Eating a Vegetarian Diet by Jazmyn R.

What’s the first thing that comes to your head when you hear the word “vegetarian”? Personally, as a meat eater, I used to think to myself “are they crazy enough to not like ribs?” But now that I think about it, it is unfair for innocent animals to be killed just to please our selfish cravings. Like us, animals are living things and they have feelings too. How would you feel if you had to be raised and killed by a living thing superior than humans just to be cooked and eaten, then later on dumped in a toilet? You might think that’s impossible, but that is exactly what we do to harmless animals.

Animals may not have been created to be eaten, but I still don’t agree with the theory that humans were biologically made to eat animals. In fact, some of the leading killers in America (heart disease, cancer, obesity, and strokes) are linked to meat based diets. Meat also contributes to osteoporosis, arthritis, Alzheimer's, multiple allergies, diabetes, and food poisoning. Every year in the U.S. alone, 27 billion animals are slaughtered for food. By switching to a vegetarian diet, you can save more than 100 animals a year from the misery of slaughter for food. A vegan diet can also virtually eliminate bad cholesterol, clogged arteries (heart disease), poor circulation, and atherosclerotic strokes.

Besides improving your health, switching to a vegan diet will also benefit our Earth and it’s natural resources. More than half the water used by the US goes to raise the animals we kill for food. Forests are also being destroyed and bulldozed to make more room to raise them in farms. Massive amounts of food and materials are wasted on the animals because we eat them anyway. Animal excrement emits gases (hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, methane, and nitrous oxide), which contribute to global warming.

By switching to a vegetarian diet, you can save animals, improve your health, help the Earth, and make good use of our natural resources. Our earth provides us with fruit, wheat, and other naturally grown foods. Therefore, the consumption of meat is just something humans do out of pure ignorance. Maybe someday, when we drive those poor animals to extinction, people worldwide will continue living and feeding off a different, healthier food and will finally recognize the death of a beautiful animal that we willingly and necessarily caused.