroyed to raise cattle. Vegetarians only require 1/6 of an acre to grow their food supply while meat eaters require over 3 acres. If the US population switched to a plant based diet, over 20 million acres could be returned to forest.

The next time you are enjoying a low flow shower low flow after eating steak for dinner, please think about the 2500 gallons of water it takes to make a single pound of beef.

Reason #3 – You love being alive and healthy
What is the one lifestyle choice you can make that can reduce your risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis, asthma, many cancers and even male impotence? What choice can help make your kids taller and smarter? What lifestyle choice can help you live six to ten years longer? Numerous studies have shown a vegetarian diet to increase your chances of these and other benefits.

Human beings can get all the nutrition they need from plant sources. Organic plants offer antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and fiber while meat offers saturated fat, cholesterol, and contaminants like hormones, pesticides, and antibiotics.

In addition, the human digestive tract is much longer, twisted, and pocketed than the smooth, short tract of a natural carnivore. Natural carnivores also have much stronger stomach acid. This inability to properly digest meat could explain why eating any amount of meat can dramatically increase a persons risk for a multitude of diseases and cancers.

The next time you are deciding what to eat, think about the health and lifespan of you and your loved ones.

Reason #4 – You love other human beings
Does it bother you that people are starving to death on the other side of the world? Would you like to do your part to help?

You might be shocked to learn that America could easily wipe out world hunger if we raised crops instead of animals. The world’s cattle alone consume enough food to feed 8.7 billion people.

The next time you are deciding what to eat please think about the 15 million children around the world that starve to death each year.

Reason #5 – You love peace of mind
Wouldn’t it be nice to finally put to rest that little nagging voice inside of you that loves animals? Wouldn’t it feel great to know that you are saving 100 animals a year by adopting a plant based diet? Wouldn’t it be a weight off your shoulders to know that you are doing the right thing for yourself, animals, the planet, and humankind? It is a tough step to take and you may have to face opposition from friends, family, and society in general but what an outstanding feeling to finally do the right thing.

Think Im crazy? Visit a few of these pages and you might change your mind.

I feel terrible remorse for my years of meat eating and question whether its even OK to eat cage-free eggs and organic dairy products.

The Issues

Plenty of reasons to go vegan

Meet your meat

Undercover Investigations

More issues

Why vegan

The list according to goveg.com

• Cruelty to Animals
• Animals are amazing
• Your Health
• The environment
• World Hunger
• Worker Rights
• Factory Farms
• Government Negligence
• Factory Campaigns

I was not really sure what I would be eating when I finally made the decision to give up meat.
As I mentioned in my other posts I gave up meat as part of an overall decision to live healthier.

I moved deeper into the midwest in November and saw my health deteriorating fast thanks to a typical American diet. I came to the decision to make changes and make them fast if I wanted to make peace with living in middle America.

Although I have been reading about vegetarianism over the last ten years or so and I knew that I wanted to take that step someday, I had never quite gotten around to it. I was not prepared with dietary alternatives in order to finally make the leap. In my feeble attempts to give up meat in the past I always went back within a few days or a week due to ravenous hunger.

Knowing what went wrong in the past is probably the reason I was able to go through with it this time. Since I knew very well that I would be starving in a day or two, I ate tons of carbs every time I became hungry rather than wait until I became ravenous. That is probably pretty bad advice but quite honestly it worked and it worked remarkably well.

I gained quite a bit of weight. I have been meatless for about two and a half months now and I just started losing the weight I gained initially.

Whenever I got hungry and I recognized it as my stomach missing meat and I would substitute a bagel or toast. I didn’t really substitute anything else because I remember from experience that nothing would really replace the filling feeling of meat. A carrot just doesn’t quite cut it when you are craving a steak right?

I would love to hear how other people have dealt with this problem. It was pretty tough going and I don’t know if I could have done it without eating three bagels for dinner once in awhile. My butt certainly doesn’t look any better for it but my stomach and digestive system are already thanking me. Not to mention all of the happy cows and chickens.

Update 1.5 yrs later:
In retrospect I would have skipped the carbs and loaded up on nuts, seeds and superfoods instead.

I have considered giving up meat for years now. This has been much more of a journey than a spur of the moment decision.

Like many vegetarians, I wanted to give up meat for both ethical and health reasons. As it turns out the health reasons finally pushed me over the edge but the ethical reasons have bothered me for the last twenty years. I have always felt uneasy that animals are dying on my behalf but quite honestly it was “too difficult” to give it up for that reason alone. It is not that I don’t love animals enough because I really do. It is just exceptionally difficult to suddenly change my way of eating overnight especially when all of your friends and family eat the same way.

I began my quest for all things natural because of my horrific birth experience. It started out as a passion for natural childbirth and morphed into natural fertility, pregnancy, birth, and parenting. I came across so much research as to the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle that it has come to the forefront of my consciousness.

That still wasn’t enough to sell me however. In November I moved deeper into the midwest, which I affectionately refer to as the land of hamburgers and ice cream. It is utterly insane how middle America eats as a group, and as horrified as I was (and still am) by a typical American diet, I found the trap of convenience and instant gratification very easy to fall into.

So shortly after I moved here I was aware that I would look like a hippo in six months if I stayed lazy so I decided the first place to start was to give up animal flesh. Giving up meat is a natural choice because I care about animals anyway and I have been going in that direction for the last decade.

I have been a meat “avoider” for a long time. Despite the fact that I love eating out and I have always loved a good meat dish (Ruths Chris steak house…..yum) I still tried to order fish at least 50% of the time or so.

I still eat fish, eggs, and dairy. I am just very pleased to say that I no mammals are going to die on my behalf. I am so proud to be able to tell my daughter that when she learns that people kill animals to eat since she absolutely adores animals. I believe all children are naturally vegetarian and I think most kids love animals so she will not be a hard sell when she learns we eat differently than most people.

I am going to have a hard time giving up fish someday but my goal is to be raw/vegan which means no animal products at all. The hardest part will be eating out. “Can I have a plate full of burger toppings please?” As of right now I can still find fish, dairy or eggs on the menu but it is still surprisingly difficult to find more than one selection at any given restaurant.

My next post or two will be about how the experience has worked for me so far. In the meantime, peace.

Sheryl