Live Abundantly with Forever Green

5 Reasons Why I’m a Vegan

At the age of 10, it dawned on me that the chicken leg on my plate came from a living, breathing, thinking and feeling animal. My parents thought I was going through a phase. Well, 23 years later, I guess it’s pretty safe to assume that it’s not a phase. ; )

So for about 20 years, I was a vegetarian until a fellow animal activist asked me if I had ever considered becoming a vegan. I told her that I had thought about it, but didn’t really make the decision to become one because it wasn’t as if I was harming or killing any animals by consuming dairy. She recommended that I check out www.milksucks.com, which reveals the truth about the dairy industry. After reading the startling and eye-opening information there and watching one of the videos on the site, I immediately turned into a vegan and will never ever go back.

I am often asked why I am a vegan. There’s lots of reasons, but here are my top 5:

#1 I love animals. Not just cats and dogs - all animals. Someone once said if slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would become a vegan. I agree. In order to fuel the demand of the general public, factory farms were invented. These are industrialized warehouses where thousands of animals are contained, then pumped with steroids, antibiotics and growth hormones so that they will grow quickly, and and not die from the diseases that run rampant through the confined quarters. Most never breathe fresh air or are allowed to stretch their legs or even turn around. I was horrified to learn that in some slaughterhouses, employees actually receive awards for killing the most animals in the shortest period of time. As a result, animals are rushed through the assembly line killing machine and experience sheer pain and terror that is beyond calculation

Did you know? In a 72 year lifetime, the average human carnivore consumes 11 cattle, 3 lambs and sheep, 23 pigs, 45 turkeys, 1,100 chickens and 862 pounds of fish.

#2 I care about the environment. Not sure why Al Gore failed to focus on this aspect in “An Inconvenient Truth.” But, by being a vegan, I’m helping to reduce the effects of global warming. Global warming occurs as a result of carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels. Three times more fossil fuels must be burned to support a carnivorous diet than a vegan one. Global warming also occurs as a result of deforestation, which is primarily driven by meat consumption. Nearly 260 million acres of trees in the U.S. have been cleared for crops that are used to feed animals that are killed for human consumption.

Did you know? Each year, nearly 1,000 species are eliminated due to the destruction of tropical rainforests for meat grazing, and the rate is growing yearly.

#3) Help end world hunger. Check out these statistics: It takes nearly 20 pounds of grain to produce only 1 pound of meat. If Americans reduced their meat intake by a mere 10%, 100 million people could be adequately fed using the freed up land for crops. One child dies of malnutrition every 2.3 seconds. Twenty percent of the corn grown in the U.S. is eaten by people, whereas 80% of the corn and 95% of the oats are eaten by livestock.

Did you know? An acre of land can produce 40,000 pounds of potatoes, but only 250 pounds of beef.

#4) I don’t want to get cancer. People who eat meat have a higher likelihood of contracting cancer than those who follow a vegan diet. This is because meat has an acidic effect on the body. When the body is in an acidic state, rather than an alkaline state, cancer and other insidious diseases may result.

Did you know? The risk of contracting breast cancer is 3.8 times greater for women who eat meat daily compared to less than once a week. The risk of fatal ovarian cancer is three times greater for women who eat eggs 3 or more times a week as compared with less than once a week. The risk of fatal prostate cancer is 3.6 times greater for men who consume meat, cheese, eggs and milk daily as compared with sparingly or not at all.

#5) Who wants to eat diseased animals? Animals that are raised in the U.S for meat in are diseased. Largeamounts of antibiotics are fed to livestock to control common diseases like staphylococci. However, the bacteria are becoming immune to the antibiotics. Therefore, the antibiotics and the bacteria that are they are intended to destroy remain in the meat that ends up on the plate of a meat eater.

Did you know? Of all antibiotics used in the U.S., 55% are fed to livestock. The European Economic Community banned the importation of U.S. meat because they didn’t want to expose consumers to this serious health hazard.