10 Reasons To Quit Eating Meat

Although plenty of people who continue to eat meat, understand the health benefits of a vegetarian or plant based diet, I thought it would be a gentle reminder on why quitting meat (or even reducing it) is being kinder to you and our furry friends

1. Because you want to feel sexy. Meateaters are more likely to be overweight than vegetarians according to The Journal of Clinical Nutrition and The New England Journal of Medicine (Skinny Bitch). Kidney stones and premature organ aging can occur, as they work over time to process meat. This is definitely not sexy!
2. Eating meat has been linked to reproductive disorders, miscarriages, obesity, various cancers and possibly nervous system disorders. According to the British Journal of Cancer, Vegetarians are 12 per cent less likely to develop cancer than meat eaters. This is a very conservative figure based on other studies also with some reporting 25-50% less risk.The pesticides used in farming these animals have been known to kill farm workers from exposure over long periods of time. Imagine what it is doing to YOUR body over your lifetime!
3. Human bodies are not designed to digest meat. Our intestines are much longer than carnivorous animals, our saliva is alkaline, not acidic, which is necessary for efficient breakdown of flesh and our teeth are not useful for tearing, stabbing and killing prey with not much chewing, like they are with carnivorous animals.  However human teeth are designed for more grinding and chewing with our jaw hinges and movement more in line with those animals that only eat a plant based diet.
4. You care for our planet and it’s resources. Agriculture, particularly meat and dairy products, accounts for 70% of global freshwater consumption, 38% of the total land use and 19% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, says the UN.
5. Because you want to remain healthy. Campylobacter, the most common cause of diarrohea in the United States, can sometimes lead to a paralysis-inducing disease called Gullian-Barré Syndrome. In 1997, tests conducted by the Minnesota Health Department, seventy-nine percent of chickens sampled from supermarkets were infected with campylobacter, and twenty percent of those were infected with an antibiotic-resistant strain. About fifty-eight percent of turkeys were infected, and eighty-four percent of those carried the resistant strain. With the introduction of quinolones (synthetic antibiotics) for use in poultry, resistant strains of campylobacter are now appearing in the U.S.
6. Livestock & Poultry are fed with antibiotics due to their cramped and disease ridden habitats. We then consume these medications, rendering our illnesses resistant when we are then prescribed meds by our doctors.
7. Because fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts and grains taste soooo good. Eating meat is not necessary for survival, usually we eat it for the taste. Contrary to popular belief, you DO NOT NEED to eat MEAT to get your protein quota. I have never heard of anyone having a protein deficiency in the modern western world, have you?
8. You will need less sleep! Alot of vegans and most raw foodists report needing less sleep, waking up feeling refreshed and not having the coma induced feeling after consuming a meat heavy meal. Because the food you are eating is more enzyme filled is does not overwork your digestion and make you feel stuffed!
9. Because you have compassion! A friend of mine on twitter @HealthOC wrote yesterday “Just walked away from a Save the Whales rep trying to persuade while eating a hamburger. Why save only the whales?” I find it hard to disconnect my pet dog and cat, from the cows and pigs that fill meat based meals.
10. You are what you eat. Even if you are eating a so called  ’healthy animal’ you are ingesting everything IT consumed whilst alive (quite often the remains of other diseased animals), plus the adrenaline, hormones, pesticides, fear, antibiotics, steroids and rage. That’s the ‘healthy’ animal, imagine if you were consuming the less than healthy animal of which is often the case.

Don’t be silly enough to think that the authorities have our best interests at heart when making law and legislation governing agriculture and the meat industry, especially if you place faith in them to make your diet choices for you. Ask yourself who is ultimately  supporting the decisions they make (commerce and industry), and how much money is involved (alot). There isn’t a great deal of financial gain in the livestock and poultry industries educating people on how to grow their own food and eat less of their product, so their money is spent on convincing us of their relevance.

Your health is your responsibility

Recommended Viewing:

A Delicate Balance Trailer – Click here to view full movie online

Food Inc. (click here to buy DVD)

Stop Making Cancer – with Dr Lodi

Food Matters Trailer