Be a Vegetarian

July 26, 2006 at 5:07 pm (Habits, Perspective, Vegetarianism)

I was preparing for my Toastmasters speech last week, and found out that being a vegetarian is one of the best things you can do to your body, especially in the United States. Here is the complete text of my speech to explain why:

Fellow Toastmasters,

Let me tell you something about myself. I am 100% vegetarian. I have never, ever tasted meat of any kind in my life. I don’t know what it tastes like or feels like. I am a vegetarian by birth, not by choice. I never gave a serious thought about the reasons behind this fact, until I came to this country.

Shortly after I landed in US, I started going out to lunches/dinners with local people. On seeing what I was eating, people were amazed and started asking me questions like “are you allergic to chicken, how can you survive without any meat, how do you get your nutrition or umm..so what do you eat..only salad?” To them, I was like a person from another planet.

After getting bombarded with questions like these, I asked myself this for the first time: why am I vegetarian? Why should I be a vegetarian? Sure there are ethical reasons, and religious ones too, and Indian food tastes so good with vegetables and spices, but is there something scientific and tangible behind it? I did some research and found out a lot of facts in favor of vegetarianism, some of which I will share with you today.

Overall it is a consensus that being vegetarian is good for you and the benefits fall in 3 groups: environmental, ethical and health.

The Environment

Eating animals wouldn’t harm the environment if it were done on a much smaller scale. But modern meat production involves intensive use–and often misuse–of grain, water, energy, and grazing areas and contributes heavily to all sorts of pollution and soil erosion.

For example, Thirty million tons of methane–a gas that contributes to global warming–come from manure in sewage ponds or heaps.

One third of original U.S. cropland has been permanently removed from production due to excessive soil erosion.

Livestock production is the largest polluter of water in the US, topping all other industries that produce toxic wastes. A farm in Milford, Utah, which raises 2.5 million pigs every year, creates more waste than the entire city of Los Angeles.

Raising animals for food is an extremely inefficient way to feed a growing human population. It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef, but just 25 gallons of water to produce a pound of wheat. It takes 15 pounds of feed to get one pound of meat. But if the grain were given directly to people, there would be enough food to feed the entire planet.

The world’s cattle – excluding pigs and chickens – consume quantity of food the equivalent to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people. That’s nearly double the entire population of the world today. This is a very inefficient way to produce food.

——————————-

Ethics

Animals suffer from pain and fear just as much as we do. They spend their last hours locked in a truck, packed into a cage with hundreds of other terrified animals and then cruelly pushed into a blood soaked death chamber. Their body parts are even fed to other animals. Cruelty to such animals in captivity is a serious ethical issue and should make one repeal the ways of modern factory farming.

Pigs and sheep are far more intelligent than 6-week old children, which is something to think about.

——————————–

Health

On the health front, there are plenty of studies conducted and the consumption of animal products has been conclusively linked with heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and osteoporosis. The EPA estimates that nearly 95 percent of pesticide residue in our diet comes from meat, fish and dairy products. 15 million pounds of antibiotics are used in animal production every year- These drugs end up in your milk and meat.

Meat-eating and a lack of dietary fiber are linked to colon cancer. Only plant foods contain fiber.

By reducing your consumption of meat, dairy products and eggs by 50%, you reduce your risk of a heart attack by 45%. By following a pure vegetarian diet (no animal products at all) you reduce your risk by 90%.

Also if one thinks practically, a sausage can contain ground up intestines. How can anyone be sure that the intestines are empty when they are ground up? Do you really want to eat the content of a pig’s intestines? Also, have you ever heard of cabbage flu or mad carrot disease? No, only bird flu or mad cow disease.

Including animal products in your diet is like playing Russian roulette with your life.

——————————-

Personal finance

– Being healthier from a vegetarian diet means spending less on health care.
– Vegetarian food tends to cost less than meat-based items.
– Replacing meat, chicken and fish with vegetables and fruits is estimated to cut food bills by an average of $4,000 a year.

——————————-

Well, since coming to US, things have certainly changed in this country. Vegetarian societies are coming up, famous celebrities are going meatless and voicing their opinions. As for myself, I now know that even though I accidentally am vegetarian by birth, it is for all the good reasons.