Why Do Some People Select a Vegetarian Diet?

Vegetarians choose to eat a plant-based diet that excludes animal products and embraces the fresh, abundant foods from the earth. There are several reasons why people prefer this healthy lifestyle .

Health-related

Several scientific studies have shown that a vegetarian diet can reverse heart disease and lower blood cholesterol levels.

Moral

Some people become vegetarians because they do not want to support the cruelty to animals that takes place in factory farming and inhumane slaughtering processes.

Religious

In the Jainism religion, vegetarianism is required, and the practice is advocated in Hinduism and Buddhism and some other world religions.

Environmental

It takes 100 acres of land to produce enough beef to feed about 20 people, but that same land will produce enough grain to feed 240 people.

Issues such as global warming, deforestation, land and water pollution, and shortages can all be linked to the production of meat for human consumption.

Economic

Up to half of the crops grown in the world go toward producing meat. A cow must consume 7 lbs. of grain to produce one pound of beef. It takes almost 100 times the amount of water to produce one pound of beef than to produce a pound of wheat.

References

• The Vegetarian Resource group (VRG)

Resources

• JAMA; D. Ornish, et. al.; Intensive lifestyle changes for reversal of coronary heart disease; 1998