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Why should everyone be vegetarian ?

Contributed by: Jayasri Radha on 2/3/2006

THE VEDIC VIEWPOINT AND OTHER SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVES

Why should everyone be vegetarian?

First of all, let us start with the health reasons.

What about protein? According to The Higher Taste, published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, the reply can be, “What about the elephant, bull, cow, rhinoceros and monkey? They are vegetarian!”

The idea that meat has a monopoly on protein and that a high consumption of protein is required for energy and strength are both myths. Dairy products, grains, beans and nuts are all sources of protein. Lentils, for instance, contain more protein per ounce than hamburger, pork or porterhouse steak. Dr. Mervyn Hardinge of Loma Linda University made extensive comparisons between the protein intake of vegetarians and flesh-eaters. They concluded that “each group exceeded twice its requirement for every essential amino acid and surpassed this amount by large margin for most of them.” Too much protein turns into nitrogenous waste that burdens the kidneys.

My father’s doctor told him to stop eating meat if he did not want to eventually have his toe removed or worse, due to gout caused by too much protein consumption.

Endurance tests performed by Dr. Irving Frisher of Yale say vegetarians performed twice as well as meat eaters. Numerous other studies have shown that a proper vegetarian diet provides more nutritional energy than meat.

Research continues to find evidence that links meat eating to not only colon cancer but many other forms as well. The Journal of American Medical Association stated that 90 to 97 percent of heart disease, the cause of more than one half of the deaths in the U.S., could be prevented by a vegetarian diet. These findings are supported by an American Heart Association report that states, “In well documented population studies using standard methods of diet and coronary disease assessment ... evidence suggests that a high-saturated-fat diet is an essential factor for a high incidence of coronary heart disease.”

The National Academy of Sciences also reported that a high serum cholesterol level found in most Americans is a major factor in the coronary heart disease “epidemic” in the U.S.

The fact is that Americans are just plain addicted to meat and they are extremely misled due to believing the obnoxious advertising on their T.V. and billboards to eat it.

According to the ancient Vedic literature, a vegetarian diet is meant for human beings and meat, fish, and eggs are prohibited. If you want to feel healthy, energetic and good about yourself, eat a vegetarian diet.

Now let us look at farming. According to information compiled by the USDA, over 90 percent of all grains produced in America is used for feeding live stock (cows, pigs, chickens and lamb). The process of using grain to produce meat is incredibly wasteful. For example, information shows that we get back only one pound of beef (slaughtered cows and bulls) for every 16 pounds of grain.

In his book The Chemistry of Politics, Dr. Aaron Altshul notes that in terms of calorie units per acre a diet of grains, vegetables and beans will support 20 times more people than a diet of meat. As it stands, about half the harvested acreage in America is used to feed livestock. If the earth’s arable land were used primarily for the production of vegetarian food, the planet could easily support a human population of 20 billion and much more. Facts as these have led food experts to point out that the world hunger problem is largely illusory. The myth of “overpopulation” should not be used by advocates of abortion to justify the killing of more than 50 million unborn children worldwide each year. Even now we are already producing enough food for everyone on the planet, but unfortunately it is being allocated inefficiently.

Someone once told me not to buy a certain type of rug made in china because it supports child slavery. Well, the fact is if you eat meat you support the hunger problem around the world, what to speak of massive animal slaughter. Do you think this is good?

Much of the information above is from the book The Higher Taste by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. Next week, I am going to discuss environmental, religious and spiritual reasons that support that a vegetarian diet is best for the human race.


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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Jayasri Radha

Aurora

Jayasri Radha has posted 660 stories and 5 comments since joining on 9/14/2005. Jayasri Radha's average story rating is 4.03.
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