Health Reasons for being a Vegetarian

In this article, we would like to present few basic reasons for adopting a vegetarian diet. This part highlights the health aspects. In the second part we will discuss the ethical, moral, and environmental aspects. In the third part we will discuss the spiritual reasons. We hope that this article, in addition to the upcoming ones, will collectively encourage you to think through your diet preferences.

1. What would happen if you kept meat on your counter top, maintain room temperature at 98.6 degrees and leave it for 3 days? It would rot. This is what would happen to meat in colon. It takes 72 hours from the time meat goes in to the time for it to be digested and come out. Furthermore, rotten meat starts to give off carcinogenic gases. Maggots, worms, and parasites find a good home as well.

2. Most commercial chicken and other animals are fed steroids, chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides and tranquilizers. These are strong acids and cause digestive problems such as gastritis, gas constipation and bloating. Being an acid, it also robs the body of calcium stores and increases risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer. In addition, meat carries diseases from the unclean conditions they are raised in – being crammed together, force fed, and inhumanely treated. The trauma of being slaughtered also adds “pain poisons” into the meat.

3. When you cut a piece of steak in the plate, juice runs out. The red stuff is blood and part of the clear fluid is uric acid (urine) and un-eliminated wastes. So as a meat-eater one ends up consuming blood and urine.

4. Humans are not built as carnivores. We don’t have the physiology of a carnivore and our lifestyle is much different. Carnivores are designed to eat meat. They have fangs for ripping flesh; have 100% more hydro chloric acid than humans; they can afford to sleep most part of their day and use the energy to digest; intestinal tract of the carnivores are only 3 times body length, so that the decaying meat can pass quickly, whereas, our intestinal tracts are 12 times the body length.

5. Moderate meat-eaters demand 3 times more work from their kidneys than do vegetarians. Risk of kidney disease and failure greatly increases with time for a meat-eater.

6. We have limited ability to deal with cholesterol or saturated fats. As meat is consumed, over a period of years, fatty deposits accumulate on the inner walls of arteries causing arteriosclerosis or hardening of the arteries, thus increasing the potential for heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots.

7. High-fat, low-fiber nature of a meat based diet results in slow transit time through the colon, allowing toxic wastes to do their damage, thus leading to cancer.

8. Myths about vegetarians not getting enough protein or nutrients have all been sufficiently explained in several online articles and books. However, as with everything else, one should properly educate and plan proper meals to ensure a successful vegetarian lifestyle.

References:

1. Dr. Joe Esposito. http://drjoeesposito.com/

2. “The Higher Taste”, A Guide to Gourmet Vegetarian Cooking and a Karma-Free Diet. Published by International Society for Krishna Consciousness.