World Vegetarian Day was on October 1. This day was created by the North American Vegetarian Society (NAVS) in 1977 and then endorsed by the International Vegetarian Union in 1978. World Vegetarian Day kicks off Vegetarian Awareness Month. You can make a difference by informing others about the benefits of being a vegetarian. Vegetarian diets have health benefits and save the lives of animals.
Here are seven reasons to become a vegetarian according to NAVS. Being a vegetarian can:
• Reduce the risk of the leading causes of death, such as heart disease, stroke, and cancer, while reducing exposure to foodborne pathogens.
• Provide a viable response to feed the world’s hungry people through more efficient use of cereals and other crops.
• Save animals from the suffering in factory farm conditions and the pain and terror of slaughter.
• Conserve vital but limited fresh water, topsoil, and other precious resources.
• Preserve irreplaceable ecosystems such as rainforests and other wildlife habitats.
• Reduce greenhouse gases that are accelerating global warming.
• Mitigate constantly expanding environmental pollution from animal agriculture.
Some additional reasons !!!
1) Your health: prevent diseases. Meat consumption has been linked to cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, kidney stones, and many other devastating diseases. By eliminating meat from your diet, you can take a crucial step towards a long life of health and happiness.
2) Increased energy and endurance: A vegetarian diet improves your stamina, concentration, and sense of well-being. In one study, athletes who switched to a vegetarian diet improved their stamina nearly 3 times more than those who remained carnivores.
3) Avoid toxic food contaminants: Meat-based foods are loaded with dangerous poisons and contaminants like hormones, herbicides, and pesticides and antibiotics. Since these toxins are all fat soluble, they are concentrated in the fatty meat of animals. Not to mention viruses, bacteria and parasites like salmonella, trichinella and other worms, and toxoplasmosis parasites.
4) Human beings are vegetarians by design: Our flat teeth are perfect for grinding cereals and vegetables, not for tearing the meat of animals. Similarly, our hands are designed to gather, not tear, flesh. Our saliva contains the enzyme alpha-amylase, whose sole purpose is to digest complex carbohydrates in plant foods. (This enzyme is not found in the saliva of carnivores.) Basically, we have all the right gadgets for consuming vegetarian products and none of the right gadgets for meat foods.
5) Caring for the environment: By misusing animals for food, we are eating ourselves off the planet. Raising animals specifically to kill and eat them has resulted in incredible waste and the devastation of our precious resources. Just one example of the consequences is the fact that due to the looting of our farmland to fatten animals for slaughter, every year more than 4 million acres of farmland are lost due to erosion in this country.
6) Help end hunger in the world: Every day 40,000 children on this planet die of hunger unnecessarily. According to statistics from the Department of Agriculture, one acre of land can produce 20,000 pounds of potatoes. That same acre of land, when used to grow livestock feed, can produce less than 165 pounds of edible beef.
7) Become a more peaceful person: When we consume animal meat products we are necessarily in disagreement with nature and with our fellow human beings. The consumption of meat foods has been scientifically linked to violent and aggressive behavior.
8) Have compassion for animals: animals that are raised for slaughter needlessly experience incredible suffering throughout their life and death. Many people try not to think about the torturous experiences of the animal whose meat ended up on their hamburger or on their table. But if it’s unpleasant to think about, consider what it’s like to experience it.
9) Vegetarianism is moral and ethical: Given the devastating consequences of eating meat on an individual, social and ecological level, as loving and thinking beings, we must choose vegetarianism. Many great philosophers such as Plato, Socrates, Leo Tolstoy, and George Bernard Shaw have taught the morality of vegetarianism.
10) Animals are God’s property and have the right to life: living things temporarily caged in animal bodies are not here for us to harm and explode. We are meant to act as caretakers and protectors of animals and the planet, not exploiters and murderers. Many world religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Seventh-day Adventists, Mormons, and Jains, teach that eating animal meat is wrong.
Let people know that October is vegetarian awareness. If you haven’t already, explain why vegetarianism is important to you. Tell everyone about the benefits of meatless diets.