Saturday, May 30, 2009

Being Veggie



A human can 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.
~ Leo Tolstoy

Now that's truth bang on folks. I know that many wouldn't be happy at me after reading this post but let me make it clear this is not a piece of advice, its only an essay on how being a veggie makes one lead a more healthy and Eco-friendly life.
Let me confess I too was a non-veggie relishing those pieces of meat and chicken few years back until one fine morning I decided 'that's all folks' and became a lacto-vegetarian. Now don't ask me why because it just happened. It was quite a daunting task to have a check on those nasty fluids in my brain that controls my sense of taste and smell and resist my temptations on the dining table, where all others were relishing their non-veg platter. Man, it did require a lot of will power and oh boy how proud I must have been to over come the battle being fought inside my mind.
Post my turning into a lacto-veggie life has been very healthy and comfortable as never before and never really felt that i am loosing on something by not munching on those chunks of meat. It also played an very important role in me transforming from fat and round to more lean and athletic. I think am really turning this blog into my personal account of being a veggie and that's not my intention. Lemme get into some facts that would really make you think 'why not I cut on my meat intake'.
A well balanced vegetarian diet with high fiber and low fat has got a high range of heath benefits some of then include reducing the chances of certain kind of cancers like the colon cancer, heart diseases, type-2 diabetes and of course obesity.
All we non-veggies know that most part of the meat one eat mostly constitutes the fat of the animal and this very fat that we eat does not assimilate with the blood and clogs the blood carrying vessels which leads to blocks and ultimately ends as cardiac arrest which we all know is fatal. This is the most common kind of health complication that a non-veg diet could lead to. What comes next is obesity, the same fat which clogs one's arteries also get settled around in different parts of body because it very difficult to burn fat for a normal person for whom working out is not a part of his routine. This results in expanding waistlines and increasing risk of high blood sugar levels and type2 diabetes. Now that I have given an account of health complications that could arise because of people being non-veg I assume that some related thoughts are making rounds in your mind. There are many health issues that arise due to non-veg diet which I suggest you guys explore all by your self.
Some hard-core non-veggies after reading all this would like to come hard on me advocating the benefits of being a non-veg. I admit that eating meat has its own advantages, like it heats up ones body and is very essential if you are living in cold parts of the planet and some would argue that meat is the ultimate source of proteins for humans. Lemme make a quick comment on this one could very much get the required amount of proteins form plant food as well, for example all the leguminous plants and beans are good sources of protein . Eat them sprouted, trust me they are powerhouses of proteins. One other example is the soy bean, this could be eaten sprouted or as soy milk or even tofu, so this counters the fact that meat is not the only source of proteins it just the matter of finding alternatives, eat more beans and nuts which would very well make the veggie diet protein rich.
I think the last cluster of words would have made you think a little bit more on 'why not I cut on my meat intake'. Before winding up let me also throw some light on how being a veggie would help save the environment. In last five decades the world wide meat production has gone up four times thus putting a greater amount of burden on the planets natural resources.This has resulted in more intensive farming which is destructing natural habitats and causing deforestation,inefficient land-use, animal disease, waste, increased water consumption, water pollution, global climate change and more fossil fuel consumption. An adult human eating a typical omnivorous diet needs 0.32 hectares of land to sustain their food consumption. A vegetarian needs just 0.14 hectares and a vegan 0.07 hectares. Thus being a veggie also means you are doing some good to the planet we live in.
So that's all folks, this is solely my viewpoint based on data I found across my readings on vegetarian diet. For a healthier life I think its always better to be a veggie. I started this post with a quote and would like to end it with one as well.

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian. We feel better about ourselves and better about the animals, knowing we're not contributing to their pain.
~ Paul and Linda McCartney


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