Reasons to be vegan

Eating meat is totally unnecessary.

There is no proof, what so ever, that a person must eat animal flesh or any by products of animals to be healthy, yet there is overwhelming proof that it truly is best not to!

What we eat is a learned process or habit.

Since the day we are born we are forced into the habits of our parents or those who raise us. Perhaps not intentionally, but through ignorance, "old wives tails", misleading ads on TV, and poor education we are mostly taught that these ways are correct. (And if you contradict what your parents said would be a bad thing!)

Case in point: Different societies eat different things. Some people eat dog, yet most Americans would say that that is completely wrong and intolerable. Yet, what is the difference between killing a dog for food and killing a cow? A dog feels pain. A cow feels pain...

Being vegan is healthier, than any other diet possible

and that isn't even touching the hormones and antibiotics, used in raising animals, and the possibilities and realities of meat borne illness, Mad Cow Disease etc. .

• BEING VEGAN... Reduces your chance of many cancers. Meat products, especially processed meats like bacon and hotdogs is even on the same cancer causing list as cigarettes and asbestos!
• BEING VEGAN... is much Better for your heart. Proven to reduce heart disease, and even reverse coronary heart disease.
• BEING VEGAN... Automatically lowers your cholesterol levels. The only foods that contain cholesterol are animal products, like meat and dairy. And since a three-decade-long study found that not a single subject with a cholesterol level below 150 has ever developed heart disease, that's hard to ignore!
• Vegans have lower rates of obesity, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, large bowel disorders, cancers and gallstones.
• BEING VEGAN... Reduces stroke risks and coronary artery disease.
• Reduces symptoms of fibromyalgia.
• BEING VEGAN... Reduces food poisoning. 95% of food poisoning is linked to animal products, or animal waste seeped onto vegetables!
• Your bowels will work much better, therefore, keeping your whole system healthier.
• Vegans live longer healthier lives. One 21-year-long study that compared meat-eaters and vegetarians showed that the greater the meat consumption, the greater the death rate from all causes combined.
• Increased vegetable and fruit intake reduces your need for taking a multi vitamin plus increases your antioxidant intake.

" "Your choice of diet can influence your long term health prospects more than any other action you might take." "

-Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop

""A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral." "

Leo Tolstoy

""Vegetarians have the best diet. They have the lowest rates of coronary disease of any group in the country.... Some people scoff at vegetarians, but they have a fraction of our heart attack rate and they have only 40 percent of our cancer rate. They outlive other men by about six years now." "

-Dr.William Castelli

""Excessive animal protein is at the core of many chronic diseases." "

-Dr.Campbell

""Would you like to go to pasture with a chicken,cut him up, then drop him into a fresh manure pile, and eat him? That's what the product is like coming from chicken plants today." "

Chicken Inspector

Protect the planet for future generations.

• Saves trees, reduces forest destruction for cow pastures. Between 1960 and 1985 alone, nearly 40 percent of all Central American rain forests were destroyed to create cheap grazing land for cows later served on North American and European plates. Going vegan saves one acre of forest every year. (Who knows what else we are losing while creating desserts out of forests.)
• Uses less water. More than half of all water used in the U.S. is used to raise and kill animals for the table.
• Uses less fossil fuels. Producing just one hamburger uses enough fossil fuel to drive a small car 20 miles.
• Creates less pollution. Animal feces and their gas is a major contributor to global warming and acid rain, plus pollutes numerous rivers and water sheds constantly.
• The worlds 17 major fisheries are at the point of collapse because of over fishing, etc...

Consider the Welfare of humanity.

We can feed more people in the world on the food that animals, raised as food, eat than we can on the "food" one gets from animals. The amount of vegetable protein fed to the US beef herd would feed almost the entire populations of India and China - two billion people.

We could stop world hunger. We have everything it takes to do so, except for our selfish lust for eating flesh

Being Vegan is the most compassionate way to exist.

Animals feel pain. Period.

Why would someone choose to torture something for their own pleasure.

Show that you are a caring person. Modern agriculture keeps cows, calves, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, and other animals in small overcrowded sheds, stalls, cages, or crates, where they're often unable even to turn around. These intelligent, social animals are deprived of veterinary care, exercise, sunlight--even the feel of grass under their feet. What we eat means choosing between the horrors of factory farming and respect for another sentient being.

There is a lot more that should be said and shown on the cruelty aspects of using animals. No one can deny it is beyond horrendous what we humans do to animals, all of which is totally unnecessary.

" Do we, as humans, having an ability to reason and to communicate abstract ideas verbally and in writing, and to form ethical and moral judgments using the accumulated knowledge of the ages, have the right to take the lives of other sentient organisms, particularly when we are not forced to do so by hunger or dietary need, but rather do so for the somewhat frivolous reason that we like the taste of meat? In essence, shouldn't we know better? "

Peter Cheeke

Non violence and compassion is a goal everyone religious or spiritually inclined should be after.

Have a clear conscience for avoiding forcing pain to anything sentient.

The Bible says "Though Shalt not kill. " It doesn't say it's ok to kill animals or Iranians, it says "Thou shalt not kill.

" May all that have life be delivered from suffering "

Buddha

"Of what use are all your sacrifices to Me? I have had enough of the roasted carcasses of rams and of the fat of fattened beasts. I take no pleasure in the blood of calves, lambs and goats . When you spread out your hands, I close My eyes to you; despite however much you pray, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood! Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before My eyes and stop doing evil. "

Isaiah 1:11, 1:15-16

"There were no Slaughterhouses in the Garden of Eden. "

Going Vegan Saves Money.

Plant nutrition costs a lot less than animal based.

Rice and beans is a lot cheaper than meat, and feeds a lot more people.

Helps reduce National debt.

Americans spend between $60 billion and $120 billion annually to treat heart disease, cancer, obesity, and food poisoning that are primarily caused by animal based diets. Other countries are similar. Should our tax dollars be wasted on something that is mostly preventable?

Plant based foods taste great!

Check into the recipes page, or the prepared vegan food page, the menu page for lots of ideas.... There are also hundreds of other websites that have wonderful recipes and ideas.

For anyone to just say they "dont like vegan food" must live in a closet.

A vegan diet can also be as gluttonous as any diet... Beer, French Fries, cookies etc.. so, as in ALL diets, watching what one eats is important.